From The Boston Globe, 12/3/06:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/12/03/legion_chief_alters_line_on_war_service/
December 3, 2006
Legion chief alters line on war service
By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Correspondent
When Paul A. Morin , the national commander of the American Legion,
sought election to the office in August, he described himself in the
lead sentence of his campaign biography as a "Vietnam veteran of the
US Army."
Since he was elected Aug. 31, the Legion's website has featured the
same description.
And when Morin testified before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee
Sept. 20, US Representative Steve Buyer, Republican of Indiana,
introduced him as an Army veteran of Vietnam.
Morin registered no objection, according to the hearing transcript.
And three months ago, Morin said he hopes that servicemen returning
from Iraq will be treated better than those who returned from Vietnam.
"When we came home, life was a little different. We do not want to see
any veteran ever returning to what we did, so we'll be there to be
welcoming them home with open arms," Morin said, according to a
transcript of his interview with the Pentagon Channel , the Defense
Department's television network.
But the only place Morin ever returned from was Fort Dix, N.J.
According to his military records, Morin spent his entire two years of
Army service, from 1972 to 1974, at that Army training base.
In fact, before he sought the coveted one-year term as national
president of the country's largest veterans' organization, Morin was
content to be known as a "Vietnam-era" veteran -- a signal to other
veterans that he did not serve in Vietnam.
Morin, in a telephone interview on Thursday, defended his decision to
describe himself as a Vietnam veteran when he ran for Legion
president.
Neither the US government nor the Legion itself makes a formal
distinction between veterans who served in Vietnam and those, like
himself, who did not.
"I am a Vietnam veteran," Morin, a Massachusetts resident with a
senior state government position, declared.
He said there is no need for his Legion biography to make it clear
that he did not serve in Vietnam.
The Legion's principal spokesman, Joe March , yesterday defended
Morin's right to the label.
As far as the Legion is concerned, March said, any current service
member stationed in the United States could claim to be an Iraq War
veteran.
But Morin's description flouts long-standing and widely accepted
protocol among veterans -- that only those who served in the Vietnam
theater between 1964 and 1975 should call themselves Vietnam veterans.
Even Morin's five immediate predecessors as national president made it
clear they had not served in Vietnam.
Just 3.4 million men and women served in the Vietnam theater, which
included the Gulf of Tonkin, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Of those, 2.6 million served in South Vietnam.
There are more than 5 million other veterans who served elsewhere
during those years.
Veterans who know of Morin's claim to be a Vietnam veteran expressed
disbelief and dismay that someone so deeply embedded in the veterans'
culture would lay claim to Vietnam veteran status.
Former US Senator Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost both legs and an
arm in Vietnam, and who has been a Legion member since 1969, expressed
concern in an interview on Friday that by inflating his résumé, Morin
has undercut the credibility of veterans' groups as they seek
congressional support for underfunded veterans' programs.
"For the national commander of the American Legion, who never even
served in the Vietnam theater, to call himself a Vietnam veteran is a
lie," Cleland said.
Cleland, who headed the Veterans Administration during the Carter
administration, expressed incredulity at Morin's and March's
justification for the claim.
"This is the American Legion hierarchy changing the rules in the
middle of the game, solely to try to cover the [expletive] of the
national commander now that he's become an embarrassment to the
organization," Cleland said.
Thomas G. Kelley , the Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam, said that
Morin is being "disingenuous. When someone says he is a Vietnam
veteran, it means he served in the theater of the war. One would infer
from his bio that he served in Vietnam."
Jim Skiba , a Legion member from Holyoke who was wounded three times
in Vietnam, said he is so upset with Morin that he is considering
abandoning his membership.
"For our national leader to be portraying himself as something he is
not is a disgrace," Skiba said in an interview.
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Amazing
Harry
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