See the Swiftboat Veterans Ad 1st here.
See the Swiftboat Veterans Ad 2nd here.
It's part of a page I put together of info here about Kerry
Stay Strong
Fuzzy
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004 10:25 p.m. EST
Gen. Giap: Kerry's Group Helped Hanoi Defeat U.S.
The North Vietnamese general in charge of the military campaign that finally drove the U.S. out of South Vietnam in 1975 credited a group led by Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry with helping him achieve victory.
In his 1985 memoir about the war, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap wrote that if it weren't for organizations like Kerry's Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Hanoi would have surrendered to the U.S. - according to Fox News Channel war historian Oliver North.
That's why, he predicted on Tuesday, the Vietnam War issue "is going to blow up in Kerry's face."
"People are going to remember Gen. Giap saying if it weren't for these guys [Kerry's group], we would have lost," North told radio host Sean Hannity.
"The Vietnam Veterans Against the War encouraged people to desert, encouraged people to mutiny - some used what they wrote to justify fragging officers," noted the former Marine lieutenant colonel, who earned two purple hearts in Vietnam.
"John Kerry has blood of American soldiers on his hands," North said.
Ops4 God Bless America!
Recalling the "Tiger" scene from Apocalypse Now....
The character 'Chef' panics starts screaming and Martin Sheen's character 'Willard' begins shooting wildly as they both run back to the PBR...
The 'Skipper' fires up the boat while the rest of the crew on the forward dual 50 cals and the M60 are shooting up the shoreline..
Chef mumbles over and over again "Never get out of the boat....never get out of the boat"
Capt Willard then pontificates...."Absolutely GD right...Never get out of the boat...unless you are willing to go all the way....
Kerry reminds me of this....only with Kerry it is gettin out of the boat of honor and truth...and willing to go 'all the way' with lies and deception...
I think a case could be made for Kerry despite privilege and education.. having some serious adolescent emotional problems...one he has not faced or outgrown to this day
This man has no business being a U.S. Senator let alone POTUS....at least GW Bush is a grown up free of such mental complex...
imo
"Some of these points may be perceived as picky, but they seem to show a deliberate effort in his writings of the time to build a mystique for a future political career showing him as a great leader, father confessor to the ship and astute analyst of political and military happenings."
Exactly.
GREAT POST!
This is an outstanding accounting and in no way deemed picky.......it's imperative that people see that Kerry began lying about his service from the very moment he arrived in country.
The most suspicous one being "signed off" for Silver Star by Lehman, who was the Secretary of Navy in 1981, 12 years later! Also his record was "amended" in the middle 80's and early 90's!
Very funny stuff going on here!
Kerry appears to be unhinged.
This is a good thing.
BUMP!
George W. Bush sent the FBI out to force this poor man to write these untruths! It's all W's fault!
Bumpus magnificus!
This was posted as a link on the Goatlocker. I read it and thought some of you may.
Jim Hampton BTCM-USN-RET
Kerry's qualifications for the presidency
By James F. Kelly Jr.
August 12, 2004
I've been receiving a lot of queries lately about things that did or did not happen during the time John Kerry and I served together in the Navy. I've also received large quantities of reading material, mostly e-mail and mostly unpersuasive, from people attempting to trash, for political purposes, his relatively brief combat service in Swift Boats. I have also declined offers to join groups attempting to discredit him on the basis of his naval service.
Kerry and I served together on the Gridley in 1967 and 1968. The Gridley was a new guided missile frigate, later reclassified with the rest of the ships in her class as a guided missile cruiser. Ensign Kerry was first lieutenant, the division officer in charge of the deck force consisting of about 30 sailors. I was a commander serving as executive officer, or second in command.
The officers reporting directly to me were the department heads, mostly lieutenant commanders. Kerry reported to the weapons officer, one of the department heads, but had daily direct contact with me because of his responsibilities for deck seamanship, the ship's four boats and the external appearance of the ship and also because of his collateral duty as public affairs officer, a position I had previously filled in an aircraft carrier.
Kerry was a fine junior officer – intelligent, responsible and hardworking. Moreover, he possessed these qualities in degrees not common in inexperienced ensigns. His fitness reports (evaluations) that I drafted for the captain's signature reflected those qualities and more. He earned them.
We first received orders for Kerry to report while we were still deployed to the South China Sea and the Tonkin Gulf area. We had a rescue helicopter detachment on board, berthing was tight and we had no immediate need for another junior officer, so we decided that the best use of his services was to remain stateside filling required school quotas until we returned to Long Beach.
After a turnaround of less than eight months, the Gridley deployed again in February 1968 with Ensign Kerry on board. Much of that tour was, like the previous one, spent on search-and-rescue duty, providing support to the carrier and assistance to downed aviators and aircraft in distress.
We returned to Long Beach in June 1968, and Kerry left shortly after for Swift Boat training. He spent a little over four months on combat duty in the rivers of South Vietnam and was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. He left the Navy after his obligated service tour, joined the anti-war protest movement, entered politics and the rest, as they say, is history.
Kerry refers to his approximately one-year tour on the Gridley as tedious and monotonous. He has little to say about that one-third of his naval career because, he says, not much happened. You could have fooled me. I thought it was rather exciting. I have spoken with many of our former shipmates, and they seemed to feel that we were actually doing something important back then. I'm sure, however, that it seemed tame in retrospect compared to his four months on the rivers with the brown water Navy.
