Letter: Support local troops in harm’s way

Graphic by Lori Deaton

Recent news reports that the U.S. Navy is facing on a daily basis the most sustained combat since World War II in the Red Sea now and because the situation does not appear to be getting anything but worse, I am writing this letter to Mountain Xpress.

Since I am a Navy vet who enlisted in Asheville during the Vietnam era and served an extended deployment during the Arab-Israeli war and the Cold War at a small Greek-USN airbase, I am thinking about Navy front-line troops now in harm’s way and also about their friends and families in Asheville and WNC. I am asking that people in my hometown extend support and offer to help their families in any way they can. This also includes Mayor Manheimer and other area politicians and churches.

Thank you all in advance and, regardless of how you feel about this war now, I hope you will help and support the troops and write letters and send care packages to those on ships in harm’s way. I also suggest that you contact area military recruiters and the Navy for suggestions about doing this.

— John Penley
USN 1972-76
Lake Havasu City, Ariz.  

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2 thoughts on “Letter: Support local troops in harm’s way

    • John Penley

      Please think about this….Every day thousands of US troops , especially the Navy , are facing daily combat in the Red Sea warzone and neither the Republicans or the Democrats or Mountain XPress or the Asheville Citizen Times or local media any where in the country are saying anything at all about it. Can you think of a time in the past when America was at War and nobody in power or local media anywhere in the country was even mentioning it in a Presidential Race ?

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