Posted on 08/10/2004 9:32:58 AM PDT by The Right Stuff
Is John F. Kerry Fit to Serve? - The SWIFT Boat Saga
By Jennifer King
August 9, 2004
Fast and furious, the rounds have been coming in. Two days ago, a group calling itself "SWIFT Boat Veterans For Truth" (www.swiftvets.com) put out a devastating advertisement about John Kerry's record in Vietnam. The SWIFT boat veterans are all men who served alongside John Kerry during his four month tenure in Vietnam. Among other charges, the SWIFT boat veterans allege:
John Kerry was reckless and did not follow orders.
Kerry was personally responsible for shooting a fleeing Vietnamese soldier in the back.
Kerry was personally responsible for ordering his men to fire upon a "peaceful village", slaughtering domestic animals with machine guns and torching the village with his own Zippo lighter.
Kerry "fled the scene" when one of the SWIFT boats hit a mine and was disabled only returning when "it was obvious we were not under fire."
The SWIFT boat veterans also cast doubts upon Kerry's three Purple Hearts.
Kerry claims that his first Purple Heart was earned during a nighttime patrol, when his group was attempting to stop the Vietcong from transporting contraband. In Douglas Brinkley's biography of Kerry, "Tour of Duty", Kerry describes reaching into the boat to pick up another gun after his M-16 jammed. "...as I bent down to grab another gun, a stinging piece of heat socked into my arm..". His fellow sailors claim that he was wounded when he picked up an M-79 grenade launcher (after his M-16 jammed) and he fired a grenade too close to shore, hitting a rock. A tiny "one to two centimeter" piece of shrapnel hit his arm. Kerry's commander, Rear Admiral William Schachte, berated him for "almost putting someone's eye out." According to the SWIFT vets, the vessel had not come under enemy fire at any time during this event. Retired Naval Commander Grant Hibbard, the head of the Naval division to which Kerry was assigned, confirms that Kerry asked him to recommend him for a Purple Heart. Hibbard refused, on the grounds that "the injury was self-inflicted...and was nothing more than a scratch." Hibbard told Kerry to "forget it." He still doesn't know how Kerry ended up receiving the Purple Heart.
Another incident describes how Lt.(jg) Kerry received his Bronze Star and third Purple Heart. According to Kerry biographies, on March 13th, 1969, Kerry suffered shrapnel wounds on his left buttock and injuries to his arm when a mine exploded underneath another boat on the Bay Hap River in South Vietnam. Despite his wounds and under heavy enemy fire, Kerry rushed to save a Special Forces soldier who had fallen into the water from one of the boats. That soldier, Jim Rassmann, is a Kerry supporter who has been featured prominently during the campaign.
SWIFT Boat Veterans for Truth, however, tell a much different story. In signed affidavits, the vets say that Kerry's wounds were inflicted when he tossed a grenade into a rice laden sampan. The vets point to numerous accounts mentioning "buttock wounds from the grenade" and "flying rice grains" in various sources. They note that an earlier book about Kerry "John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography By the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best" mentions the self-inflicted rice injury on page 105. The official casualty report however, states that "Lt. Jg Kerry suffered shrapnel wounds in his left buttock and contusions on his right forearm when a mine detonated close to PCF-94."
The SWIFT boat veterans also dispute Kerry's account of the mine incident. Several allege that Kerry initially "fled the scene" when the explosion occurred, leaving the other boats to aid the stricken vessel. Kerry returned "four or five minutes later when it was clear that we were not under fire." Van Odell, a gunner aboard a boat behind the stranded vessel, stated baldly "there was no fire coming from any direction" and that there were "no holes in any boats" and "no further wounded", which there would have been had the boats been under fire. Larry Thurlow, a fellow SWIFT boat commander, alleges that Rassmann "fell off of Kerry's boat" when Kerry rapidly accelerated and left the scene after the mine detonated.
