Posted on 08/14/2004 7:15:31 AM PDT by 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.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.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.
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
I don't like where this is going - Alston not serving Kerry while there is a picture of him with Kerry.
I also don't like looking for irregularities in this picture, its too hard to prove.
Having said that, look at the shadow on Kerry's right arm from the wrinkle in his shirt, then look at the shadow on the left shoulder on the guy on the far left from his chin. Something doesn't look right.
The Kerry camp's got a Gleason line too. "Hummina, hummina."
I think the sun is almost overhead, slightly to Kerry's left. The far-left guy---blonde---can't his shadow be explained by his head being tilted more than the others? I think perhaps it can.
That said, I am slightly bothered by that object behind Kerry and the guy in the white T shirt. It appears to be a tarp or cover over something, maybe a gun? But the top of it BLURS into what looks like water behind the boat. Could someone with photography experience explain that?
Kerry doesn't have to beg. They are already doing it.
Kerry and crew stand together in An Thoi, Vietnam, on February 28, 1969, after a medal presentation for Silver Star action. From left: Del Sandusky, John Kerry, Gene Thorson, Thomas Belodeau. Kneeling from left, Mike Medeiros, Fred Short.
Yes, but what about nthe guy in the middle and Kerry. The shadows are quite different. The shadows in the picture as a whole appear to fall into the middle. If flash were used the shadows would fall to the outside. I think the photo is fake but I wouldn't want to have to defend my conclusion in a court of law based on a web pic. Here's an interesting DVD with the same picture on front. This might soon be a collectors item! :^)
http://samplecdstore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=JK-BIA&Category_Code=
You cannot make assumptions on the severity of Alston's wounds from that scar.
It is a keloid scar, which is common among blacks. Keloid scars, unlike other scars continue to grow over time. He may have suffered nothing more than a scalp laceration requiring some stitches. The scar would then have grown over the years to its current size. Keloid scars are also more common when the same area is injured a second time.
I'm not saying that he did or did not serve with Kerry, just that the size of the current scar should not serve as proof that he suffered a severe injury.
The only real proof one way or the other would come from Alston's military records.
His head should also be casting a shadow, but isn't. Take a good look, too, at his lower body. Reminds me of those Monty Python "full frontal nudity" skits, where the camera pans upward and upward without revealing anything. There's no rhyme or reason to it.
The "formless blob" appears to be a mounted gun under a tarp. Probably a .50 with a small armored shield -- (the pointy object to the left of Kerry's elbow.)
Would it even be possible for a relatively junior petty officer to "take command" as OIC on a Swift? I'd suspect that Sandusky is doing a bit of resume-polishing here.
As far as I've ever heard, the OIC slot was always held by a j.g. or a lieutenant. A very senior chief could perhaps do it temporarily. I seem to recall that Sandusky hadn't even made 1st class.
The aft gun mount with a cover over it? You can see the .50 cartridges in belts below the "mass". The mount was a unique over/under design with a M2 .50BMG machine gun mounted coaxially with an 80 mm mortar, that was "trigger fired" rather than fired by the round being dropped into the muzzle. It was still loaded from the muzzle end however.
That's probably the recoil "basket" around the 80 mm mortar, which unlike "normal mortars" is mounted coaxially with the .50 and is trigger fired.
UnFriggenBelievable! When I think about the hell my uncle went through in Vietnam, and the hell he went through when he came home from Vietnam, makes me want to scream. He served his country honorably and was treated like a criminal thanks to the likes of John Kerry. I wish my uncle were still alive today so that he could confront Kerry for embellishing his military service. My uncle had to sneak back into his country after coming home from Vietnam, and yet Kerry came home spouting off so many lies and was in turn made a hero.
It truly blows my mind how people can honestly stand by this a$$hole and vote for him.
Okay....sorry everyone, I am just so damn mad!
From Jan. 30 to March 13, 1969......
Six weeks on my calendaror 40 days.
The Kerry heroic miracle was only a few days more than a month.
Alston is simply using the "Presidential" definition of the word "is." He probably is a virgin, too, because most men using the "Presidential" dictionary have never had "sexual relations," either.
"Kerry (far right) with four of the five men who served under him on Swift Boat Patrol Craft Fast-94 during the Vietnam War. The others are (from left) Gene Thorson (gunner), David Alston (the crew's only black man and now a South Carolina minister), Thomas Belodeau (who came to Vietnam directly from of Chelmsford High School in Massachusetts and died in 1997) and Del Sandusky, Kerry's second-in-command."
Let's be fair here. Couldn't they both have made "honest mistakes" over and over again coincidentally on the campaign trail?
In his Democratic Convention speech, the Rev. Alston put himself on Kerry's boat as a witness to Kerry's action on Feb. 28, 1969 when Kerry earned his Silver Star. The March photo proves that David Alston was not on Kerry's boat that day. Fred Short was his replacement. So why is the Rev. Alston lying for Kerry? And what does this have to say about the credibility of the other crewmen who haven't complained about Alston's remarks.
Alston was wounded on Jan. 29. He was sent to a hospital. Fred Short replaced him. According to Alston's mother, he did not return to duty after his wounds on Jan. 29, so it would appear he never served under Kerry as he claims.
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