Posted on 08/14/2004 7:15:31 AM PDT by stayout
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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