The Reverend David Alston

Everyone raved about his speech last night. Stakeholder provides the link.

Manning the deck guns, most of us got wounded sooner or later, including
Lieutenant Kerry. It would have been easiest, in an ambush, to simply rake the
shore with return fire and roar on down the river to safety. But Lieutenant
Kerry was known for taking the fight straight to the enemy. I can still see
him now, standing in the doorway of the pilothouse, firing his M-16, shouting
orders through the smoke and chaos.
Once, he even directed the helmsman to beach the boat, right into the
teeth of an ambush, and pursued our attackers on foot, into the jungle. In the
toughest of situations, Lieutenant Kerry showed judgment, loyalty and courage.
Even wounded, or confronting sights no man should ever have to see, he never
lost his cool.
And when the shooting stopped, he was always there too, with a caring hand
on my shoulder asking, "Gunner, are you OK?" I was only 21, running on fear
and adrenaline. Lieutenant Kerry always took the time to calm us down, to
bring us back to reality, to give us hope, to show us what we truly had within
ourselves. I came to love and respect him as a man I could trust with life
itself.