Something's fishy.

The Essex Soapbox ^ | February 17, 2004 | Mike Morrison

[Bubba_Leroy]

I've long thought that John Kerry's war record was phoney. We talked about it when you were here. It's mainly been instinct because, as you know, nobody who claims to have seen the action he does would so shamelessly flaunt it for political gain.

I was in the Delta shortly after he left. I know that area well. I know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the doctrine used. I know the equipment. Although I was attached to CTF-116 (PBRs) I spent a fair amount of time with CTF-115 (swift boats), Kerry's command.

Here are my problems and suspicions:

(1) Kerry was in-country less than four months and collected, a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three purple hearts. I never heard of anybody with any outfit I worked with (including SEAL One, the Sea Wolves, Riverines and the River Patrol Force) collecting that much hardware so fast, and for such pedestrian actions. The Swifts did a commendable job. But that duty wasn't the worst you could draw. They operated only along the coast and in the major rivers (Bassac and Mekong). The rough stuff in the hot areas was mainly handled by the smaller, faster PBRs. Fishy.

(2) Three Purple Hearts but no limp.. All injuries so minor that no time lost from duty. Amazing luck. Or he was putting himself in for medals every time he bumped his head on the wheel house hatch? Combat on the boats was almost always at close range. You didn't have minor wounds. At least not often. Not three times in a row. Then he used the three purple hearts to request a trip home eight months before the end of his tour.. Fishy.

(3) The details of the event for which he was given the Silver Star make no sense at all. Supposedly, a B-40 (rocket propelled grenade) was fired at the boat and missed. Charlie jumps up with the launcher in his hand, the bow gunner knocks him down with the twin .50 (caliber machine guns), Kerry beaches the boat, jumps off, shoots Charlie, and retrieves the launcher. If true, he did everything wrong. (a) Standard procedure when you took rocket fire was to put your stern to the action and go (away) balls to the wall. A B-40 has the ballistic integrity of a Frisbee after about 25 yards, so you put 50 yards or so between you and the beach and begin raking it with your .50's. (b) Did you ever see anybody get knocked down with a .50 caliber round and get up? The guy was dead or dying. The rocket launcher was empty. There was no reason to go after him (except if you knew he was no danger to you - just flopping around in the dust during his last few seconds on earth, and you wanted some derring-do in your after-action report). And we didn't shoot wounded people. We had rules against that, too. (c) Kerry got off the boat. This was a major breach of standing procedures. Nobody on a boat crew ever got off a boat in a hot area. EVER! The reason was simple. If you had somebody on the beach your boat was defenseless. It couldn't run and it couldn't return fire. It was stupid and it put his crew in danger. He should have been relieved and reprimanded. I never heard of any boat crewman ever leaving a boat during or after a firefight.

Something is very fishy.

Here we have a JFK wannabe who is hardly in Vietnam long enough to get a good tan, collects medals faster than Audie Murphy in a job where lots of medals weren't common, gets sent home eight months early, requests separation from active duty a few months after that so he can run for Congress, finds out war heros don't sell well in Massachusetts in 1970 so reinvents himself as Jane Fonda, throws his ribbons in the dirt with the cameras running to jump start his political career, gets Stillborn Pell to invite him to address Congress and Bobby Kennedy's speechwriter to do the heavy lifting, winds up in the Senate himself a few years later, votes against every major defense bill, says the CIA is irrelevant after the Wall (Berlin) came down, votes against the Gulf War, a big mistake since that turned out well, decides not to make the same mistake twice so votes for invading Iraq, but oops, that didn't turn out so well so he now says he really didn't mean for Bush to go to war when he voted to allow him to go to war.

I'm real glad you or I never had this guy covering out flanks in Vietnam. I sure don't want him as Commander in Chief. I hope that somebody from CTF-115 shows up with some documented facts challenging Kerry's Vietnam record.

I know in my gut it's wildly inflated. And fishy.

This e-mail was written by Mike Morrison, who won a bronze star in Vietnam and who is now retired, but wrote speeches for Lee Iacocca for many years. It was sent to his brother Ed, who sent it to one of our readers who follows such matters. -Ed.-

[Lancey Howard]

bttt

[js1138]

This argument has been making the rounds on FR for a month now. Here's what I think is fishy: First Dean in in the Lead, but he gets nuked. Clark is nuked. On the surface both of these guys seem to have nuked thenmselves, but the question remains, why did the press go after them at times when they were most vulnerable. The press did not go after Kerry.

And now Kerry is in the lead and seems likely to have the delegates. Suppose the press starts taking these questions seriously between the primaries and the convention. Could Kerry be forced to drop out, forcing a brokered convention? And who would benefit from that?

[MEG33]

Not over his service in Vietnam...

[js1138]

Nearly Everyone with a Combat Medal I have encountered has Declined to Discuss the "Medal Incident!!"

Kery will decline also, for reasons that are becoming obvious. the problem is the dems have chosen these incidents as his primary qualification for office.

The Republicans cannot make this an issue. It is up to Vietnam veterans to make this an issue.

[MJY1288]

Ditto,

My Father served in WWII developing the Proximity Fuse or VT Fuse that was used on the first Nuclear Bombs, at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. He later served 2 tours in Korea gathering Intel for battlefield logistics planning for the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as Tactical Warfare planning.

