The US Congress passed legislation to rename the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Ann Arbor after Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Kettles. Kettles was a lifelong resident of Ypsilanti. He died in January of 2019. He served in the Vietnam War as an Army helicopter commander and was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2016 for leading a rescue operation that saved 44 soldiers. The legislation now goes to the president.
For 40 years Charlie and I were neighbors. He lived 2 doors down from me and we became good friends. Charlie was a conservative and me not so much. We loved to talk politics whether it be national or local. Charlie also had a tendency to volunteer me for various civic work. He would talk about his service in the army and I knew he got medals for some heroic stuff he did in Vietnam, but Charlie always downplayed it. He couldn’t downplay his Medal of Honor as it was national news. I had the pleasure of him showing me, my daughter and our grandkids the medal and all the other stuff that were part of the ceremony. The thing he really got a kick out of was the State of Michigan issuing him a personalized license plate “MOH 08” with a picture of his medal of honor on it. The 08 represented Charlie being the 8th person from Michigan to receive the Medal of Honor. I always gave him a hard time about getting his medal from President Obama, who never got Charlie’s vote.
It has been days since the cybersecurity firm FireEye first reported a major breach of government IT systems. Since that time US agencies confirmed their networks were compromised in a massive data breach. The investigation, which could take months, is ongoing. Per CNN, ” US officials and cybersecurity experts are warning that the incident should serve as a wake-up call for both the federal government, including the incoming Biden administration, and private sector companies, as foreign actors will undoubtedly conduct similar attacks and improve their tactics in the future. In the short term, the effort to catalog which agencies were hit and what information may have been accessed or stolen has shaken the nation’s intelligence agencies.” Due to the magnitude and complexity most experts are suspecting that Russia is behind the attack. In the meantime, we have heard no response from President Trump about the attack. This feels vaguely familar to the response from the President following the announcement that Russians had put a bounty on US soldiers. For a guy who is so quick to tweet about any US citizen who happens to cross him, why has there been no response from the president?
It looks like cooler heads are prevailing and congress will approve a covid-19 stimulus bill which will be signed by President Trump. It is nice to know that bi-partisanship still works in Congress. I was beginning to have my doubts that I would ever see bi-partisan legislature again in my lifetime. Thank you.
“Inspite of him being a Democrat, President Obama was a real nice guy and a perfect gentleman. I really liked him.” Charlie Kettles.