To The Readers Of VT:
I am on a mission and I am respectfully asking you to help me because I need your assistance, if you agree with me, to write these reporters and express your anger at the disrespect these journalists are showing our war dead when they dismiss their KIA dates when they report that Afghanistan is America’s longest war. This is the third time in the past two weeks that I have heard a journalist report this myth and it brings back the memories of the negative treatment journalists gave to Vietnam Veterans during and after our war. Please help me to get the word out to these people on television and writing in newspapers that they have no right to report falsehoods but as journalists, must report the truth when making a statement and if that statement calls for a clarification then they should give it each and every time! Let’s stop journalists from subjective reporting and make them accountable!
Dear Mr. Holt:
I enjoy your reporting on the news but please QUIT calling Afghanistan, America’s Longest War. It is not the longest war yet, I hope it does not reach that milestone, but if it does, Vietnam Veterans will respectfully relinquish our place in history to our valiant brothers/sisters fighting that war. I use facts and figures from the Department Of Defense Knowledge Base and the National Archives which show Vietnam is still America’s longest war. By reporting otherwise, Sir, you dishonor and disrespect our Vietnam Veterans that were killed in action on the dates you omit when you claim Afghanistan is America’s longest war! Journalists have been reporting this myth lately and every time you do, Sir, you continue to inflict emotional and mental pain on the survivors of Vietnam by trying to dismiss our place in history. It was your predecessors during and after Vietnam that reported their biased opinions about our war which led to a political defeat for America, not a military defeat, and which resulted in years of negative reporting and negative stereotyping about the men and women that served willingly when America called them to fight communism and with honor and bravery!
Please get your facts straight and quit manipulating facts and figures with journalist jargon and hyperbole when reporting to the public that Afghanistan is America’s longest war.
Thank You,
Joe ‘Ragman’ Tarnovsky
Vietnam Combat Veteran
In-Country 28 August 1968 to 22 October 1970
Joe is a Vietnam Combat Veteran, having served 26 months in the Republic Of South Vietnam, 10 months with Company A, 27th Combat Engineers, 28 August 1968 to June 1969, and 16 months as a crewchief/doorgunner with the 240th Assault Helicopter company on UH-1C Hueys, the Mad Dog Gunship Platoon from July 1969 to 22 October 1970.
Joe graduated from Cuyahoga Community College in 1982 with a Associate Of Arts Degree and from Cleveland State University in 1986 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology; he also accumulated 12 hours of graduate work at Cleveland State. He lives with his best friend, his wife, and they have 34 rescued cats, 7 rescued dogs.
Joe has spoken at high schools and colleges for 25 years about PTSD, war and how not to treat returning veterans when they come home to America after fighting for their country.
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