Kerry reunites with another Vietnam vet

Knight Ridder Newspapers ^ | Feb. 19, 2004 | James Kuhnhenn

[Krodg]

DAYTON, Ohio - It happened again. John Kerry reunited this week with another former seaman with whom he shared a harrowing night 35 years ago in a dark finger of water in Vietnam.

Patrick Runyon, a 58-year-old shipping clerk from Eaton, Ohio, showed up at a local union headquarters where Kerry was to speak and reintroduced himself to the Massachusetts senator. Runyon wanted to find out whether Kerry recalled their single nighttime mission as well as he did.

"He remembered quite a bit of it," Runyon said in an interview about his private meeting with Kerry.

It was the second time in five weeks that a figure from Kerry's Vietnam past has surprised him on the campaign trail. In Iowa last month, Kerry had an emotional reunion with Jim Rassmann, a former Green Beret whom Kerry had pulled from the water during a fierce firefight between Swift boats and Viet Cong. That episode earned Kerry a Bronze Star.

Vietnam veterans have become a staple of Kerry's campaign retinue, providing a reminder of his days as a gunboat skipper and a link to average Americans for a candidate otherwise known for his patrician bearing and privileged upbringing.

The skirmish involving Runyon occurred one night in early 1969. Kerry, Runyon and Bill Zaldonis, who was Kerry's Swift boat engine man, were assigned to a small Boston Whaler to patrol a peninsula north of Cam Rahn in search of Viet Cong in South Vietnam's "no man zone."

"It was very dark, really," Runyon said. "Then we seen some cross the water. A silhouette. Mr. Kerry saw them with starlight scope. He said, `I'm gonna pop a flare.' When he popped the flare I started the engine. We got going."

Kerry recalls the episode in "Tour of Duty," historian Doug Brinkley's book about the senator's service in the war and his ensuing antiwar stance.

"The light from the flares started to fade, the air was full of explosions. My M-16 jammed, and as I bent down in the boat to grab another gun, a stinging piece of heat socked into my arm and just seemed to burn like hell," Kerry says in the book.

It was Kerry's first real action, and it earned him his first of three Purple Hearts.

Neither Kerry nor Runyon has any idea whether they wounded or killed the enemy. In the book, Kerry says he and his crew strafed the beach, then destroyed the sampan the Vietnamese had beached.

"It was just a scary moment in our lives," Runyon said.

He'd never seen Kerry again. Until this week.

When Kerry landed in Dayton on Wednesday he was alerted to Runyon by an article in that day's Dayton Daily News. Kerry wasn't sure he remembered Runyon and asked to meet Runyon and his wife, Anne, privately, out of sight of journalists.

"I wanted to see if he remembered the incident," Runyon said. "I knew he wouldn't remember me."

Runyon said he followed Kerry's career from the moment Kerry became an antiwar activist as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

"The man had done his duty," Runyon said. "Then he came back and protested. That's the right way to do it, instead of running off or hiding away in college."

Runyon has been disaffected with politics since Vietnam. "I lost interest after that," he said.

But now, he's willing to reconsider.

"If it does help, I'm definitely going to register and vote for him," Runyon said.

[Krodg]

I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong topic...just thought you might be interested in Kerry's latest heroics.

[Howlin]

I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong topic...

We have a "Highly Unlikely Coincidences" topic?

[bigghurtt]

what a major coincidence...again.

[dc-zoo]

Just wonder how much they paid this guy to show up "unexpected".

[ancient_geezer]

Hmmm! wonder if Ryan also remembers all the atrocities Kerry said he saw the men and officers around him commit like he did.

[concerned about politics]

It was 35 years ago.

We need a leader who's not living with a decades old mentality.
Floating around in a boat in the rice patties won't win a war today.

Today, we have high tech. We have a new type of war. We need someone who's up to date, and knows about fighting terrorism - a new kind of war.

Vietnam is now found in the history books. A wise leader would leave it there. That war cannot be won now. It's over.

[McGavin999]

That was exactly what I was thinking. People ought to be getting the "Not again" syndrome.

[SAMWolf]

We have a "Highly Unlikely Coincidences" topic

LOL!

[Howlin]

I meant to ping you.

I guess the only thing John Edwards can do is start "running into" his old clients!

[concerned about politics]

Just in case you haven't heard, Kerry was in Nam. Pass it on.

[SAMWolf]

[joesnuffy]

sure is nice he decided to look up his good buddies after all these years....
what a coincidence he is also running for office...
good to know your 'brothers in arms' can still be usefull to you after all these years...eh
schmuck!

[Howlin]

Hey, look.....Kerry ran into one of the guys he murdered, raped and pillaged with in Vietnam!!!

[McGavin999]

LOL! That's what will happen next. Edwards will drag out all his newly minted millionairs and parade them before us.

By the way, I didn't know that Kerry was in Vietnam, did you?

[McGavin999]

Really?

[nutmeg]

I guess the only thing John Edwards can do is start "running into" his old clients!

LOL! ;-D

[Howlin]

:-)

[Wolverine]

 

Did John F Kerry legitimately earn this high award? Veterans want to know!

http://shop.usps.com/images/03_pheart37_d.jpg

[tapatio]

I want proof he was in Vietnam.Got any dental pictures to prove it?

[Avenger]

"...That's the right way to do it, instead of running off or hiding away in college."

Actually I read the other day that he tried to run off to Paris to study but his request was denied by the draft board. Does anyone here have further confirmation on this story?