Posted on 05/07/2004 3:09:37 AM PDT by The Bandit
The events of February 28, 1969 that lead to Senator John F. Kerry being awarded the Silver Star is analyzed. Action by Lt.(jg) Kerry on the 28th of February can be broken into two distinct combat engagements, which I will refer to as events A and B. Event A consisted of a three swift boats whose mission was to insert some 70 VN Marines (Kerry tells of 70 VN's, while Zumwalt mentions 30 VN troops per boat in the first Silver Star citation) for the purpose of sweeping an area where small arms fire were encountered by the same three swift boats the previous day. Event B occurs 800 yards further up river from event A shortly after Kerry had inserted VN troops. It is event B where Kerry encounters a lone enemy VC with a B-40 rocket launcher and kills him behind a hooch. Overview/Analysis To begin with, I did not have access or have seen the official after-action report for February 28, 1969 since it was never released as part of the other after-action reports released for February and March by Senator Kerry. Thus, I am reduced to relying on Admiral Zumwalt's original signed citation for Kerry's Silver Star along with an after action description provided by John Kerry for President campaign, which may or may not be completely accurate. The mission for the three swift boats for the 28th of February was to return to the are in which they received rocket fire from the day before, with some 70 VN troops to insert for the purpose of sweeping the area for Viet Cong soldiers and supply caches. It is clear that Kerry's mission from the beginning was to beach along the shore so troops could disembark for the operation. According to Senator Kerry's official public released version: as the three swift boats approached the shore, "more than 20 Viet Cong troops stood up and ran" and were quickly overrun when the VN troops disembarked from the swifts that had transported them to shoreline. Notice Kerry refers to 20 Viet Cong troops standing up and running, which seems rather odd for VC to simply run without putting up resistance since this is their home turf and troops were still onboard the swifts (sitting ducks.) Usually because of the noise the swifts boats make, the VC would have been alerted of their presence before they would have reached the shore, giving the enemy time to flee or prepare to engage the boats. I am wondering if perhaps maybe these were simply civilians and not VC troops. Obviously if we are only dealing with approx. 20 enemy troops, one has to wonder why Kerry's Silver Star citations (there is three of them) refer to encountering "numerically superior force" since the swift boats inserted far greater numbers of VN troops then the reported number of enemy VC encountered. In any case, "Event A" went smoothly and none of the good guys got hurt. We don't find any actions on part of Lt.(jg) Kerry that rises to "gallantry" or "Valor for this engagement since it is clear the VN troops had the situation well under control and Lt.(jg) Kerry did not play any part in the shore operations other then to transport and insert the troops and perhaps provide fire power if needed. At some point while "Event A" was under way, Kerry claims he was alerted by an "Army advisor" to enemy activity approx. 800 yards further up river. It is unknown how the Army advisor learned that there was enemy activity 800 yard further up the stream.Lt.(jg) Kerry departed the scene along with PCF-23 to travel up river to investigate. After traveling approx. 800 yards from "Event A," a grenade from a B-40 was fired and narrowly missed Kerry's Swift boat. Lt.(jg) Kerry then describes how he ordered his swift boat to turn and beach itself in front of the source of the rocket attack. Upon the swift beaching along the shoreline, a VC soldier with a B-40 launcher is observed standing up from either a spider hole or ditch (crewmember Fred Short description) no more then ten feet from Kerry's beached swift boat and begins to run away. In an article printed in the October1996 edition of The New Yorker, Kerry was asked about this encounter with this VC soldier: "It was either going to be him or it was going to be us. It was that simple. I don't know why it wasn't us, I mean, to this day. He had a rocket pointed right at our boat. He stood up out of the hole, and none of us saw him until he was standing in front of us, aiming a rocket right at us, and, for whatever reason, he didn't pull the trigger he turned and ran. He was shocked to see our boat right in front of him. If he'd pulled the trigger, we'd all be dead . . . I just won't talk about all of it. I don't and I can't. The things that probably really turn me I've never told anybody. Nobody would understand," Kerry said. Puzzling why Senator Kerry did not mention the fact the enemy soldier had already been hit and knocked down by the swifts forward gunner's M-60. Lt.(jg) Kerry's forward gunner, Tom Belodeau, fired at the fleeing VC soldier with his M-60 and hits him in the leg and he falls. Kerry recalled this incident to the Boston Globe as follows: "...Tommy clipped him, and he started going [down.] I thought it was over," Kerry said. Two very different versions. Hard to imagine someone recalling such an event and leaving out the fact he had observed a man hit by M-60 fire and dropped. Apparently the soldier was not seriously wounded and was able to get up and continue running while still carrying a loaded B-40. It is some what confusing to understand why a wounded soldier so close to a beached swift boat - after being hit and knocked down - would choose to pick up his B-40 and continue running with it. We get conflicting versions from the witnesses to what exactly happens next. Fred Short, as the boat's tub gunner with the best view recalled during an April 2003 Kerry campaign event in Little Rock, Arkansas, said his twin 50-caliber machine gun couldn't tilt low enough to shoot a Viet Cong soldier lying in a ditch, aiming a rocket launcher at their boat. Apparently, Tom Belied was not the only one chasing after Kerry and the fleeing VC soldier because rear gunner, Michael Medeiros, indicated in a 1996 press conference with Senator Kerry (by telephone) that he was also chasing after Senator Kerry and the fleeing VC soldier and stated at the time that he did not see Lt.