IT'S A small WORLD - My time with the POW/MIA office

NavyChief

Joining this website in August and throwing my two cents worth into the discussion surrounding the SBVT controversy, I had no idea what a small world this would be.

I worked on the US/Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIA with various Senators, Congressmen, STATE and DOD officials for 4 years. This is where my first encounter with Senator Kerry came from. His office was aloof in our work on this important issue. They refused to participate in our findings and hard work to account for American POW/MIAS from WWII, Korea, Cold War, and Vietnam -- even though Senator Kerry was appointed the Co-Chairman of the Vietnam War Working Group by President Bush Sr in 1992.

As you can see, my two worlds came together while working with the SBVT and the POW/MIA issue. And now I rejoice in the union of the SBVT and the POWs for Truth. This issue is tying my fate to this cause even more every day.

Strangely, one of the very incidents (13 Mar 69) of which we've been working so deligently on in the past two months, has even more significance than I thought. You see, the USS WASHTENAW COUNTY (LST-1166) was one of the main focus for our attention in nailing down the timeline of what happened that day. Yet, miles away another little known ship, USS SPHINX (ARL-24) was providing its support to the war effort. Many years later, in 1988, the USS SPHINX became my home for a year in Central America. She was very special to me as my first tour on a Navy Ship. Again, the irony of the SPHINX and WASHTENAW COUNTY would cross again, but only known to myself. Our homeport was Rodman Naval Base, Panama City, Panama. Unbeknowst to me at the time, the large LST that sat 100 yards away from our pier was the WASHTENAW COUNTY. She had been sold to a Panamanian company and was sitting right there all along. Of course, she had no markings of the USS at the time. Nor, did she have her previous glorious coloring of "Haze Grey".

I had even reported at one time that the ship was obviously collecting intelligence on the incoming traffic into the Panama Canal. My Commanding Officer was a little surprised by this as we all believed at the time that she was being run by the Panamanians, at a time previous to our invasion of that country. Now I find out that she was being used by our own CIA, which I've worked with in the past. It's a small world.

Very few people know of which I'm about to divulge regarding my time with the POW/MIA office. I have been waiting to tell someone about this, since I've been working with the actions in Vietnam for the past several months.

In 1995, shortly after I returned from a tour at the American Embassy in Moscow, Russia, our office received information that the Polish government had compiled a list of some 12,500 names of Americans MIA from WWII, Korea, Cold War and Vietnam. You should remember that Poland was a Soviet Union satellite country for many years. They were quick to capitalize on their freedom from the Soviet Union and it's downfall in late 1991. The Polish government had been in charge of the IRCR mission, which saw many of our POWs in captivity in Vietnam and had access to them when our own government did not. They claimed to know the disposition of these 12,500 American servicemen and were willing to give us the information if done secretly. During this timeframe, President Clinton wanted Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary to join the NATO alliance to bolster his legacy. In an effort to slow down their joining NATO and use the POW/MIA issue to our advantage and get this list, Senator Robert Smith (NH-R) managed to place a stipulation in the Treaty allowing these countries to join NATO. Senator Smith had been doing most of the work as another Co-Chairman of the Vietnam War Working Group, while Senator Kerry's absense was felt keenly during those years of the Democratic run Executive Branch. Our office found no friends in the Clinton administration to help us in our struggle to account fully for our POW/MIAs and Kerry's influence would have been essential to secure that assistance. It never came. The stipulation placed in the Treaty was intended to allow our office to prepare for a trip to Poland and retrieve this list. We finally came to an agreement with the Polish officials and made our travel arrangements to retrieve the list. Alas, President Clinton took it upon himself to declare that all three countries had been forthcoming in a full accounting of any and all information regarding American POW/MIAs from WWII to the present. Our office was crushed! We had worked so hard and carefully to get that list and with a deft swoop of the pen -- President Clinton had defeated all our efforts.

An immediate protest went up from our office to the President (after all, we were the Presidential Commission tasked with this effort). President Clinton had not consulted with us before his declaration, nor did any of his staff. Everyone within the STATE Department and DOD were baffled when confronted with the knowledge, that our office had not given the President the green light. Once, the President had been confronted by this information, he replied that he had been told that a full accounting was achieved. Not a single person in the government (and certainly not our office), was willing to confess to this outrageous defeat. All eyes had turned to the one Commissioner who had the authority to speak on behalf of POW/MIA issues. The one who was a senior Senator amongst the Democratic Party and had access to the President's ear. The one who never showed up to work on this issue. The one who had already closed the case on the POW/MIA issue from the Vietnam War.

