Posted on 08/11/2004 9:02:07 AM PDT by areafiftyone
A Swiftboat veteran who was a member of Sen. John Kerry's crew when their boat was targeted in Feb. 1969 by an enemy rocket launcher has refuted Kerry's claim that he single-handedly saved his crew from the attack - an account that earned the top Democrat the Silver Star.
Interviewed during Kerry's 1996 Senate reelection battle, Kerry crew member Tom Bellodeau told the Boston Globe that he - not Kerry - fired the shot the brought down the enemy fighter, who had aimed a loaded rocket launcher at their boat just after Kerry beached it on the Ca Mau peninsula.
"You know, I shot that guy," Bellodeau said, in response to an earlier Globe account that credited Kerry for his heroism.
"He jumped up, he looked right at me, I looked at him," the Kerry shipmate explained. "You could tell he was trying to decide whether to shoot or not. I expected the guy on Kerry's boat with the twin 50s to blast him but he couldn't depress the guns far enough. We were up on the bank."
Only after the enemy soldier was wounded, said Bellodeau, did Kerry leap from the boat onto the beach and pursue him around the back of a nearby hut, where Kerry finished him off.
Bellodeau's account is particularly damaging because he was actually a member of Kerry's swiftboat crew - the group of Vietnam veterans the Kerry campaign has repeatedly offered up to respond to criticism of his war record by other swiftboaters who were on different boats.
Kerry's Silver Star citation credits him alone for taking down the Vietcong soldier, and makes no mention whatsoever of Bellodeau.
"An enemy soldier sprang up from his position not 10 feet from Swift boat 94 and fled," the combat award reads. "Without hesitation Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry leaped ashore, pursued the man behind a hootch and killed him, capturing a B-40 rocket launcher with a round in the chamber."
And Kerry has done nothing to incorporate Bellodeau's role in subsequent accounts of the encounter with the enemy fighter.
In a 1996 interview, Kerry makes no mention of the first shot whatsoever.
"It was either going to be him or it was going to be us. It was that simple. I don't know why it wasn't us - I mean, to this day. He had a rocket pointed right at our boat. He stood up out of a hole, and none of us saw him until he was standing in front of us, aiming a rocket right at us, and, for whatever reason, he didn't pull the trigger - he turned and ran."
When pressed for more details, the top Democrat said: "I just won't talk about all of it. I don't and can't. The things that really turned me I've never told anybody. Nobody would understand."
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It just keeps on coming . . . drip, drip, drip.
Talk about an emporer with no clothes!
I guess that this is analogous to being the top T on a pile of S.
Aw ... go ahead Mr. Kerry, give it a try.
You don't have trouble saying things that "turn" the rest of the nation. And yes ... we are beginning to understand.
Considering that the Silver Star is our nation's second highest award for valor, and recalling reading of some of the individual exploits for which it has been awarded. I really feel like I should take a shower.
p.s. I realize Viet Nam was overall a classic example of grotesque "medal inflation" but I was under the impression that the Navy and Marine Corps were much more circumspect about passing out the tinsel and ribbon.
Honest question: Although I respect anyone who has the brass to serve in combat, I fail to see how killing one enemy soldier under any circumstance would warrant a Silver Star. A good thing to happen in battle, yes, but a Silver Star? As a former naval officer myself (no combat time ever), I was led to believe a Silver Star was awarded to someone who storms a machine gun nest, single handedly, and wipes out a squad of gunners---or something, well, more "heroic" than what Kerry did. Can anyone clue me in?
And Bellodeau? Where is he now? Was he one of Kerry's crew who took the stage at the DNC??
I remember hearing about this before...but it still bears repeating.
Don't forget that according to Kerry, he shot the VC while he was running away from him, but insists he didn't shoot him in the back.
I think this is key to Kerry's strategy. I suspect there are a lot of medals out there with fishy stories behind them. There are probably thousands of great stories with no medals to go along.
I've been reading this stuff for weeks now, and have come to the conclusion that Kerry's service was OK by any reasonable standard, but not exceptional. What is exceptional is his ability to milk situations to his benefit.
Can some vets on here help me understand this better? It seems to me that the guy needed to be tracked and killed and the weapon taken. But I would figure that that is standard operating procedure and don't understand where the medal is justified. Same thing on pulling the guy outta the river - isn't it SOP to get your men back aboard? I know it would take courage and be an act of bravery to do it under fire, but I've read that they weren't under fire - that one of the boats hit a mine and no one was firing from shore. So again, where's the bravery?
Kerry has a superhuman appetite for tokens of achievement. In school he probably wanted his picture taken with every club. He went to Vietnam to collect trophies.
No wonder Botox Ketchupman doesn't want to talk about it because he "wins" his medals via lying his butt off not the usual way of earning them.
Don't forget that according to Kerry, he shot the VC while he was running away from him, but insists he didn't shoot him in the back.
The Vietnamese are famous for their running backwards skills. They consistently medal in this event in the Olympics, and then get other people to throw those medals over a fence for them.
Absolutely key question! He needs to be located and deposed under oath.
Not to Officers doing unpopular duty...like close combat in a Navy that generally didn't get within miles of the target.
I guess that 8mm camera John F'n "flip-flop fop" Kerry was carrying around in Vietnam was in reality one of those time warp generators that we see in the Matrix film (and invented by Al Gore) so he could simultaniously shoot the guy in the chest as he was running away.
kerry is a lying, coward, traitor!
There aren't enough adjectives to describe him!
He betrayed our Military!!!
Maybe because thanks to Tom Bellodeau the guy was missing his shooting arm before Kerry even noticed he was there.
bump to print
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