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Support troops with actions


To the Editor:

While driving up the street today, I saw all the cars with "I Support the Troops." These ribbons are suppose to indicate that we are doing something for them.

What our troops need is better equipment and more equipment. They need personal hygiene items — both male and female. They need sweats, T-shirts, shorts, and socks so the wounded who are up and mobile have something to wear other than an "open back" hospital gown.

It has been rumored that troops are required to pay for uniforms that were destroyed when they are wounded.

There are homes for children and families of deceased veterans, like the VFW National Home at Eaton Rapids, Mich., that furnishes homes and education for the children. This is very expensive and needs all of your financial help. When you see a returning veteran, do you say "Thank you" or buy his/her lunch? Older veterans should remember how they were treated.

After WWI, veterans marched on Washington to get a bonus. They set up a shanty town to stay at, at which time the military, under one-star General Douglas MacArthur and Lt. Col. Dwight Eisenhower, destroyed it. They finally got the bonus in 1937.

They and veteran organizations from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam proceeded to get you the GI Bill, veterans' services, and lower cost medicine.

So what are you going to do? "Let George do it" and see what happened, or are you going to get out and make the "I Support the Troops" really mean something to you? It's time you speak up or better yet, get up. Veterans' organizations all have groups that call on veterans.

Send phone cards, visit veterans hospitals. Instead of lip service, help the veterans. They deserve to be helped.

John Britain

Marion

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