Here Rests, In Honored Glory, An American Soldier, Known But To God – inscription on the tomb of the unknown soldiers, Arlington National Cemetery Palm Desert, California eighth-grader John Diaz, along with fifty other students, will be visiting Washington D.C. in June for their first time. Two students will be given the rare opportunity to place a wreath at the...

Heroes are hard to come by. With the death of Lt. General Hal Moore last Friday, the loss is particularly acute given his extraordinary leadership skills. There are two types of heroes, those who demonstrate physical courage in the face of extreme danger, and those who reveal moral courage – the fortitude to stand by your principles no matter the...

From time to time I receive private e-mails from readers who wish to offer opinions without posting them directly to a story. Recently, I was asked why so many of my commentaries over the past year have veered from ethics into politics. The simple reality is that politics and ethics are constantly intersecting. When it comes to issues of accountability...

Ahhhhhh… the cool mountain air, a calm… ripple… of water peacefully moving over the lake. Oh… it’s you! While on summer break, I thought I’d offer a few links to commentaries that garnered the most attention by readers over the past seven months. First place, with the most views thus far, was my three-part series from April, Trust and Confidence,...

Maj. John Baldwin (Ret.) is a good friend, former vascular surgeon who served in Vietnam and frequent reader of this site. He submitted the following story to me about former classmate and Vietnam POW Maj. Glenn Wilson. It begins with finding a bracelet. When the Gator Harbor dredge operators pumping out Stevenson Creek near Tampa, Florida back in the spring...

Last February, I wrote how Elaine Harmon, a member of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP), was refused burial at Arlington National Cemetery. While not technically considered part of the military, nevertheless Harmon and her colleagues provided a vital service during World War II. Thirty-eight WASPs died in service to their country. Harmon’s granddaughter, Tiffany Miller who, along with...

Good news about Dennis Haines… finally! Last week, I wrote about Vietnam Vet. Dennis Haines’s difficulty in getting a medication approved by the V.A. for treatment for Hepatitis C – an infectious disease that he contracted after he had unintentionally received tainted blood while being treated by the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh. One week ago, I had contacted...

On Monday, I contacted Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey’s office and explained about Dennis Haines’s battle with the V.A. system. A Vietnam veteran and recipient of both a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, Haines had been approved to receive drug treatment for the Hepatitis C he had contracted through tainted blood while in a military hospital. While the treatment and payment...

Last February, I reported that Vietnam Vet SP4 Dennis Haines (Ret.) was having difficulty receiving treatment for Hepatitis C, an infectious disease that affects the liver’s function. The condition was brought about when he and others were inadvertently given tainted blood while in service. At that time (Feb. 5), Haines wrote to me about his status. “Jim, Here’s the deal,...

Last month, I wrote that SP4 Dennis Haines (Ret.) was one of approximately 174,000 Viet Nam vets who had contracted Hepatitis C through tainted blood. However, due to the extreme cost of the drug, Sofosbuvir, only about 15 percent have been treated thus far. After having been hit by two AK-47 rounds to the right side of his head in...