The print headline on Jeremy Smith’s letter responding to Walter Eno – “Three weeks quarantine isn’t too much to demand” (Dec. 4) – misrepresents Smith’s point.

Smith was saying that for members of the military, three weeks quarantine was insignificant when compared to being ordered into combat, or to suit up to battle Ebola. Not so for everybody.

The point is that military members are already constrained in their freedom by their employment, “to obey the orders,” as their oath goes. Civilians are not; thereby, they are entitled by our Constitution to greater liberty – the same liberty Walter Eno so vigorously (and frequently) defends in letters to the editor.

And while I am usually opposed to retired military officers appending their rank to letters, as if to give greater credibility to what are simply their opinions, I am a retired military officer.

My appreciation of the constraints placed on the individual by military service was earned – not that I didn’t quarrel with it, at times. (In that vein, and for what it’s worth, I think the generals were wrong in the quarantine of soldiers in this instance.)

Karl Smith

Falmouth