He was awarded a Bronze Star, and 9 other medals during his 21 years of service. I never knew a thing about his medals until I made a formal request for his Military records after his death 2 years ago.

Real Heroes never have to remind anyone of their actions, the actions of real heroes are never forgotten!, John Kerry is a fraud

[Indie]

In my best Jack Nicholson voice: "The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his A$$!"

I can't wait for this scumbag to implode.

[Salvation]

What You Don't Know about John Kerry

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Interesting.

[A Citizen Reporter]

"I thing it's time we all see John Forbes Kerry's Military records."

Since the RATS are so big on releasing records, I'm quite sure we could get Chuckie Schumer to jump on this bandwagon.

Chuckie, do you want to see John Forbes Kerry's military records as much as you wanted to Estrada's?

[MEG33]

It's the input of those who were there,in swift boats in his area at the time he was ,that would really be interesting.I am not qualified to assess his behavior at war.

I am qualified to see and hear what he did and the harm he caused when he came home.His voting record has caused a lot of harm ,too.

[sarasmom]

I understand your point, but I do not totally agree with you.
The "intern" problem is sleasy muckraking, and I dont think people should rush to jump on that bandwagon untill and unless some actual proof, like the supposed video interview is made public.
Kerry's unusual war record, and his subsequent activities as an anti-war activist are legitimate issues that deserve full court press.
I do agree holding fire untill the he is actually nominated would normally be the correct thing to do.
Except now we have the new CFR rules to deal with.
And the neverending daily installments of Media instigated sniper attacks on President Bush.
Information management is no longer something politicians and the press can controll and manipulate.
God bless the internet!
Knowledge is power, and its long past time the actual majority of citizens of this country reclaim our power, and step up to the plate to accept our individual duty to use it wisely.
The pendulum is is motion, and the tyranny of the minority is about to feel an overdue backlash.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Will the media block all attempts to bring this information to the general public?

[js1138]

Not over his service in Vietnam...

Not over the service. Over medal inflation.

I know personally that many honorable people took the first opportunity to get out of Vietnam. Unless you planned a military career, who wouldn't?

In 1968 morale was at an all time low. This was the year that the big buildup was completed, yet it was obvious that LBJ had no plans to actually win the war. Those of us in Nam read about the debacle in Chicago. We knew that American public opinion was turning against the war. The word "Short!" was the most common thing heard, as in short-timer.

I do not begrudge Kerry his self-recommended medals or his short time. But he has a serious problem. He and the democrats have chosen to use his Vietnam resume as qualifications for the presidency, and this won't wash. By those standards his service and his medals are crap, and he knows it.

The dems think they can walk on this one, and they are right, unless vets take up the cause. The Republicans cannot possibly bring this issue up.

[MJY1288]

BINGO

[A Citizen Reporter]

I can do another one. I'm helping a family with their genealogy. We just discovered, last week, that their late unmarried uncle was awarded 5 Bronze Stars and was at the Battle of the Bulge. He died in 1982, and this is a revelation to them all, as he never talked about it!

[Just mythoughts]

Thanks for the post.

JFKerry is hiding something, else his military files would be in full public view.

Still pulling the scam for self serving purposes vote for a war and then refuse to vote to fund that war after the war has started.

Sure takes a dark mind to ask Veterans for their support.

[MEG33]

He loves to mention his "band of brothers,older but ready to fight for the nation as it can be",or was,or hoped or remembered or dreamed to be..whatever!He's gonna fight for you and me!

[sarasmom]

The "media" is not as powerfull as they once were.
They will attempt many desparate things in their final, futile death spasms.
Lots of people here decry the ignorance of the general public.
They might want to consider the possibility that the general public stopped paying attention to the "media" a long time ago, and the "media" has finally clued into that.

[js1138]

I think he lost the "band of brothers" issue when he associated himself with phony vets. I will be quite honest here, there were actual vets against the war. Vietnam and Korea were unpopular because they were not conducted with the purpose of winning. It is no fun at all taking bullets in a chess game where the folks moving you around don't want to win.

But Kerry seems to have allied himself with non-vets who claimed to have witnessed atrocities. Worse, he argued for a change in foreign policy based on false charges. Even worse, he built a political career on these lies.

[Vineyard]

There is an intersting story that goes with Buckley (MoH recipient too!).

In 1961, he was a twice passed over CAPT (failed to select for RADM). Time to be retired.

Well, he called the new president ... JFK. Seems Buckley was the former Commodore of the PT squadron ... so "swap stories" time, so JFK took the call cordially.

After exchanging minor pleasantries, JFK inquired how Buckley was doing, and Buckley made the minor complaint about being forced to retire when he really didn't want to.

JFK did the "politician" thing ... "the nation owes a debt of gratitude for your service, good luck in retirement, etc. etc." Then he inquired .. what are you going to do in retirement.

Without hesitation, Buckley quipped, to the effect, that while he didn't want to retire, if he had to, well he could now focus on writing memoirs and about the South Pacific Command, and various interesting stories during WWII.

After a slight hesitation, JFK inquired if Buckley wanted to stay. When Buckley answered in the affirmative, JFK promised to check into the situation.

Seems that if you check the official record (and I know a Naval Historian who did this ...) the typed list of CAPTs selected for promotion to RADM has a name that was penned in at the bottom, in JFK's handwriting... that of John Buckley. And his memoirs didn't get published for many more years!

Mike