It's essential that any readers who saw the cartoon as distasteful understand that the responsibility for its appearance in Computerworld ultimately rests with me. That being the case, I'm compelled to share some information about my own background to help explain why I approved the cartoon for publication.

My dad devoted his entire career to the U.S. Army. He served in Okinawa and was buried with full military honors in a national cemetery in Alabama. As I write this, my son, an officer in the U.S. Navy, is deployed on a destroyer in harm's way. I served in harm's way in the U.S. Air Force. I was honored to receive the Air Medal twice for "meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight" during the Vietnam War. And yes, I am among the 26.5 million veterans whose personal information was stolen.

This entire matter is one I personally take quite seriously, so it frankly never occurred to me that the cartoon would be construed by anyone as an "attempt at humor." I feel strongly that what was depicted in the cartoon was respectful of our veterans. I believe my dad would agree.

That said, the writer of that letter and I do share one overarching sentiment. As far as I'm concerned, no matter what we do, or how poorly or well we do it, our veterans still deserve much, much better. That, in fact, is the message the cartoon was meant to convey.