Iwrite in response to Buck Dugger’s letter in The Courier published on Jan. 5. The title of this column is a quote from Dr. Henry Stuber, in the late 18th century. I am of British origin, Scots and English to be more precise, born and raised in the United Kingdom. I have lived in the USA for the past 20 years, 15 of them in Colorado, and I am now a dual U.S./U.K. citizen.

I served in the British Army for 18 years, serving and living worldwide with and alongside Christians of many denominations, together with Sikhs, Muslims, Wiccans, Pagans, Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics among so many other religions and belief systems, too many to list here; I served for some years in the Far East with the Gurkhas, immensely loyal and brave soldiers from the Himalayan nation of Nepal who serve in the British Army with great distinction as they have since 1815. They are of either the Buddhist or Hindu faiths.

My totally Chinese staff that I worked with during those years were largely Buddhist, Taoist or Confucianist. In each case and in every religion or faith I have found there to be those, the majority, of great tolerance and goodness, and those not; in all that I have served with, regardless of religion, faith or belief system, I have seen loyalty, duty, and in so many cases, great bravery. I am ever cognizant of the fact that the population of the USA, as the U.K., is made up of this same great variety of faiths, and that the U.S. Armed Forces, as the British Armed Forces, are also drawn from that multi-ethnic and multi-faith pool of those wishing to dutifully serve their country, whether native or adopted.

Having “converted” to Agnosticism as an adult, I was raised as a Christian in the Church of England, but chose to follow a different path due in part to the intolerance and bigotry that I encountered over the years from too many within the Christian faith who consider themselves to have the monopoly on righteousness and have for centuries has considered themselves to be of the only faith whose adherents are worthy of consideration as decent and equal members of the human race. God-fearing? If your religion requires that you be “in fear” of the god(s) that you choose to worship, it is maybe time that you found yourself a different belief system.

I take great issue specifically with Mr. Dugger’s statement, “We are tired of engaging in every international situation and defense operation, and with no help.” I served in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait in the First Gulf War as a member of 7 Armoured Brigade, 1 (UK) Armoured Division, members of the U.s.-led coalition that liberated Kuwait in 1991, along with roughly 35,000 other British service personnel — not a bad contribution for a nation as small as the U.K. Right alongside us were forces from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France, among several other countries that contributed other than ground forces. During that campaign, the British Army’s Challenger tanks claimed 300 kills for no losses; one tank, from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, had the distinction of the longest range tank-totank kill in military history at that time, destroying an Iraqi tank at a range of around 5 kilometers (3 miles). For the cost of 10 men killed, 1 Armoured Division advanced 290 kilometers (180 miles) in 66 hours, destroyed the equivalent of three Iraqi armoured divisions and took 7,000 prisoners. But … no, no help.

During that campaign, my brothers-in-arms the Gurkhas, whose faiths are apparently inferior to Christianity in Mr. Dugger’s opinion, provided the Field Ambulance Squadron that deployed to transport casualties no matter their ethnicity, nationality or faith. But … no, no help.

It was my unit that first received the nine bodies of the British soldiers killed in a friendly-fire incident when a U.S. Air Force A10A Thunderbolt aircraft attacked their Warrior vehicles, despite their being clearly marked as coalition vehicles. These things happen in the fog of war, but I wonder how their loved ones, and those of the other British service personnel killed in the campaign, would feel to know that the sacrifices that were made in contributing to the eventual victory were of “no help.”

When my time in uniform was done, my son picked up the banner, serving a further 22 years in the British Army, during which time he served in support of the U.s.-led missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan in which many more of our British and Canadian brothers and sisters-inarms gave their lives. But … no, no help.

No Mr. Dugger, you are arrogantly and egregiously incorrect in your claim that the U.S. has received “no help” from its allies, though, in light of your lack of appreciation of their assistance, perhaps their contributions to any future U.s.-led missions should be withheld. In conclusion, I am led to wonder where you were while all of the above campaigns and missions were being courageously undertaken by the U.S. Armed Forces supported by their British and other allies.

Jerry Paul is a resident of Divide.