Posted on 08/19/2004 11:35:58 AM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
ELECTION 2004
Kerry's 'fraudulent' report
basis for military records
Officer at scene of Bronze Star event
insists they didn't receive 'enemy fire'
By Art Moore
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Responding to a Washington Post article questioning his veracity, a critic of John Kerry's war record insists military records cited in the story are based on a fraudulent after-action report by Kerry himself.
The Post reported today that newly obtained military records of Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, contradict Thurlow's claim that Kerry was not under enemy fire when he pulled U.S. Army Special Forces officer James Rassman out of the Bay Hap River after a mine explosion March 13, 1969.
Kerry won a Bronze Star for that event, as did Thurlow, with citations that referred to heavy "enemy fire" from small arms and automatic weapons.
But Thurlow still maintains there was no enemy fire.
"The military records have always shown that, because they are John Kerry's report," he told WND from his home in Kansas.
Two other swift-boat commanders involved in the event, Jack Chenoweth and Richard Pees, also have said they do not remember coming under enemy fire.
Thurlow is a member of Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, a group of more than 250 vets opposing Kerry's presidential candidacy who served in the Naval operation that patrolled the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta area controlled by North Vietnam.
Kerry has contended in interviews and writings that he had left the scene of the March 13 explosion but returned under 5,000 meters of fire from both banks of the river and, while injured, pulled Rassman from the the water as bullets whistled by.
Thurlow said Commander George Elliott wrote up the citation for his Bronze Star and Kerry's on March 23, largely based on Kerry's after-action report.
Thurlow's citation included a witness from another boat, but only Kerry's report refers to enemy fire, he said.
It was the custom to file only one after-action report for an incident, Thurlow noted.
"So the one and only report, which George accepted at face value, was this cock-and-bull story about coming 5,000 meters under intense fire to get Rassman," he said.
Thurlow said he was unaware of his medal until two to three months after returning home to Kansas April 22, 1969.
He said the first time he saw Kerry's after-action report was this year in Washington, D.C.
"When I looked at that, it actually made me chuckle," Thurlow said. "What a story."
On March 13, he said, his boat and several others went to the aid of swift-boat sailors after the mine explosion left three boats dead in the water.
Thurlow says Kerry's boat, which was on the opposite side of the river, fled the scene. Rassmann, who had been on Kerry's boat, fell into the water as Kerry sped away. But Kerry returned several minutes later to retrieve the officer from the river just seconds before another boat was preparing to pick him up, Thurlow contends.
Spokesmen for Kerry's campaign now have acknowledged that while Kerry’s boat left the scene, none of the other boats on the river ever left the damaged swift boat, Thurlow notes.
This is a direct contradiction to Rassman's previous accounts in published interviews, he says. It also contradicts the theme used during the Democratic National Convention of "No Man Left Behind," which highlighted Kerry's accounts of heroism.
"If no one ever left the scene of the Bay Hap River incident, how could anyone be left behind?" Thurlow asked
Related offer:
"Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry"
Kerry's new ad implies that shrapnel in his thigh is a result of pulling Rassman out of the water. But hasn't Kerry and Rassman said that the butt wound (thigh, butt, I'll bet the difference is a nuance) was a result of an earlier encounter with a sampan; the "wound" associated with the rescue itself was Kerry falling against the pilot house when the boat took off like a scared rabbit?
And no one else was hurt but Kerry?
And no bullet holes in any of the boats?
Kerry's whole Swiftboat Tour Tale as taken 3 hits below the waterline.
Well, first of all, the group was virtually ignored for 5 months by the media and only Fox News covered their national press conference. Then they came out with a devastating ad and the media finds McCain’s condemnation more newsworthy than the ad or the charges being made. The Kranish of the Boston Globe (conflict of interest) said Elliot retracted his criticism, but it turned out he stood by the ad and the criticism calling the Globe story “highly misleading.” Now you have the Washington Post doing Kerry’s dirty work by citing records based on Kerry’s falsities.
"3 hits below the waterline."
Are you refering to his Vietnam urinary tract infection?
Has anyone suggested a lie detector test to get at the truth?
Seems if the vets took one and passed,(which I personally think they would), then they could challenge Kerry and Rassmun to do the same?
Eh?
There was no enemy fire - John Kerry's boat fled while the other three boats moved in to protect a boat that had hit a mine. Then this coward gets a Bronze Star for returning a lifting Rassman up after he had grabbed on to the boat.
And we all thought Al Gore was a pathological liar..
bttt
Has anyone in here done the FOIA request to get sKerry's military records released? We know he's not going to fill out the SF 180, and the media isn't about to do the FOIA, so it's up to us. If no one else has, I'll do it.
This is a direct contradiction to Rassman's previous accounts in published interviews, he says. It also contradicts the theme used during the Democratic National Convention of "No Man Left Behind," which highlighted Kerry's accounts of heroism.
Wow! I bet Dan, Tom, and Peter will lead off their newscasts with this tonight! I can just feel it!
The end of the Civil War was near
When quite accidentally,
A hero who sneezed abruptly seized
Retreat and reversed it to victory.
His medal of honor pleased and thrilled
his proud little family group.
While pinning it on some blood was spilled
And so it was planned he'd command F Troop.
It wasn't because he pulled Rassman in the boat, that he earned a medal.
It was the fact he returned!
Although I don't understand why EVERYONE else hadn't received a medal for NOT LEAVING IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Does anyone know anything about this Jim Rassman? Rumor is that there may be something newsworthy coming out on him. Was he on Kerry's boat or not when he fell into the water. I thought he was on the boat that hit the mine?
Nick
Just come on board today?
"Rassmann, who had been on Kerry's boat, fell into the water as Kerry sped away. "
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