Dear Editor,

I take issue with Peter Cavanaugh's Sept. 20 column disapproving of a story Rep. McClintock told during his Sept. 6 talk in Coarsegold.

Mr. Cavanaugh was offended by the roar of the crowd after McClintock spoke of the WWII veteran who explained they would not follow Germans into a church -- they would blow the church up.

During the Vietnam War, my husband and his men were ordered by the suits in Washington to move forward and capture a hill, which they did. Then they were told to pull back. No explanation ... "just do it."

Over a period of weeks, they went back and forth like yo-yos, never allowed to finish a battle, all the while watching their buddies die. Frustration and emotional upheaval don't even begin to explain the feelings of the Marines who survived.

We attended McClintock's presentation, along with several other veterans and their families. When the story was told, the vets clapped and cheered, but not to celebrate suffering and death. These guys were exhilarated that there was a time when the U.S. government allowed their military to defend themselves. There was a time when a war was fought to be won, not to stimulate the egos of the power brokers in Washington in their cozy offices.

Rep. McClintock clearly understood this sentiment. It seems to me that anybody with an IQ over plant life would get it. It also seems to me that somebody who has never had military experience, and who has never sacrificed the way these vets have, would be slow to criticize. I must be wrong.

Carol Derry, Oakhurst