This post finds its humble roots in the form of an e-mail chain letter sent to me by Pat Hurley. Pat often sends me conservative anecdotes and steamy satire, and often enough I find myself checking the veracity of some of them almost immediately.

Sometimes they prove to be simply the latest chain letter fad with no more truth in their lines than the promises made by some of the "other" Spam I receive nearly every other minute.

...but Pat wouldn't forward them if they weren't worth a clever wink or thoughtful moment.

Just as often as the sly wink is the utterly profound; this letter, an introduction to Jerimiah Denton, was an exceptional example.

Please take a moment and read about Admiral Denton, now former Senator Denton of Alabama. He was a prisoner of war for eight long years in the Hanoi Hilton, and he has some remarkable tales to tell...

From Pat's E-Mail:

In 1973, Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr. walked off an Air Force C-141 aircraft to freedom after being held captive in North Vietnam for more than seven years.

Born in 1924 in Mobile Alabama, Denton graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946.

In June 1965, he was assigned to Attack Squadron 75 on the USS Independence flying the Grumman A-6 Intruder.

On 18 July 1965, while pulling up after leading a bombing attack on enemy installations near Thanh Hoa, he was shot down and captured by North Vietnamese troops.

While held prisoner, Denton became the first American subjected to four years of solitary confinement. In 1966, during a television interview by the North Vietnamese and broadcast on American television, Denton gained national attention when, while being questioned, he blinked his eyes in Morse code, repeatedly spelling out the covert message "T-O-R-T-U-R-E". During his captivity he frequently served as the senior American military officer in numerous camps in and around Hanoi.

On 12 February 1973, Denton was released and promoted to rear admiral in April 1973. In 1976 Denton's Vietnam experience was chronicled in the book When Hell Was in Session, and in an NBC movie of the same title, which won the 1979 Peabody Award. In 1979 Denton retired from the Navy as Commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College and returned to Mobile, Alabama.

During his 34 years of military service, he received numerous awards and honors, to include:

* the Navy Cross,
* Three Silver Stars,
* The Distinguished Flying Cross, and
* Two Purple Hearts.

In November 1980, Denton became the first retired flag officer ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Some of his major committee assignments included:
the Judiciary Committee, the Armed Services Committee, and the Veterans Affairs Committee.

In 1983, Denton founded the National Forum Foundation Dedicated to the concept of One Nation under God, the institution of the family,
welfare reform, and peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs.

In 1987, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to be Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Merchant Marine and Defense.

Among many other legislative accomplishments, Denton established the highly acclaimed international aid program known as The Denton Program, responsible for transporting over 20 million pounds of critical equipment and supplies to needy people throughout the world. Denton currently serves as President of the National Forum Foundation and lectures on national and international affairs.

He and his wife Jane reside in Mobile, Alabama. They have 7 children and 15 grandchildren.

This distinguished man, Retired Admiral and Former Senator, when asked about Senator John Kerry, has an opinion to share.

From the Alabama Register, reprinted in Front Page Magazine:

Knowing that I served in the U.S. Senate with John Kerry and that, like him, I am a veteran of the Vietnam War, many people have asked me what I think of him, particularly now that he's the apparent presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

When Kerry joined me in the Senate, I already knew about his record of defamatory remarks and behavior criticizing U.S. policy in Vietnam and the conduct of our military personnel there. I had learned in North Vietnamese prisons how much harm such statements caused.

To me, his remarks and behavior amounted to giving aid and comfort to our Vietnamese and Soviet enemies. So I was not surprised when his subsequent overall voting pattern in the Senate was consistently detrimental to our national security.

Considering his demonstrated popularity during the Democratic primaries, I earnestly hope the American people will soberly consider Kerry's qualifications for the pres idency in light of his position and record on both our cultural war at home and on national security issues.

To put it bluntly, John Kerry exemplifies the very reasons that I switched to the Republican Party. Like the majority in his political party, he has proven by his words and actions that his list of priorities -- his ideas on what most needs to be done to improve this country -- are almost opposite to my own.

Here are two issue areas that I consider top priorities: the war over the soul of America, and national security.

Top priority should be placed on an effort to recover our most fundamental founding belief that our national objectives, policies and laws should reflect obedience to the will of Almighty God. Our Declaration of Independence, our national Constitution and each of the states' constitutions stress that basic American national principle.