To really know the truth why President Clinton had done this to the families and friends of 12,500 American servicemen, will probably never come to light. We shall never know for sure if our candidate to whom President Clinton stated in his DNC speech said, "Send Me" for the POW issue, was responsible for the statement that a full accounting had been achieved. We shall never know this for sure and it can only be called speculation by those on the outside. But a few of us who worked this issue to the core of our beings -- we will know. We will bear the knowledge that our political system is ugly. We will know when we look at the families of those who have not found closure.

I will know that this is indeed a small world.

- Chief _________

________ Working with Senator Kerry four years in the POW/MIA Office left me thinking

-- when did the man ever do any work?

"But, as much as I don't like John Kerry, I don't believe he is responsible - at least not as much as this poster would have you believe - for the non return of the POW/MIAs. It was a joint/bi-partisan investigation and BOTH sides generated the final report"

Pay attention Troll!

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/opinion/s_248296.html

Sunday, September 5, 2004

My fellow veterans, the debate over whether John Kerry earned or deserved any medals or ribbons is for others. What is most concerning is his behavior while still an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Let me try and put this in perspective.
According to publicly available records, Mr. Kerry was released from active duty and transferred to the Naval Reserve (inactive) in January 1970. In January 1972, he was transferred to the standby Reserve (inactive). While a commissioned officer in the inactive Naval Reserve, Mr. Kerry traveled to Paris, France, and met with official delegations from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (the Viet Cong). The Vietnamese Communists eagerly met Mr. Kerry and benefited directly from the obvious propaganda victory.

These acts are clear violations of the legal prohibitions on individual citizens negotiating with foreign powers and the constitutional prohibition against giving support to our nation's enemies in wartime. Additionally, as a commissioned officer of the Naval Reserve, Mr. Kerry was subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and likely violated it ("aiding the enemy") through his actions with the North Vietnamese/Viet Cong delegation.

Mr. Kerry returned from his private negotiations with the Vietnamese Communists to Washington, D.C., and held a news conference. At the press event, he advocated a Vietnamese Communist "peace proposal" calling for a U. S. withdrawal from Vietnam and payment of war damage reparations to the communist government. Mr. Kerry engaged in this advocacy on behalf of a foreign power with which we were at war while continuing to hold a commission as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

The record is clear on his testimony to the Senate on U.S. war crimes and his advocacy of the North Vietnamese position.

Again, the medal debate is for others, although I know of a lot of brave men who did much more and got no recognition for their bravery under fire.

James Laux, Lt. Colonel (Retired), U. S. Army, Buffalo

JOHN KERRY & VIETNAM--THE WOUNDS THAT NEVER HEAL
Ad, ran in Marine Corps Times | September 6, 2004 |
Dexter Lehtinen
former U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Florida

In 1971, I awakened after three days of unconsciousness aboard a hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam. I could not see, my jaws were wired shut, and my left cheekbone was missing, a gaping hole in its place.

Later, while still in that condition at St. Albans Naval Hospital, one of my earliest recollections was hearing of John Kerry's testimony before Congress. I remember lying there, in disbelief, as I learned how Kerry told the world that I served in an Army reminiscent of Genghis Khan's; that officers like me routinely let their men plunder villages and rape villagers at will; that "war crimes" committed in Vietnam by my fellow soldiers "were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

Then Kerry went to Paris, meeting with North Vietnamese enemy officials, all while our soldiers still fought in the field. The pain and disbelief I felt listening to his words went deeper than the pain I felt from the enemy fire which seriously wounded my face.

Eighteen months later I was discharged from the hospital, the wounds inflicted by the enemy fully healed. But more than 30 years later, the wounds inflicted by John Kerry continue to bring pain to scores of Vietnam veterans. Those wounds--the bearing of false witness against me and a generation of courageous young Americans who fought and died in Vietnam--are much more serious than any wound warranting a Purple Heart. Those wounds go to the heart and soul. Those wounds never go away.

Today, my son is a Marine Corps weapons officer, flying the F/A 18 Hornet. He belongs to the same Marine Corps Kerry ridiculed with his 1971 book cover showing protestors simulating the Iwo Jima Memorial, raising an upside-down American flag. He flies the same F/A 18 fighter jet Kerry voted against in the U.S. Senate. And today, Kerry's picture hangs in an honored place in Saigon's war museum, as a hero to the Vietnamese Communists.

