Posted on 08/16/2004 6:07:43 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
n the last few days, there's been a new accusation floating around the Internet about John Kerry's Vietnam record. It involves speculation that David Alston, one of the "band of brothers" who served on board Kerry's Swift Boat, did not actually serve with Kerry at all. If such a story were true, it would be sensational news, given that Alston has made extensive public statements, including a speech at the Democratic National Convention, about his time with Kerry. The only problem is, it's not true. Alston did indeed serve under Kerry.
But the attention the rumor brought to Alston and his service aboard Kerry's boat, PCF-94, has cast new light on the time the men were together. And it appears that while Alston was in fact on board PCF-94 when Kerry was in command, his total time of service under Kerry was quite brief — perhaps as little as seven days. According to records of Kerry's service posted on his campaign's website, it appears the two men were in actual combat together on two of those days.
Alston, a gunner's mate, was wounded in battle on January 29, 1969, while serving on PCF-94. The skipper of the boat at the time, Lt. Tedd Peck, was seriously wounded in the same incident. In Peck's absence, Kerry was chosen to take over command of PCF-94. Alston was also replaced, temporarily; his job was taken over by an Arkansas native named Fred Short.
According to Short, who supports the Kerry candidacy and appeared alongside Alston with Kerry at last month's convention, Alston was gone during the month of February and did not return to the boat until March. Short remembers going on his first patrol on PCF-94 on February 18, 1969 — he recalls the date clearly because it was his birthday. Short remembers taking part in his last operation on PCF-94 around March 4. He believes Alston returned a few days later.
Alston himself, while not questioning Short's recollection, remembers being away for a shorter period of time. Alston says he was not as seriously wounded as some have assumed — the scar tissue that is visible on his head, he says, is the result of a scalp condition and not the result of a grievous war wound. Rather, Alston says, he suffered a relatively minor wound to the head along with a more serious injury, which he described as a "clean bullet wound" in the arm. "I was not hospitalized," Alston says. "I was treated on a Coast Guard Cutter...I was only off the boat [PCF-94] two weeks, and that's when Fred Short took my place." Alston says he doesn't have an exact memory of when he returned to the boat — "You're talking about 30 or so years ago," he says.
Alston spoke only briefly with National Review Online, saying all interviews must be approved by the Kerry campaign. Asked about Alston's length of service, John Hurley, the campaign's national director of veterans' issues, said, "My understanding is that he [Alston] was gone for a month.... Fred [Short] was on the boat for about a month." Hurley said he has not checked the specific dates of Alston's time on PCF-94, but, like Alston, Hurley cautioned, "It's 35 years later, and memories are different."
Whatever the exact dates, Hurley confirmed that Alston was not on board PCF-94 on February 28, 1969, the day Kerry earned a Silver Star for an engagement in which he beached his Swift Boat and chased down and killed a Viet Cong guerilla armed with a rocket launcher. That suggests that Alston, who was wounded on January 29, was indeed away for at least a month. Short was manning the guns on February 28 and received the Navy Commendation Medal for his work.
According to Hurley, Alston was on board PCF-94 during the now-famous March 13, 1969 engagement in which Kerry pulled Army Green Beret Jim Rassman from the water after one of the boats in Kerry's group struck a mine. Kerry won a Bronze Star for that action, as well as a third Purple Heart.
After that engagement, Kerry made use of a regulation that allowed three-time Purple Heart recipients to leave Vietnam. It is not clear if Kerry engaged in any more patrols after the Rassman rescue incident, but a timeline of Kerry's after-action reports on his campaign website shows no missions after March 13. (The timeline also shows that PCF-94 came under Viet Cong fire the day before, March 12, which was the other time Alston and Kerry appear to have been in combat together.)
In light of the timeline and interviews with the participants, it seems likely that Alston's time with Kerry was at most two weeks, and, if Short's recollection is correct, as little as one week. Given that, it is possible that some of Alston's public statements might have left audiences with the impression that he and Kerry were together for a longer period of time. "I know him from a small boat in Vietnam where we fought and bled together serving our country," Alston said at the Democratic convention. "We usually patrolled the narrow waterways of the Mekong Delta, flanked on both sides by thick jungle." After combat engagements, Alston said, "Lieutenant Kerry always took the time to calm us down, to bring us back to reality, to give us hope, to show us what we truly had within ourselves. I came to love and respect him as a man I could trust with life itself."
In addition, Alston has on at least one occasion seemed to give the impression that he was present for Kerry's Silver Star-winning actions on February 28. "I know when John Kerry told [crew member Del Sandusky] to beach that damn boat, this was a brand-new ball game," Alston told ABC's Nightline on June 22. "We wasn't running. We took it to Charlie."
For his part, Kerry has sometimes left the impression that he was present when Alston was wounded. Paying tribute to Alston's service during a speech before a South Carolina veterans' group in May 2002, Kerry said, according to an account in The New Republic, "He [Alston] sat up in a turret above my head in the pilot house — firing twin fifty-calibers to suppress enemy fire from ambushes. We were extremely exposed — always shot at first.... On one occasion in an ambush his turret was riddled with almost one hundred bullets penetrating the aluminum skin. This gunman kept firing even though he was wounded — one bullet going through his helmet, grazing his head and another hitting his arm...."
