***Ketchup Boy Only Served For FOUR MONTHS***

Stardate: 0402.17

[fnord]

He spent about four months doing this, was slightly wounded three times, found out about a Navy custom of allowing any guy with three Purple Hearts to go home and get the assignment of his choice. Kerry applied and went home.

I'd bet that he first found out about the Navy custom of sending thrice-wounded sailors home, and then managed to acquire 3 superficial "wounds".

[Cuttnhorse]

Um those boats were some of the most dangerouns assignments in 'nam.

You are exactly correct Bronco...I was on Swift Boats #10, #45, and #51, prior to Kerry's arrival. The first casualty on Swift boats was in Feb, 1996, when PCF 4 was sunk by a mine. I know, PCF 4 had just relieved our boat and we returned to provide support and recover bodies about a half hour after being relieved. I have photos somewhere in storage.

As much as I dispise Kerry, I get a little weary of FReepers who seem to think Kerry volunteered for this duty because he knew it was a cush assignment.

[The Wizard]

I was sent to a shrink in Freshman year in high school becasue I looked out the window a lot and played music and had Long hair at a time when NO ONE in the whole town did........I was a mucisian and wasn't interested in school, they thought that was nuts, and sent me to a shrink.....

That time at the shrink made me unacceptable to the draft board......

And I'm not swearing to the 12 months, that's just what I remember.....been in Show business for over 30 years and that impacts on your memory.....

[antiRepublicrat]

Please tell me how President Bush 41' or 43' normalized trade with Vietnam

They did have close personal ties with high-ranking party members. Current Bush may be so nice to China because they're giving his brother lots of money for the sole purpose of his value as the President's brother and possibly the reason they got export permits for sensitive silicon etching equipment.

[Cuttnhorse]

The Grunts would throw mud at the boats and call the crew all sorts of sissy names.

If indeed your husband said this, he is an idiot. All Navy craft are clean and I while what you write sounds clever, I doubt it actually happened.

I was on Swift boats and we used to provide support to both Army and Marines, and the ones I talked to were glad to have the help.

[antiRepublicrat]

Yep! Every time you libs get caught, you alway come out with this "everybody does it" routine. It won't wash any more!

I guess you don't care that we sent state of the art silicon etching equipment to the Chinese under Bush's watch. The president's brother is on a fat retainer as a director for that chip company even though he admittedly has no knowledge in the area and apparently no real job. Coincidence? I doubt it. Yes, everybody does it. Yes, everybody's wrong for doing it.

[Cuttnhorse]

I patroled the same free-fire zones that Kerry did, although I was there in 1966 on Swifts. While they were indeed free-fire zones, as I recall, the SOP was to fire only if fired upon, or if there was boat traffic that refused to heave to. As I recall, free-fire zones meant only that we didn't have to call into base, who called ops in Saigon, then relayed permission to fire.

Crazy way to run a war??

[Stultis]

Is it true that he only missed two days of service because of his "wounds".

That was only for the most serious of the three wounds (piece of shrapnel in the thigh, I believe). That one took him off duty for two days. The other two wounds didn't cause him to miss duty at all. I dunno. I never had combat duty, but some vets have said that those other two wounds sound like the type of thing that you wouldn't apply and/or received a Purple Heart for, unless you're a skate or a pu$$y.

[The Wizard]

pussy or civilian killer

[kcvl]

While in command of Swift Boat 44, Kerry and crew operated without prudence in a Free Fire Zone, carelessly firing at targets of opportunity racking up a number of enemy kills and some civilians. His body count included-- a woman, her baby, a 12 year-old boy, an elderly man and several South Vietnamese soldiers.

"It is one of those terrible things, and I'll never forget, ever, the sight of that child," Kerry later said about the dead baby. "But there was nothing that anybody could have done about it. It was the only instance of that happening."

Kerry said he was appalled that the Navy's ''free fire zone'' policy in Vietnam put civilians at such high risk.
Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968. He was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart.

In late January 1969, Kerry joined a five-man crew on swift boat No. 94 completing 18 missions over 48 days, almost all of them in the Mekong Delta.

Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a minor shrapnel wound in his left thigh on Feb. 20, 1969.

On February 28, 1969:
When Kerry's Patrol Craft Fast 94 received a B-40 rocket shot from shore, he hot dogged his craft beaching it in the center of the enemy position. To his surprise, an enemy soldier sprang up from a hole not ten feet from Patrol Craft 94 and fled.

