Detainess are better off than GIs in Vietnam

To the editor:

Why are some of my fellow countrymen and women so concerned about prisoners in Cuba who recently attempted to blow us to bits? Are a warm bed, three warm meals a day, warm showers and TV and radio not good things?

Allow me to reflect on 1966. I did nothing wrong except turn 18 when Lyndon Johnson was president. I was working full-time and attending college until the commander in chief chose to send me on an all-expense-paid trip to the tropics of Southeast Asia: Vietnam.

The first days in the Army were enlightening. I crawled through mud, did countless pushups and was shot at, cursed at and screamed at.

Upon arrival in Vietnam, I was assigned a tent. We took cold showers. I got shot at, but my Army provided me no ammunition to shoot back. I slept on a cot. Did I get sympathy? No. I got Jane Fonda in Hanoi.

Come on, America. Wake up. Those detainees in Cuba attempted to kill us, and they would kill us now if they could. Cut the sympathy. Wave your flags again. I am with the current commander in chief, George Bush. Stand tall, Mr. President. You are making America proud.

RON WOOLDRIDGE

Chaffee, Mo.