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Last updated on March 5th, 2018 at 01:44 pm
You’d think, being a member of Vietnam Veterans against the War, that Ward Reilly would know a little about military Thanksgivings. But Ward, in an open letter to the Prez published by the Baltimore Chronicle, reveals himself to be yet another victim of plastic turkey psychosis:
Getting to meet the troops for real. And they get to meet the boss. They traveled all the way there just to say hello, and thank you for that really great plastic turkey you brought them. Oh, yeah—they also want to talk to you about the “war” in Iraq. That little thing.
Ward ends his rant: “Who do you believe is telling the TRUTH?” Check out Ward’s carbon-fibre sideburns. Here he is with a polyester Jerry Springer.
(Via Murph)
Why are they always called “Ward”?
Who the hell names a kid that anyway?
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 08 07 at 12:35 PM • permalink
Ward Reilly looks like a pudgy Ward Churchill. Writes like him, too. Even thinks like him.
Born in the same teepee, ya think?
Posted by Dennis The Peasant on 2005 08 07 at 02:24 PM • permalink
I hereby propose establishing a new organization: Vietnam Veterans Against Ward. Why do these guys, 30 years after the war ended, still wander from protest to protest, their heads befogged from indulgence in one too many blunts, their thrift shop fatigue jackets falling apart? Never underestimate a moron’s susceptibility to the romance of a “cause”, no matter how bogus, especially when compared to something as mundane as holding down a job and just plain settling down.
I became curious about Ward and googled his name. It’s the type of stuff you’d expect–letters to the editor of free “alt” weeklies, etc., plus some mentions by lefty groups like Not In Our Name.
I finally found a piece that listed his specific service–“Ward Reilly, 81mm Mortar Gunner, Weapons Platoon, Co C 1st Bn 16th Inf. First Infantry Division 1971-1974, Veterans For Peace, New Orleans”. Note the dates.
Now, from the webpage of the 16th Infantry, First Infantry Division (the legendary ‘Big Red One’)–
http://www.16thinfantry-regiment.org/sir/go/3340/Default.aspx
The following: “March 3, 1970 saw the cessation of combat activities in the Republic of Viet Nam for the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry. The battalion stood down and the personnel headed home. The battalion remained nominally active as the colors and records were shipped to Augsburg, Germany where it was reorganized at full strength as part of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division in April 1970. The battalion remained there until its participation in Desert Storm in 1991, after which it returned to Fort Riley, Kansas where it remains today, the only active element of the 16th Infantry Regiment.”
S’more turkey, Ward?
Uhhhh… Bush served plastic turkeys to the troops in Viet Nam? Did he drop them from his F-102?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 07 at 04:20 PM • permalink
JDB—Well done! I passed on your information to the Chronicle, but let me be the first to acknowledge and praise your research. Many thanks for outing this fake.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 07 at 04:26 PM • permalink
It seems that we have moved onto the angy vet stage.
There will be the guys who come back and trash Bush. But they love their country. Why they might even get into politcs.
There will be the mothers who will ask why Bush killed their boy…it will all be very personal and anecdotal and tragic and the point will be that nothing good can from war and Bush is a liar I tell you, a liar…if you don’t believe me just listen to the anti war vet.
It is like the rerun of a bad movie.
I do health care and a lot of my patients are old guys who served in WW2 or Korea and trust me not all of them were like Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan. They bitched. They felt like they were used and lied to and eveybody told them to suck it up. I heard one old guy the other day having a fit because he heard they served lobster in the cafeterai in Baghdad. Lobster! he says, Hell I ate dead mule.
If 7 out of 10 Iraqi vets voted for Bush, 3 out of 10 did not. Expect the anti war people to trot out every one of them.
Can’t you just imagine this in WW2? Patton slapped a shell shocked soldier for crying and when Eisenhower told him to assemble the troops and say he was sorry, they cheered him.
That old boy is spinning in his grave today.
My prediciton: the anti war movement will last longer than the war and they will do their best to delegitimize the new government in Iraq no matter what the costs to the people who are unfortunate enough to live there.
