In the late ’60s, between my tours as a MACV (military assistance command-Vietnam) adviser to South Vietnamese combat units, I was assigned as an ROTC instructor at Gettysburg College.

During that period I frequently was required to be an Army notification officer — informing family members that their son, father or husband had been killed in Vietnam. This was difficult duty, but someone had to do it. At other times I would serve as the survivors’ assistance officer. The same officer never performed both duties.

The recent disrespect shown by this president toward members of the U.S. military and veterans is despicable. Closing the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial and many other similar sites is in keeping with his historic dislike of our military. Anyone who says the president likes the U.S. military is either a fool, a liar or a Democrat hack.

The final straw was his complicity in the delaying of the death benefits to survivors of those killed in action. Fewer than one out of 100 citizens serves in the military. If you want to look at just the combat arms, the ratio jumps to less than one in 5,000.

I realize that the news media is even more underrepresented in the military than the general population, which might be the reason they seem to not care about this latest insult by the President to our servicemen and veterans.

A park ranger in Washington said he was told the order was to make the shutdown as painful as possible. Obama was able to decide which parts of some laws he would ignore, yet he wants the gullible public to believe he, as commander-in-chief, couldn’t solve this survivors benefit problem. I guess the millions of voters who never served will believe him.