Wednesday, May 9, 2001

One day after Cursor posted "Jesse's Dangerous Game," the Star Tribune reported on Bill Salisbury's investigation in an article headlined "Ventura's 'man hunting' comment prompts a SEAL attack."

Dane Smith wrote that

"Gov. Jesse Ventura's recent statements that he has "hunted man" have provoked a second published attack from a former Navy SEAL commander who says Ventura continues to mislead the public about his Vietnam War record."

Smith reported Salisbury's assertion that "Ventura never 'hunted man' in Vietnam and probably never set foot in the country," and his call for Ventura to make his military record public: "In the latest broadside, Salisbury says, 'C'mon, Jesse, show us your DD 214.'"

Smith wrote that Ventura spokesman John Wodele's response "has become a standard disclaimer on the subject."

"The governor chooses not to give specifics about his wartime involvement and that's his right," Wodele said. "Governor Ventura is in the middle of a very, very important legislative session and what the governor did in his military service is not relevant. ... It will never be relevant to his career as an elected official."

Smith concluded by referencing an earlier criticism leveled at Ventura after the Governor made his "hunting man" comments:

"Ed Lotterman, a St. Paul economist and Army veteran who served with an airborne unit in Vietnam, wrote in a St. Paul Pioneer Press opinion-page article recently that 'the people who had the most intense combat experience seldom talk about it at all in public. They virtually never flaunt it as the governor does. 'The blowhards who stand around bars telling war stories usually are people who spent most of their time in some safe rear area, or never got in country at all,' Lotterman wrote."

Readers Respond

On Monday, May 14, 2001, the Star Tribune published the following letters in response to Ventura spokesman John Wodele's statement:

John Wodele responds to ex-Navy SEAL commander Bill Salisbury's charge that Gov. Jesse Ventura did not see combat in Vietnam by saying that "what the governor did in his military service is not relevant. ... It will never be relevant to his career as an elected official" (Star Tribune, May 9).

But in an April 3 interview with the Star Tribune's Dennis Anderson, at which Wodele was present, the governor did make his military service relevant, using it to defend his credentials for setting state conservation policy by claiming 13 times that he had "hunted man" as a Navy SEAL in Vietnam.

If Ventura is going to make unsubstantiated boasts about his military experience for political purposes, he should also be willing to answer legitimate questions about that experience.

-- Mike Tronnes, Minneapolis.

If Jesse Ventura's Vietnam War record is not relevant to his career as an elected official, why does he keep bringing it up?

If we had a dollar for every time Ventura has said, ''I was a Navy SEAL,'' we'd be able to build stadiums for both the Twins and the Vikings.

-- Pat Proft, Wayzata.