I’ll bet dollars to donuts we don’t see a correction or clarification in the Chronicle regarding Ward Reilly’s non-service in Vietnam.
Like Christmas in Cambodia, an experience seared into John Kerry’s memory, the press could care less about the truth or falsity of the claim. It’s the message not the messenger they’re interested in.
Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2005 08 07 at 06:37 PM • permalink
[i/Here he is with a polyester Jerry Springer.
I wouldn’t have worn pancake Max Factor and lippy for a photo shoot. People might get the wrong idea. I did.
Posted by walterplinge on 2005 08 07 at 07:16 PM • permalink
does anyone know how many soldiers ate any of the turkey?
Posted by Homer Paxton on 2005 08 07 at 07:49 PM • permalink
Hey, given that Ward Churchill’s a fake Indian, cosmic consistency would seem to dictate that it is only right and proper that Ward Reilly ends up having fought the Vietnam War from Germany.
But before anyone screams “fake Vietnam Vet”, let’s make sure he didn’t spend a Christmas in Cambodia, delivering CIA agents to dropoff points while pinned down by a hail of Jap bullets…
Or something like that.
Posted by Dennis The Peasant on 2005 08 07 at 07:55 PM • permalink
- I think they pick up the name “Ward” when they escape from same- the lengthy use of thorazine causes memory loss, and for an identity they just grab what they see first.
I’m waiting for the leftist media to publish an authoritive statement on GW Bush actually being a reptile hominoid, actively involved in poisoning infant formula to ease the infiltration of his lizard minions from a Ward Psycho.
Two of the worst scenes lines in television history:
1) “A little hard on the Beaver last night, weren’t you Ward?”
2) “Ward, it’s Christmas Eve. Where are you going?” “Just upstairs to help the boys pack their fudge, June.”
Good thing Homer is here to remind us of how little some people ever learn. It was a *display* turkey, moron. (Well, actually moron is pushing it a bit. He’s evidently not that bright.)
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2005 08 07 at 09:26 PM • permalink
- Well then there isn’t much difference between that and a plastic turkey.
bush certainly wasn’t hand out any turkey to the troops.
It was then merely a photo-op. a photo-op which was aimed a decieving people.
A christian would call that lying.Posted by Homer Paxton on 2005 08 07 at 09:29 PM • permalink
- The display turkey was not eaten by the troops.
In all the newspapers I read it was not stated this was a turkey merely for photographers.
It was implicit that the turkey was for the troops.It wasn’t. If he wanted a photo-op then he should have one with the real turkey that was served.Posted by Homer Paxton on 2005 08 07 at 10:12 PM • permalink
- err Gary,
If you read carefully I said it was NOT stated it was merely for photographers.That is why it is misleading and untruthful.Posted by Homer Paxton on 2005 08 07 at 10:41 PM • permalink
“If he wanted a photo-op then he should have one with the real turkey that was served.”
He did. The newspapers chose to run with the one of him holding the display turkey. Get your facts straight before you accuse others of dishonesty.
Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2005 08 07 at 10:48 PM • permalink
Bad link. Try this one. It is one of several that were made available to the press.
Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2005 08 07 at 10:52 PM • permalink
Another liar unmasked attempting to steal the honour of genuine veterans.
Does Ward have a magic hat, too?
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2005 08 07 at 10:58 PM • permalink
So Homer, because you have NOT denied membership of the KKK and Al Quaida I can assume that you are?
To my recollection you have NOT denied being Michael Jackson either. Ipso Facto…
Hmmm, now that I think about it, I don’t recall you EVER denying that you are Mark Lathams gay lover.
Where were YOU when JFK was shot by the way? I’ve never heard you deny involvement with that little effort either.
