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Ellsworth B. “Nick” Mills served in the U.S. Army 221st Signal Company in Vietnam. He is the author of “Combat Photographer” and senior writer of “The American Experience in Vietnam – Reflections on an Era.” He lives in Rockland.
After I enlisted in the U.S. Army in Portland way back in 1967, I learned a thing or two or three about war and soldiering and sacrifice and the stripes on the American flag. I had not known, possibly because I had never thought about it, that of the 13 stripes on the flag six are white and seven, including the top and bottom stripes, are red, symbolizing that the American flag has been dipped in the blood of those who sacrificed their lives in its defense, from the American Revolution on.
Now comes Donald Trump, who likes to wrap himself in that flag though he received numerous deferments to avoid serving it. In the Vietnam era when draft boards were looking for able-bodied men to fill the ranks of the Army, Trump claimed his body was not able, that he had a painful bone spur in one of his feet, a bone spur that had been certified by a doctor who may never have examined Trump and was beholden to Trump’s father, a bone spur that in no way hindered the young Trump’s athletic pursuits. No defense of the flag for him.
My father, Capt. A.S. Mills Jr., served in World War II as a Coast Guard officer, patrolling the U-boat infested waters off the American coast. My namesake uncle, Ellsworth Benson, was a Navy pilot, killed in a plane crash in April 1939 as he and his squadron banked into a turn to do a fly-by as the aircraft carrier USS Wasp was being launched at the shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
On Memorial Day 2017, then-President Trump visited Arlington and looked out at the seemingly endless rows of white stones marking the graves of those who had given their lives for the American flag. With Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, he visited the grave of Kelly’s son, who had been killed in Afghanistan, and reportedly said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
In 2018, Trump was scheduled to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris. He canceled, reportedly saying, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” Those “losers” were American soldiers who had fought at the Marne, in Belleau Wood, soldiers Trump referred to as “suckers” for getting killed.
He called U.S. Sen. John McCain, who spent five terrible years in a notorious North Vietnamese prison after his fighter plane was shot down, a “loser,” adding, “I like people who weren’t captured.” He didn’t want wounded veterans to participate in a military parade, commenting, “Nobody wants to see that.”
In my long lifetime, there has been only one president who has openly disdained, insulted and disrespected the men and women who serve, and have served, in the American armed forces, including those who gave their “last full measure” in the service of their country and its flag: Donald Trump.
Ever since I was a kid I have attended Memorial Day services at American cemeteries, including Thomaston’s where my dad is buried. The sight of military veterans proudly bearing Old Glory through the cemetery, the crack of the rifles of the honor guard and the haunting notes of Taps rolling over the gravestones always gives me goosebumps and a lump in my throat. On this Memorial Day, I will again salute that flag and honor those who have honored its bold stars and stripes.
I hope my fellow veterans will consider very carefully and thoughtfully their choice for commander-in-chief when they go to the polls on Election Day on Nov. 5. Just a few days later, Nov. 11, will be Veterans Day, and I hope they will be able to look squarely at the Stars and Stripes, salute their flag proudly and honor the many who have died in its service and the many who serve today.
