Posted on 08/16/2004 5:14:32 PM PDT by The Bandit
Byron York begins by saying "Alston did indeed serve under Kerry." Mr. York made the usual mistake all reporters do when reporting on Sen. Kerry and his "Band of Brothers" by simply repeating what they repeat to them without confirming whether or not it could possibly be true.
York writes, "And it appears that while Alston was in fact on board PCF-94 when Kerry was in command, his total time of service under Kerry was quite brief _ perhaps as little as seven days." Based upon what, what Fred Short or David Alston told him? Read on....
"Alston, a gunner's mate, was wounded in battle on January 29, 1969, while serving on PCF-94. The skipper of the boat at the time, Lt. Tedd Peck, was seriously wounded in the same incident. In Peck's absence, Kerry was chosen to take over command of PCF-94. Alston was also replaced, temporarily; his job was taken over by an Arkansas native named Fred Short."
(Excerpt) Read more at idexer.com ...
At this point, it seems that all agree that Alston and Kerry have exaggerated the amount of experience they had with each other. Clearly, Kerry was not in charge of the boat on the day of Alston's wounding, and Alston was not present during the February 28 incident.
So, the only question seems to be whether Alston came back sometime between his injury and 3/13 or so. The photograph on the boat seems to confirm that he did, even if it was very briefly.
I have a hard time , given the photo, believing that Alston never returned. This photo is obviously one of the crew , perhaps after the departure of Short, photographed by Medieros(sp?). The stated date of the photo is 3/69, which makes sense with a brief return of Alston.
Did Alston go on missions? Maybe, maybe not. But it is strange that all of his specific descriptions apply to the two missions during which he and Kerry were definitely not together.
In this article
she is not directly quoted as saying that.
"Ida Alston saw the war wound on her son's head on the television."
Also says they had a reunion back in the 1980's:
"Ida Alston remembers the day in the 1980s when the phone rang one morning."
"The man said he was Senator Kerry, and asked if David was home," Alston said. She then did what mothers across the world do. "I told him he was at work and to try his house later. I thanked him for calling."
Kerry found his shipmate, and Alston went to a reunion of that swift boat crew years ago, Ida Alston said. Alston has helped Kerry on the campaign trail since Kerry started his presidential run, including stops in South Carolina before the primary in February and television spots"
Also doesn't splain the shadows on the two photographs which would be nice to know what was really up with that.
Better go easy though. Lot of sensitivities involved in this. Nobody is going to want to break that mother's heart by discrediting her son.
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