- damn,
I told Oswald someone would spot me on the grassy knollPosted by Homer Paxton on 2005 08 07 at 11:14 PM • permalink
Goddammit Homer you stupid fucking prick. I am so sick of asshole idiots like you coming here and dumping your amnesiac assholish idiocy. Here, sear it into your fucking brain (if you have one) is the entire explanation of “display” turkeys in a cafeteria buffet setting: It is customary to make a “display” turkey which is a real goddamn turkey which is yes, cooked in a real goddamn oven, to put on the main table or sideboard or someplace where people can see it. This “display” turkey is not for cutting up, serving, and eating. The turkey that is for eating purposes has already been prepared and is in the warming trays in the buffet line. The “display” turkey is for decorative purposes.
Now here is what obviously occurred in this particular setting, i.e., the Thanksgiving buffet in Iraq at which Mr. Bush was present. He picked up the display turkey, made a joke about it, someone took his picture. THAT’S. IT. No conspiracy, no “he brought a plastic turkey on the plane,” no “the soldiers didn’t get any food, all they got was a plastic turkey, cruel, cruel, president.” This is obvious to anyone with half a working brain cell. What is also obvious is that you, Homer Paxton, are a useless wad of protoplasm that has somehow managed to grow a pseudopod that can manipulate a keyboard and a mouse, and if you make ONE MORE STUPID “I AM GOING TO BE CONTRARY ON TIM BLAIR’S BLOG BECAUSE I AM A PIGHEADED IDIOT” useless comment I will fucking ban you.
Jerk.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 08 07 at 11:31 PM • permalink
God that felt good. I haven’t chewed out a troll in ages.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 08 07 at 11:32 PM • permalink
- Andrea,
I just love it when you show the world the benefit of US educationPosted by Homer Paxton on 2005 08 07 at 11:34 PM • permalink
Gibbo if you get your rocks off by being foulmouthed then I fel very sad for you also
Posted by Homer Paxton on 2005 08 07 at 11:43 PM • permalink
I just love it when you show the world the benefit of US education
Yeah, with a US education, you can process the following information:
1) Army bases cook display birds for a nice down-home centerpiece.
2) They serve the troops from trays
3) Bush picked up the display turkey for one picture, since it’s more photogenic than a tray of sliced turkey.
4) Bush served the sliced turkey meat to the troops, also photographed.
With your education, it goes:
1) Repeat canard that has been disproved for over a year
2) Have your error clearly explained to you.
3) Refuse to admit error and question the education of those who correctly and repeatedly corrected you.
You’re an epistemological superstar, Homer.
Just say “D’oh!” and be done with it.
- Homer, I don’t always disagree with the things you say, but you are so far off base on this turkey business it is embarrassing. Time to change your views on this one.
And don’t try to shift the issue onto Andrea swearing her head off at you. You are merely trolling, as she says. I would not want to see you banned, as you usually force people to at least think about their position on the matter at hand. I just ask that you think about yours on this turkey crap(the fact that it is an issue with some of the left tells more about them than anything else.
Gibbo, you endorsed Andrea’s attack on me so if you are now distancing youself from that I accept your apology.
gary the expression getting you rocks off is one from the 60’s which means eesentially doing something that you hget enjoyment from.
Dave’
It is very easy not to mislead people.Don’t do it in the first place.
In both the nasty faifax press and the very good Murdoch press there were picturws of George with the turkey he was going to serve to the troops.
He didn’t.
When john Howard goes to Vinnies he doesn’t get photographed with food that it not going to be eaten.
It is as simple as thatPosted by Homer Paxton on 2005 08 08 at 12:04 AM • permalink
Entropy, people here don’t have to be “forced” to think by the likes of Homer; they already do that naturally. Unlike Homer, who has continued to be a shit, and who is therefore banned. He can now go to that website wherever it is that people I’ve banned go whine on.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 08 08 at 12:12 AM • permalink
Why is the display bird there? It’s pretty.
Why was that picture taken? It’s photogenic.
And for the ever-loving last effing time, THERE WERE ALSO PICTURES TAKEN AND SHOWN OF HIM SERVING TROOPS FROM THE TRAYS. YOU HAVE BEEN PROVIDED THE LINKS. I SAW THE SERVING-TRAY PICTURES IN THE NEWSPAPER, AND BUSH SERVING THE TROOPS FROM THE TRAYS ON TELEVISION, INCLUDING FOX.
