Editor, the News-Herald:

Just who is this fellow in Saturday’s edition who represents himself as a spokesman for all veterans?

He presumes to tell us what no veteran would do, does he? Well, Pilgrim, have I got news for you.

As a member of The American Legion, The Veterans of Foreign Wars and numerous Vietnam Veterans organizations, I’m here to tell you that you sure as shot don’t speak for me nor hundreds of thousands of other veterans who are loyal to our nation and it’s Commander-in-Chief. I can instantly provide you with links to more than 100 Web sites representing Vietnam Special Forces Against Kerry, Vietnam Veterans Against Kerry, Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, 101st Airborne, 11th Cavalry and on and on.

Included in the Groups are Kerry’s former Commanding Officer from Nam, as well as a large majority of Swift Boat personnel who served in Vietnam with him. Wonder why Kerry hasn’t asked them to speak? They would tell the truth, that he is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief! He was only in Nam four months and asked to leave early because he got a boo-boo on his arm. He never missed a day from duty as a result of any of his wounds.

When he left Nam, he finagled a job as an Admiral’s Aide and attended protest meetings while still on active duty. Yet, this wasn’t enough. He asked for an early discharge to run for Congress. It was granted and he was defeated.

Upon our return from Nam, 200 men and I still clad in our jungle fatigues, disembarked from our plane and were spat upon and called baby killers by the war protestors. At the same time, one of their ilk, John Kerry, was calling us worse than that before a congressional committee. He lied then and he lies now. He hasn’t lied a lot about his 20 year record in Washington because he doesn’t want to talk about it. Of all the thousands of words spewed forth in his Convention speech, only 20 words dealt with the 20 year record during which he voted against every major defense program.

So I say to you – get outta here with that dud! John Kerry, Commander-in-Chief? You gotta be kidding!

Tom Cohoon

Suffolk