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L awrence J ournal -W orld - USA TODAY WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2016
In Ohio, Clinton blasts Trump as Trump unfit to manage the economy firms, Democrat warns that rival’s policies pose a ‘danger’ to security
Hints about Clinton’s VP short list emerge
Chrissie Thompson
Cooper Allen
The Cincinnati Enquirer
and Heidi M. Przybyla COLUMBUS , OHIO Hillary Clinton painted Donald Trump’s ideas and temperament as a dangerous combination that could lead to another recession, in a swing-state speech extending her critique of the presumptive GOP nominee’s fitness to serve as president. “Just as he shouldn’t have his finger on the button, he shouldn’t have his hands on our economy,” Clinton told nearly 300 people in a speech in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday. Despite his success as a businessman, Trump “would throw us back into recession,” the presumptive Democratic nominee added. Trump’s pugnacious personality is one lens through which Clinton’s campaign is building its case against the real estate mogul. But in her speech Tuesday — heavy with “and I quote” references to Trump’s past words — Clinton rebutted idea after idea Trump has proposed, seeking to show his business experience doesn’t translate to strong proposals for the country’s economy. Trump would wipe out postcrash rules on banks, give sweeping tax cuts that could widen deficits, cancel trade deals and deport immigrants in the U.S. without documentation, leading to uncertainty and economic disaster, Clinton said. “The full faith and credit of the United States is not something we just gamble away,” she said. “Someone should tell him our nation’s economy isn’t a game.” Much like in a recent speech in San Diego in which Clinton deemed Trump “temperamentally unfit” to lead the nation in foreign affairs, she warned that
Fredreka Schouten and Christopher Schnaars
USA TODAY
USA TODAY
J.D. POOLEY, GETTY IMAGES
Trump’s policies and leadership approach would pose a danger to American economic security. Trump’s campaign responded to Clinton in a barrage of emails and tweets, unusual in their resemblance to typical campaign “opposition” from aides. “Hillary Clinton surged the trade deficit with China 40% as Secretary of State, costing Americans millions of jobs,” Trump said in one tweet. The billionaire’s policies would grow jobs by lifting regulations on businesses and energy production and by enforcing penalties for other countries’ currency manipulation and intellectual property theft, his campaign said in an email. Clinton, meanwhile, attacked Trump for having a predilection for playing with debt, warning he would bankrupt the country like he did his casinos in Atlantic City. “He’s written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11,” Clinton joked. In a tweet, Trump countered he would approach the U.S. economy differently than he approached his business. “I am ‘the king of debt,’ ” he tweeted. “That has been great for me as a businessman, but is bad for the country. I made a fortune off of debt, will fix U.S.”
Hillary Clinton, speaking to supporters in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, attacked Donald Trump’s track record in business.
“The full faith and credit of the United States is not something we just gamble away. The United States of America doesn’t do business Trump’s way.” Hillary Clinton
family get $1M USA TODAY
It’s that time of the campaign cycle, and now that Hillary Clinton has established herself as the presumptive Democratic nominee, attention is turning to who will join her on the ticket. Two news reports this week suggested many of the names that have been floated in recent months as potential vice presidential contenders are being considered by Clinton. The Associated Press, citing unnamed Democratic sources, said her emerging short list includes Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has yet to concede the Democratic race to Clinton, is not on the list, AP and CNN report. CNN, also citing unnamed Democrats, reported as well that Kaine, Warren and Castro are under consideration, but noted that they are not yet “absolute finalists” but only “active contenders.” Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and California Rep. Xavier Beccera could also be among those being considered, according to CNN. CNN reported that the candidate had yet to conduct interviews, though she “has devoted hours studying the records and backgrounds” of prospective running mates.
Donald Trump may not be raising and spending huge sums in his presidential campaign, but a chunk of that early money is staying close to home. More than $1 million of the $6.7 million Trump’s campaign spent last month went to Trump companies or to relatives his campaign reimbursed for travel and other expenses, a review of his latest campaign-finance reports shows. One of the biggest line-items: The $423,372 paid to Mar-a-Lago Club, Trump’s posh Palm Beach, Fla., resort, for facility rental and catering. Another Trump business, TAG Air, received $349,540 for providing the campaign with private jet service, while Trump Restaurants took in more than $125,000 last month from the campaign. Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., were reimbursed $13,913 for their travel expenses, and nearly $4,000 went to Eric Trump’s wine business. Tuesday, Democrats seized on Trump’s spending to paint the Republican candidate as self-serving. “He’s simply moving money from one pocket to the next,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Correct the Record, a super PAC aiding Democrat Hillary’s Clinton’s presidential bid. Clinton’s camp weighed in on Twitter, tweeting out an accounting of Trump-related expenses by ProPublica’s Derek Willis with this comment: “What is Trump spending his meager campaign resources on? Why, himself, of course.” WASHINGTON
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Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro
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Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a former governor in a swing state
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Massachussetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Przybyla reported from Washington.
