What caught my attention and prompted me to write was a letter to the editor that certain individual(s) claimed that they were offended by the Veterans Day poster for the mere fact that the Pacific War is not listed on the poster. As any reasonable person would do, I looked up the poster to see for myself what the fuss was all about and I discovered that many places where many major battles took place are not listed. Now, is this a reason to be upset? Absolutely not!
Now, do I have a reason to be upset? Absolutely yes! As a Veteran of three wars (Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and now Operation Enduring Freedom), I strongly feel that the letter was politically motivated and it’s very upsetting and disturbing when people intentionally use veteran issues for their own political agenda and or amusement. I spent 15 months during my last deployment roaming the streets of some of the most dangerous and deadliest places in Iraq that the national media referred to them as the “Triangle of Death” and Fallujah is not it, but is listed on the poster. The “Triangle of Death” consists of three cities southwest of Baghdad being Mahmudiya, Lutifiyah and Yusufiyah. Now, why is Fallujah on the poster and not any of these places? I don’t have the slightest clue and I really don’t care! Moreover, my oldest sister lost a son in Iraq and my older brother recently lost a son in Afghanistan. Not once have I heard any of them complain over a poster!
Having said that, now let me give you a brief insight of how the veterans poster came about. These posters came out as early as 1978 and each year a different design is produced and disseminated for public exhibition.
The committee responsible for the printing and distribution of these posters is the U.S. Veterans Day Committee which falls under the U.S. Veterans Affairs Office. The honorary chairman of this committee is the president of the United States and the chairman being the secretary of the U.S. Veterans Affairs Office. Having said this, let us not point fingers to our local Veterans Affairs Office because they have no say on the matter. I don’t mean to be sarcastic, but if you don’t like the poster paid for by taxpayer dollar then you can design your own and pay for it out of your own pocket.
Additionally, I want to make it clear that this letter is not intended to be political by any means nor is it intended to be an endorsement for a particular party or candidate, but I don’t think it’s fair that fingers are being pointed to our Honorable Congressman Gregorio “Kilili” Sablan asking him to explain the poster. I am positively convinced that our delegate to the United States has more important and pressing issues to address and a poster should be the least of his concern. Now having mentioned his name, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our honorable congressman for fighting for the “real” issues facing our veterans today. To me, this means more than a piece of paper with names of places that I don’t even want to remember.
Finally, I wrote this letter with hopes that this issue be put to rest once and for all. To those individuals who think they can outsmart us veterans by playing dirty politics, be very very careful who you drag into your political arena! I have absolutely “zero” compassion whatsoever for those who play dirty politics by bringing up meaningless and fruitless issues or concerns. To all the candidates for U.S. delegate, good luck to all of you gentlemen and I hope that you keep us veterans and soldiers in your hearts and in your thoughts. GOD BLESS US ALL AND GOD BLESS THIS GREAT NATION OF OURS!
HENRY M. SANTOS
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army
Somewhere in Afghanistan”
