Military Service

I'LL ADMIT I was a little ticked off watching President Bush step from the cockpit of a Navy fighter plane into a waiting photo-op last May. Just didn't seem right to me that the commander-in-chief would schlock up a war he got us into just to create a more commanding image for himself. I did remember seeing him posed perfectly to look like the fifth great head on Mount Rushmore. And if anyone was surprised by his "surprise" visit to the troops on Thanksgiving they haven't been paying attention to the greatest media manipulator since JFK. That was just politics and I ain't mad at him for being better at it than almost anyone.

I must disagree with the letter writer (Aug. 12) who said it was illegitimate to ask presidential candidate Mitt Romney about the military service of his sons. The question is essential to ask any Republican or Democrat who continues to support and fund the Iraq war. It is as relevant as a fifth deployment, a stop-loss order, a crushed limb or the casualty officer's knock on the door. It is the question that should be asked of everyone who is not actively working to end this nightmare war: If you support the war and think that soldiers should continue to be sent to their deaths and dismemberment, then which young one whom you love are you willing to place on the altar of Iraq?

Wherever he goes, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark is asked: If your military career was so great, why were you relieved early of your NATO command? What did Gen. Hugh Shelton really mean when he said that it happened because of "character and integrity issues"? Clark's 34-year military career is at the heart of his bid for the Democratic nomination, but differing perceptions of that career shadow his campaign. The Republican National Committee has "research" about the Democratic candidates on its Web site.

Deborah Sampson Gannett - alias Robert Shirtliffe - disguised herself as a man to sneak into the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Now, more than 200 years later, her service won't be a secret. It will be celebrated. Today, ground will be broken at Arlington National Cemetery for the first major memorial to honor the 1.8 million women who have served in the U.S. armed forces. A platoon of dignitaries, including President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, are to attend.

Like a boy discovering that the neighborhood bully has a glass jaw, Chuck Robb shyly admits that maybe getting provoked and deciding not to take it any longer is not such a bad thing after all. "It obviously touched a nerve," Robb says in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building. "It probably brought me out swinging a little bit earlier than I had planned. " For the umpteenth time - in a political rumble so personal that "you liar" has become a morning salutation - Virginia Sen. Charles S. Robb had taken a hit from his Republican adversary, Oliver L. North.

Listen to the voices of the people fighting President Clinton's plan to allow openly gay men and women in the military and you will hear an escalating, alarming note about the spread and cost of AIDS. But gay advocates, and some medical experts, say the dire projections are based on faulty assumptions: that gays will flood recruiting offices if the ban is dropped, and that, once in the service, they will contract the disease at very high rates. "Homosexual young men will seek out military service for two reasons: to be where the boys are, and to locate a safe haven where all medical services are both competent and free for life," said Robert Spiro, a former undersecretary of the Army who last week released a report predicting a sharp increase in AIDS in the military if the ban is lifted.

Last week, an Army board recommended that Lt. Daniel Choi be discharged from the Army National Guard under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Choi - a West Point graduate, Arabic speaker, and Iraq veteran who has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the nation's values - was the most recent example of the thousands of servicemen and women affected by the policy. I understand that the military must follow the law as it's written. But Choi's discharge further underscores the need for President Obama and Congress to work together now to change this discriminatory policy.

The short version of David Oh 's political resume: The former city prosecutor enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard, joined an elite Special Forces unit and then came home to run a law practice. But two high-ranking military officers familiar with Oh's National Guard record say his claim to have been a Green Beret is bunk. Oh, a front-runner for a Republican at-large City Council seat in the Nov. 8 general election, did not make it through the training to become a Green Beret in 1991.

AS LAST SATURDAY turned into Sunday in the back room of a dimly lit Center City gay nightspot, a pianist's fingers danced across the keys while dozens of men and a few women joined together in song. Hours earlier, Congress had voted to repeal the controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that, for 17 years, had banned openly gay and lesbian soldiers from military service, and a celebratory mood was in the air. For the pianist, John Bickle, 57, a former Roman Catholic priest in New York and New Jersey, thoughts turned to when, at 24, he was asked about his own sexual orientation upon entering St. Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary in Rensselaer, N.Y. "They did ask and I didn't tell," the gay pianist recalled, with a laugh.

