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A retired Rear Admiral's take on Kerry's four months in Viet Nam.

Posted on 02/19/2004 5:27:20 AM PST by P8riot

The following e-mail was forwarded to me by a friend of Paul Galanti. Galanti was in the Hanoi Hilton for almost seven years, and was the Virginia chair of John McCain's presidential campaign (nobody's perfect).

The email is actually from him, but he credits the contents to a retired Rear Admiral who was assigned to the same duty as Kerry:


Go, Ollie!

Here's a long one sent to me by a USNA '51 retired RADM (and POW) quoting a '59 RADM retired:

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.

(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 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, 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 balls to the wall. A B-40 has the ballistic integrity of a frisbie 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 coudn'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 fishy.

Here we have a JFK wannabe (the guy Halsey wanted to court martial for carelessly losing his boat and getting a couple people killed by running across the bow of a Jap destroyer) who is hardly in Vietnam long enough to get 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 Massachsetts 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 came down, votes against the Gulf War, a big mistake since that turned out well, decides not to make the same mistake twice.

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 facts challenging Kerry's Vietnam record. I know in my gut it's wildy inflated. And fishy.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: 2004; galanti; hanoihilton; kerry; kerryrecord; mccain; militaryrecord; paulgalanti
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Like I said this was forwarded to me by a co-worker who is a friend of Paul Galanti. I can vouch for my friend a LT USNA class of '78, and for CDR Galanti USNA class of '62. The other two gentlemen were not identified.

Just thought I'd pass this along.

1 posted on 02/19/2004 5:27:21 AM PST by P8riot
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To: P8riot
bump for later
2 posted on 02/19/2004 5:29:33 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian
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To: P8riot; Admin Moderator; Southack
I think this email is spam and is being used as a set up:

Something's fishy.

3 posted on 02/19/2004 5:30:27 AM PST by Howlin
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To: Arrowhead1952
Ahem.
4 posted on 02/19/2004 5:32:58 AM PST by Howlin
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To: Howlin

Yah, I caught Southack's cautions on another thread. However, the way this is spreading doesn't make it look like organized agitprop from the Kerry people trying to make Bush's shop overreach. If this meme starts metastasizing in the blogworld, then the media may begin to pick up on it.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

5 posted on 02/19/2004 5:35:36 AM PST by section9 (Major Motoko Kusanagi says, "I have John Kerry's medals at my blog. Click on the pic!")
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To: P8riot
I think Kerry knows that the medals were unearned. Would you be more likely to treat your decorations with disdain if they were unearned or earned?
6 posted on 02/19/2004 5:39:25 AM PST by RunningJoke
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To: P8riot
Did you ever see anybody get knocked down with a .50 caliber round and get up?

Really good point.

7 posted on 02/19/2004 5:43:27 AM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: P8riot
Article Here
8 posted on 02/19/2004 5:49:06 AM PST by G.Mason (The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected -- Will Rogers)
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To: Prodigal Son
Excellent point. You do NOT get up.
9 posted on 02/19/2004 5:50:17 AM PST by Viet Vet in Augusta GA
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To: P8riot; All
Here I go again (at least the THIRD time)! Someone needs to go after Kerry's NAVAL OFFICER QUALIFICATION RECORD/SERVICE RECORD BOOK AND THE NAVMC FORM 1650(RECOMMENDATION FOR PERSONAL DECORATION AND AWARD) for EACH decoration! There you will find the truth! I know that one of these retired Admirals could get them. Hell, I bet you that even LtCol Ollie North could get them! Does anybody remember ADM BOURDA and his taking himself out over a Navy Achievement Medal with "V"......hmmmmm? Does anybody remember the Freedom of Information Act when it comes to dealing with PUBLIC FIQURES? Quit wasting your time on the dialogues, get the records! Come on MEDIA!
10 posted on 02/19/2004 5:50:38 AM PST by Joe Marine 76 (BUSH 2004!)
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To: P8riot
Does any one know when JFKerry saved that 1 Republican?

I cannot find any mention of this man until Brinkley's book in anything that JFKerry had to say about that event.

I have no issue "IF" what we are told, happened, is true, but the event sounds so miraculous that surely it was written about before the liberal historian Brinkley wrote his book.

JFKerry is known to use "fakes" warriors in telling his Vietnam war stories.

Why has JFKerry refused to release his military records?
11 posted on 02/19/2004 5:58:04 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: Viet Vet in Augusta GA
You do NOT get up.

LOL, Ma Deuce packs a pretty significant 'Ow!' factor ;-)

12 posted on 02/19/2004 6:01:19 AM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: Howlin
I think this email is spam

Makes some very good points though, why did he beach a 50' craft to kill one injured and unarmed VC?

13 posted on 02/19/2004 6:01:37 AM PST by Mike Darancette (Bush Bot by choice)
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To: Joe Marine 76
More to the point, how long was this slimeball on the ground in Viet Nam?
Long enough to witness first hand all the atrocities he used to glibly paint hundreds of thousands of honorable real men as baby killers, rapists, and war criminals?

I don't think so. The fact that he delivered a glib smooth diatribe has absolutely nothing to do with his so called "military record".

14 posted on 02/19/2004 6:02:22 AM PST by Publius6961 (40% of Californians are as dumb as a sack of rocks.)
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To: Mike Darancette
I understand that it makes great points, that's why I am so upset to have to say it's origin is worrisome!
15 posted on 02/19/2004 6:03:30 AM PST by Howlin
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To: Howlin
RE: Michael Benge Author of letter [ see my post # 8]
16 posted on 02/19/2004 6:04:25 AM PST by G.Mason (The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected -- Will Rogers)
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To: Howlin
You mean it's plagiarism representing an article published by someone else as a confidential letter from someone who either did not actually author it or is simply made up?
17 posted on 02/19/2004 6:05:43 AM PST by AmericanVictory (Should we be more like them, or they like us?)
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To: AmericanVictory
I'm not sure; but since it is taking "various forms" on the internet, it certainly can't be said to be authentic.
18 posted on 02/19/2004 6:07:27 AM PST by Howlin
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To: Joe Marine 76
I think he needs to get the nomination first. Lets not be so hasty.
19 posted on 02/19/2004 6:08:38 AM PST by TBall
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To: G.Mason
Then how do you explain the end of the other thread:

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.-

20 posted on 02/19/2004 6:09:49 AM PST by Howlin
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