Keith Ensminger: Even if Trump doesn’t, many of us know danger posed by Russia
Re “Merced County posse will ride high at inaugural” (Page 3A, Dec. 31): What’s the big deal about sending our sheriff to the inauguration on the public dime? How about millions of vets, like my father, who are probably spinning in their graves because Donald Trump encouraged Russia to destabilize American democracy?
My father led the first, 3rd Army tank platoon across the Siegfried Line into Germany in September 1944 a couple weeks before the Battle of the Bulge. They were ambushed that night, and a German picked him off in the armpit while he reached for a grenade. His buddies spent three days getting him to a field hospital because checkpoints were not sure they were Americans. Fluent English speaking Germans were sneaking behind our front lines causing havoc. They arrived at a field hospital on the third day, and doctors told him he would die overnight. He awoke the next morning, but gangrene took his right hand. Doctors in France cut it off at his wrist.
His generation kept Russia from marching on Paris and London after WW II. Trump will always be a traitor for millions, including me and probably my dad.
Keith Ensminger, Merced
This story was originally published January 9, 2017 at 2:50 PM with the headline "Keith Ensminger: Even if Trump doesn’t, many of us know danger posed by Russia."