That description sounds precisely like the incident on January 29, 1969 in which Alston was wounded. But Lt. Peck, and not Kerry, was in command of PCF-94 that day.
According to a report in the Boston Globe, the Kerry campaign website has in the past listed Kerry as being the skipper of PCF-94 at the time of Alston's wounding. When Kerry's military records were first posted on the site, according to the Globe, "the campaign summarize[d] action that took place on Jan. 29, 1969, this way: 'While Kerry's boat and another (PCF-72) were probing a canal along the river, Kerry's boat came under heavy fire and was hit by a B-40 rocket in the cabin area. One member of Kerry's crew Forward Gunner David Alston suffered shrapnel wounds in his head....'" The campaign website also listed two other incidents that took place prior to January 29 as having occurred under Kerry's leadership.
Peck, who would later sign a letter to Kerry written by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, protested. "Those are definitely mine," he told the Globe. "There is no doubt about it." The campaign later removed the January 29 reference from the website.
Sounds like a total of 4 or 5 weeks total....
Quite a medal haul for that short of time.
Bought it last night at Hastings for $16.88.It is a must read book. I stayed up until 2AM, so will finish it today.
If everyone in the swing states would thoughtfully read this book, I think that Bush would easily take those states. The book is very well documented.
Nothing like a loser; tying for a'win/win' on that cake; not a pretty sight, for sure.
Kerry is walking a tight rope; so to speak; as he must depend on new friends; while trying not to alienate those that 'expedited' him along the 'Leftist' trail.
As for 'real' friends; no indication that he has any.
Ping to debunked/new details in Alston saga.
"Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies."
Alston is still taking orders from Massah Kerry.
People like this don't have friends. They use and are used.
I saw his headless body spurting blood as I ran past his demolished trailer on the way to a bunker.
I sustained temporary loss of hearing, minor cuts and bruises, but otherwise was unhurt.
A couple of weeks later, I was medivaced to the 93rd Evac in Long Binh (for an unrelated medical emergency) where I spent 24 days as a patient and where I truly saw the horrors of war.
As horrible as the rocket attack was, my near month long stay in the field hospital is, as Kerry says, "seared in my mind" and for the life of me, I will never understand why this Kerry fellow is trumpeting his "wounds" as a reason he should be president of my country, especially after his traitorous conduct upon release from active duty.
In my mind, some of the greatest heroes of the Vietnam War were the doctors and nurses who dealt with all the maimings and death on a day-to-day basis and suffered great emotional trauma as they tried to relieve other's suffering.
It's very easy for me to understand the doctor's (the doctor who treated Kerry's "wound") clear recollection of the incident as he undoubtedly was disgusted at having to take precious time away from his frantic work pace to deal with the self-serving scummy naval officer who was clearly there in order to document his phony quest for a Purple Heart.
I would like to recommend a book by Winnie Smith entitled "American Daughter Gone To War" subtitled: "On The Front Lines With An Army Nurse In Vietnam." When I'm up to it, I try to read it again, but can never get too far into it without sobbing uncontrollably.
He did, but was caught by Kranish, and called out on it in an April 23, 2004 article. Kerry's website was modified so that it did not directly take credit for the January missions. It also removed all of the January Spot Reports that had previously been made available.
This is like a battle.
To get the truth (or a retraction) you need to catch them in their lies.
Kerry needs to open his records.
The media silence is DEAFENING!
THERE MUST BE SOME FREEPERS who are friends of or relatives of or friends of friends or friends of relatives of these idiots supporting SKERRY.
It seems to me we could do some research/detective work about why the turkeys are so gah gah over SKERRY.
Is it because they are really mindless idiots?
Or is it more likely that they are rather unsophisticated characters rather gah gah over wealth, privilege and empty promises (for positions???) of a potential President?
WHY are these idiots so supportive of SKERRY when most everyone with a brain level above a slug can tell the guy is as hollow and phoney as a $3 bill.
I think this mystery is a significant one that begs for a solution, explanation.
--a real, solid explanation.
The Kerry/Alston point is a minor issue -- but helpful inasmuch as it induces a look into the Swiftees contentions about the circumstances that resulting in the improvident granting of medals, and in Kerry's lies that the Swiftees engaged in war atrocities.
Where indeed?
We must let them know, that we know. . .they are 'AWOL, as public guardians.
And if that message can carry a cancelation; even better.
Kerry is gonna pull a stunt at the VFW on Wednesday to "promote healing" and "put this controversy behind us."
Again. Some of them are getting a sense that their credibility is being chipped away, and the chips are never going to be repaired.
The difference in how the media is handling the Swiftees substantiated claims, compared with how it handled Terry McAulife's un-substantiated claim (Bush was AWOL, or whatever), is becoming evident to quite a few people. The DEM shills are in denial, on this point.
Kerry is truly nuts if he brings these historical matters up in more than a passing reference. He may broadly denounce reviews of history, claiming that they only open old wounds, but he is crazy if he says anything about his personal history (e.g., "It's unfair that I am attacked, while you men were not").
I would think most of his talk will be making empty promises ($$$), after thanking and praising the veterans for their service.
When you consider that journalism has been openly opposed to anticommunism since the Tet offensive during the Johnson Administration, the Republican Party has some serious teaching to do:
I don't know what he is going to do, but he is going to pull some stunt and attempt some way out of this, because the stonewalling is not working.
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
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