"2. PCF NOT CAPABLE OF EXECUTING MARKET TIME PATROL"I knew that "Market Time" sounded familiar. Remember the other Kerrey medals? Bob Kerrey that is. Apparently he was assigned to Market Time (Task Force 115) at the same time as John Kerry. There were also some... errrr... discrepancies... in the award of his medals, as well. Small world.
Associated Press via chblue.com
[Bob] Kerrey lied about revealing civilian casualties
Saturday, April 28, 2001(snip)
Two newly declassified official reports concerning a raid on a Vietnamese village by Bob Kerrey's Navy SEAL team make no mention of civilian casualties that the former senator says he included in his initial after-action report on the incident.
The reports, both dated Feb. 25, 1969 - the day of the raid on Thanh Phong, a coastal hamlet in the Mekong Delta - were released Friday by the Naval Historical Center in Washington.
They are not signed, but military address codings suggest they are a message from Kerrey's immediate superior officer to the commander of SEAL Task Force 115 and that officer's reply.
Both refer only to "21 VC KIA (BC)," meaning "21 Viet (Viet Cong) killed in action (body count)." The senior commander's reply says the SEALS "have gained a well-deserved spotlight as a result of their successful and highly productive operations," and praises "the Kerrey Raiders of Market Time," saying they "not only surprised the enemy in his own sanctuary but struck him a severe and fatal blow. Well done."
Market Time was the code name for a U.S. Navy effort to interdict Viet Cong boats carrying ammunition and supplies along the coast of the South China Sea, where the communist forces controlled many populated areas.
The language is similar to that in a later citation awarding then-Lt. (jg) Kerrey, 25, the Bronze Star, the nation's fourth-highest award for valor. Kerrey has said recently that because a dozen of the victims turned out to be civilians, "the medal means nothing to me."