To the editor:

This is in response to a Times-Gazette column written by Garry Boone that was published Feb. 3, 2023, and titled “Myth of the spat-upon Vietnam vet”.

I am a Vietnam vet. I know of one case where my Lynchburg, Ohio, Methodist preacher, Charles Locke, said he was spat on after he returned from Vietnam. He was our pastor in the 1980s. I completely trust his truthfulness. He was a military Army chaplain in country.

After he turned home he was with his two young children entering a San Francisco subway. He was in uniform and was spat on.

I returned home from McChord AFB, Washington, to a small mid-Ohio town. I never heard a discouraging word about my Vietnam service.

So there is one case. If Garry (Boone) wants to go on about spitting on a Vietnam vet, I personally feel he should make better use of his time.

Ralph W. Widman

Lynchburg