Do you have a brain tumor? Why can you not digest these simple facts?
- Centrepices at traditional occasions and large bunfights are nothing new, same goes for the tucker you see photgraphed in cokkery books and women’s mags- usually they are so blasted and coated in assorted substances to make them look better (especially on film) that you’d need a set of choopers like a mako to scarf on any of it. What next, Homeboy, when Bush id photographed next to an ice sculpture at a fund-raiser, you’ll call his an arsehole because he didn’t bust it up for drinkies?
You realy should do somethijg about that crayon wedged in your frontal lobe.
Jeebus, the spell-checker was wasted on that last one. Let’s give it another go:-
Centrepieces at traditional occasions and large bunfights are nothing new, same goes for the tucker you see photgraphed in cookery books and women’s mags- usually they are so blasted and coated in assorted substances to make them look better (especially on film) that you’d need a set of choppers like a mako to scarf on any of it. What next, Homeboy, when Bush is photographed next to an ice sculpture at a fund-raiser, you’ll call him an arsehole because he didn’t bust it up for drinkies?
You realy should do something about that crayon wedged in your frontal lobe.
Fake Vietnam Vets, Fake Turkeys, and Fake Intellectuals……they just seem to go hand in hand! Bye, Homer!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 08 at 12:52 AM • permalink
Can someone go around to Homer’s place and see if he’s ok? I’m thinking he may have had a ‘turn’.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 08 08 at 01:07 AM • permalink
- Hot damn Andrea that felt sooo good.A good cleanout of blockages is a real necessity every now and again.
Mr homer I bet you have a REAL birth certificate too and not one of them plastic birth extracts and REAL snow on your window at Christmas (not xmas) and REAL holly and ivy on your REAL tree.Now,if you had REAL brain cells and were not so REALLY obsessive compulsive you could have a REAL life.
Thanks Andrea – these guys are just a distraction, and I am convinced that some just skate as close to the edge as possible in order to stay around – perhaps they are having bets on it. How many sneaky little barbs can you get in over how long a period without being actually banned? Homer lasted quite a while, but contributed little of value. Mandrake displays similar behaviour, just sniping from the sidelines without going too far over the line. The other day on another thread he used the old “sarcasm” defence and got away with it.
Blogstrop, I’m with you on that thought – Mandrake suggesting Bob Carr for the ‘War Cabinet against terrorism’ sealed it for me – but then again I’ve got faith in Miss Andrea’s ability to ‘disappear’ ‘problem children’.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 08 08 at 05:23 AM • permalink
Homer bleated after being schooled by Andrea:
I just love it when you show the world
the benefit of US educationWhile you display the “benefits” of not having any sort of education… or at least not retaining such.
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2005 08 08 at 09:15 AM • permalink
…aw, drat. Didn’t see he’d been banned before I posted the above. Sorry.
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2005 08 08 at 09:19 AM • permalink
I’m blushing at all the praise but ‘twas nothing…Even Ward told me so. I’d ask for his permission to reprint the note he sent me but since it seems to be written in the “second person plural” (e.g. ‘you’ as in ‘you guys’ meaning Tim’s commentariet), I’ll allow Mr Reilly to speak for himself. Errors in the original:
“BirdDick1,
I read with fascination your intense writinf and interest in my (Honorable) military service, my sideburns, and my name. It was not published, but the editor of the BC forwarded your link so I could share a good laugh with her.So, for all of yours, and all of your blogging friends, it appears that you all missed the only important fact in the article, that being the mother of a KIA hero is confronting Bush about the lies he told, lies that caused Mrs. Sheehans son Casey to be killed for nothing. His recruiter told Cindy and Casey “that he would NEVER be sent into combat”…he was shot in the head and KIA 5 days after arriving in combat. That is what the article was about.
NOWHERE in the article, or anywhere else, have I claimed to have served in Viet Nam….I served, proudly, for 32 months in Germany in the 1st & 16th(Rangers) as a mortar gunner, starting in 1971, when I volunteered for the infantry at age 17.(With 2 full years left in the ground war in Viet Nam)
I went where the army sent me…that what soldiers do. I could have just as easily been sent to Viet Nam, but I got lucky.