(jg) Kerry kill him, but had no doubt that the senator did so. "The only one that was there was Senator Kerry," Medeiros said. Interesting that Kerry and his gunner's could disembark from their boat so quickly to give chase behind Kerry without any concern for the possibility of additional nearby hidden enemy soldiers who could have taken them all out in the open or from the fire Fred Short reported they were taking from the opposite bank. Even more interesting is that no one saw Lt.(jg) Kerry kill the lone wounded VC because the killing occurred behind a hooch. There doesn't appear to be any public statements that anyone observed the body of the dead VC soldier after he was killed by Lt.(jg) Kerry. The Silver Star citation describes the pursuit of this enemy VC this way: "beached his boat only ten feet from the VC rocket position, and personally lead a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy." I am assuming that Kerry's gunner(s) who had chased behind him is this so-called landing party. The trouble here is that this is against standard operating procedures for swift boat operations. Crewmembers were under standing orders to never leave their boat for any reason to engage the enemy in a combat zone. CNN transcripts for April 24, 2001 records the explanation Senator Kerry gave CNN's Jonathan Karl for his decision to beach and disembark his swift boat: KARL: Kerry received the highest honor awarded in Vietnam, the Silver Star, for his actions as a commander of a swift boat that came under fire on a river in the Mekong delta. The Silver Star citation says an enemy soldier sprang up less than 10 feet from Kerry's boat and fled. The citation reads, quote: "Kerry pursued the man behind a hooch and killed him, capturing a B-40 rocket launcher with a round in the chamber." But this cannot be true, because during an October 1996 press conference with former crewmember, Tom Belodeau, whom appeared to defend Senator Kerry against charges he may have committed a war crime act by killing an already wounded enemy soldier - stood beside Kerry and stated "The soldier that Sen. John Kerry shot was standing on both feet with a loaded rocket launcher, about to fire it on the boat from which (Lt.(jg) Kerry) had just left, which still had four men aboard," Mr. Belodeau said. Tom Belodeau makes it clear there was no troops - and we already know why - because the troops that were onboard Lt.(jg) Kerry's swift boat had been offloaded 800 yards down river to conduct sweep operations prior to Kerry's arrival. Additionally, it doesn't help Kerry's case to suggest he was referring to "Event A" because his mission was to beach and insert troops to engage however many enemy soldiers that may have been discovered. Furthermore, Jonathan Karl was very specific about the events he was talking to Senator Kerry about, i.e., "enemy soldier sprang up less than 10 feet from Kerry's boat and fled." Obviously there can be no confusion in Kerry's mind over what events Karl was addressing. It is possible Senator Kerry invented this new twist to justify violating standing orders to never beach and leave his boat in a combat zone. Whatever his reason is, we can be confident his version is flawed from what has been officially documented After Lt.(jg) Kerry allegedly kills the lone fleeing VC soldier behind a hooch, Kerry goes on to describe the following from his own public version of the events: "Marines swept the area, and received fire from snipers and small arms that was suppressed with the assistance of mortars and gunfire from the swift boats. " Again we have a the problem of where did these troops magically come from since they were busy with a sweeping operation 800 yards down river? In June of 2003, Short recalled the following to the Boston Globe: "I laid in fire with the twin .50s, and he got behind a hooch," recalled Short. "I laid 50 rounds in there, and Mr. Kerry went in. Rounds were coming everywhere. We were getting fire from both sides of the river. It was a canal. We were receiving fire from the opposite bank, also, and there was no way I could bring my guns to bear on that." No mention of Marines on the ground in Short's recall, and he demonstrates why swift boat commander's were ordered to never beach and leave their boats in a hot combat zone. At this point we can safely assert that there was no action on Lt.(jg) Kerry's part that qualifies as "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action" for the Silver Star. The only medal I see Lt.(jg) Kerry's actions called for is the medal of stupidity. Under United States Navy regulations the only thing Lt.