Expert Casts Doubts On Kerry's Touted War Heroism

Agape Press ^ | 7/28/04 | Chad Groening

[ABrit]

Freedom of information?

[The Shrew]

Let's try a better site: Swift Boat Veteran's for Truth

Or, if you want to discuss Kerry's activities in the VVAW try WinterSoldier.com

Regards,

TS

[Bob]

The first part of his "tour",
he served on board a ship.

No, first his 'tour' (we called them 'cruises', not 'tours') was on USS Gridley(DLG-21, renumbered to CG-21). Those were two entirely separate commands.

[Bob]

I don't know about that. According to Swift Boat Website the six months that Kerry served in the boats was around average. William Shumadine, author of "Unfit for Command", only lasted 2 months. I wonder why?

I can't believe that you're still using that link.

Their data doesn't even agree with kerry on which boat he was assigned to. They say PCF-66 for the entire time. The kerry camp says PCF-44 and PCF-94. John O'Neill says he took over kerry's PCF-94 command when kerry left.

[cmotormac44]

I see you name is "ABrit" and assume you are English--Your Coast Guard is purely a 'rescue outfit' in England---US Coast Guard is a military outfit and serves under the Navy in wartime although it has been transferrd to our Home Security lately--I put 5 years in during WW2, 1/'41-4/'47 and along with chasing subs in the Atlantic served at Normandy 6/6/'44 with Canadian troops at Juno Beach--take a trip to Poole, Dorset and look over the plaque on the quay our outfit placed there at the 50th Remembrance of D-Day in 1994---just to set the record straight and we understand each other--cheers

[txrangerette]

I know the commands were seperate;
my shorthand, quickie reply was to
"non-sequiter"'s claim that Kerry
spent 6 mos not 4 mos in country.
Seemed like to me nobody had said
anything to him/her about Kerry on
the ship, b/f his Swiftboat days.

So I did. This poster was saying
Kerry spent more time there than
the critics say. I was replying...

HOGWASH!

[Intolerant in NJ]

.... Bookstores have a tendency to "prominently" display only liberal titles...probably depends on the bookstore...the two I frequent - a small Barnes and Noble in a local mall and a stand-alone Borders - have the bestsellers displayed on shelves right at the entrance - I've never noticed any real differentiation re leftwing/rightwing, as long the stores are making a buck. In fact, the few times I have had to go looking for some oddball conservative book the clerks have usually been helpful and pleasant - it did sort of surprise me.

My big worry now is that there are so many copies of "Unfit" being sold prepublication - only the "911 Report" is selling more right now on Amazon - that demand may dip by the time the book is physically available and the stores won't have as much incentive to order and display it for the unaware to pick up on - it all gets so complicated......

[VOYAGER]

Thank you Mike Bates for a timely explanation and a very important clarification of a Democrat "funny claim" for one of their inner circle fair-haired members.

[VOA]

Day-After Demo convention bump....

[ABrit]

I hear what you say, and do not in any way wish to diminish the US Coast Guards work.

What I was trying to say was that it seems to me that Kerry chose, in a wartime situation, to serve in a unit which, at the time he chose, did not have a great likelihood of seeing much enemy action, in the circumstances of coastal waters and the largely land bound guerrilla army centric Vietnam War.

It was only after he chose the unit, that it was reassigned to a tremendously more dangerous task of patrolling inland waterways in South Vietnam.

If I an wrong in my understanding, please let me know.

[ABrit]

Kerry is interviewed in a New York Times article titled “An Angry War Veteran,” in which he admits to the reporter that he enlisted in the Swift Boats to avoid the war in Vietnam, since the boats were only used for patrol duty:

“That first trip to Vietnam piqued his curiosity, 'I wanted to go back and see for myself what was going on, but I didn’t really want to get involved in the war.' So late in 1968 he volunteered for an assignment on "swift boats" - the short, fast aluminum craft that were then used for patrol duty off the coast of Vietnam.

"Two weeks before he arrived in Vietnam as a swift boat commander, he said, 'they changed the policy on the use of the boats - decided to send them up the river to prove to the Vietcong that they didn’t own the waters.'

http://www.archive-news.net/Kerry/JK_timeline.html