The boat's machine gunner hit and wounded the fleeing Viet Cong as he darted behind a hootch. The twin .50s gunner fired at the Viet Cong. He said he "laid 50 rounds" into the hootch before Kerry leaped from the boat and dashed in to administer a "coup de grace" to the wounded Viet Cong. Kerry returned with the B-40 rocket and launcher.
Kerry was given a Silver Star for his actions.

Kerry and crew stand together in An Thoi, Vietnam, on February 28, 1969, after presentation of Kerry's Silver Star. He also received a Purple Heart for a minor wound. From left: Del Sandusky, John Kerry, Gene Thorson, Thomas Belodeau. Kneeling from left, Mike Medeiros, Fred Short.

On March 13, 1969, a mine detonated near Kerry's boat, slighting wounding Kerry in the right arm. He was awarded his third Purple Heart.

[MPJackal]

"He was wounded. That's how he came home so soon"

That is not quite accurate. He was slightly wounded three times. He lost a total of two days to injury. He then claimed their was a Navy policy of three Purple Hearts and you go home. He submitted the paperwork and someone signed it. Only problem is no such Navy Reg exisited. Unfortunatly no on can question his record because it is not PC to question a "War Hero". So he gets a pass.

Here are some facts.

1. He served 4 MONTHS in combat
2. He got 3 Purple Hearts for three scratches
3. He threw his medals away and called his fellow servicemen murderers and War Criminals. Now now drapes the flag around himself
4. As the head of Vietnam Vets against the War, he had fake vets tell lies about atrocities they never saw and most likely never happened.
5. He defended Clinton for dodging the draft, yet accuses Bush of being AWOL even after it is proven that is untrue, and he continues to allow his henchmen to continue the lie.

IMHO Kerry is a piece of SH*T.

[antiRepublicrat]

Ketchup boy went into Vietnam with an unpatriotic agenda.

Do you have proof or is that just conjecture?

[Robert A Cook PE]

?

Care to provide some real facts here?

[Robert A Cook PE]

?

Bush's fighters, have, over time, a 1 in 4 crash rate.

Hardly "safe" duty, "easy-boy out" duty.

(Which, by the way, was how Kerry skated out of Nam to an admiral's aide position in Boston. Easy-way out. Claiming a policy which didn't exist. Makes you wonder why his boss was so eager to get rid of him, doesn't it.)

Which he ALSO left early from.

[Mike Darancette]

Chrissy Matthews saying he was taking heavy fire from both banks.

A swift boat is only safe when it is being swift.

Heavy fire from both banks? Call in an air strike!

[GOPJ]

Bump: When is the media going to ask Mrs. Ketchup to close some of those 57 overseas plants...

[antiRepublicrat]

Care to provide some real facts here?

It's all public record. I'm sure Google will show you everything. The president's father had close personal ties with influential Chinese party members. The president's brother is currently on retainer to a large Chinese chipmaking firm with very close ties to the communist leadership although he has nothing to offer them except for who he is related to. That same firm was later allowed to import from the U.S. sensitive, controlled chipmaking equipment.

[atlaw]

Real facts? Let’s see, thus far on this thread we have: Kerry was a craven coward; Kerry was an unpatriotic chicken; four months on a swift boat was nothing; swift boat service was for pansies; Kerry was a loose cannon; Kerry was a baby-killer; Kerry was a murderer and a war criminal; Kerry’s superiors were happy to see a maniac like him go; Kerry acted like a deranged maniac just so he could get a medal to advance his political career; Kerry should never have gotten any medals because he was never really wounded; we know nothing about Kerry's service in Vietnam because he won’t release his records; it’s strange how Kerry’s “term of duty is so well documented, right down to video clips. How does he explain that?” . . .

Maybe we should pick one unsubstantiated, mudslinging rumor and stick with it. Or better yet, maybe we should leave this issue alone because it plays lousy with the voters, and instead go after Kerry on his policies and political record, an area that really matters in the here and now.

[syriacus]

As much as I dispise Kerry, I get a little weary of FReepers who seem to think Kerry volunteered for this duty because he knew it was a cush assignment.

Maybe not cush, but

Kerry is on the record saying he chose the swift boat assignment because he thought it would be safer than other assignments

From the Boston Post,

Heroism, and growing concern about war