An Old Hero Returns...A New One Goes.

On this coming Saturday, a small church in Cromwell, CT will hold a service for a fallen hero. No, he's not the latest casualty of this war against terrorist scum. He's a hero from the war that we've finally started to show some respect for the heroes of...Viet-Nam.
Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas W. Fritsch has been MIA for longer than the 21 years of life he had on this earth. He died in a firefight outside of Da Nang along with 11 of his comrades in May of 1968. He was set to return home just two months later. It's been 37 years, but he's finally come.
Fritsch went to E.C. Goodwin Technical School in New Britain, CT, graduating in 1966. He was active in the Boys Scouts, and a Volunteer Fireman for the town of Portland, CT. He was an American. One of the real ones.
I was only 9 years old when he died. My brother was in Viet-Nam around the same time. Thomas sounds like the kind of guy who'd get along just fine with my brother. These were the boys that picked up and went off to an unpopular war to defend America and the world from the spread of Communism. These were men who knew the meaning of the words duty, and honour. Gallant knights of their day, the heroes of their time. Unlike those who sat back here, on their useless pimpled asses...smoking pot and belching out venom against their country, spitting on those who went in their place to fight and die. Or worse, went to Viet-Nam only to get a few hundred feet of "action footage", a few scratches, (Purple Heart material), and some good stories for your eventual campaign for President. Forget that you also return only to join the stateside scum that spit on your returning "band of brothers".
REAL heroes go to war...and fight honourably for their country...and either die on the battlefield, or return with honor, knowing that they did their job. People like my brother, and Thomas Fritsch of Cromwell were, and are, true heroes.
Add to this the news of yet another American hero. A Pat Tilmanesque story out of New Britain, CT. The New Britain Rock Cats, AA Eastern League Affiliate of the Minnesota Twins baseball team, (I knew I liked the Twins), had a celebration send off for Tony Stevens just last night. Stevens left the team in 2001, shortly after the spineless attack on America by Islamofascist pigs, to join the U.S. Marine Corps.
He has since served TWO tours in Iraq, surviving 11 roadside and car bombings. And he's going back for his third in November. The Rock Cats felt it was time to to once again honour one of their own...and the crowd went wild! The Governor of Connecticut declared Wednesday, "Tony Stevens Day". I pray that he returns to play again.
The latte-sipping, Birkenstock wearing, croisant crowd likely looks down their coke-filled noses at people the likes of Tony Stevens, just as their filthy counterparts did at Thomas Fritsch.
But REAL Americans know who REAL heroes are, and where they reside. Not on the big screen or the basketball courts, or the ball fields. Real heroes can't be seen every day these days...because they're off to war...fighting for freedom for us all...even those who will never appreciate it.
Semper Fi Pat Tilman. Semper Fi Thomas and Tony, and my brother Fred.
America salutes you, as we do all our young men and women fighting this war.