Kerry Meets Soldier He Saved in Vietnam (Didn't know he was a Vietnam Vet Alert)
NY Times ^ | 1-18-04 | DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Posted on 01/18/2004 4:25:29 PM EST by Indy Pendance
DES MOINES, Jan. 17 — It is March 13, 1969, and Lt. John Kerry, 25, a Silver Star winner and holder of two Purple Hearts, is piloting his Navy boat up the treacherous Bay Hap River in Vietnam, a day after escaping a Vietcong ambush.
Suddenly, a mine blast rocks the boat and enemy fire explodes from both banks. Lieutenant Kerry is thrown into the bulkhead, bashing his head and arm. And then, from the fantail, comes a cry, "Man overboard!" A Special Forces officer — a tall, sharp-featured, redheaded lieutenant Mr. Kerry would remember only as Rassmann — is 200 yards aft, surfacing and diving for his life as snipers rake the river.
In the chaos, Mr. Kerry turns the boat on a dime, races forward, pulls the soldier into the bow and steers to safety. As a result, he wins the Bronze Star with a combat "V" for valor and his third Purple Heart: a ticket home from Vietnam for good.
He never sees Rassmann again.
Until Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004, a day after Jim Rassmann, 56, a retired Los Angeles sheriff's deputy and orchid lover, awoke in Florence, Ore., and decided to contact Senator John Kerry's campaign.
So Mr. Rassmann flew to Iowa. "I'm a news junkie," he said at a news conference here. "I've followed John's career since '84. I wrote him a letter then and invited him to dinner if he ever came to L.A. Never heard back."
"I'm a Volvo Republican, a practical idealist," Mr. Rassmann continued. "He stands for things I'd like to stand for. And he's an honest man. With a good healthy ego, but not an ego that knows no bounds."
En route from Davenport, Mr. Kerry was staggered to learn by phone of Mr. Rassmann's emergence. "I'm amazed," he said in a raspy, halting voice. "It's stunning. It's amazing to have a guy from 35 years ago just appear."
He said, "You know, I never thought I'd ever see the guy again."
About 4:30 p.m., he did: Mr. Rassmann, not so tall, not so sharp-featured now, his not-so-red hair thinning on top, embraced Mr. Kerry. His broad, beaming face quickly melted into sobs. Mr. Kerry squeezed it in both hands.
Collecting himself, Mr. Rassmann spoke up. "John didn't have to, but he came to the front under fire," he said. "The bow, pardon me, sir. I always had a problem with Navy terminology. And pulled me over. Had he not, there's no question in my mind that I probably would've fallen back into the river. He could've been shot and killed at any time, and so could I. So I figure I probably owe this man my life."
Mr. Kerry listened, then told a mob of television cameras and political reporters, "This is a brave, unbelievably patriotic American."
To which Mr. Rassmann added an endorsement of his own: "He's going to get my vote."