You’re No Jack Kennedy Or Army Major General Charles Rogers
Senator Lloyd Benson never resided at Number One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the vice president of the United States.
His 1988 vice presidential debate opponent, Senator James Danforth (“Dan”) Quayle did.
In that debate, Quayle, while touting his readiness to serve a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, made the faux pas of claiming “I have far more experience than many others that sought the office of vice president of this country. I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency.”
What a mistake!
It left the doors not only wide open but off-their-hinges for Benson’s rejoinder: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. You’re no Jack Kennedy.”
The room and a significant portion of the American population exploded in applause.
On Sunday, March 16,2025, media across the nation and around the world reported the (then) newest, unspeakably horrific act of the current presidential administration – another “You’re no Jack Kennedy!” moment.
From Maya Yang of The Guardian:
“The US defense department webpage celebrating an army general who served in the Vietnam war and was awarded the country’s highest military decoration has been removed and the letters ‘DEI’ added to the site’s address.
“On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a ‘404’ error message. The URL [Uniform Resource Locator – an Internet/web address] was also changed, with the word “medal” changed to ‘deimedal’.
“Rogers, who was awarded the Medal of Honor by then president Richard Nixon in 1970, served in the Vietnam war, where he was wounded three times while leading the defense of a base.
“According to the West Virginia military hall of fame, Rogers was the highest-ranking African American to receive the medal. After his death in 1990, Rogers’s remains were buried at the Arlington national cemetery in Washington DC…
“As of Sunday afternoon, a ‘404 – Page Not Found’ message appeared on the defense department’s webpage for Rogers, along with the message: ‘The page you are looking for might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable.’
“A screenshot posted by the writer Brandon Friedman on Bluesky on Saturday evening showed the Google preview of an entry of Rogers’s profile on the defense department’s website.
“Dated 1 November 2021, the entry’s Google preview reads: ‘Medal of Honor Monday: Army Maj Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers.’ Below it are the words: ‘Army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers served through all of it. As a Black man, he worked for gender and race equality while in the service.’
“Google his name and the entry below comes up. When you click, you’ll see the page has been deleted and the URL changed to include ‘DEI medal,’ Friedman wrote.”
The current, thrice married, convicted of 34 counts of felony business fraud president of the United States never served in the military. On December 26, 2018, The New York Times reported:
“In the fall of 1968, Donald J. Trump received a timely diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that led to his medical exemption from the military during Vietnam.
“For 50 years, the details of how the exemption came about, and who made the diagnosis, have remained a mystery, with Mr. Trump himself saying during the presidential campaign that he could not recall who had signed off on the medical documentation.
“Now a possible explanation has emerged about the documentation. It involves a foot doctor in Queens who rented his office from Mr. Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump, and a suggestion that the diagnosis was granted as a courtesy to the elder Mr. Trump.
“The podiatrist, Dr. Larry Braunstein, died in 2007. But his daughters say their father often told the story of coming to the aid of a young Mr. Trump during the Vietnam War as a favor to his father.
“’I know it was a favor,’ said one daughter, Dr. Elysa Braunstein, 56, who along with her sister, Sharon Kessel, 53, shared the family’s account for the first time publicly when contacted by The New York Times.
“Elysa Braunstein said the implication from her father was that Mr. Trump did not have a disqualifying foot ailment. ‘But did he examine him? I don’t know,’ she said.”
That’s alright.
‘Cause in Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade’s The Games Do Count: America’s Best and Brightest on the Power of Sports the man who survived adolescent bone spurs claimed for and about himself in 2004:
“I was supposed to be a pro baseball player. At the New York Military Academy, I was captain of the baseball team. I worked hard like everyone else, but I had good talent.
“I will never forget […] the first time I saw my name in the newspaper. It was when I got the winning home run in a game between our academy and Cornwall High School. It was in 1964 and it was in a little local paper. It simply said, TRUMP HOMERS TO WIN THE GAME. I just loved it and I will never forget it. It was better than actually hitting the home run.’”
In an April 3, 2013 post on what is now called X, the man disqualified from military service because of bone spurs claimed: “I played football and baseball, sorry, but said to be the best bball player in N.Y. State – ask coach Ted Dobias – said best he ever coached.”
Small problem.
At least according to Leander Schaerlaeckens (Slate.com May 5, 2020):
“Perhaps that’s because in 1964, NYMA didn’t play Cornwall High School, according to the schedule in its yearbook. They didn’t play in 1963, either.
What I have been able to find is box scores from some of Trump’s games, and the picture they paint of the player is not pretty…
“The local papers didn’t cover every NYMA game, but I was able to find accounts of about a quarter of the ones played during Trump’s sophomore and junior seasons, while papers covering opposing teams captured a few of NYMA’s away games his senior year.
“I found three total box scores from his sophomore year. In those games, he went 1 for 10 at the plate…
“His junior year, Trump went 2 for 10 in the three game stories I found in the archives. In Trump’s senior season, I couldn’t find much of any NYMA baseball coverage in the Evening News. But the Poughkeepsie Journal and Journal News had him hitting 1 for 9 in three games.