Historian got Army to revisit pilot’s heroic flights v CONTINUED FROM 1B
artillery or tactical aircraft support,” the official narrative of that day reads, “the enemy concentrated all firepower on his lone aircraft. … Without his courageous actions and superior flying skills, the last group of soldiers and his crew would never have made it off the battlefield.” Kettles, born and bred and retired in Ypsilanti, Mich., remembers how he felt after he touched down nearly 50 years ago for the last time, finally safe: unrattled and hungry. “I just walked away from the helicopter believing that’s what war is,” Kettles told USA TODAY. “It probably matched some of the movies I’d seen as a youngster. So be it. Let’s go have dinner.” Kettles’ actions were documented and saluted long ago. He was awarded the second-highest award for bravery, the Distinguished Service Cross. And that, he thought, was that. Kettles completed another tour in Vietnam, retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel and opened an auto dealership with his brother. That’s where the story would end, if not for William Vollano, an amateur historian who was interviewing veterans for the Veterans History Project. Vollano’s prodding led the Army to reopen Kettles’ case and determine that his actions merited the Medal of Honor. Coincidentally, the military is also reviewing the actions of hundreds of troops in the post-9/11 era to see whether they should receive upgrades of their service crosses and Silver Stars. MAY 15, 1967
On that morning in May in Vietnam, Maj. Kettles and several other helicopter pilots ferried about 80 soldiers from the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division to a landing zone near the Song Tra Cau River. The river, 8 to 10 feet above sea level, drifted past a 1,500-foot hill. “Very steep, which set them up for an ambush,” Kettles recalled, “which did happen.” Hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers, dug into tunnels and bunkers, attacked the Americans with machine guns, mortars and recoilless rifles.
U.S. ARMY
U.S. Army Maj. Charles Kettles is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in 1968. “Two or three hours after they were inserted, they had been mauled over, and the battalion commander called for reinforcements,” Kettles said. Kettles volunteered to fly in reinforcements and to retrieve the wounded and dead. As they swooped in to land, the North Vietnamese focused their fire on the helicopters. Soldiers were killed before they could leap from the aircraft, according to the official account of the fight. Air Force jets dropped napalm on the machine gun positions overlooking the landing zone, but it had little effect. The attack continued, riddling the helicopters with bullets. Kettles refused to leave until the fresh troops and supplies had been dropped off and the dead and wounded were crowded aboard to be flown out. Kettles ran the gantlet again, bringing more reinforcements amid mortar and machine gun fire that seriously wounded his gunner and tore into his helicopter. The crew from another helicopter reported to Kettles that fuel was pouring from his aircraft. Kettles wobbled back to the base.
“Kettles, by himself, without any guns and any crew, went back by himself,” said Roland Scheck, a crewmember who had been injured on Kettles’ first trip to the landing zone that day. “Immediately, all the pilots and co-pilots in the company decided, ‘This is Medal of Honor material right there.’ “I don’t know if there’s anyone who’s gotten a Medal of Honor who deserved it more,” he said. “There’s no better candidate as far as I’m concerned.” THE FINAL RUN
At around 6 p.m., the infantry commander radioed for an immediate emergency evacuation of 44 soldiers, including four from Kettles’ unit whose helicopter was destroyed at the river. Kettles volunteered to lead the flight of six evacuation helicopters, cobbled together from his and another unit. “Chaotic,” Kettles said. “The troops simply went to the first helicopter available.” Just one soldier scrambled into his helicopter. Told that all were safe and accounted for, Kettles
signaled it was time to return to base. “The artillery shut down, the gunships went back,” Kettles said. “No reason for them to stay anymore. The Air Force shut down. We climbed out to about 1,400 feet, a 180-degree turn back toward base camp and the hospital.” That’s when word reached Kettles that eight soldiers had been left behind. “They had been down in the riverbed in a last-ditch defensive effort before the helicopters loaded,” Kettles said. “I assured the commander I would go back in and pick them up.” Kettles took control of the helicopter from the co-pilot and plummeted toward the stranded soldiers. The North Vietnamese trained all their fire on Kettles. As he landed, a mortar round shattered the windshields and damaged the tail and main rotor blade. The eight soldiers piled onboard, raked by rifle and machine-gun fire. Jammed beyond capacity, the helicopter “fishtailed” several times before Kettles took the controls again from his co-pilot. The only way out, Kettles recalled, was to skip along the ground, gaining enough speed to get the helicopter in the air. “If not, we were going to go down the road like a 21⁄2-ton truck with a rotor blade on it,” Kettles said. After five or six tries, Kettles got off the ground. Then, a second mortar round slammed into the tail. “That caused the thing to lurch forward,” he said. “I don’t know if that helped much. I still had a clean panel, that is, the emergency panel. There weren’t any lights. “The helicopter was still doing what it was supposed to do even though it was, I guess, pretty badly (damaged). We got out of there.” THE MEDAL OF HONOR
Kettles acknowledged it was an extraordinary day, one he thinks about but doesn’t dwell on. He and the other helicopter pilots and crew performed as they were trained, followed orders, completed their mission. Simple as that. The Medal of Honor, he said,
“belongs to them certainly as much as myself. I just happened to be the lead position where the decisions were mine, properly so. “For them, unfortunately, all they could do was follow. And they did. They did their jobs. They’re as deserving as I am certainly. That’s what it means to me.” For dozens of soldiers, especially the last eight, Kettles’ decision kept their names from being etched on the black granite wall of the Vietnam War memorial in Washington with the 58,000 others who died in the war. “The eight who got out of there who aren’t on that wall,” Kettles said. “That’s what matters.” Corrections & Clarifications USA TODAY is committed to accuracy. To reach us, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones at 800-8727073 or e-mail accuracy@usatoday.com. Please indicate whether you’re responding to content online or in the newspaper.
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