Posted on 08/10/2004 10:21:42 PM PDT by The Bandit
As has been pointed out, this is keloid formation. It takes years to develop and can occur with quite minor injuries. It says nothing about the severity of the underlying injury. It is easily possible that this was a minor scalp wound and not visible a few weeks after it occurred.
So he was a JG during the time in question. Those seem like slow promotions to me in wartime.
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!
Two suns in the sky that day!
Kerry's shadow is cast on the tarp covering the gun mount, which is that blue thing in the middle. The weapon under it would be an M-60 machine gun (my baby when I was in the 2ID, all 28 pounds of her!)
So the picture is accurate.
There would be two light sources, if not three in this photo. First is the sun, behind the photographer. Second would be the flash on the camera, as all cameras back then used flash cubes. Third would be the sun reflecting off various surfaces, such as metal or water.
Its not a fake.
About average to LT, but his promotion to LTJG is a little slower. It was usually 18 months. I was promoted to LCDR in about 7 1/2 years just as I left the service.
Pray for W and Our Troops
There's a good reason he "isn't the same". I don't know if you realize what you dad went through. He probably doesn't talk about it.
Anyway, I have a friend ('slightly' older) who was in the 1st Division (AirMobile) and 'in country' from 1965 to part of '67 (two tours). He was a 'Lurp' (LRRP) and back then the 1st Division did many 'Ranger' type missions as at the time, the 75th Ranger Battalion wasn't yet 'officially' formed.
Years later my friend was still slightly 'messed up', and occasionally had flashbacks in public. He'd here sudden loud noise - like a drink tray falling in a restaurant, yell "INCOMING" and dive under the table. He wasn't playing.
There's a good website that describes all of the 1st Division's missions / operations in Vietnam, from '65 on. Check out what they did in 68-69 when your dad was there - you'll buy him a nice present.
That's fine, but there should be an unbroken shadow going from that cast by his arm, all the way down to that cast by his leg...but all I see in between is the shadow cast by some sort of grating (which lets plenty of light through). The shadow can't be behind him, because that would be inconsistent with the sun angle that we agreed to before.
If he had been hospitalized for a head wound, a significant portion of his scalp would have been shaved while stitches were done. That could not have grown back evenly in one month.
The photo was taken prior to January 29.
I know from some personal experience that record keeping in Nam was not the very best. I would suspect that written records would not hold up in court. My own payroll and leave records were a mess. I never bothered trying to get them straightened out because I was afraid it would delay my separation.
And, why can you see "water" THROUGH the shroud on the "gun mount" ...
The crewmember on the left is leaning on something "invisible" in the middle, which is NOT moving, but the shroud IS moving, as if it were from two different pictures.
Kerry's posture and sun angle look odd on the right - stiff, as if he were posed separately from the more relaxed crew on the left. (Then again, Kerry always looks odd and stiff.)
There's something odd going on; draw a line from the tip of Kerry's nose to the tip of his nose's shadow. Do the same for the guy next to him, in the white tee-shirt. They are parallel, as one would expect. Now draw a line from the elbow of the guy in the teeshirt to the shadow of his elbow. I submit that by inspection one can see this line is not parallel with the first two (nose shadow) lines.
Now, draw a line between the left bottom corner of the black guy's shirt, and the corresponding shadow of it projected onto the leg on the sailor to the right (from the camera's perspective). This doesn't line up with any of the previous shadow lines, but IS parallel with with the shadow of the nose on the sailor to the right of the black guy.
Now, unless I'm forgetting something about projective geometry, it would appear that the two rightmost figures in the picture were photographed under slightly different lighting conditions than is seen in the rest of the picture.
Also, the shadow of the arm of the tee-shirt guy seems too sharp, as though someone created it with a digital photo editor. It seems to lacks the blurring you expect from a solar induced shadow projected over that distance (because the sun isn't a point source of light.)
I just blew the photo up and really took a good look at all aspects. The shadow to Kerry's left isn't human. You are correct, it seems to be a piece of equipment.
Kerry is also looking directly at the cameraman's feet (the cameraman seems to be above the subjects in the photo, possibly standing on a stairway.) He is also not squinting at all, unlike everyone else in the picture. Something isn't quite right, but unless I had the negative on a light table, I can't put my finger on it.
But then, we know Kerry is a bloodsucker, so he wouldn't cast a shadow, would he? Or he is one of Peter Pan's Lost Boys, who has lost his shadow?
Look again at the shroud - half is cloth, then the middle is (blurred, then the left is "water".
Look at the clutter on the bottom of the boat, but is missing (somehow) in the photo of the leg of the "reverend" traousers, and the "missing pants" leg of the guy in the middle - who ISN'T leaning on the "missing" left side of the "missing" shroud.
Good morning.
Staging pictures is common for young military types. I am on the cover of Gary D. Ford's excellent book "4/4: A LRP's Narrative". The picture is of Gary's LRP team either getting ready to go on a mission or just coming in. I was on a different team, from a different platoon, but Gary and I were friends and my team was also going out or coming in so there I was. Profile pictures are common. Kerry's people must be on the verge of panic.
I don't think I have ever watched a campaign implode like this.
Michael Frazier
Good morning.
Staging pictures is common for young military types. I am on the cover of Gary D. Ford's excellent book "4/4: A LRP's Narrative". The picture is of Gary's LRP team either getting ready to go on a mission or just coming in. I was on a different team, from a different platoon, but Gary and I were friends and my team was also going out or coming in so there I was. Profile pictures are common. Kerry's people must be on the verge of panic.
I don't think I have ever watched a campaign implode like this.
Michael Frazier
My opinion?
The two crew members on the left (including the reverend!) are from a different photograph.
Their shadows are completely different, and their feet/trousers don't match the clutter and junk on the bottom of the boat. (It would be almost impossible to be standing where they appear to be stadning.)
No flash cubes in daylight, outside, in the sun.
I don't know...it looks like the shroud is just the same color as the water beyond it.
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