Why James Rassmann Is Honestly Mistaken About John Kerry Saving His Life

Intellectual Conservative ^ | 8-24-04 | Grant K. Holcomb

[kingattax]

The Officers-in-Charge of Swift boats PCF-51, PCF-23, PCF-43, and PCF-3 state that they were not receiving enemy fire after the mine explosion.

[chaosagent]

PING

[kingattax]

PING

[ProudVet77]

The Major's analysis appears sound.
I would mention one thing. Sometimes in a riverboat fight it is best to speed away. The PCF could put 3 .50s on targets to the stern. It's also why the boats the Navy SEALs used had a 30 cal minigun mounted on the stern. (Along with a .50 cal) By speeding away you could be out of range in a minute or less.
In this instance since a boat had been crippled speeding away was NOT an option. As OITC of the 5 boats it was gross dereliction of duty. As this was his last mission, I'm more suspect than ever that Kerry was forced out by his peers.

[JLS]

As he said, no bullet holes in any of the Swift Boats is very strong evidence of no enemy fire.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

TRANSCRIPT: 8/26/04
Steve Gardner, Foregunner, PCF44:
http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/gardner2.mpg

"I spent more time on John Kerry's boat than any other crewmember.

John Kerry hasn't been honest - he has been deceitful.

John Kerry claims that he spent Christmas, in 1968, in Cambodia.

And that is catagorically a lie. Not in December. Not in January.

We were never in Cambodia on a secret mission. Ever."

Ramsey Clark to Join Panel for Saddam’s Defense

arabnews press release 25 August 2004

NOTE :
Ramsey Clark is pictured below with Kerry and
Vietnam phony vet Al Hubbard
Who was head of the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement.


Al Hubbard Sgt., 22 Troop Carrier Squadron Aug. ’65-June ’66
- Al Hubbard, proven fraud who never set foot in Viet Nam.
The only Vietnamese he ever met was
when he was collaborating with the North Vietnamese in Paris
on the American Communist Party's nickel.

John Kerry's explanation:
"He (Hubbard) simply exaggarated his particular position.
But nobody knew it at the time. And those things happen."

NEW:
FReeper smith288 has an online version of
Kerry's "The New Soldier"
You can read it without downloading pdf files!
CLICK HERE

The New Soldier, (46 pages)
By John Kerry
and Vietnam Veterans
Against the War
PART I (pdf file)
PART II (pdf file)
PART III (pdf file)

Kerry hopes everyone
in the USA gets this book!

NEW:
“Without question,
we were held captive longer
because of the anti-war people,
the Kerrys, the Fondas and Haydens,
the names we knew over there -
they encouraged the enemy to hang on.”
Excerpt from “Stolen Honor” website
- Leo Thorsness
Former Vietnam POW
CLICK HERE

Jane Fonda tells the student audience at the Michigan State University in 1969;
"I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope,
you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communist."

Joe Moore, Can Tho Airfield 550th Signal Company

Copy and paste the links to everyone you know.

Send this url for the Steve Gardner video

http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/gardner2.mpg

Send this url for the online version

http://ejsmithweb.com/fr/newsoldier/

Send this url for the Stolen Honor website

http://www.stolenhonor.com/

Print this out (46 pages) and disribute it,
especially to the liberals you know.

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier%20Inro.pdf

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier.pdf

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier%20Epilogue.pdf

[ProudVet77]

I agree completely.
As well as no other wounds other than the PCF-3 crew, which all concussions/contusions and no shrapnel/bullet wounds.
It would be impossible not to hit one of the 4 boats that were essentially circling the wagons.
Down deep I'm sure Kerry ran. His fellow officers will never go as far as to say that, but I really believe it.
His job should have been to go 50 yards down stream and take up a blocking position in case of any sampans came up river, and it would leave him in a good spot to remain in tactical control of the 5 boats and provide supporting fire.
Maybe the rice in his butt damage his thinking capabilities.
This incident is why I think Delbert Sandusky is part of it. Only he and Kerry were in the pilot house.

[smonk]

unless he drowned, I suppose.

[JLS]

I am not one to quibble over what exactly Kerry should have done. I have no military experience and I think a natural reaction to an explosion is to get out of the area.

Of course a natural reaction to losing someone off your boat is to stop and pick them up. But Rassman was a visitor so it might have taken them a while to figure out he was missing. In any event, he did go back up to form up with the other Swift Boats and search for Rassman

The irony is that Kerry's actions rather than saving Rassman actually almost cost him his life. Had Kerry not bolted either he would not have hit an object or he would not have moved so suddenly that Rassman ended up in the drink.

But the clear issue to me in all of this is that Kerry's first Purple Heart was self inflicted not under enemy fire so he should not have gotten it and Kerry's third purple heart was another self inflicted injury not under enemy fire, ie the attack on the rice storage not the mine incident. [My understanding which is much better now is that one can not cut oneself shaving in the morning, come under enemy fire later that day and claim a Purple Heart? Or say a pilot can not cut his finger on a sharp bit of metal on his plane getting in the cockpit and claim a Purple Heart if he is later fired on in the mission?]

Purple Hearts are much less subjective than Bronze or Silver Stars. Kerry's first and third are very clear to me now.