WOW!! rassman must be in a sweat!!
I hadn't heard this before either. Also, if Kerry's boat was hit by a mine (as Rassman claims) why didn't his boat have any damage?
Hells Bells, was sKerry even on the boat?
Kerry asked for this...."Lt. War Hero." And we still haven't begun to discuss his 20 years as a do-nothing liberal in the Senate.
I thought Rassmann was on the boat that hit a mine, not kerrys.
Actually that goes against the democrats "they weren't in Kerrys boat" argument because it shows that other boats were right there.
Rassman's on the record with different stories. In all versions, however, he spends most of his time on the bottom of the river hoping to avoid being run over by one of our boats. So he was in no position to no whether or not there was any enemy fire.
Rassman was definitely on Kerry's boat after Kerry pulled him out of the water, that much is uncontested.
I heard Jim Angle's report on that. It is very curious. One would think they knew whether they were on the boat together or on separate boats.
More and more it appears that much of Kerry's Viet Nam/Cambodia experience may have been fabricated. Kerry is going to have to address these variations. Sending out his mouthpieces with differing versions of the stories just won't do.
Someone posted yesterday that Tony Snow had counted 9 different versions of the Christmas in Cambodia story from the Kerry camp.
Kerry's Bronze Star citation indicates that the man he rescued was knocked off of his boat - Kerry's Bronze Star
Wasn't this the incident that the other Swift Boaters said Kerry's boat ran away, then came back a short time later, after the other boats were in process of rescuing 3 others who were in the water?
O'Dell said Rassman fell off Kerry's boat when Kerry revved up the engine to flee the scene after the mine blew up Boat No. 3.
go to this thread for more on Kerry's lies
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1191162/posts
"Rasmussen's swift boat was following Kerry's, in a flotilla of 5 cruising a narrow canal. Rasmussen was eating a chocolate chip cookie in the pilothouse, when his craft was rocked by an explosion."
Rassmann, a former Green Beret, remembered sitting on the deck of the pilothouse of Kerry's boat, eating a chocolate-chip cookie, when an explosion under a nearby boat blew him into the Bay Hap River and caused Kerry to smash his arm.
Rassmann said he instinctively swam to the bottom of the river to avoid being run over by the escaping Swift boats. But every time he came up for air, the enemy shot at him. He swam for the north bank, expecting to be captured and probably executed.
After five or six dives, Rassmann said, he looked up and saw Kerry's boat coming back for him. He met the boat at the center of the river and then grabbed a heavy net made of rope hanging over the bow. He climbed the arch of the bow, but could not pull himself over the lip.
That, he said, is when Kerry came running.
"Kerry dropped to his hands and knees ... and pulled me aboard," Rassmann said. "The fighting continued until we got out of the kill zone, and we managed to get out to the Gulf of Siam."
In Aug. 10, 2004 Wall Street Journal editorial by Rassman:
"While returning from a SEA LORDS operation along the Bay Hap River, a mine detonated under another swift boat. Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river, and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John's swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath."
"On March 13, 1969, Rassmann, a Green Beret, was traveling down the Bay Hap river in a boat behind Kerry’s when both were ambushed by exploding land mines and enemy fire coming from the shore. Kerry was hit in the arm, while a mine blew Rassmann’s boat out of the water. With enemy fire coming from both sides of the river and swift boats evacuating from the area, Kerry’s crew chose to turn their boat toward the ambush to save Rassmann."
+++++++ http://www.thehistorynet.com/ah/blkerryinvietnam/index2.html ...a mine exploded directly beneath Lieutenant James Rassman's PCF-3 near Kerry's port side. Rassman's Swift lifted about two feet up out of the water, engulfed in mud and spray, then settled, rocking so hard from side to side that the boat started zigzagging from the banks to the middle of the river. Everybody on board PCF-3 was wounded. "At the same moment, we came under a hail of small-arms fire from both banks," Kerry recorded in his journal. "I turned the boat into the fire on the left with the intention of trying to get the troops ashore on the outskirts of the ambush, but Sandusky, who was driving the boat and who had his eyes glued on the crippled 3 boat, pointed out to me how badly hit they had been. We veered back toward her then and tried to provide cover from the engaged side. Suddenly another explosion went off right beside us, and the concussion threw me violently against the bulkhead on the door, and I smashed my arm. At the same instant, Jim Rassman was blown overboard, although nobody knew it. " ++++++++
On the subject of Rassman's credibility. Here he is on his party affiliation: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128269,00.html "Hannity & Colmes," August 5, 2004: [excerpt] ESTRICH: Mr. Rassman, can I ask you a question? You're not a Democrat, are you? RASSMAN: I turned Democrat in January. Previous to that, I had been a Republican for 33, 35 years. I didn't always vote Republican. But much of the time, I did.
Compare with: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005460 BY JIM RASSMANN Nobody asked me to join John's campaign. Why would they? I am a Republican, and for more than 30 years I have largely voted for Republicans.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT
+++++++++
And speaking of credibility, in this eulogy it suddenly becomes Kerry's boat that got blown up:
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed
in the Record the text of the eulogy I gave for my friend, Thomas
M. Belodeau, on November 10, 1997.There was the time we were carrying Special Forces
up a river and a mine exploded under our boat sending it 2
feet into the air. We were receiving incoming rocket and small
arms fire and Tommy was returning fire with his M-60 machine gun
when it literally broke apart in his hands. He was left holding
the pieces unable to fire back while one of the Green Berets
walked along the edge of the boat to get Tommy another M-60. As he
was doing so, the boat made a high speed turn to starboard and the
Green Beret kept going--straight into the river. The entire time
while the boat went back to get the Green Beret, Tommy was without
a machine gun or a weapon of any kind, but all the time he was
hurling the greatest single string of Lowell-Chelmsford curses
ever heard at the Viet Cong. He literally had swear words with
tracers on them!
Congressional Record: January 28, 1998 (Senate) Page S186-S187
Sheesh, seems Kerry's got some ducks he needs put in a row.
Oh my, that was a long time ago memories fade, was Kerry in Viet Nam?
If he wasn't on the same boat then, by rat definition, they did not serve together.
Fair is fair.
Who was the man in Theresa's boat...?
I wonder whether Rassmann has been promised some position in a Kerry Administration as the reason for his continuing defense of Kerry.