[EQAndyBuzz]

What happened to the other 19 band of brothers. Would love to hear from them.

[SAMWolf]

OH Please! Where's the barf bag?

[quantim]

To hell and back? I always thought going to hell was a one-way trip. Silly me.

[Hatteras]

"If John Kerry (search) came up to us and said we had one more swift boat mission and we were going to hell, he would have a full crew,"...

Can you fit a full crew in a handbasket?

[al44]

Sheesh, where have I been? John Kerry was is Vietnam, and he actually was awarded medals?

[ICX]

"We ain't going to hell — we've been to hell," said the Vietnam veteran, who lost two legs and his right hand in the war. "We're going to the White House."

No disrespect to Cleland, who was awarded a Silver Star at Khe Sanh, but he lost his limbs in an ACCIDENT which occured DURING the war, not in combat.

[Rebelbase]

Another Vietnam referece. Everyone DRINK!!!!

[Tallguy]

...Kerry, who commanded a Navy river swift boat in the Vietnam War and earned the Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for his service in 1968-1969.

The obvious inference that the writer wants the reader to draw is that Kerry served a year in Vietnam when in fact he served only a few months in the Swifts. Political reporting is full of misleading facts designed to convey the wrong impression and the reader has to pay attention.

I am reminded of a former Philadelphia mayor, Wilson Goode. The Philly media never missed an opportunity to tell it's readers/viewers that "he attended the prestigious Wharton School of Business." While not a lie, the inference that they wanted drawn was that Mr. Goode was a "graduate" when in fact he merely attended the school. This was repeated with Bill Clinton's "Rhodes Scholarship" factoid -- he never completed the program, either.

When you point this stuff out to a reporter on a call-in show, their eyes sort of glaze over. Sometimes you get a little smirk, as if to say "you caught me."

[R. Scott]

Hanoi John’s Band of Brothers - all two of them?

Kerry, who commanded a Navy river swift boat in the Vietnam War and earned the Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for his service in 1968-1969.

By all the god above and below I am sick of this!
I seldom post long rants, but I can’t help it this time. The first section is not mine - I plagiarized it, but the rest is my own opinion :

Kerry, by his own account, violated the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Code while serving as a Navy officer, and he further stands in violation of Article three, Section three of the U.S. Constitution.
Upon entering the Navy in 1966, John Kerry signed a six-year contract (plus a six-month extension during wartime) and an Officer Candidate contract for five years of active duty and active Naval Reserve. This indicates that Kerry was clearly a commissioned officer at the time of his 1970 meeting with NVA Communists in Paris -- in direct violation of the UCMJ's Article 104 part 904, and U.S. Code 18 U.S.C. 953. That meeting, and Kerry's subsequent coddling of Communists while leading mass protests against our military in the year that followed, also place him in direct violation of our Constitution's Article three, Section three, which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of warfare. (As General Vo Nguyen Giap is his witness....)
Thus, the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, which states, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President ... having previously taken an oath ... to support the Constitution of the United States, [who has] engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof." is applicable.

The following is an excerpt from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the additional set of federal law that is applicable to military personnel.

802. ART. 2. PERSONS SUBJECT TO THIS CHAPTER
(a) The following persons are subject to this chapter:
(1) Members of a regular component of the armed forces, including those awaiting discharge after expiration of their terms of enlistment; volunteers from the time of their muster or acceptance into the armed forces; inductees from the time of their actual induction into the armed forces; and other persons lawfully called or ordered into, or to duty in or for training in the armed forces, from the dates when they are required by the terms of the call or order to obey it.
(2) Cadets, aviation cadets, and midshipman.
(3) Members of a reserve component while on inactive-duty training, but in the case of members of the Army National Guard of the United States or the Air National Guard of the United States only when in Federal Service.
(4) Retired members of a regular component of the armed forces who are entitled to pay.
(5) Retired members of a reserve component who are receiving hospitalization from an armed force.
(6) Members of the Fleet Reserve and Fleet Marine Corps Reserve.
(7) Persons in custody of the armed forces serving a sentence imposed by a court-martial.
(8) Members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Public Health Service, and other organizations, when assigned to and serving with the armed forces. (9) Prisoners of war in custody of the armed forces.
(10) In time of war, persons serving with or accompanying an armed force in the field.
(11) Subject to any treaty or agreement which the United States is or may be a party to any accepted rule of international law, persons serving with, employed by, or accompanying the armed forces outside the United States and outside the Canal Zone, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.
(12) Subject to any treaty or agreement t which the United States is or may be a party to any accepted rule of international law, persons within an area leased by or otherwise reserved or acquired for use of the United States which is under the control of the Secretary concerned and which is outside the United States and outside the Canal Zone, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.
Hanoi John was clearly subject to the UCMJ.

