Evidence Shows Crewmate Rev. Alston Never Served Under Sen. Kerry

August 10, 2004 | The Bandit

[The Bandit]

For years now we have been lead to believe that both Sen. Kerry and the Rev. David Alston had served together on the PCF-94 in Vietnam, and therefore, making David Alston an eyewitness to Kerry's actions and heroism. The fact that Sen. Kerry has used a famous photo of himself together with David Alston and other crewmates while serving on swift boats in Vietnam, left little reason to believe anything differently. As with most anything having to do with Sen. Kerry -- nothing is ever as it first appears to be.

There can be little doubt that Sen. Kerry and David Alston wanted to deceive people into believing the two served together on the PCF-94 swift boat by the following statements:

David Alston  said of Kerry, "We were in a lot of firefights," Alston said. "You learn a lot about people. After a firefight, John would come up to me and he would put his hand on me and he'd say, 'David, are you all right?'"  And Kerry added: "I didn't know then that I had a man of God on my boat. That's probably why I'm here today." (Orlando Sentinel, 1/31/04)

"I stand here before you only because almighty God saw our boat safely through those rivers of death and destruction, by giving us a brave, wise, and decisive leader named John Kerry." (David Alston in a speech before the Democratic Convention, and the world.)

Rev. David Alston says, "When the bullets started to hit the side of the ship, we found out that John Kerry [could] lead. (Kerry for President Campaign Ad that aired early February '04)

Only problem with the above statements is that the are flat out false because David Alston was never a crew member under Sen. Kerry nor could he had ever participated in combat operations with Sen. Kerry because they were from two different boats. From December to January 29, 1969 Sen. Kerry commanded the PCF-44 while David Alston was the Gunner onboard the PCF-94 under Lt.(jg) Peck. On January 29, 1969 both Peck and Alston were wounded and hospitalized. We know Alston was wounded on that date because his causality report was made available briefly by the Kerry Campaign before they removed it. Here is what it said:

AWFA: GMG2 DAVID MARION Alston, USN, 99T 57 46
BRAVO: ACTIVE DUTY, ATTACHED TO COASTAL DIVISION ELEVEN AT AN THOI, RVN
CHARLIE: INJURY, HOSTILE FIRE
DELTA: 29, JAN 69, 1030H, SONG CUA LON - SONG BO DE, WHILE SERVING AS FORWARD GUNNER ABOARD PCF 94, ENGAGED IN CORDON AND SEARCH OPERATIONS IN THE ABOVE RIVER, GMG2 Alston RECEIVED SHRAPNEL WOUNDS TO HIS HEAD WHEN PCF CAME UNDER INTENSE HOSTILE ROCKET AND A/W FIRE.
ECHO: CONDITION GOOD, PROGNOSIS GOOD. PRESENCE OF NOK IS NOT MEDICALLY WARRANTED AS REPORTED BY CORPSMAN.
FOXTROT: MRS. IDA MCQUILLAR Alston, MOTHER
GOLF: NOK NOT OFFICIALLY NOTIFIED. REQ NOK NOT REPEAT NOT BE NOTIFIED.
HOTEL: SERVICEMAN TREATED BY CORPSMAN AND MEDEVACED TO 29TH EVAC HOSP. BINH THUY.
2. PATIENT ABL TO COMMUNICATE WITH NOK.
3. NO FURTHER INFO WILL FOLLOW.

This confirms the date of David Alston's wounds, but it does not tell how seriously wounded David Alston was. There is no military medical records available for David Alston, and you cannot go by the causality reports description of good and prognosis is good because they will always say that even if you had both legs shattered -- and then there is the fact no medical doctor had yet evaluated him. But we can today see the severity of the wound Alston suffered as shown below from as Rev. Alston stood before recent Democratic Convention delegates.

As one can see, it was a sever wound indeed, and Alston most likely lost tissue and scalp from this injury. This is important evidence for dating another picture of him with Sen. Kerry below.

 

Now let's take a closer look at Alston.

 

No signs of a serious head wound, or the treatment of such a wound, which would had required visible head shaving that still  would have been visible weeks later if this picture was taken in early March as sometimes suggested by writers. Thus, we can be confident that the picture in question was taken prior to January 29, 1969 when Sen. Kerry was still skipper of the PCF-44 and Alston was the gunner on the PCF-94. How did Sen. Kerry get in this picture then? We know Coastal Division 11 and 13 were participating in joint operations in January of 1969 from the Command History of Division 11 released by the Navy, and no doubt that the crews from each division shared the same faculties and socialize among themselves.

