No time is right for Bone Spurs-in-Chief Trump to disparage our military heroes

Time has a way of softening the tougher blows life sends your way, but President Donald Trump rekindled a memory from my youth that I’ve replayed whenever I hear of someone graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy. Trump’s recent weeklong attack on late Sen. John McCain reminded me once again of my brief brush with the Naval Academy, and why I have so much respect for Navy men and women and Naval Academy grads in particular.

Among the many inaccurate charges Trump leveled against McCain was that McCain graduated last in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy. Actually, he was fifth from the bottom, so what can be worse than that? How about not getting in at all? How about seeking and receiving a congressional nomination from my congressman as a candidate for the Naval Academy, traveling to Olathe Naval Air Station in Olathe, Kansas, for a physical, which I passed, and then taking the College Boards for the last step to admission? And then not making it?

With a stellar record of crashing on standardized tests, I was refused admission. But I sure do admire and respect those who were admitted and served. Forget their academic ranking, they graduated. And how can anyone, certainly not the president of the United States, criticize their service at any point in their careers?

Four years later, with a college degree in hand, college buddies and I found ourselves considering the next and largely uncertain phases of our young lives. A growing commitment to the Vietnam War –dividing and polarizing a nation over whether it was a war worth fighting – brought about the draft. Lotteries were calling up young men for the build-up of forces in Vietnam, which eventually would account for the loss of over 58,000 American military members by the time it ended in 1975.

There were options in those days for those who had no interest in Vietnam duty. You could sign up with a branch of service where you are less likely to be assigned to Vietnam. That meant avoiding the Army, where Vietnam was likely in your future. You could stay in school with a student deferment. You could join the National Guard, where it was unlikely reservists would be sent to Vietnam. You could just take your chances on not “winning” the lottery or take off for Canada. One other option available to privileged families was to game the system by influencing someone on your local draft board or exaggerating some health claim with a friendly doctor.

Then there were those who, out of duty to country or to fulfill a legacy in a family of military commitment, just signed up. They knew exactly where they were headed and knew their chances of being shot down as a pilot, picked off by a sniper in the jungle, or blown up in a field or in a helicopter taking you to supposed safer ground, to name just a few of the deadly options.

Two men in public life who chose that route are former Sen. John Kerry, who volunteered and was decorated for heroism in Vietnam, and the late Sen. John McCain, who was shot down as a Navy pilot and spent seven years in a POW camp in North Vietnam. His experience in captivity and those of his fellow POWs has been recounted over and over, but no one can doubt that John McCain paid a heavy price for the courage he mustered to sign up as a Navy combat flyer.

Strangely enough, in these hostile and divisive times, both Kerry and McCain paid the price years later for their courageous service. Kerry would return from Vietnam and emerge as a leader in the anti-war movement.

When he later ran for president in 2004, partisans questioned his war record and attacked his integrity. Kerry served on a swift boat on the Mekong River Delta, and his heroism and record – since verified by objective commentators and fellow soldiers – includes a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Swift boating became the term for political subterfuge when attacking someone on his virtues, but what a disservice to a decorated soldier and public servant like Kerry.

McCain would endure the same kind of venomous attacks long after service to his country and imprisonment in the Hanoi Hilton. What no one can deny is the courage it took to sign up and head for the killing fields and skies in southeast Asia. No one should ever be allowed to take away the honor both these men deserve.

One would think that in death a military hero would rest in peace, but not if Donald Trump is in office and tweeting his insensitive and callous attacks on the legacy of John McCain. He once said he liked people who weren’t captured.

If Donald Trump had some illustrious war record to tweet, perhaps we could understand his behavior. But this is a man who dodged military service as one of those rich kids when a doctor who was a friend of his father’s magically gave him a medical excuse not to serve. Trump claimed he had a high lottery number, but his unearthed Selective Service records show otherwise.

So now, Bone Spurs-in-Chief has the unmitigated gall to attack a war hero who has passed from this earth and cannot defend himself, but leaves behind family, friends and admirers like this writer who believe our president should respect and honor those who have served their country with distinction, regardless of political differences. That’s the way it used to be, until 2016.