Posted on 08/15/2004 5:53:41 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
OCALA - The highest ranking enlisted man on Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry's U.S. Navy swift boat in Vietnam, Clearwater resident Del Sandusky, will visit three north central Florida sites next Wednesday.
Sandusky will visit with UAW retirees on 4301 Maricamp Rd., from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., be at the Disabled American Veterans Center (Chapter 85) at 9892 SE 58th Ave., from 3-5 p.m. before concluding his visit at the Unified Training Center at 809 North University Ave., in Gainesville from 7-9 p.m.
Sandusky was born in a farming community in Streator, Ill., in December of 1943. His father worked for the Santa Fe railroad and the moved to Florida in 1957 where Del attended Dunedin Middle School.
He joined the Navy in 1961 and began his first tour of Vietnam in 1964. He volunteered and was assigned to the "river boat squadron" in 1965 and spent 1966 in Da Nang on the river. He began his second tour in spring of 1968 and John Kerry came onto the swift boat in January of 1969. He was there throughout Kerry's service and beyond.
He is a retired computer technician.
"He will be here to answer any and all questions about the man who saved his life and whose life he saved," said Bob Van Heyde, a local Kerry supporter.
Re your post 27, you and I both know that men don't talk like that.
Please note that Kerry left Nam in January. Did their time there even overlap? Just wondering.
Beware this info. May be a disruptor. Edith doesn't even know when Kerry was there (He left in March, not January)
We shouldn't attack Mr. Sandusky on a personel level. He is a fellow vietnam veteran who deserved the respect for his service. I would like to see someone who served with Mr. Sandusky, even from a boat in the group, who has a different memory of the same event confront him. To me, I respect the veterans on both sides, but the numbers speak loudly to me. 254 to 12! I think the swiftees wouldn't be putting their reps on the line against Kerry and their fellow veterans for political reasons only. I further think Mr. Sandusky may have started down this line to help his former shipmate. He may not of known all the suspected lies from Mr. Kerry he would be expected to cover. Now he has each own rep on the line. He can't easily admit he has been lying. The question is, can he stand face to face with one of his former group comrades and call them a liar?
Somebody needs to ask him to name the crewman who "manned the camera", and did that crewmate get any "reward" for "manning" the camera???? DId the cameraman get an early promotion, or an extra "in country" R&R ?????
They are both speaking in front of veterans? That should be interesting.
I hope the veterans boo Kerry right out of there.
Guess he didn't get out much after 'Nam.
The Swiftees need to track his schedule & make follow-up appearances before all the same groups.
Let's hope they're doing so.
Better yet, they should debate Sandusky one-on-one.
Hey, IT and JRLC and everyone: How much of this is true and how much is BS ??? ....."[Del Sandusky] will be here to answer any and all questions about the man who saved his life and whose life he saved," said Bob Van Heyde, a local Kerry supporter.
"I saved Rassman's life before I didn't save Sandusky's"
Very thoughtful post.
Folks, pile on Kerry but don't automatically disparage another veteran just because he supports Kerry. Many Americans have not made up their minds about Kerry's Nam service and associated lies. If you are spring-loaded to the attack position against a veteran who supports Kerry, you run the risk of turning off the undecided. Much of the pubic will not focus on these and other issues until late in the campaign.
Much of what we say here on FR is like preaching to the choir. Take it slow. It'll sink in.
No one is attacking them. They are asking that the truth be told. They have a right to be heard.
Why doesn't John Kerry release his miltary records?
DEL SANDUSKY, FORMER KERRY SHIPMATE: I'm not sure. I'm just here because I love, honor, and respect John Kerry as does, I think the entire boat crew of 1968 and 1969 crew. We're here. We were with John Kerry and we were awarded medals for it, you know, for the actions that we had in Vietnam.
John Kerry is an excellent leader. We think that he'd make a great commander-in-chief.
NAUERT: You know, a part of the reason you all have been asked to be there is to attract, not only the Veterans' vote, but also make the Democrats more appealing to moderate and swing voters. How did that feel to you being, sort of, used in a way, if you will, as a political backdrop?
