Vietnam veteran Robert Anderson has taken aim at Duck Dynasty products on sale at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center store in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It looks like all the items in Robert Anderson’s cross hairs will be removed from the canteen’s shelves.
Robert Anderson is one of many people upset over GQ magazine interview in which Phil Robertson made comments they found racist and homophobic.
On December 27, Robert Anderson – who served in the Air Force in Vietnam in the 1960s – wrote to the canteen that he was “greatly offend[ed] that the Veterans Administration Patriot Store would sell items promoting an entertainment group that clearly stands for racism and bigotry”.
“The reactionary views incorporated into the Duck Dynasty group are contrary to the policies and mission of the VA medical system to not discriminate among veterans based on race or gender,” he continued.
“Please remove these ugly divisive items immediately.”
Duck Dynasty products on sale at Veterans Affairs Medical Center store came under fire in Albuquerque
A few days later, in an email to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Robert Anderson urged quick action “to remove the racist and bigoted products” from Veterans Affairs canteens. On Monday, the Central New Mexico Community College instructor said he was still waiting to hear back from the national office.
Last week, Debra Abeyta, assistant chief of Canteen 501 in Albuquerque, advised Robert Anderson that she, too, was “very upset by the racist remarks made” by Phil Robertson, adding: “We here at the canteen service in no way promote such ideas and have taken steps to remove the product from the store.”
Debra Abeyta said Monday that the canteen ordered the items before the controversy erupted over Phil Robertson’s comments.
“[We] are doing all we can to get [the product] out of our stores,” she said.
Already, Debra Abeyta said, the canteen had persuaded the distributor of Duck Dynasty DVDs to take them all back and give the store credit. The canteen drastically slashed prices on other items to get rid of them but was trying to “cut our losses as much as possible.”
Phil Robertson, 67, also has come under fire for advising men to wed Bible-carrying teenage girls who can cook.
The men of Duck Dynasty reality show all sport awesomely wild and bushy beards, but there was a time in the distant past when you could see their faces before they grew in the shaggy facial hair.
Si Robertson without beard
Left: Get a load of Uncle Si sans specs and beard! Didn’t Si Robertson look dapper when he was in the military?
Right: Si Robertson’s most famous war story as a Vietnam veteran is that while serving overseas, his mother sent him a blue mug. Thirty years later, it’s still hanging from his back pocket and Si Robertson continues to only drink from this cup, every day.
Authorities named David Pouliot, a Vietnam veteran who worked for the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, as a “person of interest” in the disappearance of 10-year-old Holly Piirainen from Massachusetts in 1993.
Investigators stopped short of naming David Pouliot, who died in 2003, as a suspect.
Holly Piirainen was abducted during a family vacation in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on August 5, 1993, and her remains were discovered two months later eight miles away in Brimfield.
No one has ever been charged with Holly Piirainen murder, but analysis of forensic evidence found at the scene has revealed a new suspect.
At a press conference today, Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni released the name of David Pouliot, a 49-year-old man from Springfield who died in 2003.
David Pouliot was a Vietnam War veteran, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard and worked for the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services in Westfield, Fox News reported.
The potential new suspect is the first new lead in the case for more than 10 years.
Holly Piirainen was abducted during a family vacation in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on August 5, 1993, and her remains were discovered two months later eight miles away in Brimfield
David Procopio, a spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police, told The Boston Globe: “We hope the new evidence may spark someone’s memory, or someone’s conscience.
“Holly’s family has waited for justice for almost two decades.”
Holly Piirainen disappeared after she and her brother went to a neighbor’s house to look at a litter of puppies.
Rick Piirainen, her father, was planning to go to attend a news conference in Hampden Superior Court this morning along with sons Andrew and Zachary – who were eight and five at the time of her disappearance.
Investigators have speculated Holly Piirainen’s abduction and murder could be linked with that of Molly Bish, who disappeared on June 27, 2000, after she was dropped off at Comins Pond in Warren where she was a lifeguard.
The 16-year-old’s remains were found in 2003 in a wooded area near Comins Pond.
