Posted on 08/09/2004 7:49:43 AM PDT by dano1
The image Americans were asked to believe at the Democratic Convention of a John Kerry who "defended this nation" as a soldier in Vietnam and "will defend this nation" as its Commander in Chief has hit a snag.
The soldiers he served along side of don't really believe that he did defend his country very well. And as one of his former commanding officers told my radio show on Wednesday, Kerry's chain of command was so fed up with his actions - they asked him to go home after he received his third purple heart.
Naval Officer Thomas Wright served our nation for 21 years. He also served as one of Kerry's superiors in the tough assignment of Swift Boat patrols on the southern tip of Vietnam. Lt. Wright frequently experienced trouble with Kerry.
According to Wright, Kerry frequently broke the protocol of engagement according to the swift boat commanders.
"When you're in a group [of boats on patrol], you don't open fire unless the person in charge tells you to or unless you are defending yourself from an immediate attack," said Wright. "I'd have problems because we'd be running on a river and Kerry would see something off in the distance, and he'd take a pot-shot at it, to see what happened. And that wasn't the way we were trying to run the patrols.
"We were trying to get in and find out what was going on and hopefully make contact and begin to work with some of the people that lived there," said Wright. "And you don't get to go shake their hands when you're shooting at them."
I asked Wright how Kerry would respond to the necessary correction that would follow such unilateral actions.
"Well during the mission - you just continue to issue the orders that you expect people to follow," said Wright, "and if they don't do them, you would continue to press until you got the results that you need.
"After a mission, is generally when you work out the more difficult problems. And those are done in private.
"I'd go talk to John Kerry and I'd tell him that I was unhappy with his opening fire, or pulling out of a column when he wasn't supposed to, or failing to communicate when he needed to," Wright continued. "And I'd always get an excuse. I wouldn't get a direct answer. I'd get 'I didn't hear that', or 'we thought we saw something' or 'my radio was on the other side of the boat' or 'I didn't have time.' It was always an excuse. After three of four times... I went to the division commander, told him about the problems I have been having and told him [the commander] that he needed to take steps to correct it."
That brought me to the shocker of the interview. To hear John Kerry speak about his time in Vietnam is to hear a self-personified story of heroics. Lt Wright remembers what happened after Kerry's third purple heart quite differently.
"When he got his third purple heart, that evening, and we didn't particularly care what it was for, we knew that he had three. That evening, I and two other people went in and told him that we felt that he should go home. It was something that he could do... He told us that he didn't want that, that it was his intention to serve his country, and the next morning he was gone. And we were happy and didn't worry about it."
John Kerry was barely able to endure four months on swift boat detail. Since I am sure the war on terror will endure a bit longer than that, the idea of him commanding our troops with his unsteady hand is making me... well... seasick
I will not post my Kerry poems and song parodies on this thread. I will not post my Kerry poems and song parodies on this thread. I will not post my Kerry poems and song parodies on this thread.
At least without approval
My big question is this - The Commander had to APPROVE of Kerry's medals. If they thought so poorly of him, why didn't they file the medal requests to the circular file?
Could this be part of the motivation for Kerry to turn against the war in Veitnam? He was asked to leave and resented the military ever since? He could not stomach not being able to shoot his guns when he felt like it - and they ahve the nerve to say Bush is a cowboy!
Well, I approve, if that matters........
~</;o)
devastating!!
hugh hewitt's point about lieing on the senate floor about christ of 68 is also pretty bad.
I was afraid this story didn't have legs, but thankfully i was wrong.
Maybe there will be a chorus to have qerry release ALL of his military records- especially the fitness reports.
pay back is a bitch, ain't it John?
Awwww. Come on. How can you deprive us? Give.
His CO did refuse kerry's first Purple Heart request. He only learned later that kerry had received it quite some time afterward.
One officer in his chain of command (may have been the same one) relied on kerry's report of an engagement for his Silver Star award. That officer has stated that, had he known the truth of the actions involved, he wouldn't have approved the award.
I think the commander already knew about the 3rd medal option. It sounds as though they got it to him as quick as they could to get him out of there.
I have a bit of a problem with this.
It would seem the correct thing to do would be to deny underserved Purple Hearts and to reassign Lt. Kerry to duty that would not endanger patrols.
There was a need for every person in Vietnam. I'm sure someone could have found something for Kerry.
Some of these stories from former vets are compelling but the damning attribute of Kerry's story is his own promotion of it. A true hero never huffs and puffs about his service.
The simple truth is that Kerry and his people realize that Americans want especially right now a reliable and competent Commander-in-Chief. The only way to instill confidence in that regard is to play the military angle.
Perhaps more disgusting than Kerry's deceitful pro military advertising is Hillary Clinton's involvement in the Armed Services Committee.
People serving in the military who come from "priveleged" backgrounds (such as children of Congressmen, diplomats, etc) receive a special designation. So, every commander knows this person has political influence. Are you surprised that some commander will sign-off on a medal even if they think it is BS?
Kerry was at one time transferred and somehow ended up in Cambodia. He stated that it was because Nixon had indicated there was no hostile enemies in Cambodia. I may be telling the story wrong but the fact was on the date of this incident, Nixon was not in office. I'll find the story unless someone beats me to it.
Anybody think the "bandaid brothers" guys that are on stage with sKerry might be getting a little squeamish yet? Wouldn't that be fun, when a few or all of them, abandon sKerry's ship? They have got to be feeling the heat and they may be learning things about ol Jean that they didn't know before.
Kerry's a national embarrassment.
Another lying politician and this time he has a bottom feeding trial lawyer as a side kick. How low has this country fallen?
I'm not the least bit surprised. That's probably how he got his first PH -- after his CO turned him down, someone higher up the chain of command rubber-stamped it for him.
Google for the words "kerry", "kennedy", and "yacht" to see how special he was. An MSNBC article near the top of the search results has a picture of him sailing with John Kennedy. This was during the summer before he went to college. He was a full-time Teddy campaign volunteer and dated some relative of Jackie Kennedy that same summer.
MAJOR political influence.
Although we haven't had a chance to read the book yet, the impression I'm getting is that Kerry's comrades basically said "give him the damn purple hearts and get him the HELL out of here..." Whatever it takes.
One thing that's overlooked is that Kerry's father was some sort of a "diplomat," as told to us in the Spielberg convention bio film... could it be that JFKerry was considered a VIP and that the chain of command didn't want to mess with a VIP and all the attendant political issues? In other words, maybe it was easier to give the brat what he wanted and send him home, because he was dangerous!
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