SANDUSKY: I don't know, I've never thought of it that way. I volunteered for this. John Kerry saved my life, I saved his. The band of brothers was formed because of the bond that we feel with John Kerry. We owe him, so, you know, we came here.
NAUERT: So, is it the politics of John Kerry or is it the man that you love?
SANDUSKY: The warrior in John Kerry. You know, when we were together in Vietnam, he saved our lives, we saved his.
NAUERT: Does that necessarily mean that he is fit or is the best, perhaps, this is the better way to put it: does that necessarily mean he's the best person to serve as commander-in-chief because he did perform heroically when you were with him, as you say?
SANDUSKY: I believe that he's the best. He is a warrior, he has the experience, and he's a statesman. He's been in the U.S. Senate, you know, for 20 years. He's very good on foreign policy. I know that he's extremely intelligent. Mentally, I had to step it up another notch just to keep up with him because he is very smart.
NAUERT: Now, there are plenty Veterans out there, who in fact, don't support him. They're angry with the position he took during Vietnam, basically saying that Americans had committed atrocities and also upset that he threw away his ribbons. Should Veterans out there who are considering who they want to vote for, should they ignore that fact?
SANDUSKY: I've talked to a lot of Veterans; I've been in the Kerry campaign since January, in Iowa and we went to New Hampshire, et cetera around the country. A lot of Veterans I've talked to, either Republican or Democrat, a hawk or a dove, you know, we're all going to speak our mind; that's part of our country.
I think this is the era of the Vietnam Veteran. We've all come of age since World War II and Korean vets are slowly passing away, God bless them, the more and more Vietnam Veterans, I think, are going to emerge and get into politics. Vietnam Veterans especially, you know: we're concerned, we've been in a dumb, stupid war in Vietnam and now we've got another dumb, stupid war over in Iraq.
All the Veterans that I've talked to, the majority and consensus of opinion is that we're all worried about our kids are dying over there on the other side of the planet. Veterans need to stand up.
NAUERT: There are Iraqis that we actually just interviewed yesterday, who are very thankful that our forces are there protecting them and preventing Saddam Hussein from digging more mass graves. But let me ask you quickly about a video that's going to be shown tonight. Some of this video was shot of Kerry in Vietnam. His critics say that he actually re- enacted some scenes, perhaps that he might use later on in a political campaign. Some of this video we will see tonight.
Is there anything about that that makes you uncomfortable; the notion that he may have re-created scenes to use for political gain?
SANDUSKY: I think it's an atrocity. I mean all wars are an atrocity. But I think it's really distasteful and people should say these things or talk about it. I was with John Kerry. We never had time to shoot movies or do any staging for any political reason or any other use that just a home movie. I didn't have a movie camera. I had a small camera. I took less than two rolls of film in two and a half years that I was in Vietnam. I don't know of any -- none of my boat crew knows anything about, you know -- the whole idea is just beyond us.
NAUERT: Del, you were there for two and a half years. Does it bother you all that Kerry was in an out in less than four months?
SANDUSKY: No, it doesn't. If I had been shot three times, I would have left too.
NAUERT: All right.
SANDUSKY: After my boat crew left, what was he going to do? Start up another boat crew and just tempt the odds to get shot again?
NAUERT: All right. Del Sandusky, thanks a lot for joining us from Boston tonight.
John.
GIBSON: All right, Heather. Thank you.
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There have been rumors that Kerry got his boat crew out early. I wonder what Sandusky was referring to?
"Attack" is probably the wrong word. At any rate we have the numbers on our side. Over 150 Swift Boat vets in O'Neill's book. Everytime someone in the media or some political hack on the left disparages them, right-thinking Americans are going to come over to our side. I'm just saying that it can all happen in reverse. We don't want to do that.
I would love to see ths guy and Rassman hooked up to a lie detector! It'll never happen, unfortunately.
Huh? This is the biggest non-answer I have seen in awhile.
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