Yet, John Kerry shamelessly drapes himself in the imagery of Vietnam, military service and the support of veterans, devoid of any media scrutiny. Meanwhile, the criticism and disapproval of Kerry by scores of veterans continues to fall on deaf ears. Worse yet, any legitimate criticism of Kerry's post-war record is discredited as a "personal" attack or an attack against his service.

John Kerry is quick to surround himself with a handful of veterans and claims overwhelming support from the veteran community. He ignores, nowever, the wounds he inflicted on millions of veterans, and he refuses to sign a waiver to release his military personnel and medical recoreds. This is the portrait of a man who has failed to come to terms with his treacherous past.

Army paratrooper and Ranger Dexter Lehtinen was severely wounded in 1971 while a reconnaisance platoon leader in Vietnam. He later was graduated first in his class from Stanford Law School and served as a Florida State Senator and the United States Attorney in Miami.

I, Dexter Lehtinen, paid for this ad personally, without any connection to other individuals or groups, because I want the public to know what John Kerry did to our Vietnam veterans.

http://www.nopunditintended.com/?q=Letter-From-MOH-Recipient-Col-Bud-Day

Dear Joe: The major issue in the Swiftboat stories is, and always has been, what John Kerry did in 1971 after he returned from Vietnam.

Kerry cast a long dark shadow over all Vietnam Veterans with his outright perjury before the Senate concerning atrocities in Vietnam. His stories to the Senate committee were absolute lies.. fabrications.. perjury.. fantasies, with NO substance. That dark shadow has defamed the entire Vietnam War veteran population, and gave "Aid and Comfort" to our enemies..the Vietnamese Communists. Kerry's stories were outright fabrications, and were intended for political gain with the radical left..McGovern, Teddy and Bobby Kennedy followers, Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, and the radical left who fantasized that George McGovern was going to be elected in 1972. Little wonder that returning soldiers from Vietnam were spit upon and castigated as "baby killers". A returned war hero said so.

Kerry cut a dashing figure as a war hero, lots of medals, and returned home because of multiple war wounds..even a silver star. His Senate testimony confirmed what every hippie had been chanting on the streets.."Hey hey LBJ..How many kids did you kill today"????? He obviously was running for political office in 1971.

Until Lt. John O' Neil, himself a Swifboat commander, spoke out before the 1972 elections against Kerry's outright deceptions, there was no one from the Swiftboat scene that could contradict Kerry's self serving lies.

I was a POW of the Vietnamese in Hanoi in 1971, and I am aware that the testimony of John Kerry, the actions of Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, and the radical left; all caused the commies to conclude that if they hung on..they would win. North Vietnamese General Bui Tin commented that every day the Communist leadership listened to world news over the radio to follow the growth of the anti-war movement. Visits to Hanoi by Jane Fonda and Ramsey Clark gave them confidence to hold in the face of battlefield reverses. The guts of it was that propaganda from the anti-war group was part of their combat strategy.

While the Commies were hanging on, innumerable U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Air Foce members were being killed in combat. Every battle wound to Americans after Kerry's misdirected testimony is related to Kerry's untruthfulness. John Kerry contributed to every one of these deaths with his lies about U.S. atrocities in Vietnam. He likewise defamed the U.S. with our allies and supporters.
His conduct also extended the imprisonment of the Vietnam Prisoners of War, of which I was one. I am certain of at least one POW death after his testimony, which might have been prevented with an earlier release of the POWs.

My friend and room mate Senator John S. McCain denounced the Swiftboat video by John O'Neil. I have a different take on the Swiftboat tape and disagree with my good friend John.
John Kerry opened up his character as a war hero reporting for duty to the country with a hand salute...and his band of brothers..of which he was the chief hero. Most of his convention speech was about John Kerry..Vietnam hero, and his band of brothers. John Kerry's character is not only fair game, it is the primary issue. He wants to use Bill Clinton's "is", as an answer to his lack of character.

The issue is trust. Can anyone trust John Kerry?? "Never lie, cheat or steal" is the West Point motto. When a witness perjures himself at trial, the judge notes that his testimony lacks crediblity. Should we elect a known proven liar to lead us in wartime??

I draw a direct comparison of General Benedict Arnold of the Revolutionary War, to Lieutenant John Kerry. Both went off to war, fought, and then turned against their country. General Arnold crossed over to the British for money and position. John Kerry crossed over to the Vietnamese with his assistance to the anti-war movement, and his direct liason with the Vietnamese diplomats in Paris. His reward. Political gain. Senator..United States.