After much urging by former shipmates, I read Douglas Brinkley's account of Kerry's service in "Tour of Duty" (William Morrow: New York, 2004). In a chapter entitled "High Seas Adventures" (perhaps "adventures" is a bit strong, considering the boredom and monotony), Brinkley describes, in near heroic terms, Kerry's duties onboard the Gridley. I may have forgotten some of the awesome responsibilities that we heaped upon Ensign Kerry, but I'm sure that he handled those well, also. There's a good deal of hyperbole in that chapter, but then a little exaggeration is normal, I guess, when it comes to describing the past exploits of presidential candidates.
Be all that as it may, Kerry was a fine junior officer – one of the best I've served with. I can't comment on the four months or so on the rivers of Vietnam because I wasn't there. Others who weren't there shouldn't comment on them either. Nor will I second-guess his awards nor should anyone else unless they can prove for certain that the citations misstated the facts and that somebody lied. Thirty-five years later is no time to be questioning them. And besides, what does all of this have to do with his qualifications for president?
Kerry spent less than a year and a half on sea duty, much less than that in the combat zone. Most of the rest of his service obligation was spent in school. His service to his country is commendable, and his decorations attest to the quality of that service and to his bravery. To make this service the centerpiece of his presidential campaign 35 years later, however, is ludicrous.
Kerry's credentials to be commander in chief of the armed forces are flawed by his anti-war protest activities while his comrades were still fighting and dying. They are further soiled by his outrageous accusations of atrocities committed by his comrades in a war in which belligerents posed as civilians.
A three-year tour of service, even heroic service, does not qualify one to be president. Of far more relevance is his 19 years in the Senate, becoming its most liberal member and opposing most defense legislation. On this, his campaign is virtually silent and for very good reason: His record in public life has little to commend it to voters concerned about the defense of the United States against international terrorism.
Ah, Olongapo, I remember it well. (Ah, Pauline's bar, but that's another story.) At night, USN Shore Patrolmen were spaced at 10-foot intervals flanking the bridge separating Olongapo from Subic Bay. Their job was to keep drunk sailors from falling into the water because the water was so polluted that no one would enter it to save a drowning body.
I don't think somebody who throws away his medals should be President.
bump a rooni dooni
What is funny is how this guy describes in detail his contact with the media--and how they were completely uninterested in anything less than positive that he had to say about John F. Kerry.
When was the coronation? I don't remember when the MSM put a crown on Kerry's head, but it's obvious that they have. Probably at the end of the Dem primary.
btt
Want to join in the fun? Click the logo to donate to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth!
I have emphasized certain areas for your review and consideration.
Their website is http://www.navalinstitute.org
“Interview: Douglas Brinkley”
(See p. 56, May 2004 Proceedings)
Captain James F. Kelly, U.S. Navy (Retired)---Every candidate for public office probably has some excess baggage to carry that he’d rather not have. With Senator John Kerry, it’s undoubtedly his anti-Vietnam War activism that followed his heroic naval service in Vietnam.
John Kerry and I were shipmates in the guided missile cruiser USS Gridley (CG-21) in 1967 and 1968. He served as first lieutenant, the office in charge of the deck division, and I was executive officer. I remember him as a serious and intelligent young ensign, seemingly mature beyond his years. The skipper and I were mightily impressed with him in spite of his inexperience. He had excellent verbal skills and great poise so we assigned him a collateral duty as public affairs officer. Because of these duties and his basic responsibilities for seamanship evolutions and the overall external appearance of the ship, I had close, daily contact with him. (In other words, I would be all over his case if the ship wasn’t shipshape.) Turns out he didn’t need too much supervision in that regard. He was a fine division officer, and his men obviously respected him.
We deployed from San Diego to the Vietnam theater in early 1968 after only a six-month turnaround, and spent most of a four-month deployment on rescue station in the Gulf of Tonkin, standing by to pick up downed aviators. It was a fairly grueling tour of duty. Our helicopter was hit trying to rescue a downed pilot and the door gunner was killed. The crew performed well, and John Kerry’s performance in all aspects of his duty was outstanding. Drafting his fitness report was an exercise in the use of superlatives. In fact, of the 30 or so officers, I counted him in the top half dozen, no mean feat for an ensign.
I tried to interest him in a naval career. Silly me! It was obvious he had bigger fish to fry. I drafted the favorable endorsement on his request for swift boat duty on the rivers of Vietnam, where he distinguished himself in combat. Before he left, he gave me his bridge coat and several other uniform items, saying that he wouldn’t be needing them in the “brown water” Navy. Aside from a Christmas card and an aborted phone call, I didn’t hear further from John until I read about his antiwar antics, including his appearance with Jane Fonda and the famous episode of throwing medals onto the steps of the Capitol during a protest. While he was protesting against the war, many of us were still fighting in it. Many of us felt betrayed that one of our own, a decorated hero, would give comfort to the enemy by such actions. Think what you want about the wisdom of getting involved in that war. Two presidents, both Democrats, committed the armed forces they commanded to fight it. Make no mistake: actions by people such as Fonda and Kerry were damaging to our morale, gave aid and comfort to the forces we were fighting, and altered the eventual outcome in a manner less favorable to the United States than if they had kept their mouths shut.
The time for antiwar protests is before the war starts.
