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.-

[eeriegeno]

Does anyone have the date that Kerry got wounded to achieve a third purple star, the date that it was awarded, and the date that he actually left VietNam?

[Arrowhead1952]

Good morning and thanks for the ping. Something is very fishy about John F'ing Kerry's service. I am copying this to an email and sending it to as many people as I can. I heard something on the news this AM about illegal campaign contributions. I have to see if it is on FR.

[The Wizard]

bttt big time bump

[Arrowhead1952]

I didn't look to see if any of you posted to this article. John F'ing Kerry's service record smell like a dead cat.

[OXENinFLA]

No wonder Kerry wants us to stop talking about Nam.

[maica]

Thanks for the ping, Howlin. I have been waiting for this opinion of Kerry's actions as CO of his swift boat to come out. I lived aboard boats for more than 30 years and what he said he did in a 'free-fire' zone made no sense to me
.
I was sure that leaping ashore would put his boat and its crew in unnecessary danger.

He is reliving a Horatio Hornblower NOVEL.

500000 Americans saw action in Vietnam. I am sure that if Kerry is the nominee, his actions for which he won his Silver Star will become part of the contest. There is no need to expose it now - before Super Tuesday. Wait til President Bush is in his campaign proper.

I have also read that not only did he write up his own commendation, he "looked after" his crew when he got his ticket stateside. so if they got shortened tours as well, they would be reluctant to go public with criticism of Kerry today.

We should just hold this "card" for later.

[OXENinFLA]

Everything about this guy smells.

He is French.

[Rightly Biased]

I'll bump this for to see what turns up

[maica]

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

Agreed.

[Fawnn]

Thanks for the ping.

Something is indeed fishy with Kerry!

His wife thinks so, too!

(Barf alert)



(His hand looks like he's already embalmed!) ;)

[Arrowhead1952]

Something is indeed fishy with Kerry!

His wife thinks so, too!

She must be thinking, "Get this dead maggot off of me."

[Condor51]

"Please- is there anyone here who can file for Kerry's records under the FOIA?"

---

Yes, me. :-)
Already done.
I mailed form 'SF180' Tuesday requesting ALL of Lt. Kerry's military records from 1966-1970. I was going to do it Monday, but I forgot about that stupid Presidents Day Fed Holiday.

The kicker might be the cost for all his undeleted records. I might have to resubmit another SF180 for a deleted copy pertaining only to his medals, awards and citations.

We shall see, what we shall see.

BTW, any private citizen can request these records.

[Jack of all Trades]

I have an Uncle who was a gunner in a PBY in the Pacific during WWII. He might have a drawer full of medals, but I wouldn't know about them because he's never breathed a word about it. My Mother told me under strict orders to never bring it up with him.

This is a great article, but there's at least one error: Kerry threw SOMEONE ELSE's medals over the fence.

[Howlin]

Something is FISHY about this story, IMO.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1081119/posts

[Hemingway's Ghost]

My father was a HAL-3 UH-1B pilot from around the Bin Thuey area ('69-'70) and he's been railing about the exact same things covered in this email for months now. One thing he's particularly piqued about is that there's film of Kerry hitting the beach: he's adamant that there were no movie cameras of any kind allowed in hot areas at all. It's so patently obvious that Kerry had a plan, and this was mere prop-gathering. It's greasy, self-serving, and it plain stinks.

[michaelt]

Bump to what you said.

[Vigilantcitizen]

I would hate to go against you in a game of chess.

[AmericanVictory]

Absolutely, shows a young, headstrong officer out of control and ignoring his training and pumping his own vainglory at the expense of the effectiveness of the tactical program he was part of and team cohesion. The entire mission was being compromised to feed his ego. When combined with Admiral Zumwalt's comments it makes clear why they were eager to get him out of the war zone.

[iceskater]

Thanks Howlin. Very interesting, indeed.

[freekitty]

I agree. It's kind of like a hole-in-one on the golf course. You can be the greatest golfer in the world and play everyday; but it could take you years to make that hole-in-one.