9-11 Marine's wife at a VA hospital

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Kathleen Willey on 9-11: A Tale of Two Presidents

White House whistleblower Kathleen Willey shares her thoughts on the 9-11 anniversary and how Presidents Bush and Clinton spent that day, exclusively with NewsMax.com:

Last Wednesday, September 11, I spent the morning at the VA hospital here in Richmond. My husband, a former marine who served in Vietnam, had a 9 a.m. appointment and I went along with him because I did not want to be alone that morning, of all mornings.

I waited in the cafeteria, intent on drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. A television was on, the volume rather low, and I could see that the ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of the attack on the WTC had begun. I wanted to see and hear better so I moved up closer to the television.

It was then that I noticed that a large crowd was assembling, inching closer as I was. Someone turned up the volume. As I stood there, I began to notice the other people, mostly men, around me. They were all vets and by their ages, I was able to tell in which conflict they served.

The most elderly fought in WWII, those a little younger in Korea. Those closer to my age had been in Vietnam and I assumed that the younger men participated in Desert Storm and Somalia. There were a few women in the crowd, wives of WWII vets and some younger women who had served next to the men in the most recent conflicts.

These vets were from all walks of life, young, old, black, white, amputees lying on hospital gurneys, others in wheel chairs attached to IV's. No one spoke. Their silence spoke volumes. They were there for each other.

I heard a muffled sob from one of the vets and I watched as the man next to him put his arm around his shoulder to comfort him. There were a lot of unabashed tears, but it was their knowing silences that struck me. They had seen the horrors of war. Some came home changed men. The Vietnam vets came home to shame and ridicule, forced to carry their guilt in silence.

They were a fraternity of men that morning, a band of brothers, knowing the pain in each other's eyes. They took care of each other, unashamedly.

I thought about their mothers, sending their boys into battle and how gut wrenching that must have been. I thought about the mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters and spouses who buried their soldiers, their lives forever changed.

But I saw something else in those vets, those old soldiers that morning of September 11. I saw pride. They stood tall in the knowledge that they had served this wonderful country of ours. They stood tall for those among them who could no longer stand. I felt honored to stand in their midst that morning of September 11. They were heroes, one and all.

Then something happened, something I did not expect. Rudy Giuliani began to read the names of those who lost their lives that day in a slow and measured tone so that each and every name could be clearly heard. More dignitaries recited more names as we stood there in that cafeteria.

We were riveted to that screen. We watched and we listened and we cried.

http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecov...02/9/19/175346