For about 200 years, the entire country, both parties and all branches of government understood that principle and tried to follow it, if imperfectly.

For some 50 years, our nation's opinion-makers, our courts and, gradually, our politicians have been abandoning our historical effort to be "one nation under God" in favor of becoming "one nation without God," with glaringly unfavorable results.

I believe our political leaders, educational system, parents and opinion-makers must all return to teaching the truth most emphasized by our Founding Fathers.

George Washington called religious belief indispensable to the prosperity of our democracy. William Penn said, "Men must choose to be governed by God or condemn themselves to be ruled by tyrants." And when asked what caused the Civil War, President Lincoln said, "We have forgotten God."

In these days we have not only forgotten God, we are by our new standards of government and culture rejecting him as the acknowledged creator and as the endower of our rights.

As a result, we are suffering cultural decay and human unhappiness. The decline of the institution of the family is the most obvious result.

Perhaps the current movie, "The Passion of the Christ," will help many to come to realize the cost of the redemption of our sins, and the destructiveness of sin.

Let's remember that over 95 percent of Americans during our founding days were Christians, and though our Founding Fathers stipulated that no one was to be compelled to believe in any religion, and also stipulated that there would be no single Christian denomination installed as a national religion, there was no question that our laws were to be firmly based on the Judean Ten Commandments and on Christ's mandate to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

That setup brought us amazing success as a nation, lifting us from our humble beginnings, through crisis after crisis, to become the leading nation of the world.

Now, though, we are throwing away the very source of our strength and greatness. Yet I am not giving up on our country. I am encouraged at the stand and the attitude of our president, and inspired by his courage. There are many more of his stripe in Washington now.

Though Rome and other empires have decayed and fallen, the cultural war in the United States can and should be won by the majority of Americans -- a majority to whom Kerry and the Democrats disdainfully refer to as the "far right." They are people who believe in God and in the original concept of "one nation under God."

As a nation, we are now at the point of no return. The good guys are finally angry enough to join the fray, and I pray we are not too late.

John Kerry is not among the good guys. The Democratic Party isn't, either.

Indeed, on the subject of national security, John Kerry epitomizes a fatal weakness in the Democratic Party.

During the decisive days of the Cold War, after the Democratic Party changed during the mid-1960s, the party was on the wrong side of every strategic debate on policy regarding Vietnam and the USSR, and is now generally on the wrong side in the war on terrorism.

The truth is that the Cold War was barely won by a narrow margin -- a victory and a margin determined by the political choices made by our government regarding suitable steps to deter Soviet attack and finally win the Cold War.

If the U.S. had followed the Democratic Party line, the Cold War would have concluded with the U.S. having to surrender without a fight, or the U.S. would have been defeated in a nuclear war with acceptable losses to the USSR.

It was not Johnson and Carter and the Democrats; it was Nixon, Reagan, George Bush and the Republicans who led us to victory in the Cold War.

And George W. Bush and the Republican majority -- not John Kerry and the Democrats -- can lead us to victory in the war on terrorism.

An amazing man, a legacy of honor. Why men like both Jeremiah Denton and Zell Miller are not the ones leading our two parties, I'll never know.

Well, the evidence - if not the reasons are apparent enough. When the Republican Party of California invited former Senator Jeremiah Denton to speak at their formal observance of Independence Day in 2004... an observance which had not been recognized by the California State Senate for YEARS, despite their traditional observance on Cinco de Mayo... the Democrats of that state rabidly blocked his attendance, citing his extreme conservatism and partisanship.

(Courtesy of Snopes.Com) Nick Velasquez, spokesman for California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez had this to say:

Mr. Denton is widely regarded as an ultraconservative Republican and member of the religious right who is opposed to the separation of church and state; and is founder of an organization the Baltimore Sun calls "an ad-hoc umbrella organization of fundamentalist Christian groups...

... Mr. Denton is way too partisan and controversial to be an appropriate speaker at a patriotic event that all members of the Assembly wanted to observe.

To remedy this horrible insult, the newly elected Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, offered his meeting room that Monday for a ceremony with Admiral Denton.

California Assemblyman John Campbell tells the story:

Wednesday, June 30th, 2004

4th of July: In each of the 4 years that I have been a member of the state Assembly, we have had many "celebrations" on the Assembly floor. These "celebrations" are orchestrated by the Democrats who control the House and often involve singing and dancing. Every one of my 4 years have seen substantial celebrations of Cinco de Mayo (Commemorates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla ), St. Patrick's Day (for the patron Saint of Ireland) and Chinese New Year's Day, among others. But never once have we celebrated America's Independence Day, the 4th of July.

