I must ask - Are the quotes to the right of the picture intended to honor or denigrate those of us who served our country with honor, dignity and integrity? I think I have a pretty good idea of the "mixed message" that your publication is presenting. I served our country for almost 22 years in war and in peace. You have your right to present whatever picture to the public you want, but I also have the right not to look at or read your biased presentations.

Curtis W. Howes
Capt USMC (Ret)

Dear Mr. Howes:
The quotes are most certainly meant to honor those who have served, and I’m truly sorry if you thought there was any other intention.

It has been my experience that people who have served in our Armed Forces do not celebrate war, though they serve dutifully and with courage. My inclusion of the quotes in last week’s issue of the Press was a lamentation about the suffering war brings to all, most especially our soldiers, who do indeed serve with honor, dignity, and integrity.

Our veterans have given so much to this country; many have endured physical and psychological wounds that have left them changed forever. My father and mother both served in World War II. The only time my father ever mentioned his service to me was when I was an adult. Tearfully, he told me about seeing bodies stacked like cordwood when his unit liberated the Ohrdruf concentration camp. He never mentioned it again. I have always wondered about the pain he bore throughout the years following his military service, having witnessed such a horror.

I honor the memory of my parents’ military service, and the service of all those who have bravely gone into harm’s way in answering our country’s call to duty. But personally, I pray for a time when no one has to endure the horrors of war.

Lynda King
Editor, The Harvard Press

Ms King, if your response was what you indeed meant, than you should have made it your editorial. The quotes, while true and probably agreed to by all veterans, were quite inappropriate for the purpose of the day. I give you a D- for your journalism class this week.

Tom Arnold
former US Navy riverboat sailor
Republic of Viet Nam

All,
War is horrifically beautiful and destructively addictive. I chose service in uniform with the resolve to take a bullet for a greater good - an IDEAL much larger than self. I continue to toil in the creation of a world where my IDEAL is that my children will - not have to make such choices, not have to experience such overload of the senses, and not have to struggle non-stop 24/7/365 with the plethora of reconciliations between instinctive survival, traumatic withdrawal of artificial elations, and an expectation of an imperturbable return to an orderly but disconnected society.

In my choices, I did not relinquish my free will… nor did I liquidate my humanity. I participated in a war with entwined beliefs that war is necessarily unfortunate and fervently hope war becomes unnecessary. As a breathing witness to combat, I choose to be obligated to prevent the drawing of swords. It also obligates me to be willing to draw and use it viciously should I be unsuccessful in convincing any opponent.

"Some people hide in a cellar. Most people run the other way. A Minuteman will run to the sound of gunfire. A Patriot understands why." - Dennis M. Lyddy, 44, survivor of war.

Dennis M. Lyddy
Soldier, Citizen, Father, Veteran
Cold War, W. Germany, 1980-1984
Operation Joint Endeavor & Operation Joint Guard, 1996-1997
Operation Noble Eagle & Operation Enduring Freedom 2001-2002
Operation Enduring Freedom & Iraqi Freedom 2003-2004