"Op-Ed Contributor - Richard Blumenthal, Vietnam and the Technicality Generation" - NYTimes.com

I know Larry PRESSLER, and I never felt that I would be saying he has said something better than anyone else, but he has and I am saying it. As Chris MATTHEWS said tonight on his MSNBC show, how can anyone lie about having served in Vietnam? How can anyone who has ever be trusted to tell the truth, especially as a US Senator. And, as I noted earlier, I speak as someone who came of age and eligible to be drafted about the same time as BLUMENTHAL and PRESSLER. I never dreamed, I can honestly say, that I became a Coast Guard officer only because it was a way to serve during those years; it was for me a clear option to going to Vietnam as a draftee. What PRESSLER has reminded me of in this piece is that because I did not go to Vietnam, someone less lucky than I had to serve......and I'll never know if he survived, and if he did, how well. That's a heavy burden.