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Letter to the Editor

By John Lindquist

Dear Sir, Secretary of the Navy.

My name is John A. Lindquist. I was in the USMC from 1967 to 1969. I was a radio operator with the 3rd Marine Division along the DMZ from May 4, 1968, to May 25, 1969.

This letter concerns the naming of the new US Navy aircraft carrier—it was going to be named after Doris Miller, a Black sailor aboard the US West Virginia at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. He saved fellow sailors and manned a machine gun, shooting down two attacking Japanese aircraft. He died on Nov. 24, 1943, when his Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier was sunk. He was the first Black sailor to win the Navy Cross.

President Trump wants the ship named after himself. What did he do during the Vietnam War and the Cold War? He did nothing. He was a draft dodger. His dad paid for a fake medical exemption for Heel Spurs. I was in Marine Boot Camp with a private who had Heel Spurs. Every month he went to sick bay, but was back the same day. We should be offended by Mr. Trump's request.

President Trump, in 2019, called Marines in a graveyard in France "Suckers and Losers." He said this to his Chief of Staff, Bernard Kelly, when Kelly asked the President whether he wanted to visit the Belleau Wood graveyard.

Stop this insult to American active-duty personnel and veterans. Name this ship after a real American hero and veteran, Doris Miller.

Semper Fidelis,
John A. Lindquist