"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
Wow, Kerry is a big, big liar about everything.
bump
Rassmann, a former Green Beret, remembered sitting on the deck of the pilothouse of Kerry's boat...
Are Rasmussen and Rassmann different people? or is there confusion on how to spell Rassman's name?
Man the guy can't even keep his lies straight when not under pressure. What would he be like under the pressure of an Al Qaida WMD attack. (Or a Chinese one)? Oh I forget that he's a Francophile. He'd surrender, presumably after not being about to think for 40 minutes.
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.
I thought that Rassman was blown off the boat by the mine. Now by Kerry's own words in the Congressional Record he says the guy fell off when he made a "high speed" turn.
It may be that this was a diffent event and different guy who was falling off his boat but this story differs greatly from the Rassman story.
Nice work!
THANK YOU for putting this all in one place!
Ping to #22.
Lots of inconsistencies here.
Jim Angle on FOX News tonight reported this.
Drip drip drip...
No, this might be incorrect. Brinkley's account can be read two ways. It never says Rassman is on Kerry's boat for the second mine. Brinkley appears to be giving the "on another boat" account like the others.
The Kerry camp will use this vagueness to argue that they didn't mean Kerry's boat had a man overboard, but were using the term in the general sense.
They will then spin the rest of their stories into the more plausible explanation: he wasn't on Kerry's boat. Of course this will destroy their credibility as well. :-D
Great work. You should send this around to the media.
John Kerry's Vietnam; The Democratic presidential candidate says lessons learned as a young lieutenant in the Mekong Delta have made him the leader he is now.; [FINAL Edition]
Andrea Stone. USA TODAY. McLean, Va.: Apr 13, 2004. pg. A.18
"The level of danger was extremely high," says Jim Rassmann, the Army Special Forces officer who rode PCF-94 for nearly a month before Kerry saved his life during a ferocious river battle.The noisy boats "had no place to hide. People could hear them coming a half-mile away."
I'll read the rest of the thread, but as to your post - wow!
How did you find that?
I would love to see this guy's phone records since he said he was not contacted by Kerry and just decided to "surprise" him at the Iowa primary.
So, Rassman fell off when Kerry turned to run, Kerry got scared, went back to get him, they promised to never tell anyone about how they were ready to run, and turned it into a medal???