Enjoyed your Post reportage regarding the records of Swift Boat Veteran Larry Thurlow. In the interest of completeness, why don't you reference Thurlow's After Action Report, rather than the medal citation alone? Even better would be the after action reports of all the commanders involved.
Since you have seen the document, you understand that the medal citation is neither a timely, nor a first person account of what happened. Can you report who wrote the citation? If you can, it would be good to include that information. For the sake of completeness, you understand.
Far more valuable would be the after action reports of all the commanders involved. With your rapid response relationship with the records people, it should be fairly simple to get the information.
Keep digging.
dobbsm@washpost.com
Re: my previous email...sorry I missed the paragraph in your article regarding after action reports. Am I to understand from your article that absolutely no after-action report exists for this episode?
Beyond that, I still feel that the citation is not a piece of primary documentation. Your article, while presented fairly in my opinion, puts too much emphasis (also in my opinion) on an anonymous(?) document. Any help?
We need to hope and pray that the records don't conveniently disappear in the mean time.