I served 2 years off shore of Vietnam from 66-68 on a supply ship which was home ported out of Japan and received combat pay every month for those two years. I then volunteered to serve for another year on the swift boats, serving on the YRBM 17 Delta Devil repair barge stationed in beautiful Dong Tam. I came in country just as the Tet offensive started and had the pleasure of spending a month in Siagon while Charley did his best to ensure that we did not make it home.
As part of the repair crew of the YRBM 17 I came into daily contact with all of the Delta swift’s, their commanders and crew. We spent many nights drinking and BSing. I also spent 2 months in Anthoi training the electrical crew of the repair ship which serviced the PBR’s from that area.
I’m definitely not a Kerry supporter nor do I carry GW’s water but I have voted for him in the last election and plan to vote for him in the next.
That being said I have heard many people talk of these atrocities. These were stories told by boat crews talking about putting telephone insulation testers called grinders to their “nads” and cranking up the voltage to make them talk. I also heard stories about throwing “prisoners” out of high flying helicopters to get the ones that were left to talk. It was common “knowledge” that a necklace of human ears was worn by the real bad asses to let the enemy know how bad we really were.
These stories would come up after about the sixth beer and, as one would start, the next one had to be worse than the last. The purpose of these stories was to convince your fellow drinkers and anyone who would listen that you were a real man of war since we were all teenagers.
No one actually believed any of this crap, we were all scared shitless when the shit hit the fan but afterwards (with the help of a few beers) we were all bad asses once again. Only a dumbass dwebe like Kerry could or would try to make some political gain from these tall tales.