Well, from the graphic, it's not hard to tell who bugged out, is it?
Great catch - but Kerrys own remarks in the Congressional Record says that Rassmann fell off when he made a quick turn, and does not mention any other explosion.
The graphic shows Alston as the 50 cal gunner. Has it been definitively established that he, rather than Fred Short, was the gunner on 13 March?
Hey! Some guy named Rood who works for the Chicago Tribune is going to come out with his story tomorrow and he claims that he was on the third boat. Is his name anywhere in this story?
This graphic also states under #3 that at 9:45am Kerry was wounded attempting to destroy rice reserve with grenade.
This wounding is what earned him his 3rd Purple Heart, this supports what the Swiftvets have said all along that Kerry's 3rd PH was awarded under false pretense. The medal commendation itself says Kerry was wounded and bleeding from schrapnel from the mine explosion. And only Kerry and his crew say there was a second mine, the other vets say there was never a second explosion.
Further it confirms that Rassman was ejected due to the negligence of Kerry rather than from the explosion. It also confirms that it was Kerry who placed him in the drink, so he certainly didn't deserve a medal for rescuing him later. If anything he should have received a rerprimand for abandoning a man-overboard.
Finally it confirms that Kerry could not possibly know if there was any enemy fire coming from the banks, as he was too busy running from the scene to witness it.
Is it any wonder after this action that his fellow commanders "suggested" that he use his third purple heart as an excuse to get out of 'Nam? They couldn't count on him.
notice the BREAK in the graphic... it is used to denote a LARGE area missing from the graphic so it can be shown on one page, ALSO the there are NO times posted in 5 through 9 like there are in 1 through 4 posing more questions than answers!!!The revision is Kerry's boat getting hit by a mine. The first mine couldn't have caused the purple heart injury so a SECOND mine has been added to salvage Kerry's heroism. As shown, this happened further down the river so no one can dispute it. Very clever ... and dishonest.
That is a fabulously detailed graphical depiction of Kerry's version of events. Too bad it's been discredited.
Eyewitness account from James Rassmann also details the fact that PCF-94 and other boats were under fire . In March of 2004, Rassmann, a registered Republican who had not seen Kerry in more than 30 years before their reunion in Iowa this year, recalled the following: “Viet Cong snipers fired at him, and Rassmann submerged over and over to avoid being hit. The bullets came from both banks, and Rassmann had nowhere to go. He began thinking his time had come, but the fifth time he came up, he saw the convoy had turned around. Kerry had ordered the boats back to pick up the man overboard. Kerry's boat, under heavy fire, sidled up to the struggling soldier. Rassmann tried to scramble up a cargo net at the bow but was too exhausted to make it all the way. He clung to the net as bullets whizzed past.” [Los Angeles Times, 3/13/04]
#9 is mislabeled.
It should read: "Kerry continues to flee but then decides that maybe the coast is clear enough for him to return and try to find that guy who fell overboard. Anyways, the guy might live and start to talk and that would not look good for Kerry, no sir, not at all."
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