(jg) Kerry deserved to be awarded was a general court martial for violating standing orders and by placing his boat and crew at grave risk. The US Navy was not in the habit of awarding officers the Silver Star for disregarding orders and killing fleeing wounded soldiers behind hooch's while leaving their boat beached and taking fire from all directions. Why Was Kerry Awarded the Silver Star? In 1996 Senator Kerry was outraged by a column questioning the circumstances of his killing of the lone enemy soldier who had pointed a rocket launcher at his boat. Writer David Warsh for a Boston newspaper, noted that such a "coup de grace" would have been considered a war crime if the soldier had already been wounded. What followed was truly revealing. Mr. Zumwalt also said he wanted to recommend Sen. Kerry for an even higher medal, the Navy Cross, but approval would have taken too long. Instead, he personally approved a Silver Star and sped along the award to improve morale at a time his sailors were taking heavy casualties. Zumwalt's comments about wanting to award the Navy Cross to Kerry makes absolutely no sense because Kerry's allege actions no-where meets the the standards for such an award. Why did he suggest this? Because I think he wanted to remove doubts that Kerry may not have deserved the Silver Star, which would had drawn attention to why the medal was even awarded in the first place - clearly something Zumwalt would not want to draw attention to since, in affect, he awarded the Silver Star to Kerry for chasing down a lone fleeing wounded VC - killing him behind a hooch - all the while disregarding every standing order he was operating under and placing his four man crew in a position that could easily have lead them to being killed. The most telling of all is Admiral Zumwalt's suggestion that he was motivated to award Senator Kerry as a means to "improve morale." This I think is an honest appraisal of the entire Kerry Silver Star episode - Kerry was not awarded for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action" on February 28, 1969, but given the Silver Star by Admiral Zumwalt in attempts of improving moral (Kerry became his Rambo poster-boy.) It's a great story, but unfortunately most likely a false story. The VC did not have a loaded B-40 because it was already discharged when he fired at Kerry swift boat and missed. There is another fact that leads me to believe that perhaps this incident was not as dramatic as Senator Kerry and his crew wants us to believe. Reporter Charles Sennott once wrote that Senator Kerry was so "focused on his future ambitions," that not long after the fight, he bought a Super-8 movie camera, returned to the scene, and reenacted the skirmish on film. During their interview, Kerry played the tape for Sennott. Apparently Senator Kerry had strong reason to believe that he and his crew would not be entering an angry hornets nest of hostile Viet Cong soldiers on their return visit to the scene to film an reenactment with an 8mm camera were he had killed the VC soldier behind a hooch. Can we prove any of the above? I think we can because in that same 2001 interview with CNN's Jonathan Karl there was this exchange: KARL: And you still have the rocket launcher? Ask Senator Kerry to immediately produce the B-40 launcher he says he has at home before the media, and perhaps asked to explain how he was able to get such an prohibited item through military customs in Vietnam. The Military was very strict with inspections and with what you could return home with.
"We were in a small canal and normally we would have tried to exit, but Mr. Kerry ordered us to charge," Short said. "While I shot high, he [Kerry] and Tommy Belodeau charged under me, right at the guy, and we routed them. That's why Mr. Kerry won the Silver Star."
KERRY: "On that particular day [February 28th, 1969], I heard the ambush, I heard the firepower, and I made the judgment. Besides, we were very heavily weighted down. We had troops on board. We couldn't reach maximum speed. I knew that to whatever degree we were in the ambush, we were going to get hurt, so I turned the aspect of us toward it, minimizing our exposure, surprising them, and we did win. I mean, we ran right over the ambush, and it felt good to win."
KARL: And do you ever think about the person that was firing on you, who you ultimately chased down and killed and grabbed that live rocket launcher?
KERRY: Yeah, I mean, sometimes in the balance you do, but as I said, not with the sense of guilt. I mean, it was him or me, and I wouldn't be standing here today if it had been otherwise.
Senator Kerry arranged a news conference at the Courageous Sailing Center in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Those who attended on Kerry's behalf was very interesting. They were none other then retired Admiral Zumwalt himself, who commanded U.S. naval forces in Vietnam; Capt. George Elliott, Kerry's CO at the time; retired Cmdr. Adrian Longsdale, who commanded shoreline operations at the time; Tom Belodeau, one of Kerry's gunners who had fired at the enemy soldier and knocked him down with his M-60. Participating by phone from San Francisco was Michael Medeiros, who was the rear gunner on Kerry's boat.
Amazing how willing and quickly they came together to defend Kerry that day - but I don't believe in reality they were not there to defend Kerry per se, but to protect a 30 year old secret and themselves. Kerry's superior officer's did not follow Navy protocol in awarding him the Silver Star, and they clearly not have been making accurate statements of the allege events that lead to the awarding of the medal ever since.
It all may well have remained a secret, known only to them, if it was not for some comments by Admiral Zumwalt recorded by Associated Press writer Glen Johnson:
I think maybe Kerry helped his case in the eye's of his commanding officer, George Elliot and Admiral Zumwalt by returning to base with a tall tall of how he had come face to face with an enemy soldier who held the life of him and his crew in his hands while pointing a B-40 at their boat at point blank range - Lt.(jg) Kerry jumps off the boat and runs him down and kills him single handily.
KERRY: I do have the rocket, yes, I do have the rocket. One of the SEALs disarmed it for me, and I brought it home.
Geez. Is this for real??
He's still a lying dips**t.
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