Posted on 08/30/2004 2:52:33 AM PDT by kattracks
NEW YORK -- Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. said Thursday in his first on-the-record interview about the swift boat veterans dispute that "I was absolutely in the skimmer" in the early morning on Dec. 2, 1968, when Lt. (j.g.) John Kerry was involved in an incident that led to his first Purple Heart."Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 [grenade launcher]," Schachte said in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said, "Kerry requested a Purple Heart."
Schachte, also a lieutenant junior grade, said he was in command of the small boat called a Boston whaler or skimmer, with Kerry aboard in his first combat mission in the Vietnam War. The third crew member was an enlisted man, whose name Schachte did not remember.
Two enlisted men who appeared at the podium with Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in Boston have asserted that they were alone in the small boat with Kerry, with no other officer present. Schachte said it "was not possible" for Kerry to have gone out alone so soon after joining the swift boat command in late November 1968.
Kerry supporters said no critics of the Democratic presidential nominee ever were aboard a boat with him in combat. Washington lawyer Lanny Davis has contended that Schachte was not aboard the Boston whaler and says the statement that Schachte was aboard in Unfit for Command undermines that critical book's credibility.
Schachte until now has refused to speak out publicly on this question and agreed to give only two interviews. One was a television interview with Lisa Meyers of NBC News, for broadcast Thursday night. The second was a print interview with me, for publication today.
Schachte described the use of the skimmer operating very close to shore as a technique that he personally designed to flush enemy forces on the banks of the Mekong River so that the larger swift boats could move in. Around 3 a.m. on Dec. 2, Schachte said, the skimmer -- code-named "Batman" -- fired a hand-held flare. He said that after Kerry's M-16 rifle jammed, the new officer picked up the M-79 and, "I heard a 'thunk.' There was no fire from the enemy," he said.
Patrick Runyon and William Zaladonis are the two enlisted men who said they were aboard the skimmer and did not know Schachte. However, two other former officers interviewed Thursday confirmed that Schachte was the originator of the technique and always was aboard the Boston whaler for these missions.
Grant Hibbard, who as a lieutenant commander was Schachte's superior officer, confirmed that Schachte always went on these skimmer missions and said, "I don't think he [Kerry] was alone" on his first assignment. Hibbard said he had told Kerry to "forget it" when he asked for a Purple Heart.
Ted Peck, another swift boat commander, said, "I remember Bill [Schachte] telling me it didn't happen" -- that is, Kerry getting an enemy-inflicted wound. He said it would be "impossible" for Kerry to have been in the skimmer without Schachte.
"I was astonished by Kerry's version" [in his book Tour of Duty] of what happened Dec. 2, Schachte said Thursday. When asked to support the Kerry critics in the swift boat controversy, Schachte said, "I didn't want to get involved." But he said he gradually began to change his mind when he saw his own involvement and credibility challenged, starting with Davis on CNN's "Crossfire" on Aug. 12.
The next time he saw Kerry after the first Purple Heart incident, Schachte said, was "about 20 years" later on the U.S. Senate subway in the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building. "I called, 'Hey, John.' He replied, 'Batman.' I was absolutely amazed by his memory." He said they "talked about having lunch" but never did it.
Schachte said he never has been contacted by or talked to anybody in the Bush-Cheney campaign or any Republican organization. He said he has been a political independent who votes for candidates of both parties. Robert Novak is a long-running political columnist and co-host of CNN's Crossfire.
But don't you know ALL these claims have been disproved?
That really has to leave a mark. Kerry better put some ice on it...
Btw -- the helicopter gunships devised similiar tactics during the war.
Well, well, now it's not just Kerry who is lying, but two of his lapdog Vietnam buddies.
They (democrats) always have to push it. Seeing Lanny Davis speaking so vehemently, so arrogantly, got me p* off too. How could he speak in such a manner? It's the arrogance that is their Achille's Heel.
Where is Davis? I haven't seen him for awhile. Maybe they realized he was doing more harm than good.
Not only have they all been disproved, but the NYT has exposed Novak's connection to the Swift Vets. In other words, don't believe your own lying eyes.
But the main reason I want to weigh in on this thread is to wonder aloud whether any reporter will have the you-know-whats to ask JFK wannabee this question: "Who commanded the swiftboat for the incident in which you claimed your first Purple Heart?" I can think of a dozen more questions but will settle for this one first--and hope it's asked at the debates.Regards . . . Penny
One slight amendment to your question - Kerry was in a dinghy when he fired the grenade that caused the sliver to go into his arm.
The mental picture of two officers, and a crewman manning the outboard motor, in a small fiberglass boat at 3 am in hostile territory, is an image that makes it easier to answer the question:
how could Admiral Schachte remember this one event after all these years.
The only mention of Runyon in Unfit For Command is regarding this skimmer incident. Zaldonis,however later became a member of Kerry's PCF-44 crew. At the time of this skimmer episode Kerry had not been assigned a boat. Zaldonis being on the skimmer is.....interesting.
hanoi john was GREEN at this time, he was also GREEN when he supposedly was running guns, SEALS and CIA men into Cambodia. Greenies don't get those kinds of jobs unless all more experienced men are gone.
The event does have some related activity. The discussion with Hibbard regarding Kerry's request for a PH would help to "sear -- sear" the events into Schachte's memory.
The title of this piece is very misleading, since no one is arguing that there were four people on the Boston Whaler (not to be confused with the "Boston wailer", John Kerry). Zaldonis does not appear to have a very credible demeanor in the Lisa Myers interview.
Admiral Schachte's account makes the most sense. He would have caught hell for putting a combat virgin in command of that boat had anyone been seriously injured -- particularly someone as politically connected as John Kerry.
The only thing John Kerry's version of that night has going for it is his physical qualifications for acting as a stalking horse.
In a FrontPage Magazine.com interview with John O'Neill, Lowell Ponte asked O'Neill what Kerry did after he was denied this Purple Heart. John O'Neill said "He waited three months, until everybody who was knowledgable about the incident had left Vietnam. He then, somehow in Saigon, in a way we can't tell, he got a Naval officer, now deceased, who knew nothing about the incident, to sign a Purple Heart citation of the same kind that had been refused three months earlier". No report of hostile fire, and no casualty report, which would have been required!
I really hope the next SBV commercial includes the photo of Kerry with all his officer buddies from 'Nam. The one his campaign circulated. Only with the slightly revised version showing exactly four- with one being Kerry - of them supporting Kerry's Presidential bid. Similar to how the Swifties have them displayed at www.swiftvets.com.
On 8-28-04 in nationalreviewonline William Schachte says "In each of these operations, I was in the skimmer manning the M-60 machine gun. I took with me one other officer and an enlisted man to operate the outboard motor". Schachte also said that the M-60 jammed on him after the first burst. Yet, on page 35 of Unfit For Command, Zaldonis says that he, Zaldonis, was manning the M-60. Schachte says that he does not remember who the enlisted man was.
Then there were the times he "recreated" the situations for his home movie collection!
This may well be a case of multiple events and not mistaken witnesses.
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