Now that we know when and how Alston was wounded, we can see how Alston could not have been part of Sen. Kerry's crew on the PCF-94 because he had been replaced, just as the wounded Lt. Peck had been replaced by Kerry after the January 29th incident that lead to both Alston and Peck being hospitalized. Was David Alston able to return to the PCF-94 during anytime between February 1 and March 13, Kerry's last combat mission? No evidence that he did or even the suggestion he physically could have with the injury he had suffered,  because we know that on February 28, 1969, Fred Short was onboard and described as an replacement for a wounded David Alston. We Know David Alston was not onboard for Kerry's last combat mission on March 13, either. Therefore, we can confidently say David Alston was never part of Kerry's PCF-94 crew from February 1 through March 13, 1969 because he was still recovering from his head wounds.

Now we need to answer whether David Alston could had been able to participate in combat missions with Kerry from a different swift boat? Looking at the daily combat missions for Coastal Division 11 we do not find both the PCF-44 (Kerry's boat) and the PCF-94 (Alston's boat) involved in any joint missions together. This conclusion is further supported by the fact David Alston or any other Kerry supporter has ever ventured to describe specific missions that Alston and Kerry could have participated in. All discussion of Alston and Kerry together is vague, generalized and non-specific.

Everything we were told by David Alston, Sen. Kerry and his people are clearly false about in regards to Kerry's relationship with David Alston. This is not a mere little slip of the tongue, but an orchestrated scheme over the last few years to outright deceive people about Sen. Kerry's military service. Why did the Rev. David Alston put himself into this position of deception and lies?

"I owe John Kerry my life,"  the Rev. David Alston was quoted as saying, "But John Kerry owes his life to me, too." This just might be true, but not in the sense that Kerry saved Alston's life during Vietnam, but for what he may have done for Alston after Vietnam and what Alston is doing for Kerry now for his run for the White House.

After both Kerry and Alston departed Vietnam, the two stayed in contact and Kerry had invited Alston to his first wedding, to Julia Thorne in 1970, and sent Christmas cards to Alston's parents' house. Kerry aides contacted Alston in 1996, after a story in a Boston paper "accusing him of being a killer," Alston told the Charlotte Observer.

"That was just false, and I was happy to tell people that," Alston said. "In Vietnam, killing an enemy soldier meant saving men's lives. It was something that had to be done." The incident in question here was on February 28, 1969, for which Alston was not part in because he was recovering from a head wound.

David Alston's mother-in-law, Beulah Lowery, has said: "He didn't like to talk about it [Vietnam], so we didn't press him," Lowery said. "But David always appreciated what he (Kerry) did for them. He talked real nice about him." Was Sen. Kerry so good to the Rev. Alston that Alston would do anything for him, like mislead voters on his behalf? Only David Alston can answer this question.

Another troubling question arises from this disclosure -- why haven't the rest of Sen. Kerry's supporting "Band of Brothers" stepped forward and correct the record of the Kerry/Alston relationship, something they know firsthand cannot be possible? Perhaps we will be find Kerry has been very good to them as well.

[Toskrin]

As has been pointed out, this is keloid formation. It takes years to develop and can occur with quite minor injuries. It says nothing about the severity of the underlying injury. It is easily possible that this was a minor scalp wound and not visible a few weeks after it occurred.

[xzins]

So he was a JG during the time in question. Those seem like slow promotions to me in wartime.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!

Two suns in the sky that day!

[ex 98C MI Dude]

Kerry's shadow is cast on the tarp covering the gun mount, which is that blue thing in the middle. The weapon under it would be an M-60 machine gun (my baby when I was in the 2ID, all 28 pounds of her!)

So the picture is accurate.

There would be two light sources, if not three in this photo. First is the sun, behind the photographer. Second would be the flash on the camera, as all cameras back then used flash cubes. Third would be the sun reflecting off various surfaces, such as metal or water.

Its not a fake.

[kabar]

About average to LT, but his promotion to LTJG is a little slower. It was usually 18 months. I was promoted to LCDR in about 7 1/2 years just as I left the service.

[bray]

Looks like Yaaaawn and The Band of Traitors have some more splainin to do!! Hey Rev, ever read the part about, Thou shalt not bear false witness???

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Condor51]

"My father served in Viet Nam, with the 1/5 1st cavalry Division (Airmobile) 68-69. He was never the same, and afterwards he wasn't the same man my mother married."

There's a good reason he "isn't the same". I don't know if you realize what you dad went through. He probably doesn't talk about it.

Anyway, I have a friend ('slightly' older) who was in the 1st Division (AirMobile) and 'in country' from 1965 to part of '67 (two tours). He was a 'Lurp' (LRRP) and back then the 1st Division did many 'Ranger' type missions as at the time, the 75th Ranger Battalion wasn't yet 'officially' formed.

Years later my friend was still slightly 'messed up', and occasionally had flashbacks in public. He'd here sudden loud noise - like a drink tray falling in a restaurant, yell "INCOMING" and dive under the table. He wasn't playing.

There's a good website that describes all of the 1st Division's missions / operations in Vietnam, from '65 on. Check out what they did in 68-69 when your dad was there - you'll buy him a nice present.