So, this year, Republican Assemblyman Jay LaSuer of San Diego arranged for Vietnam war hero Admiral Jeremiah Denton to come to California to be a part of a 4th of July ceremony. As you may know, Admiral Denton was a Navy pilot in Vietnam who was shot down and spent 8 years in a Vietnamese prison. In 1966 while in prison, he was interviewed by North Vietnamese television in Hanoi after torture to get him to "respond properly." During this interview, he blinked his eyes in Morse code to spell out the word "torture." He was asked about his support for the war in Vietnam to which he replied "I don't know what is happening now in Vietnam, because the only news sources I have are Vietnamese. But whatever the position of my government is, I believe in it, I support it, and I will support it as long as I live." Four of his 8 years in prison were spent in solitary confinement. He later wrote the book "When Hell was in Session" chronicling his experience in Vietnam.

When he stepped off the plane after being released from prison in 1973, he said "We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country in difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief for this day. God bless America." He was later elected to the U.S. Senate from his home state of Alabama, becoming the first retired Admiral ever elected to that body. I could go on and on about his accomplishments.

Suffice it to say, Jeremiah Denton is unquestionably an American hero.

The Democratic leadership refused to allow him on the Assembly floor and there will be no 4th of July celebration. A memo from the Democratic speaker's office said "problems have arisen both with regards to the spirit, content and participation of various individuals with regard to the ceremony." Apparently, they said that he did not believe in the "separation of church and state" and they didn't like the policies he supported as a United States Senator and therefore they would not allow him to be on the Assembly floor or to speak.

Upon hearing about this, Governor Schwarzenegger offered his meeting room last Monday for a ceremony with Admiral Denton. The room was overflowing with people. Only one elected Democrat was in attendance. A number of veterans of the last 4 wars were present. Admiral Denton gave a very moving speech about the 4th of July and about the undeniable commitment of our founding fathers' to their faith in God. He talked about how the war on terrorism may be the most difficult war we have yet fought. And he went on to say that he fears that partisan attacks on our mission and our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan sound too familiar to what he experienced in Vietnam. Following his speech, The Governor came out to personally spend time with him.

Then this American hero, whose debt from us all can never be repaid, flew home to Alabama.

The Assembly did meet on that day. And we did have a ceremony that lasted nearly 20 minutes. That ceremony was to celebrate the career of a reporter from the LA Times on the occasion of his retirement. Democrats universally praised him as being "balanced." He was allowed to speak for about 10 minutes. Admiral Denton was no longer in the building.

Four years of Cinco De Mayo and not one recognition of the 4th of July. An LA Times reporter praised, and the very person whose sacrifice allows him to express his opinion is banned. It is perverse. It is wrong. And it is disrespectful to all the men and women in uniform who have stared death in the face and to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the American people.

Admiral Jeremiah Denton is a hero not because he was politician, but like all the other men and women of the Armed Forces, because he defended the ideals set forth with America's independence.

Democrats are always railing about intolerance and discrimination. But yet in practice, it is they who engage in regular state-sanctioned discrimination and who are intolerant of the presentation of other views. Maybe they are worried that people will listen.

I do not send you this to bash Democrats. I send you this to demonstrate the huge chasm that exists between registered, voting Democrats, and elected Democrat leadership. I hope those of you who are not Democrats, will send this to your friends who are. If you are a Democrat, don't be ashamed. Be angry. Change your party and your leadership, or leave it.

Fortunately, we do not need the approval of the Speaker of the Assembly to celebrate our nation's independence this Sunday. Nor do we need his permission to thank those who fought to give us and to maintain our freedoms. On this 4th of July, as the burgers cook and the fireworks fly, let us remember......and give thanks.

As a final offering, I give you a poem that Admiral Denton read to us this week, through eyes clouded with tears:

It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

Amen. God bless America.

Sometimes the friendly chain-letters we get from our friends might make us smile, smirk, chuckle or ponder. Occasionally, they take you by the hand and introduce you to greatness.

Link to the Admiral Jerimiah Denton Foundation

Posted by Michael at September 16, 2004 10:12 PM