of Harbor City e-mailed this: "Thanks again for your outstanding article of last Friday. It does great service by bringing to light other South Bay young men who have died fighting a personal vendetta war. We often hear about the 3,474 Americans killed, but little mention of the more than 25,000 wounded whose lives will never be the same due to mental illness or loss of limbs.
" Laura Lohnes wrote, "Thank you for your column on Joe Anzack. I really can't comprehend the commitment a young man can make to sacrifice his life for his ideals, but I have infinite respect for him. As a mother of a 17-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter, I grieve for his mother and family who have lost their shining pride, their wonderful son and brother.
"Thank you also for mentioning all of the other South Bay sons who have lost their lives in this sad and tragic war. Please keep the war in your daily columns. We need more discourse on the issue at every level of society.
" Jim Darl of Torrance had this to say: "In your Thursday column, you paint a picture of Charles Manson as one of the most notorious sociopaths ever, who refuses to show remorse for the agony he inflicted. While Charlie claims to have taken many lives he is far from being that big of a monster. You're getting him mixed up with (someone) who is still running free George W.
Manson's refusal to show remorse is nothing compared to an alcoholic, draft-dodging, lying, schizophrenic who made an obsession with going to war come true." Robin Mitchell of Torrance wrote: "Last Monday's letter from that reader in Lawndale reflected that he was naive and ill-informed. This was an unusually tragic war death.
We truly appreciate all of the reporting that the Breeze has done on those who have lost their life in defense of our country. "We are grateful for the sacrifice our fallen men and their families have given. Since June 1957, when my husband and I were married at the Navy Chapel in Annapolis, Md.
, we have experienced the loss of war. '66 to Jan. '68, reports would come from Vietnam (my husband was on swift boats) and I would wait many fearful hours to learn whether I was still married or widowed.
Fortunately, my husband and I are still together, but we do know the fear and pain of war." Wrote World War II veteran Logan Brown: "The column you wrote about young Joe Anzack was not your most brilliant effort. You seemed to be saying, `I'm sorry, Joe.
' That's not enough when what you should have said a few years ago was, `Stop this madness.' I don't have the sophisticated way that you do of expressing feelings. However, I do realize it does not take a brain surgeon to know that, if we torture the enemy's people, one day we would find our own young soldiers tortured.
There are many old sayings that express this, like: `What goes around comes around' and `Violent acts beget violent acts.' Quaint old sayings? Yes, but I believe deadly true.
This last quote, I think you would know much better than I: `All it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to say nothing."' Beth Wilson e-mailed this: "Your words about Joseph Anzack touched me as your words often do but especially today as my son, Matthew Wilson, another Torrance boy, leaves for duty somewhere far away. He is an Air Force lieutenant and he told us that he is going to the desert, that's all he knows, or at least all he will tell us.
His wife sent us a picture of him in his desert fatigues and, looking at it, the reality of all this hits home hard. So many young men going off to fight and so many not coming back. "There are words on the Torrance Veterans Memorial: `Let me not mourn for those who have died fighting, but rather let me be glad that such heroes have lived.
' - George Patton." What are your thoughts on the war? Let me hear.
I want to hear your comments. of Harbor City e-mailed this: "Thanks again for your outstanding article of last Friday.
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