Sets the Record Straight For ‘Coast Guard Spouter’

To the Editor:
I am writing in response to the spouter who, out of ignorance, demeans our brave Coast Guard men and women by objecting to positive newspaper articles concerning them, and while referring to the Coast Guard as a military service, places the word military within quotation marks, and finishes wondering “how many are fighting in the Middle East right now?”
Official numbers from the Office of the Coast Guard Historian provide the following: Initially, some 1,250 Coast Guard personnel were deployed to that area in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Six cutters i.e. Coast Guard ships and some 300 personnel remain.
Twenty-four-year-old Nathan Bruckenthal, a Coast Guard petty officer, was killed there in combat and those other Coast Guardsmen with him were wounded. Bruckenthal was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Perhaps the spouter might care to drive down there and, to confirm this, check for his name on one of the many white crosses.
While there, you could visit the gravesite of Douglas Munro, a Coast Guard Medal of Honor recipient. And, should you see a group of Navy SEALS walking around, they could be Coast Guardsmen also since some Coast Guard members have been trained and fully qualified as SEALS and are now deployed worldwide with SEAL teams.
We Coastguardsmen have fought in all of our countries wars:
241,000 in World War II
8,500 in Korea and 8,000 in Vietnam
Many were killed in combat and they too, lie in honor in Arlington. Mute evidence of your right to spout-off with impunity.
Semper Paratus.
BILL DONOHUE
Court House
(ED. NOTE: The author is retired Stone Harbor police chief and former undersheriff.)