|
|
Change Your Life! |
Bush, Gore pause to salute military veterans |
|
News |
|
|
May 31, 2000
Along the banks of the Monongahela River, cutting through western Pennsylvania's old steel towns, Gore navigated a tangle of the official, the political and the personal - speaking in his capacity as vice president at Elizabeth's traditional holiday commemoration and spotlighting his own little-known service in Vietnam.
"I know that my service doesn't in any way match that of the heroes that we honor on this day," Gore said in this 1,600-person town, which lost six sons in Vietnam. He was introduced by Army buddy Bob Delabar.
Gore, who has said his five months in Vietnam as an Army journalist included brushes with enemy fire, rarely speaks of what he did there. On Monday, when Americans paused to remember the war dead, the snapshot Gore chose to share with his audience of about 500, including many veterans, was, oddly, a lighthearted one.
"One time we borrowed, or commandeered, a Jeep and went over to Vung Tau," a soldiers' facility on the Vietnamese coast. "Anyway, we had many great times together," Gore said with a gesture toward Delabar.
|