Kerry's much touted "Band of Brothers" of course dispute the SWIFT Vets testimony. Rassmann and fellow crewmate Del Sandusky allege that the mine incident occurred in the middle of a "hellacious firefight". Gene Thorson, another crewmate, called the assertions "garbage".
The SWIFT Boat Veterans for Truth story rapidly escalated. The DNC and the Kerry/Edwards Campaign immediately issued a letter from their lawyers which suggested that TV stations should not air the ad because it is "libelous". The letter further goes on to hint darkly that the "station is responsible for the false and libelous charges" should they dare to run the ad. Then the Democrats issued a 36 page retraction to the 60 second ad. The retraction tried to discredit the SWIFT boat vets and attempted to align them with "right wing" Republican donors from Texas.
Just as quickly, the Boston Globe published an article by Michael Kranish - quoting an apparent retraction from Captain George Elliott of the SWIFT boaters. Captain Elliott almost immediately retracted his "retraction" and accused Mr. Kranish of having ulterior motives. In an interesting twist, Mr. Kranish is the very same reporter who was a co-author of the aforementioned "John Kerry: A Biography." Mr. Kranish is also the author of the forthcoming "Kerry/Edwards: Campaign" book.
Fast forward: The Globe (August 7th) printed a "correction", standing by their story. The Globe further asserted that Mr. Kranish was in no way involved in the Kerry/Edwards book. Perhaps. Instead, it appears that Public Affairs, the publishing entity behind Kerry/Edwards - an unauthorized book, would instead publish a book written by John Kerry and John Edwards - titled "Their Plan for America." Mr. Kranish is not involved in this publication.
Of course, the controversy could be easily solved if Senator Kerry would only agree to sign Navy form 180 and release all of his military records. So here's a chant for all you protestors attending your next Kerry campaign stop.
Hey, hey
Ho, ho
Kerry - sign the 1-8-0
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.
Donate to the Swift boat vets to counter the tie in with the mediots and Kerry!
Why we should contribute to the Swift Boat Money raising for tv ads, based on comments from Kerri's staff":
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1188521/posts
According to a Kerry campaign source, senior campaign advisers tasked two Washington-based campaign staffers to vet the recently published Unfit for Command.
"The purpose was to compare what that book had with what we had on file from Senator Kerry," says the campaign source, who said that the research project developed more than 75 instances where Kerry's recollections, previous remarks, or writings conflicted with the book's reporting.
"We took some of the most glaring examples, like the Christmas in Cambodia story, and presented them to senior staff, and we assume that those things were put in front of Senator Kerry," says the source. "We haven't heard a word about it. All we were told is that it was being taken care of."
The campaign source said that the book was not considered a "serious" problem for the campaign, because, "the media wouldn't have the nerve to come at us with this kind of stuff," says the source.
"The senior staff believes the media is committed to seeing us win this thing, and that the convention inoculated us from these kinds of stories. The senior guys really think we don't have a problem here."
Found this link on a blog somewhere:
A Mission to Cambodia
by Kevin Whitelaw
May 8, 2000
U.S.News & World Report
http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/USNewsWorldReport/2000/05/08/222612
Excerpt:
"Sen. John Kerry made his first forays into Cambodia during the Vietnam War as a Navy lieutenant on clandestine missions to deliver weapons to anticommunist forces. When he returned last week, the mission was official, but dicey nonetheless. At the request of the United Nations, Kerry is trying to broker a compromise on how to try leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime, whose late 1970s reign of terror claimed the lives of some 1.7 million Cambodians."
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Forays? Missions? Plural?
It just gets deeper and deeper.
Is Kerry fit to serve as Commander in Chief???NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Botox Malfunction: Presidential
Hopeful's Eyebrows StuckPresidential hopeful, John Kerry, found he needed to use
his fingers to raise his eyebrows after receiving an overdose
of Botox injected near his right temple. Campaign staffers
close to Kerry joked that he would now have a "permanent
salute."
Thanks for the links, I urge everyone to DONATE!
Hilarious!
You're right!
bump
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