Decorated Vet Rips General for 'Hide the Uniform' Order

[sfc_darrel]

Friday April 18, 2003 3 p.m. EDT
Decorated Vet Rips General for 'Hide the Uniform' Order

Members of the U.S. military, in San Antonio and everywhere, should be able to wear their uniforms with honor, pride and dignity.

But they've been warned against wearing them in public by their own commander, Maj. Gen. Darrel R. Porr.

Yes, you read that correctly. Our heroes can't wear in public what should be the finest piece of clothing any American could don.

And one Purple Heart veteran of an 18 month combat tour in Vietnam as a 101st Airborne Division paratrooper and a Green Beret with the 5th Special Forces Group, who is also a former Special Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department and has a Master's in military history, thinks it an outrage.

"There is absolutely no excuse for a general officer ordering our service personnel out of uniform. He had several options open to him other than this namby-pamby approach to giving in to the thugs," wrote Lonnie Shoultz, whose son is in the Coast Guard and on assignment right now in the Middle East.

"I hope that my son never has to serve under a gutless officer like the one in San Antonio. These are the timid leaders who get good men killed in combat."

Mr. Shoultz was in fact so angry that he mailed off some letters with a few choice words in them.

he told NewsMax: "I just sent my Congressman's office a copy of my letter to the San Antonio newspaper story about the instructions to the service personnel to take off their uniforms, a copy of my letter to the reporter who wrote the story, the reporter's message to me this morning asking to print my letter and my permission statement to him."

"I told my Congressman's Chief of Staff that I never wanted to be accused of going behind anyone's back about something as serious as calling a Major General a coward.

"I asked him to get a copy of all the documentation to the Inspector General of the Army so that the paperwork will be on his desk when my letter hits the street in San Antonio on Tuesday. I just will not have a gutless bastard like General Porr defiling a post like Ft. Sam Houston where brave men are honored.

"The name that came to mind was Roy P. Benavidez, a Medal of Honor winner in Special Forces in Vietnam. Read his medal's citation sometime [you can read it by clicking here - Ed.].

"I attended Roy's funeral in San Antonio at Fort Sam Houston and I want the commanding general [Maj. Gen. Porr] to explain to the Inspector General of the Army why he took the coward's way of telling his subordinates to conceal their membership in the U.S. Armed Forces.

"He has besmirched every man and woman who ever wore a uniform of the military in this country."

Yes, it's bad enough that we have to put up with the blame America first leftists in Hollywood, and the communist-supported appeasement activists who burn our flag and denigrate our country, but the heroes of our military should never have to hide their uniforms.

So, Americans, if you see a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine or a member of the Coast Guard on the street, remember to tell them that we support them, honor them and thank them for our freedom.
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecov...03/4/18/145428