His record as a Senator for twenty years has been pitiful. Conjure up, if you will, one major bill that he has sponsored.
John Kerry for President? Ridiculous. Unthinkable. Unbelievable. Outrageous.

Col. Geo. "Bud" Day Medal of Honor Vietnam POW 1967-1973 USMC- USA- USA Attorney 1949-2004

From Kerry's "The New Soldier":
Al Hubbard Sgt., 22 Troop Carrier Squadron Aug. ’65-June ’66

Emotions: Walking down the flight line at Saigon past stacks of aluminum cases containing American bodies and past stacks of aluminum luggage containing American currency. Seeing the tight, sad face of an Airman loading the bodies aboard a dirty Air Force Transport and the wide smiling face of a stewardess greeting the passengers aboard a clean Pan American Clipper Jet. Hearing a Vietnamese beg you to leave his country and an American colonel tells you to bomb his country. Hearing a Vietnamese invite you to live in his home, after the war and an American explain why you can’t live in his block, after the war. Flying over barren, brown, safe American held terrain and over lush, green unsafe enemy terrain. Feeling happy to be leaving a country in which you do not belong and sad to be returning to a country in which you are not allowed to belong. Sacrificing a portion of your consciousness so you won’t have to deal with being there and building mental blocks so you won’t have to deal with having been there.

- 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."

"Phony Vietnam veterans alleged in books
Guenter Lewy's 1978 book America in Vietnam (pages 316-317) and B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley's Stolen Valor (Verity Press, Inc., Dallas, Texas)(pages 113, 131-137) contain similar information about alleged flaws in Lane's book. Neither book, however, refutes any of the testimony given during the Winter Soldier Investigation.

Lawyer and leftist activist Mark Lane was one of the organizers of Winter Soldier. In 1970, Lane had published a book called Conversations With Americans purporting to be interviews with Vietnam veterans about war crimes, containing Vietnam tales of atrocities. Reporter Neil Sheehan showed some interviewed in Lane's book had never served in Vietnam and others had not been in the situations they described. Lane admitted he did not check military records, as confirmation of details was not relevant. Lane later confirmed these militarty records.
The following are often falsely listed as being participants in Winter Soldier, but were actually in Lane's book instead. This confusion is probably due to Stolen Valor having an explanation of Lane's history within the section on Winter Soldier.
Chuck Onan, stock room clerk in Beaufort, S.C.
Michael Schneider, deserted in Europe and deserted again in the USA.
Terry Whitmore, was in an unpopulated area of Vietnam.
Garry Gianninoto, medical corpsman at battalion headquarters.
VVAW leader and Winter Soldier co-organizer Al Hubbard lied about being an officer, and sustaining war injuries - but he never testified at Winter Soldier .
According to the investigative work of Burkett, Lewy and others, there were many imposters, liars, and plain nutjobs who infiltrated the ranks of the anti-war movement, and, in some cases, testified to war crimes and atrocities that never occurred in order to get attention, sympathy, and, in one documented case, medals and honors."

http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/W/Winter-Soldier-Investigation.htm

GRIDLEY Crew members (67-68) say Kerry exaggerated in TOUR OF DUTY

"...John Kerry and I were shipmates in the guided missile cruiser USS
Gridley (CG-21) in 1967 and 1968. He served as First Lieutenant, the
officer in charge of the deck division, and I was Executive Officer,
or second in command..."

"...But there is also no doubt in my mind that his anti-war
activities while our troops were still fighting, dying and being
tortured in filthy Vietnam prisons were despicable.

For that reason, even aside from his anti-defense voting record in
the Senate, he is one ex-shipmate that I could never support as
commander-in-chief of the armed forces."

J. F. Kelly, Jr.

USS Gridley (CG-21) Executive Officer in 1967 and 1968.

GRIDLEY Website page on John Kerry

http://home.nycap.rr.com/pwcarter/the%20kerry%20page.html

Other crew members speak about John Kerry

(Looks like Kerry's shipmates, who did serve with him,
say he lied and told whoopers about his time on the GRIDLEY.

