Posted on 02/18/2004 8:06:40 PM PST by 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.-
No offense buddy, but a good friend of mine was blown in half on his second week in country. Another partner took a piece of shrapnel into the outside of his left eye, popping his eye out, eye dangling by the nerve down by his cheek, they had to cut it off and tie it off.....He was only in country 4 days...Still wears his patch, as his glass eye always looked spooky.
No.
What about edwards?
He's the only one that has scared me....right from the begining.
How about a twofer?
I also know a few guys that saw and experienced a lot of terrible things in Nam and they rarely even talk about being there. Once in awhile and after a few beers, a conversation might go there, but not often and no bragging.
I don't believe I have ever witnessed a real hero telling others just how he got to be a "hero".
Sheeeesh...isn't it though??
If I hear that monotone voice of his say, "I know something about aircraft carriers, for real" much more, I may have to shatter my TV screen.
Perhaps someone will come out of the woodwork and tell us what happened.
Perhaps this is why Kerry has kept his buds so close.
Lot's of questions here.
Thanks for the ping Howlin......
God rest his soul, and give peace to yours as well.
See pic in #63
I'd never heard this colorful phrase so I asked a friend (med-evac chopper pilot) what it meant. Here is his reply:
FULL THROTTLE, DAMN THE TEMPERATURE GAUGES, GET THE HELL OUT OF DODGE, POWER!
He went on to say this: "INTERESTING ARTICLE, I DID QUITE A FEW MEDEVACS FOR THOSE TWO UNITS AT THE TIME J Fing KERRY WAS THERE. HIS AWARD CITATIONS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE THRU THE FREEDOM OF INFO ACT. SOUNDS FISHY TO ME TOO."
JFK (1991)
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