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.

[finnigan2]

What does Lt. Peck have to say about all this? If he corroborates this analysis we have another Cambodia in Christmas on out hands. Way to go!!!

[finnigan2]

If anyone gets their hands on the paperwork associated with these medals and it turns out that Kerry signed them or that the signatures were forged, it's gonna be all over.

[texasbluebell]

the globe got this one right ..John Kerry (dead center of course) "poses"

I wonder how many guys he had to shove out of the way so he could get in the middle there.

"Shove it, do you know who I am?"

[longshadow]

Look at the "shroud" and "the machine gun" (the one missing its barrel!) in the middle of the picture.

See anything funny about those pixels?

Do you mean adjacent to the sailor's left ear? There is a large region in which all the pixels have identical values (just like on the sailor's tee shirt), but the difference is this: the tee shirt is flat on the guy's chest, and one would expect much of the surface to be the same hue, and brightness. But the shroud (cover over the machine gun) is foming complicated curves in the region where the pixels all have the same value, which is not what you'd expect..... unless someone had "smudged-out" that region.

I have no idea why someone would smudge-out that region, unless it was to erase a marking on the shroud.....

[js1138]

I going to give the benefit of the doubt on pixel analysis until I see an uncompressed scan. I do a lot of photoshop work, and lots of innocent filters cause artifacts. Sharpening and compression do strange things to areas having little detail. Maybe the photo has been tampered with, but I can't make that call.

[longshadow]

Sharpening and compression do strange things to areas having little detail. Maybe the photo has been tampered with, but I can't make that call.

Yeah, it's indeterminate without access to an uncompressed image. But there sure are lots of odd things about this picture.

[js1138]

The oddest thing is that Kerry claims it is the crew of one boat. It will be interesting to get to the bottom of that one.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Worse: The whole niddle of the shroud disappears: There's a water and waves behind and above Kerry's head, then the shroud to the left of Kerry, then a smudge that looks like stuff has been erased, then gun barrel is missing (it seems like it should be aiming through the center guy's head!), then there's water again.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Check Kerry's website:

Both the Bronze Star and the Silver Star citations (look for them as .pdf format files on Kerry's website) have been signed by Secretary of the Navy John Lehman.

Except Lehman did not become SecNAV until Reagan's administration - About 15 years after Kerry left the service.

BUT - John Lehman WAS SecNAV when Kerry became a Senator.

Sound suspicious?

Sound like Kerry (as a brand-new, all-powerful Senator!) walks into Lehman's office and demands the SecNAV change his old paperwork to make Kerry's medals look better in his Senate Office Building shrine?

[QQQQQ]

I just found something, you may want to research.

It says that for the first 3 weeks, Kerry was on PCF-94, then on SB #44.

Perhaps in those first 3 weeks in December was when Alston served with him. We just need to make sure of the facts.

This is from an encyclopedia on the web:

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/John_Kerry#Military_Service_.281966-1970.29

Ten days after returning, on June 16, Kerry was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade; on June 20, Kerry left the Gridley for special training at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado. After completing swift boat commander training on November 17, Kerry reported for duty at Coastal Squadron 1 of Coastal Division 14 at the Cam Ranh Bay in South Vietnam, arriving on December 1.

Kerry's tour of duty as commander of a Swift Boat
During the first three and half weeks of his four month tour of duty as a boat commander, Kerry led a Swift Boat Patrol Craft Fast-94, patrolling the coast on Swift Boat #44 until late January 1969. After this he served on Swift Boat #94. "

They also have that picture, with explanation: "Kerry (far right) with four of the five men who served under him on Swift Boat Patrol Craft Fast-94."

Anyway, check it out -- better now, than to have the other side bring it up.

[The Bandit]

It says that for the first 3 weeks, Kerry was on PCF-94, then on SB #44.

It's a error. PCF-94 was assigned to Div. 11 and the 44 and Kerry was in Div. 13. Plus you have Kerry's 44 crew placing him on the 44 during the whole time after he was assigned to it from that Boston Whaler training. Plus You have Lt. Peck serving as the 94's commander all hrough that time.

It's just not possible.

[Cboldt]

Some of the citations have more than one set of related paperwork, signed by different SecNav. I wouldn't put much into that, other than Kerry was anal about making sure his "hero" record remained, even if he threw medals of the fence at the White House, etc.

Even at Kerry's web-site, the various versions of the awards are posted. The awards are not identical, FWIW. In one, the word "calm" was excised, going from the early version to the late version.

[Cboldt]

Plus Kerry has removed his claim (lie) to serving on the PCF during the mission that resulted in Peck's serious injuries, etc. That lie went away pretty easy, not much (but not zero) media attention.

[MeekOneGOP]

:^D

[QQQQQ]

Good. Just wanted to make sure.

Kerry has so many versions of the "facts", by now even he isn't sure which is the latest one, it's hard to remember lies.

[hole_n_one]

I don't know about your Swift Boat directory proving anything one way or another.

First off, it's not my directory.

Secondly, I simply provided a link along with a caveat as to it's accuracy.

[The Bandit]

Actually, if you want to expand on the issue there is a serious question of whether Kerry served as OINC on the 44 since that was Lt. Wrights boat during December/Jan. Maybe Kerry merely served under Wright? Who knows anything anymore!!!!!!!!

[TankerKC]

Honestly, I think you guys are trying to hard. Earlier, you thought that it was a different group of enlisted guys in the photos, but that isn't the case.

[Republic]

Please send this to Sean Hannity and Rush. You are AMAZING! It would be so GREAT to get this cleared up! And I would like to see the Rev. answer a few questions, we KNOW Kerry won't. (My guess-the Rev has been asked to refuse all media folks!)

[RetSignman]

Look at the watch the guy with glasses, has on. Can you make out the time?