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I served as commander, coastal division 14-4 early days of 1968 til the first week of 1969. Lt. J.G. Kerry reported in mid-November to that division.
While in Cam Rahn Bay, he turned in -- he trained on several 24-hour indoctrination missions. On one specific skimmer operation with my most senior and trusted lieutenant, the briefing from some members of that crew the morning after revealed that they had not received any enemy fire, and yet Lt. J.G. Kerry informed me of a wound and showed me a scratch on his arm and a piece of shrapnel in his hand that appeared to be from one of our own M-79s.
It was later reported to me that Lt. J.G. Kerry had fired an M-79 and it had exploded off the adjacent shoreline. I do not recalling being advised of any medical treatment and probably said something like, "Forget it."
He later received a purple heart for that scratch and I have no information as to how or whom.
Lt. J.G. Kerry was allowed to return to the good ol' USA after four months and a few days in country; and then he proceeded to betray his former shipmates, calling them criminals and [accusing them of] committing atrocities.
Today we are here to tell you just the opposite is true.
Republican or Democrat, it doesn't matter. I for one, could not support and do not want Senator Kerry to be commander in chief of our brave and honorable men.
--Commander Grant Everett, United States Navy, retired

Disgusted bump!

A friend was a Swift Boat commander in Vietnam. He overlapped briefly with Kerry in the same squadron/flotilla (correct term?) but does not recall meeting him. He thinks he was probably out on patrol when Kerry was in, and vice versa. His politics are conventionally Republican and moderately conservative. He was NOT involved in the Swift Boat Vets for Truth group that intervened in the 2000 campaign, though he knows many of them, and he refuses to engage in personal speculations about someone else's service record and decorations.

His take, however, is that Kerry should have been relieved and perhaps court-martialled, based on the published version of Kerry's Silver Star adventure. In such operations, the Swift Boats carried the infantry to their attack point, landed them, and then stood off to provide mobile fire support and, if necessary, a quick retreat if the enemy showed up in numbers. Kerry, however, beached his boat and went trophy and medal hunting. He took his boat out of action, put the boat and the crew at unnecessary risk, and potentially endangered the troops he had landed by abandoning his mission to go tourist onshore. Kerry walked away with a trophy and a medal. My friend thinks he should have been cashiered.