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To: xyz123; Landru; sultan88; FBD; jla; cherry_bomb88; MeekOneGOP; PhiKapMom; dead
Got this from a co-worker (ex-Navy)...

"I was in the Delta shortly after he [Kerry] 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 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 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 heroes 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 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 our 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 wildly inflated. And fishy."

I'd really appreciate it if someone would find out what injuries Kerry sustained to earn him those three Purple Hearts...ain't anybody in the Vast, LeftWing Medyuh Whore'd the least bit curious about this war record that Kerry flashes every chance he gets!!

FReegards...MUD

BTW...xyz, I don't see Edwards getting the nomination, he's simply too broke to make a big splash on Super Tuesday. If he does, though, I fully prepared to switch gears and go after his horrid Lib'ralTrialLawyer past!!

27 posted on 02/25/2004 9:37:43 AM PST by Mudboy Slim (RE-IMPEACH Osama bil Clinton!!)
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To: Liz
"FR Movie Revue: The Passion of Christ!!"

I can't wait to see this movie, but I'm gonna let the initial hullabaloo die down before I make it to the theatre. Learning what other FReepers think will have to do fer now.

FReegards...MUD

28 posted on 02/25/2004 9:43:45 AM PST by Mudboy Slim (RE-IMPEACH Osama bil Clinton!!)
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To: Mudboy Slim
I don't see Edwards getting the nomination, he's simply too broke to make a big splash on Super Tuesday.

Good point, but I have stand by my prediction.

The 'Beast doesn't want to run with Ketchup Boy,
and with her it's approval comes the money.


Breck Girl & HildeBeast,
that's the ticket.

Book it.

34 posted on 02/25/2004 1:43:30 PM PST by xyz123 (I've had it about up to here with RINOS)
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