Alston Never Served Under Kerry

Captain's Quarters ^ | 8/14/2004 | captain ed

[Diogenesis]

Good analysis. It is too bad that Kerry is
so untrustworthy that any of the speculation is even necessary.

[Bob J]

Actually three. The dude in the middle shows his shadow straight down. THis could not be accomplished, even with spotlights to the left and right and those would tend to cancel out ALL shadows.

[TheBattman]

FUnny - I was just studying that picture and picked up on the shadows -

The two guys on the left - The three guys on the left, including Alston, have shadows that fall towards the right side of the picture, whereas Kerry and the other guy (with the different camo pants and white shirt) have shadows falling more towards the left.

[tsmith130]

The potatoes were used to battle against the mean rice that was fired from shore.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Someone on another thread postulated that this photo may have been "Photoshopped" to produce the picture of Kerry in the same shot as Alston. I believe that idea was discounted, but I'm not so sure. In the photo, Kerry himself appears completely detached from the rest of the subjects; as if he's not even aware of them, or them of him. Look, too, at that weird object upon which Kerry's elbow is resting. What is it? If you enlarge it, it appears to be a formless mass that simply melds into the background. Very suspicious, in my opinion.

[claudiustg]

Look at the nose and head shadows of Kerry and the man next to him and then the nose and head shadows of the man in the middle. Kerry and the man in the middle have their heads oriented almost the same way yet show different shadows. It's been a long time since I studied portrait lighting and I forget the terminology, but nose shadows are very important to portrait photographers and I think it would take different lighting setups to produce the different nose shadows.

[demlosers]

Or there was a flashbulb.

I doubt a flash was used; it's a bright sunny day.

[30 something american]

In the Komrades defense, perhaps the memory wasn't quite seared and he in fact was only *near* Alston.....

[Travis McGee]

bttt

[Nov3]

Alston received his serious wounds in that same exact battle that took Peck out of service.

Alston's wounds were a small shrapnel wound to the back of the head. Described as light in other reports. He could and probably did come back to the boat. It looks so bad because he is a Keloid scar type.

TILL SOMEONE COMES UP WITH PROOF THAT HE WASN'T THERE WE DON'T NEED TO BAIT THE PRESS INTO RAISING #e!! ABOUT SOMETHING THAT CAN BE DISPROVED.

The bandit's two threads contradict each other about Alston's whereabouts.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1189173/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1187030/posts

Read them for yourself. Let's not over reach until there is solid evidence.

[claudiustg]

At least the shadows are consistent!

[Number_Cruncher]

A picture of Kerry's crew in March 1969 can be found here:

http://www.wordiq.com/knowledge/upload/thumb/3/33/248px-Kerry_with_crew3.jpg

It shows that Alston was not a member of Kerry's crew in March 1969.

[Former Military Chick]

Excellent post.

[El Gato]

I didn't think Swift boats had any sort of galley. Why in the world would a sack of potatoes be on a Swift boat?

If you'll go to this PCF-45 Link and go to the Boat tour link, you'll see that PCFs did indeed have a galley. They even had a refrigerator.

[NonValueAdded]

They met, and the picture is not doctored. The falsehood is that Alston served under Kerry. Another falshood is that Alston was injured in action that in any way involved Kerry.

In fact, isn't that photo prime evidence that "served with" includes the crews from the different boats who functioned in a larger group than just a single boat? a group that shared quarters, meals, and photo ops together?

[decimon]

Alston is casting a shadow on Belodeau's arm that is consistent with Thorson's shadow but not with Kerry's.

I think there's an orca rising between Sandusky and Kerry but I could be wrong.

[Nov3]

It shows that Alston was not a member of Kerry's crew in March. Was he in January or February? I don't know and no one has presented evidence that he was somewhere else. I would absolutely love it if they did but I have not seen it. The only evidence I saw was that he was hit before Kerry took over. That is not proof we can go in front of the press with.

[Bob]

Thanks for the link. I stand corrected. I can't get the page to load but I'll dig into it. Thanks again.

[Humbug]

I heartily agree with you. It's like a trial - if the prosecutors have a lot of strong evidence but then get greedy and throw in some stuff that can be easily discredited or at least made to seem doubtful, then the defense will simply pounce on that and use it to cast doubt on everything else. And of course we know the MSM will focus solely on any weak points in the Swiftvets V Kerry case and will use that to obscure the more damning parts.

Finally, i'd be careful relying too heavily on the Vietnam War records as i've heard that they weren't always 100% accurate.

[Cboldt]

In fact, isn't that photo prime evidence that "served with" includes the crews from the different boats who functioned in a larger group than just a single boat? a group that shared quarters, meals, and photo ops together?

Indeed, it is. But the "didn't serve together" canard is a relatively easy one to refute. As usual, Camp Kerry is trying to have it both ways.