‘Winners’ and ‘losers’ in Trumps war of words
President Trump has remarked that American military personnel who had been captured or killed in action were “losers.” I am not a military veteran, but can speak for members of my family who have been. Starting with a “loser,” my cousin Milton Earl Harness, who enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as a captain aboard a B-17 bomber on raids against Germany in the effort to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny in World War 2. His plane was shot down in 1943 and he was captured. After spending three months of internment in a POW camp, the Germans decided that caring for his severe injuries was too costly, so repatriated him to the United States via Switzerland for treatment. He spent much if the rest of his life in VA hospitals, passing in 2009, and was interred with about 400,000 other “losers” in Arlington National Cemetery.
“Winners” include my greatgrandfather James A. Harness, who volunteered for the Union army from the slave state of Kentucky at the age of 19 and spent the next three years fighting his way through Tennessee into Georgia, including being in the Battle of Missionary Ridge, in the campaign to preserve the Union and liberate the enslaved. He survived, but at the cost of constant exposure to battle wounds, hunger, fatigue, and disease.
Another “winner” was my father Dave Harness, who enlisted in the US Navy in 1940 and served as an airplane mechanic until the War’s end in 1945, including a tour of duty in the South Pacific. Toward the end of his long life he remarked that his service to the nation in World War 2 was probably the most worthwhile thing he ever did. His loss was five years of private life and exposure to typhoons and the threat of attack by Japanese submarines and aircraft. He hated the war and volunteered for the next sortie every time his ship returned to Pearl Harbor for refitting and resupply to do his part in shortening it.
Mr. Trump makes much of his support for the American military, but shows nothing but disrespect for the people who have served in it. I hope you will join me in voting for Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election. — Steve Harness,
Witter Springs