PUBLIC FORUM : THANKS TO SPONSORS WHO MADE BASEBALL TRIP HAPPEN.

Our son Dave Martinez will be one of three boys going to Germany and Holland for the USA. He will be playing baseball for the Warriors World Sports International Team.

We would like to thank the following sponsors for their help. In order for Dave to keep his amateur status, he had to raise the money for this 10-day tournament.

The team is made up of 13 players from all over the United States. The Daily News ran an article about the Moorpark College baseball team, which enabled World Sports to invite Dave to play for them. Dave plays all nine positions. Thank you for your help.

Sponsors were Ron and Ellie Coder, Dataquik, the Martinez family, Dillon and Chris Griffith, Santa Susana Boys Baseball, Simi Elks Lodge, Bill and Kathy Turrentine, and Peggy Sorentino.

Dave left July 4 for Seattle, where he will meet the team. He then left for Germany and Holland on the fifth and will returns on Monday.

- Sig and Ruby Martinez

Moorpark

On June 21, our family, our Texas house guests, as well as a large contingent of Conejo Valley supporters, attended an outstanding theater fund-raiser at Newbury Park High School.

All of the entertainment, waiting on tables, etc. was beautifully done by our local teens. The summer dinner-dance featured a sumptuous catered dinner. Music was provided by the Newbury Park High School Jazz Band and the Camarillo High Jazz Band.

The Newbury Park High School choir sang, little vignettes were presented, and soloists from Newbury Park High School and Adolfo Camarillo High School performed. Waiters for the evening were from both CIF football teams. A silent auction took place, and everyone was urged to participate in the dancing.

If you missed this year's gala, mark your calendar for June 21, or better still, contact Kristi A. Colell, visual-performing arts chairwoman at Newbury Park High School, and volunteer to help make next year's event even greater.

Let's honor our fantastic, talented teens who are happily in the majority.

- Lois D. Glab

Camarillo

In the June 20 Conejo Valley edition of the Daily News, you printed a story titled ``Good morning, Vietnam.''

It concerns me that the Spences' negative image of the country was prompted by movies like ``Platoon'' and the uneducated belief that ``we lost the war over there.''

Movies like ``Platoon'' did nothing to depict Vietnam as a barbaric place. That is like saying, France, the U.S., and any other country that has had battles waged on their shores are barbaric nations.

Movies like ``Platoon'' and ``Hamburger Hill,'' to name two Vietnam-related movies, depict the horrors of war and the confusion of a firefight and the carnage of war, but have little to do with the Republic of Vietnam itself.

However, as a Vietnam veteran, what bothered me most about the article was Maria Spence saying, ``We lost the war there.'' That statement desecrates more than 58,000 names on the Vietnam War Memorial - ``The Wall'' - in Washington, D.C., because it implies a belief that we were militarily defeated in Vietnam, which is not true!

I would like to think the Spences will educate themselves about America's involvement in Vietnam before journeying to a country that is exotic in many ways, and rich in culture, but did not defeat us on the battlefield.

Though teachers, the Spences appear to be very young and naive and have a responsibility to learn more about the Vietnam conflict (sometimes referred to as ``The 10,000-Day War'') from America's viewpoint before ``immersing themselves in the life of Hanoi: shopping where the people shop, learning the language and going out of their way to get to know the people and the society.''

They might start by welcoming a Vietnam veteran home and ``going out of their way'' to learn what it was like for him or her in that country.

I would be surprised if what they heard was all negative, and I wish them the best, but it troubles me deeply to hear a high school teacher say, ``We lost the war there.''

We did not.

- F.N. Wright

Agoura