Lynn D. "Buck" Compton, 90, a veteran whose World War II exploits were depicted in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers , died Saturday in Burlington, Wash. He suffered a heart attack last month. Mr. Compton also is remembered for his legal career in California. He headed the team that prosecuted Sirhan B. Sirhan for the slaying of Robert F. Kennedy and was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal in 1970 by Gov. Ronald Reagan. He retired from the bench in 1990. He was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart during World War II. But it wasn't until later in life that he became famous for his military service as a first lieutenant in the 101st Airborne Division's Easy Company after the unit parachuted into France on D-Day in 1944.

When a federal program was launched to help military veterans become teachers, the education community was skeptical of "crusty old Marines" relating to kids. Eighteen years later, Troops to Teachers operates in all 50 states and in U.S. territories, including an office that opened in the fall on the West Chester University campus. The $14 million program is funded by the Departments of Education and Defense and is managed by DANTES, an education initiative to support the armed forces.

Lynn D. "Buck" Compton, 90, a veteran whose World War II exploits were depicted in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers , died Saturday in Burlington, Wash. He suffered a heart attack last month. Mr. Compton also is remembered for his legal career in California. He headed the team that prosecuted Sirhan B. Sirhan for the slaying of Robert F. Kennedy and was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal in 1970 by Gov. Ronald Reagan. He retired from the bench in 1990. He was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart during World War II. But it wasn't until later in life that he became famous for his military service as a first lieutenant in the 101st Airborne Division's Easy Company after the unit parachuted into France on D-Day in 1944.

When a Philadelphia City Council candidate last year was accused of wrongly claiming he served as a U.S. Army Special Forces officer, it was entirely fitting that he had to weather voters' scrutiny concerning the allegation. But what if David Oh, now a duly elected councilman, had been clapped in handcuffs over those charges? That's the dilemma posed by the Stolen Valor Act, a 2006 federal law whose constitutionality was argued Wednesday before the U.S. Supreme Court. It's a law that dangerously challenges a core democratic freedom - freedom of speech - and all in the name, ironically, of honoring the very soldiers who risk their lives in defending Americans' consitutional rights.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced the unwelcome possibility of a coalition crisis on Wednesday after Israel's Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, overturned a law that has helped ultra-Orthodox Jewish men avoid military service. The ruling addresses an issue that is at the center of a simmering cultural war between religious and secular Jews, and adds to Netanyahu's headaches as he prepares to travel to the White House for critical talks about Iran's nuclear program.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration proposed new rules Monday to help military families care for service members when they are injured or called to active duty on short notice. The proposal expands eligibility under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows employees to take unpaid leave for certain medical or family emergencies. First lady Michelle Obama joined Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to announce the plan, which would let caregivers take leave to help family members up to five years after they leave the military.

By Catharine Hill As the U.S. military presence in Iraq draws to a close, it's time for colleges and universities to increase their commitment to veterans who want more education. Selective private colleges in particular must step up and do our part. In 1975, Arthur M. Okun published an important little book, Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff , in which he wrote about the benefits of capitalism, but also about the values that we are not willing to submit to the marketplace.

Albert Q. Prince Jr., 81, of Southwest Philadelphia, a retired Philadelphia police officer and an Army veteran, died of complications from an infection Tuesday, Sept. 6, at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Mr. Prince was a police officer in Philadelphia from 1965 until retiring in 1986. He grew up with five younger siblings in Jacksonville, Fla., and Chester. He enlisted in the Army in 1946 and served until 1949. He returned to military service in 1951, during the Korean War. He trained as a paratrooper in Fort Bragg, N.C., and was later stationed in Germany before his discharge in 1957.

The short version of David Oh 's political resume: The former city prosecutor enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard, joined an elite Special Forces unit and then came home to run a law practice. But two high-ranking military officers familiar with Oh's National Guard record say his claim to have been a Green Beret is bunk. Oh, a front-runner for a Republican at-large City Council seat in the Nov. 8 general election, did not make it through the training to become a Green Beret in 1991.

Military officials have identified a Holland, Bucks County, man as one of two soldiers killed Sunday in Afghanistan when insurgents attacked their unit using an improvised explosive device. Sgt. First Class Kenneth B. Elwell, 33, of the first block of Buckshire Drive, and Pfc. Tyler M. Springmann, 19, of Hartland, Maine, were on a routine foot patrol at 11:35 a.m. Afghanistan time in Kandahar province when the device went off. While the two infantrymen died of their wounds, seven others in the brigade were hurt but survived, said Lt. Col. Bill Coppernoll of the Army's Public Affairs Office in Alaska.