Posted on 08/11/2004 6:58:57 PM PDT by bwteim
Swifty boats and purple hearts
by Ed Iverson
http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040811/Opinion/108110009
August 11, 2004
Kerry is busily featuring his Vietnam military record. Everyone knows that Bush is committed to a strong national defense and that as long as the focus is on the military threat to our country, Bush wins. I can only assume that Kerry is attempting to convince us poor schlubs that he is a fine warrior-guy; and that the nation will be safe with him as commander in chief. Verrry tricksy!
The following information is from a piece I read back in February. The source is reliable and it is confirmed by the recent complaints and revelations of former Swift Boat sailors. I pass it along now because Kerry has invited an examination of his military record by making it a central issue in the campaign. The following points at least deserve an explanation from the Kerry bunch.
Kerry's Vietnam tour lasted less than four months. In that very short time he collected a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts. This is a record unmatched by any Swift Boat personnel and would be extremely rare for units where commendations are much more common (The SEALs, the Sea Wolves, and The River Patrol Force, etc.). Just last week, we heard former Swift Boat sailors argue that collecting that much hardware so fast, and for such pedestrian actions, simply lacks credibility.
Three Purple Hearts but no limp! His injuries were so minor that he lost no time from duty. Amazing luck! Was he putting himself in for medals every time he bumped his head on the wheel house hatch? What! Combat on the boats was almost always at close range. Sailors didn't have minor wounds. At least not often. Not three times in a row. Then he used the three purple hearts to request a trip home eight months before the end of his tour. Lucky Jack Kerry? Still, very fishy.
The details for which Kerry received the bronze star make no sense. He beached the boat after taking fire and went ashore to dispatch a combatant that, according to the report, had to have been already dead. According to existing rules of engagement, he did everything wrong. Military procedures for Swift Boats prohibited beaching the boat and going ashore during or after a fire-fight. He should have been relieved and reprimanded. Instead, he was put up for a bronze star. Something is fishy.
Here we have a JFK wannabe who is hardly in Vietnam long enough to get a good tan, collects medals faster than Audie Murphy in a job where lots of medals weren't common, gets sent home eight months early, requests separation from active duty a few months after that so he can run for Congress, finds out war heroes don't sell well in Massachusetts in 1970 so reinvents himself as Jane Fonda, and throws his ribbons in the dirt with the cameras running to jump start his political career.
He winds up in the Senate a few years later where he takes every possible opportunity to gut defense spending, and is on record as saying that the CIA is irrelevant after the Berlin Wall came down.
If all this is does not create anxiety about Kerry "reporting for duty," then consider this: He voted against the Gulf War...a big mistake since that turned out well. He decided not to make the same mistake twice so voted to invade Iraq in 2003. But oops, that didn't turn out so well so he now says he really didn't mean for Bush to go to war when he voted to allow him to go to war. I certainly don't want this guy reporting for duty as our commander in chief. Do you?
Excellence! bump
FYI
Thought so too - guy writes from the gut.
"Here we have a JFK wannabe who is hardly in Vietnam long enough to get a good tan "
PING
Do you have anxiety about Kerry "reporting for duty"?
Kerry received the Silver Star for beaching his boat and killing the wounded VC who fired the rocket. He got the Bronze Star for fishing the Green Beret out of the water after he fell out of Kerry's boat.
PING
Kerry reminds me of Gruber on the old McHale's Navy show. Gruber was always out to get a purple heart for the smallest scratch hoping it would get him out of the Navy sooner.
Right. I just went back and looked again at
Evidence Suggests Kerry's Silver Star Was Not Earned (UPDATED and more damning)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1133600/posts
by The Bandit.
Carl Ballantine played Gruber.....
He was an old vaudvillian style act, as a magician.
Not only did he play the purple heart scam, he was always scheming. Very much like our F'in hero.
Another of McHales merry band was Gavin MacLeod who played Joseph 'Happy' Haines
Excellent point. Everyone should start referring to Kerry as "Gruber". Send it to Rush. It may not mean much to the younger folks, but to Baby Boomers, the idea might catch on. (Note, I changed my tagline).
I knew a sailer in the Navy with acne so bad that he could qualify for a purple heart every day if you used the Kerry Heart Hound standard for what constitutes a Purple Heart.
I used the acne image because this Hanoi John Kerry is so sickening I wish we could pop him like so much puss from the body politics.
1) I was not familiar with Gruber background, so I started Googling
2) Then you put in your details to Kirkwood, (thanks) so I went to IMDB where I found following:
"In addition to being an actor, Ballantine is an accomplished magician. - show more"
So I clicked Show More
music louder now.... "Trade mark"
"Supposed tricks of magic, which always flop." http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0050535/
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0050535/bio
So, here finally, is the tie back to the Flip Flop......;)
Thanks, but I may have to pass on eating for the next week due to your image... ;)
Another good article. Poor John F'n. He's being victimized by all these mean people. And it's Bush's fault.
Well, I never really watched that, but I can see a parallel with Corporal Klinger.
Another victim, indeed!
But you could never get p*ssed at Klinger, right? There was humor even in his pathetic attempts to exit early. Not so with our long faced John boy. No humor there.
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