Stop and lets look at this from another point. If it was you on the ground what would you aspect? Would you be hanging around with others with guns? If so would you aspect to be shot at or not? Now move forward in time you are driving a van going up to a place where you find dead people on the ground. Would you attempt to pick them up or not with a blackhawd still in the air? Especially if you had children in the van? Next, if you were picking up people for aid would you pick up a gun?

Sometime simple mine set should kick in and you should think I could get killed if I do this.

NOW, LET GO BACK to the point where you are the US troops. You see the van can you identify that they are children in the van or not? Again you can clearly see and hear a request to fire on the van. Threat of not to US troops? Can you see or not see someone shooting at you again? Was any lives in danger and if so at what point? Taking an additional step back to where it appears the individual is shooting at the troops, can you hear rounds being shot at the US Troops or not, can you hear them hitting anything or not? From my point I can only hear the communication stating we are being fired on.

Lets assume that the mission was only a recon and you have a the option to back off and watch at a safe distance. They did call for ground troops to come in why not wait for them to start with?

With all of the questions answered or not answered lets REVIEW the attitude of the troops.

Non of my actions did I even laugh at or make fun of anyone in Vietnam. There you did have individual including Children attempting to kill you. Nothing about any of it was funny. This is totally unacceptable under any circumstance.

If they are going to go after Bradly Manning then let us open of the files and go back and get other and from what we know now as public information we can start back with WWII many Generals including Patton who was very public. What ever happen to Lt Cully from Vietnam? Ever once in a while someone want to make a point and they go after a no body for actions which were in the best interest of the USA.

I was awarded several award including the Silver Star my actions were not because I was trying to be a hero but was a result of me trying to get people back so we had another gun to help stop an advance. This was not just one occasion but several. I was also aware 2 Presidential Citations give by Nixon and 2 US Army Citations give by General Westmorland. The Silver Star(s) were awarded with associated medal non of which are really important but I think they were actions which made the ARMY feel good and were for media press minutes only. Now with cancer I get the use of the VA and even that is actually a long drawn out process every time I go. But I do have medical care which from my point of view is very good.

I just wish we would have let the Europeans kill each other off, the US never should have involved itself in WWI/WWII