Alston Never Served Under Kerry

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

[stayout]

For those of you who have not been fully following the Swift Vet's story, one of Kerry's traveling entourage (David Alston) claimed he was under Kerry's command on a PBF and found Kerry to be a great leader. He even gave a speech to that effect at the Democratic National Convention, where he said the following:

I know him from a small boat in Vietnam, where we fought and bled together, serving our country. There were six of us aboard PCF-94, a 50-foot, twin-engine craft known as a "Swift Boat." We all came from different walks of life, but all of us-including our skipper, John Kerry-volunteered for combat duty. And combat is what we got.

However, one intrepid blogger now has proven that to be a lie, Alston never served under Kerry because Alston was wounded and out of action before Kerry took command of Alston's boat. Here is the final bit of proof (published early this morning), I suggest you go to Captain's Quarters to find all the previous analysis leading up to this astonishing coup de gras (pass the word):

Alston Never Served Under Kerry

Thanks to reader Lori in Texas, I think we've just about pieced the record together on David Alston and his supposed service under John Kerry's command. Lori points out a sympathetic article on Dale Sandusky, one of the few Swift boat veterans supporting Kerry and one that served on his boat, specifically gives the timing on Kerry's command of PCF-94:

In January 1969, Sandusky's boat, PCF-94, came under attack during one such ambush. Lt. Ted Peck, the officer in charge, and another crewman were seriously wounded. Sandusky had to take command. The boat was sinking and on fire, but Sandusky steered it back to safety. They counted 155 bullet holes in the boat and found a live enemy rocket in the main cabin. It had come to rest in a sack of potatoes.

For his actions, Sandusky would receive the Bronze Star.

With their officer headed home, the crew of PCF-94 needed a leader. And Lt. j.g. John Kerry, whose crew on PCF-44 had rotated back home, needed men to lead.

"I was sure glad he came along," Sandusky said, "because to be honest, I didn't want to take command."

From Jan. 30 to March 13, 1969, Kerry and the crew of the PCF-94 would conduct 18 missions in the Mekong Delta river system. In that time, Kerry would earn a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and add two Purple Hearts to the one he received earlier.

Bingo! Yachtzee! Alston received his serious wounds in that same exact battle that took Peck out of service. On January 29th, Alston was medevaced out to a hospital with head wounds and no records indicate that he ever returned to the unit. Kerry took command of PCF-94 the next day. Alston never served a day under Kerry's command. In fact, Kerry received a replacement, Fred Short, on 28 February as a replacement for Alston.

Now what does that tell us about Kerry and his Viet Nam narrative?

1. He and Alston conspired to deceive people about Alston's service under Kerry. That conspiracy was intended to give John Kerry cover against exactly the kind of campaign he faces from the other Swiftvets.

2. The "end of January" language on Kerry's website was intentionally vague in order to fuzzy up the timeline and keep Alston's true status a secret. Obviously, Sandusky remembers the dates well enough, and Kerry could easily have gotten them from him if he wanted to be as specific as his other dates on the timeline.

3. The DNC either were saps or actively participated in the conspiracy in order to assist Kerry in his Viet Nam mythology. Otherwise, why would they have allowed David Alston to speak at the convention about his experiences serving with John Kerry on the boat?

4. Kerry's band of brothers have some complicity in this cover-up as well. Those who served on PCF-94 surely remember that Alston never served under Kerry; Sandusky specifically recalls Peck being wounded and removed from command, but he wouldn't remember that Alston left at the same time?

5. One could argue that they served on the same boat, of course, and I look forward to that Clintonian parsing used in Kerry's defense. After holding Alston up as an expert on his leadership, he'll be hard pressed to explain how that expertise came to Alston from a hospital bed miles away from Kerry and his old PCF.

If this gets out to the mainstream media, this story kills Kerry's campaign. This isn't just a guy embellishing his war record -- this is a deliberate and longstanding attempt to mislead and defraud people by creating his own witnesses after the fact. That he could have done such a clumsy job should disqualify him for higher office on that basis alone.

Posted by Captain Ed at August 14, 2004 01:25 AM

[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.