“Combined, the nine box scores I unearthed give Trump a 4 for 29 batting record in his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons, with three runs batted in and a single run scored. Trump’s batting average in those nine games: an underwhelming .138. (I found one additional mention of a hit and another of a hitless game in games that didn’t have box scores.)…
“NYMA played only a dozen or so games per baseball season, suggesting that Trump’s entire high school career spanned between 30 and 40 games….”
So, he was at best a mediocre-to-average baseball player. Maybe this man who - through his anti-DEI campaign, flatterers and lackies - ordered the removal of references to the race of a Medal of Honor recipient from Department of Defense websites was as brave soldier.
Let’s see what he had to say about his “war” and courage
His words speak eloquently of his record.
In 1997, this average high school baseball player described the hell of his own personal war in an interview with radio “shock jock” Howard Stern:
"It's amazing, I can't even believe it. I've been so lucky in terms of that whole world, it is a dangerous world out there. It's like Vietnam, sort of. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave solider…
"You know, if you're young, and in this era, and if you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam, we have our own Vietnam — it's called the dating game. Dating is like being in Vietnam. You're the equivalent of a soldier going over to Vietnam."
Courage beyond….
Compare that courage to the words of the Metal of Honor Citation for United States Army Major General Charles Calvin Rogers, an ordained Baptist minister who, after retiring from military service in 1984, spent the final years of his life ministering to American soldiers in Germany:
“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Lt. Col. Rogers, Field Artillery, distinguished himself in action while serving as commanding officer, 1st Battalion, during the defense of a forward fire support base. In the early morning hours, the fire support base was subjected to a concentrated bombardment of heavy mortar, rocket and rocket propelled grenade fire. Simultaneously the position was struck by a human wave ground assault, led by sappers who breached the defensive barriers with bangalore torpedoes and penetrated the defensive perimeter. Lt. Col. Rogers with complete disregard for his safety moved through the hail of fragments from bursting enemy rounds to the embattled area. He aggressively rallied the dazed artillery crewmen to man their howitzers and he directed their fire on the assaulting enemy. Although knocked to the ground and wounded by an exploding round, Lt. Col. Rogers sprang to his feet and led a small counterattack force against an enemy element that had penetrated the howitzer positions. Although painfully wounded a second time during the assault, Lt. Col. Rogers pressed the attack, killing several of the enemy and driving the remainder from the positions. Refusing medical treatment, Lt. Col. Rogers reestablished and reinforced the defensive positions. As a second human wave attack was launched against another sector of the perimeter, Lt. Col. Rogers directed artillery fire on the assaulting enemy and led a second counterattack against the charging forces. His valorous example rallied the beleaguered defenders to repulse and defeat the enemy onslaught. Lt. Col. Rogers moved from position to position through the heavy enemy fire, giving encouragement and direction to his men. At dawn the determined enemy launched a third assault against the fire base in an attempt to overrun the position. Lt. Col. Rogers moved to the threatened area and directed lethal fire on the enemy forces. Seeing a howitzer inoperative due to casualties, Lt. Col. Rogers joined the surviving members of the crew to return the howitzer to action. While directing the position defense, Lt. Col. Rogers was seriously wounded by fragments from a heavy mortar round which exploded on the parapet of the gun position. Although too severely wounded to physically lead the defenders, Lt. Col. Rogers continued to give encouragement and direction to his men in defeating and repelling the enemy attack. Lt. Col. Rogers' dauntless courage and heroism inspired the defenders of the fire support base to the heights of valor to defeat a determined and numerically superior enemy force. His relentless spirit of aggressiveness in action are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.”
As of mid-January, the Medal of Honor has been awarded 3,525 times. Ninety-six recipients were African Americans and Robert Augustus Sweeney is the only Black American to be honored twice.
Robert Augustus Sweeney
Dr. Mary Walker, who was briefly held prisoner by the Confederacy, was honored in 1865 by President Andrew Johnson for her service (which may have included spying; but that’s questionable). It has been reported that she wanted to serve as a physician but was not allowed to because she was a woman. Offered the opportunity to work as a nurse, she declined; allegedly she then dressed as a man in order to become an Army doctor. Because she was a civilian, her award was rescinded in 1917, two years before she died. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter restored the honor.
Dr. Mary Walker
Dr. Mary Walker
Thirty-two Native Americans have received the honor. Since the Medal of Honor was created by Congress in 1861, 60 Americans of Hispanic heritage and 37 Asian/Pacific Islander Americans – including 21 Japanese Americans - have been awarded the nation’s highest honor.
During the Vietnam War and in the year after, 235 Medals of Honor were awarded; since 1978 an additional 33 awards were presented to individuals who served courageously in that war.
The future President John F. Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, a Purple Heart and at least six other military honors and distinctions for his service, his heroism and his leadership in the rescue of the crew of PT-109 after it was struck by a Japanese destroyer. He swam for hours to secure aid and food for the members of his crew.
Mr. Trump, you’re no Jack Kennedy.
And you’re no Major General Charles Calvin Rogers!