[Physicist]

Kerry's shadow is cast on the tarp covering the gun mount, which is that blue thing in the middle.

That's fine, but there should be an unbroken shadow going from that cast by his arm, all the way down to that cast by his leg...but all I see in between is the shadow cast by some sort of grating (which lets plenty of light through). The shadow can't be behind him, because that would be inconsistent with the sun angle that we agreed to before.

[js1138]

It is very hard to determine just how severe his head injury was. He has a large keloid scar on his scalp which would develop over time. He may have simply had a scalp laceration and the scar may have grown over time.

If he had been hospitalized for a head wound, a significant portion of his scalp would have been shaved while stitches were done. That could not have grown back evenly in one month.

The photo was taken prior to January 29.

[js1138]

All I am saying here is that the data in these rosters appears suspect and we don't know how it was gathered.

I know from some personal experience that record keeping in Nam was not the very best. I would suspect that written records would not hold up in court. My own payroll and leave records were a mess. I never bothered trying to get them straightened out because I was afraid it would delay my separation.

[Robert A Cook PE]

And, why can you see "water" THROUGH the shroud on the "gun mount" ...

The crewmember on the left is leaning on something "invisible" in the middle, which is NOT moving, but the shroud IS moving, as if it were from two different pictures.

Kerry's posture and sun angle look odd on the right - stiff, as if he were posed separately from the more relaxed crew on the left. (Then again, Kerry always looks odd and stiff.)

[longshadow]

That's exactly what I thought. The face shadows are consistent with that.

There's something odd going on; draw a line from the tip of Kerry's nose to the tip of his nose's shadow. Do the same for the guy next to him, in the white tee-shirt. They are parallel, as one would expect. Now draw a line from the elbow of the guy in the teeshirt to the shadow of his elbow. I submit that by inspection one can see this line is not parallel with the first two (nose shadow) lines.

Now, draw a line between the left bottom corner of the black guy's shirt, and the corresponding shadow of it projected onto the leg on the sailor to the right (from the camera's perspective). This doesn't line up with any of the previous shadow lines, but IS parallel with with the shadow of the nose on the sailor to the right of the black guy.

Now, unless I'm forgetting something about projective geometry, it would appear that the two rightmost figures in the picture were photographed under slightly different lighting conditions than is seen in the rest of the picture.

Also, the shadow of the arm of the tee-shirt guy seems too sharp, as though someone created it with a digital photo editor. It seems to lacks the blurring you expect from a solar induced shadow projected over that distance (because the sun isn't a point source of light.)

[ex 98C MI Dude]

I just blew the photo up and really took a good look at all aspects. The shadow to Kerry's left isn't human. You are correct, it seems to be a piece of equipment.

Kerry is also looking directly at the cameraman's feet (the cameraman seems to be above the subjects in the photo, possibly standing on a stairway.) He is also not squinting at all, unlike everyone else in the picture. Something isn't quite right, but unless I had the negative on a light table, I can't put my finger on it.

But then, we know Kerry is a bloodsucker, so he wouldn't cast a shadow, would he? Or he is one of Peter Pan's Lost Boys, who has lost his shadow?

[Robert A Cook PE]

Look again at the shroud - half is cloth, then the middle is (blurred, then the left is "water".

Look at the clutter on the bottom of the boat, but is missing (somehow) in the photo of the leg of the "reverend" traousers, and the "missing pants" leg of the guy in the middle - who ISN'T leaning on the "missing" left side of the "missing" shroud.

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
Staging pictures is common for young military types. I am on the cover of Gary D. Ford's excellent book "4/4: A LRP's Narrative". The picture is of Gary's LRP team either getting ready to go on a mission or just coming in. I was on a different team, from a different platoon, but Gary and I were friends and my team was also going out or coming in so there I was. Profile pictures are common. Kerry's people must be on the verge of panic.
I don't think I have ever watched a campaign implode like this.

Michael Frazier

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
Staging pictures is common for young military types. I am on the cover of Gary D. Ford's excellent book "4/4: A LRP's Narrative". The picture is of Gary's LRP team either getting ready to go on a mission or just coming in. I was on a different team, from a different platoon, but Gary and I were friends and my team was also going out or coming in so there I was. Profile pictures are common. Kerry's people must be on the verge of panic.
I don't think I have ever watched a campaign implode like this.

Michael Frazier

[Robert A Cook PE]

My opinion?

The two crew members on the left (including the reverend!) are from a different photograph.

Their shadows are completely different, and their feet/trousers don't match the clutter and junk on the bottom of the boat. (It would be almost impossible to be standing where they appear to be stadning.)

[MeekOneGOP]

[Robert A Cook PE]

No flash cubes in daylight, outside, in the sun.

[Physicist]

And, why can you see "water" THROUGH the shroud on the "gun mount" ...

I don't know...it looks like the shroud is just the same color as the water beyond it.