So for all of yours, and your friends “outstanding “ research, you are about the biggest bunch of dumb-asses I have ever encountered. You have uncovered the facts about my old army unit…congradulations…nobody claims any difference.
Having been “in country” is not now, nor has it EVER been, a requirement to be in VVAW. We work for veterans rights, and we always have. That and stopping UNJUST WARs. We are responsible, for example, for bringing the truth about agent orange to the public, and for establishing benefits through the VA for those whose lives have been poisoned by AO.
Get a life you bunch of losers, and thanks for all the free publicity…we are all laughing very hard at your “”GREAT” research about my military service. No, I wasn’t 14 in the infantry, I was 17. I am almost 52 now. If there is anything you would like to know about me, feel free to write. No need to do all that googling…I am up front and proud to be a Viet Nam ERA vet, and volunteer infantryman. It is people LIKE YOU that dishonor our service.
Join losers anonymous…you all need some serious help.
Ward Reilly, SE Nat’l. contact, VVAW”
(Me again). Drudge is reporting tonight that Ms Sheehan (God’s peace be with her) has apparently retracted everything she said about President Bush last year in her quest to meet with him again.
Here’s Drudge:
I guess other folks here are getting sniveling e-mails from Ward. Should I post mine for amusement and comparison?
The favorite bit I’ve read so far in the ones he sent me and that is posted above, is “Having been “in country” is not now, nor has it EVER been, a requirement to be in VVAW.” Y’know, that’s why they called it Vietnam Vets Against the War… kind of like saying, “I’m a member of the NAACP, just ignore my red hair and freckles…”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 08 at 07:46 PM • permalink
There was if you were a member of the Baader Meinhoff.
the editor of the BC forwarded your link so I could share a good laugh with her.
If you call yourself a Vietnam vet the implication is you served in that war, not in peacetime Germany. Either the Baltimore Chronicle editor knew beforehand that he’s a fraud and didn’t care. Or she found out afterward and didn’t care. Says a lot for the Baltimore Chronicle.
Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2005 08 08 at 09:28 PM • permalink
”…but I was there. I wasn’t here in a class room, hopin’ I was right, thinkin’ about it. I was up to my knees in rice paddies! With guns that didn’t work! Goin’ up against Charlie! Sluggin’ it out with him! While pussies like you were back here partying, putting headbands on, doing drugs, listenin’ to the GODDAMN BEATLE ALBUMS!!!! OOOOOOH!!!! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!”
Ward Reilly speaking on behalf of veterans is a dishonest and disgraceful act.
He assumes the mantle of respect that was paid for in blood by real veterans to give some credibility to his words.
Lying bastard.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2005 08 08 at 11:36 PM • permalink
If it’s not necessary to have served in Vietnam during the war to be a Vietnam Veteran Against the War, do you have to have to be a veteran? Or can you just be some self-aggrandising loser who was never anywhere near the Vietnam War or any fucking war or even the military whatsoever at any time? If so, you gotta admire an organisation with such flexible approach to membership.
Maybe there was a typo, and “VVAW” really means “Vietnam Veterans Against Ward”?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 09 at 06:48 AM • permalink
Considering the amount of almost Clintonian shuffle dancing this semi-literate boob is doing to avoid being caught in his inconsistencies and pegged as a fraud, I think “WAW” probably is correct and stands for Ward Against Ward (no doubt this intense level of moral and psychological tension will one day cause him to explode, leaving reefer dust and Cheetos all over the flop house dormitory). I wonder if he developed arthritis writing letters and e:mails to all those media outlets in order to correct their mistake in taking him for a Vietnam veteran (nah, didn’t think so).
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Ward looks like he might’ve been 14 years old in The ‘Nam.
No offense to Mr. Reilly but many of the so-called “vets” in VVAW never served there. And Jerry Springer isn’t exactly a credible character witness.
But the plastic turkey thing is probably true.