In my newspaper career I had the opportunity to interview many veterans of this country’s military. I always found them to be dedicated to the nation and respectful of the service of others.

So it breaks my heart, in this election season, to see the vicious attacks being made by some veterans against others. False, or misleading, data are being used to attack both J.D. Vance’s and Tim Walz’s service. From everything I can find, none of the accusations are true, both men did their thing honorably, that should be that.And yet, these attacks.

I was under the impression that ALL veterans took the same oath, and made the same commitment to get shot at, and killed, if need be. Whether they ended up in combat, flying a desk, or stayed home was due to the whims of the services but they all served the greater cause and were deserving of the same respect.

This nation has many problems. A not insignificant number of those involve the needs of veterans. Vets fighting vets isn’t going to help anyone.

Focus on those, veterans. Don’t let yourself be made pawns of politicians.

From what I can tell, politicians are the people who have done a pretty poor job of supporting you for the last half dozen decades, either by underfunding programs you need or sending you off to quagmire wars they lacked the guts to end.

Charles Trentelman

Ogden

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