Pete Kanelis is my favorite veteran … but you know that already about him.
He was my dad. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy within hours after hearing that our forces had been attacked at Pearl Harbor and, by God, he wanted to get into the fight of his life immediately.
I now am going to put words in Dad’s mouth.
He would be enraged at what we are learning about what Donald Trump has said about Adolf Hitler, about veterans, about prisoners of war, about those who were wounded — and killed — in action.
The revelations about the Republican presidential nominee’s hideous assertions come from flag officers who served in Trump’s administration. Marine Gen. John Kelly has said Trump wanted generals like those who served Adolf Hitler. Army Gen. Mark Milley has called Trump “fascist to the core.”
Trump’s response has been to denigrate these two patriots, men who have fought with valor. Gen. Kelly is a Gold Star father whose son died in combat in Afghanistan … and who heard Trump refer to KIAs as “losers.”
This latest battering of Trump is getting worldwide coverage as we enter the final two weeks of this campaign. It damn sure should get it.
Dad was not a particularly scholarly man. He wasn’t a deep thinker. However, he was the purest patriot I’ve ever seen. That he traveled to downtown Portland, Ore., on the day our forces were attacked to get into a fight to defend our nation, tells me everything I need to know about the love he had for this great nation.
And this veteran, who faced down Hitler’s forces in combat would be enraged beyond all measure at what a tinhorn GOP politician said about history’s most despicable tyrant.
I would share Dad’s rage. To think that Donald Trump would want to take command of the world’s greatest military simply makes my blood boil. I only can imagine what my favorite veteran would be thinking today.