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
Kerry says he was in Cambodia in Christmas of 1968. Do you believe him?
Some of the people who were with him say that they were 50+ miles from Cambodia, not in it.
I think Kerry made up the entire "Christmas in Cambodia" story, to suit his own political ambitions. It is a fairy tale, thru and thru.
Of course I don't believe him. Nixon hadn't even been sworn in as President and Kerry blamed him for it.
Please check your browser cache to see if you can recover that site address. The 'official' story (Larry King interview?) is that he was in the Capitol. If he's quoted saying otherwise, this could get interesting.
Kerry applied for a few of his own, and somehow the paper work wasn't checked.
Apparently, the last one was to make it 3 so they could get rid of him.
The charges must be having some effect because the best the Kerry campaign and their liberal press allies can come up with is, "Dirty Politics".
Seems the military was so glad to be rid of him they allowed the rest of his commitment to go unfulfilled.
Probably more significant is his association with the Kennedys. I don't know that his father was all that high up as a diplomat. The Kennedys, on the other hand, were royalty.
Anyone who has ever served knows what a powerful tool that is for any soldier.
"Hey, Hey, J eFing K... How many medals did you win today!"
Just felt like chanting....
Book him, Dano!
I have a question.
How do you pronounce your name? Starting with a hard "G" or like a "J"?
Sure sounds like the "hero" put up quite a fight to stay!! LOL! I bet he was already packed!
Anyone hear Imus b!tching this morning about how the Kerry/Edwards Raw Deal Express blew through his ranch for cancer kids without stopping or even slowing? Imus said they were having a bonfire of the Kerry/Edwards signs the little cancer stricken kids make!! I almost drove off the road! LOL!
Now Imus has a taste of how Democrats treat those that they have in their back pocket (like blacks and unions)!!
Posted links.
I read somewhere today that some of those guys only served with Kerry for about five weeks, and some only for a few days. I think it was in the Novak piece.
Novak made another very good point, i.e. that Kerry needs to respond to these allegations rather than attack the messengers. As was pointed out, one of these Swift Boat Vets is a retired Admiral and as a group they have an incredibly distinguished record. They deserve to be treated seriously.
Red
Bo Dietl was hysterical on Imus. He kept asking "were the little children crying?". The guys were all laughing and the little children crying kept being talked about. I still say Imus is a mole for us.
You know, we now have two competing alternative stories of sKerry's Vietnam service. One is that he sea lawyered the system to win an early out of combat that he never wanted (he was volunteering to command a water taxi, but the USN changed the mission of the SWIFT boats right after he volunteered) by arranging to receive Purple Hearts for the slightest injuries (two of which were likely ineligible). The other is that sKerry was so incompetent that he was asked to leave after he got his third PH. How can these two stories be reconciled?
"motivation for Kerry to turn against the war in Veitnam"
That's what I'm thinking. He couldn't be a "war hero" so he would be an "anti-war hero". Kerry is more scary than I thought.
Unfortunately it wasn't Kerry in that story.
http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/bobby/2003/bobby_0908.shtml
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