Remember these are not Swift Boat Vets,

BUT Kerry's crewmates who served with him on the GRIDLEY)

Examples follow:

"As everyone must surely know by now, John F. Kerry came on board
GRIDLEY as a boot Ensign when we returned from our 1967 Westpac
Cruise. He remained on GRIDLEY through the 1968 cruise. Politics
aside, shipmates of the time who have read TOUR OF DUTY, the
authorized campaign biography, will have something to say about the
chapter on GRIDLEY. "

1. Kerry never talked about his time on GRIDLEY. He says on page
74 that it is because “nothing much of note” happened while
he was
onboard. He uses words like monotony and tedious, when, despite
being a boot ensign he was given every opportunity for responsibility
by Captain Slifer and Commander Kelly (XO). He came aboard
designated for Electrical Officer (80100), a grunt position in the
Engineering Department and spent four months in that position. He
was assigned duty as First Lieutenant, as Commander Kelly recalls,
because of his knowledge of seamanship and his experiences with small
boats and sailing. Besides being responsible for the decks of the
ship, the First Lieutenant is also responsible for the ship’s
small
boats. He also was assigned collateral duties as Public Affairs
Officer. Despite all the responsibilities he was given, he gives the
impression that serving on GRIDLEY was somehow beneath him. He
certainly had less of an opportunity to collect “gongs” there.

2. Page 78 – “motivate 400 swabbies” – The First
Lieutenant is
responsible only for the personnel of 1st Division, not the entire
crew. 1st Division had a roster of about 30 in 1968. To the extent
that other divisions had responsibility for deck space, their
officers would have been responsible for motivating them.

3. Page 87 has Kerry “shuttling sailors and provisions”
between
GRIDLEY and KITTY HAWK in a small motor whaleboat out in the Gulf of
Tonkin. The regular method of travel between the two ships was via
helo. That is how I went over to the KITTY HAWK. If such an event
did occur, it would have been unusual and hardly a shuttle.

4. Later on page 87 Kerry talks about Olongapo in the Philippines.
He talks about bloated corpses floating in the river and starving
women with babies dying of malnutrition. Now Olongapo was a wild and
wooly town that existed solely for the entertainment of the US Navy,
but in over three years of calling there, I never saw a single
instance of either thing happening. Kerry uncovered this in his
first visit. If this was from his letters home then he was certainly
writing for dramatic effect. Balderdash.

5. The trip to Danang – GRIDLEY went into Danang for briefings
before going to Northern SAR. This section is so full of hyperbole
that the urge to giggle is almost uncontrollable. “The panic and
pressure onboard GRIDLEY, strapping on a .45, wondering if I would
have to use it, B-52’s howling overhead”. A B-52 over Danang
would
have been so high that only contrails would have been visible, cloud
cover permitting. David Simons confirmed my recollection that during
our brief stay in Danang Harbor, the sky was overcast to the point of
being ominous.

More seriously, no one can remember John Kerry going ashore. I was
part of the shore party that went to Monkey Mountain. We were taken
in a screened in truck (to protect against grenades being tossed in)
and made to unload our .45’s. The driver said that he did not
want
us newbies to shoot anyone by accident.

Neither Commander Kelly nor LCDR Rueckert (Kerry’s immediate
boss)
can recall approving a trip ashore for Ensign Kerry. The author uses
remarks of David Simons IC2 as a lead in to the Danang section. I
spoke to David and he has no personal knowledge of Kerry going ashore
at all. He did talk to a researcher and made some generic remarks
about Danang but had never discussed Danang with Kerry. He recalls
arguing with the researcher because he tried to put the
words “cowboy” in his mouth, which ended up in the book.

There is no mystery about the “gruesome site of a pile of dead
VC.”
We saw no sign of anything like this. However, our escort to Monkey
Mountain did tell us how the VC bodies were stacked up on the
LZ’s
after the TET Offensive, which had been several months before.
Ensign Kerry would have been told this story by members of the shore
party.

If, indeed, he got to the pier, because he was in charge of the
motor whaleboat, it certainly would not have been within his purview
to wander Danang, eating dog meat and drinking beer in a bar (under
arms). It also seems amazing that he had all these observations on
Vietnam in such a brief visit.

6. In command – Again with the hyperbole. Kerry makes much
about
being “in charge” of the ship after the Captain and XO. The
OOD is
in charge of the operation of the ship during his four hour watch but
hardly in charge of the ship. Kerry qualified almost immediately as
OOD(P), in port OOD but that is a given. For much of his time
onboard he would have been Junior Officer of the Deck when underway.
Although his fitness report as of 22 March says "he is qualified as
OOD(I) now" (Independent steaming – with no ships or land
anywhere
near) , only OOD(P) is listed under duties. His Fitness Report from
July 1968 lists two months as OOD(I) which would mean he qualified
after leaving the war zone.

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