881. ART. 81. CONSPIRACY
Any person subject to this chapter who conspires with any other person to commit an offense under this chapter shall, if one or more of the conspirators does an act to effect the object of the conspiracy, be punished as a court-martial may direct.
If any - and many claimed to be - of the supposed veterans were in fact veterans and in a reserve status Hanoi John would be liable to this article.

888. ART. 88. CONTEMPT TOWARD OFFICIALS
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Check out the speeches he made while leading the VVAW

892. ART. 92. FAILURE TO OBEY ORDER OR REGULATION
Any person subject to this chapter who--
(1) violates or fails to obey any lawful general order or regulation;
(2) having knowledge of any other lawful order issued by any member of the armed forces, which it is his duty to obey, fails to obey the order; or
(3) is derelict in the performance of his duties;
shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Hanoi John clearly violated standing orders when he endangered his boat and crew in the action for which he was given the Silver Star.

904. ART. 104. AIDING THE ENEMY
Any person who--
(1) aids, or attempts to aid, the enemy with arms, ammunition, supplies, money, or other things; or
(2) without proper authority, knowingly harbors or [protects or gives intelligence to or communicates or corresponds with or holds any intercourse with the enemy, either directly or indirectly;
shall suffer death or such other punishment as a court-martial or military commission may direct.
“or holds any intercourse with the enemy” - by his own admission when he met (illegally both under he UCMJ and US Code).

917. ART. 117. PROVOKING SPEECHES OR GESTURES
Any person subject to this chapter who uses provoking or reproachful words or gestures towards any other person subject to this chapter shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Again, his speeches as leader of the VVAW.

933. ART. 133. CONDUCT UNBECOMING AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
Any commissioned officer, cadet, or midshipman who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Self explanatory.

934. ART. 134. GENERAL ARTICLE
Though not specifically mentioned in this chapter, all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital, of which persons subject to this chapter may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by a general, special or summary court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense, and shall be punished at the discretion of that court.
Self explanatory.

[Congressman Billybob]

This is a Fox News article. One would expect such slanted coverage from ABCCBSNBCPBS, but not Fox. How could this reporter possibly NOT be aware of Swift Boat Vets against Kerry? How could she possibly NOT know that a majority of other Swift Boat vets, and a unanimous group of former commanding officers, consider Kerry "unfit to serve" as President?

Does anyone have an e-mail address to reach this lady and clue her in?

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "The Wussification of America: Fallout from Arnold, John and Sandy"

If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.

[tbpiper]

John Kerry's "band of brothers" said Monday that getting the Massachusetts senator elected president is their final mission

I wish them as much success in their final mission as George Custer had in his.

[ZULU]

"Cleland referred to Bush's National Guard service during Vietnam as avoiding the war."

So how did he refer to traitor Clinton's service during Viet Nam?

There is no end to the lying and hypocracy of Democrats. They are modern day Bolsheviks in every sense of the term.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

I've been spending time daily for about a month on yahoo, msn etc forums.

NOTE : I never nention Free Republic nor ever have any links back to it.

I'm just a Viet Nam vet voicing my own opinion.

I've recently (last 2 days) switched from Hanoi Kerry "ads" to

"Let's talk about the Vietnam Veterans Against the war"

THEN I put a link right to them

http://www.vvaw.org/

People just don't know how to respond.

It's Kerry's own groups site.

It's not a "wacko right wing site"

John Kerry and War Crimes in Vietnam

http://www.vvaw.org/commentary/?id=399

THEN I "pressure" them and ask

"Why doesn't Kerry talk about his service to America
WHEN HE CAME BACK"

THEN I ask how could people vote for Kerry
when he is a self confessed war criminal.

Try it!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

250 + Swift Boat Vets tell the truth about Hanoi Kerry

http://www.swiftvets.com/article.php?story=20040629220813790

More than 250 Swift boat veterans have now signed an open letter to Senator Kerry
challenging his fitness to serve as commander-in-chief of America's armed forces.

http://www.swiftvets.com/index.php?topic=KerryinVietnam

"So far as we are able to determine, Kerry was the only Swift sailor
ever to leave Vietnam without completing the standard one-year tour of duty,
other than those who were seriously wounded or killed."

http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Fitreps

Analysis of John Kerry's Fitness Reports

[ex-snook]

The General paused. His eagle like eyes swept over the hillside. He said with pride, "There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"

And a salute to all who served in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and Iraq who also did not shovel shit somewhere.

[Howie66]

All 3 of them, eh? I'm impressed! ;)