New London — The miscue happened so quickly and innocently, a demonstration they couldn't have planned any better: Kathy Jackson, an Air Force veteran, introduced a fellow supporter of Democrat Richard Blumenthal, Cathy Osten, as "a Vietnam veteran."

Not quite, Osten explained, when it was her turn to address a small rally of military veterans and labor union members who were demonstrating in favor of Blumenthal's Senate candidacy in front of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the Parade in New London.

Osten served in the Army during the Vietnam War, but as a Chinese linguist for the Army security agency, not in Vietnam itself.

"You can see how easy it is to make that mistake," Osten said.

Blumenthal, of course, has most notably made the mistake of suggesting his military service took him into Vietnam itself — a false statement that his Republican opponent, Linda McMahon, has forcefully branded as a "lie" and made the centerpiece of an aggressive advertising campaign questioning Blumenthal's character.

Just hours after McMahon and Blumenthal met for their second head-to-head debate in Norwalk, in which McMahon directly criticized Blumenthal's statements about his service in the Marine Corps Reserve, the gathering of veterans organized by the Connecticut AFL-CIO amounted to a vigorous pushback.

As attorney general for nearly 20 years, the veterans said, Blumenthal has championed the needs of military veterans, and, as a candidate, he has outlined policy proposals that would help those who have most recently fought for their country in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"You got a leader who's been there for 20-something years," said Justin Paoloni of North Stonington, who fought in Vietnam as a member of the Marine Corps, and came home to eventually find work as a state operating engineer. "I don't see how anybody can't vote for Richard Blumenthal. As far as the veterans, I stand behind him 100 percent."

Paolini said he considered McMahon's ads about Blumenthal's misstatements of his service record "disgusting."

"He did not serve overseas, but he's still a Marine," Paolini said.

McMahon's campaign, however, has assembled veterans who feel just as strongly that Blumenthal's statements were deliberate — and dishonorable — attempts to mislead.

"It is dishonorable, and we can only assume that you made up these stories in your own political self interest," says an open letter to Blumenthal, signed by several dozen veterans, that the McMahon campaign has mailed directly to voters.