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
Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen that story.
What can I say? I'll admit it -- of course I was hoping for a kerry self-contradiction. :=)
By Kerry telling us what happened.
If he wants to lead the country he has to be able to communicate.
I've seen threads here on FR with stories indicating that he was anti-war before he even went over there. I'll see if I can find a link.
I don't believe hin either but I think his retort would be that Nixon was President-Elect and was surely making comments about Vietnam and Cambodia through the press.
If Kerry claimed or is claiming that Nixon ordered the Cambodia trip in December 1968, then he's been caught red-handed in a lie.
See post # 44.
In an earlier statement from ? he described the incident as being from the President then later Nixon. It could be a mistake on someones part but Kerry always seems to be correcting his or someones error but the media seems to accept it on face value.
You have my permission to post Kerry parodies:
I am the very model of a presidential candidate,
From character to senator I know what to assassinate.
I lobby for the victims of injustice and adversity,
And care for those unfortunates who lack my great diversity.
I've bedded movie starlets and I've yachted with the Kennedys,
I've copied their initials and I've shared in their affinities.
And in the field of foreign wars my service is distinguishèd,
Or will be just as soon as all the rumors are extinguishèd.
Or will be just as soon as all the rumors are extinguishèd.
Or will be just as soon as all the rumors are extinguishèd.
Or will be just as soon as all the rumors are extinguishèd.
I'm boarding schooled and finishèd in snowy neutral Switzerland,
My haircuts and my super facials set me back at least a grand.
My visage in the mirror never ceases me to fascinate;
I am the very model of a presidential candidate.
His visage in the mirror never ceases him to fascinate;
He is the very model of a presidential candidate.
I married very well and proper, and I married kind of twice,
The first wife, she had tons of money, and they say the kids are nice.
This was, advancing my career, anulled, but she remains a friend,
My second wife is richer still, and happily sustains a trend.
Two marriages can easily as two conflicting thoughts be hatched.
I'm married to ideas whenever they're to billionaires attached.
The nuances of laws and things are strewn among my haws and hems;
I'm so cerebral sauve and subtle, like Prince Hamlet on the Thames.
He's so cerebral sauve and subtle, like Prince Hamlet on the Thames.
He's so cerebral sauve and subtle, like Prince Hamlet on the Thames.
He's so cerebral sauve and subtle, like Prince Hamlet on the Thames.
Irreconcilable intentions haunt my inconsistent stands,
And ghosts fly out of Arkansas, opposing me and my commands.
In matters war and peaceful I will always spin and vacillate.
I am the very model of a presidential candidate.
In matters war and peaceful he will always spin and vacillate.
He is the very model of a presidential candidate.
If I become the president our kind could safely then inhale,
Unless a vast conspiracy releases the right wing on bail,
Demands a free and fair election in a horrid foreign state,
Or tries to overthrow a brutal and oppressive potentate,
Humiliates or disrespects a terr'ist or a tyrant lord,
Or fails to fly the white surrender flag before the mouse that roared;
I would this mad cabal remand and would severely castigate,
Unless to the U.N. or my successor I could delegate.
Unless to the U.N. or his successor he could delegate.
Unless to the U.N. or his successor he could delegate.
Unless to the U.N. or his successor he could delegate.
I never would betray you and I never would equivocate.
I'm patriotic to a fault and never would renunciate;
My brain, when I am making big decisions, it can herniate.
I am the very model of a presidential candidate;
His brain, when he is making big decisions, it can herniate.
He is the very model of a presidential candidate.
Good points. He may have been shrewd enough to push for three frivolous based PHs and in so doing he frustrated his fellows.
The angle that he had people in important places apply pressure, his commanding officer threw in the towel and tossed him out of the unit, seems more plausible.
It is interesting that the Kennedy's Joe Jr. and John were pressured by their father and their own rivalry to get war medals, to become war heros. Kerry having been exposed to the Kennedy clan, must have at some point heard from others of the exploits of the war hero Kennedy. We can speculate that he also heard that alot of the hero story was 'a good show' and a boost to office seekers. So he may have learned to aspire to hero status.
Like I've said previously, his lack of backup for his medals is not the issue, it his self-promotion as a hero that is suspect. No hero openly pats themselves on the back for their courage.
RE post 21: Maybe Kerry did not know where he was. I am sure people did not want to serbe with him with his weird behavior.
Great lyrics What's the tune? I can't pick it up.
Cool!
Good point. But sKerry is guilty of far more than patting himself on the back over his Vietnam record. He has shoved it down our throats--giving one of the hardest sells this country has ever seen--for more than a year. I always found his super hard sell to be suspicious in and of itself.
Some of you folks keep parroting this line and it doesn't help the cause because it is wrong.
I was in the same op area as Kerry, almost two-years before he arrived and we were already losing boats and crews. In fact, if memory serves, PCF-4 was the first boat to be sunk in Feb. 1966. I was there...PCF-4 relieved our boat doing close coastal surveillance when it hit a mine and was sunk with the loss of 4 of its 6-member crew. Our boat returned to the area immediately after we heard the SOS and was engaged, along with other Swifts, in a long fire fight from the very nearby shore...in water that was about 6-feet deep. I helped pull the 4-bodies out of the water and have photos of bullets splashing around our boat during the fight. It wasn't until a dragon ship flew in and suppressed the shore fire that things settled down.
I'm not sure why Kerry volunteered for Swifts, possibly because they were the closest thing to the PT boats of his hero, JF Kennedy, but it couldn't have been because they were "water taxis" as you say. I would advise backing off from this line of attack. Cheers PCFs 10, 45 & 50 1965 - 1966
I stand corrected. Did the SWIFT mission change at after sKerry volunteered? For example, did it change from exclusively coastal mission to coastal and river? Was the river duty more hazardous than the coastal duty?
Yeah, I think I've heard that too.
"I would advise backing off from this line of attack."
Why do you suppose the Swift Boat Vets for the Truth are not backing off?
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