Posted on 08/21/2004 8:50:15 AM PDT by Pikamax
CHICAGO, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- "There were three Swift Boats on the
river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago -- three officers and 15 crew
members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on
February 28, 1969.
"One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a Silver
Star for what happened on that date. I am the other."
(Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040821/CGSA002-a
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040821/CGSA002-b http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040821/CGSA002-c
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040821/CGSA002-d )
So begins William Rood's compelling account of events that happened more than 35 years ago. The article appears in the Sunday, August 22 edition of the Chicago Tribune. Rood, now night city editor for the Chicago Tribune, earned a Bronze Star for his part in the operation. Rood has chosen to break more than three decades of silence in defense of the men who served alongside him. "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there," Rood writes. "What matters most to me is that this is hurting crew men who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did. "My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it." William Rood's complete account will appear in the Sunday, August 22 edition of the Chicago Tribune, available Saturday in Chicago and online at chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea said Rood has refused all interview requests up to now, including some from the Tribune's reporters. "Bill is a modest man and he didn't want his harrowing combat experiences to become engulfed in a political campaign. "As the coverage of Senator Kerry's war record has intensified, though, Rood decided to come forward with his story, primarily, he says, because Kerry's critics are telling stories that Rood knows to be untrue. The false accounts are casting doubts on the actions of those men who served with and under Rood, men who are not public figures running for president but brave, ordinary Americans, war veterans whose courage, Rood believes, should not be diminished by a heated political campaign."
NOTE: William Rood will not be available for further comment or interviews. Deputy Managing Editor George de Lama and reporter Tim Jones are available.
SOURCE Chicago Tribune
The trail of sKerry backers to this guy ought to be a mile wide and easy to track. Kerry HAD to find someone new to refute the 250 other guys. Now its what... Kerry's got 9?
Doesn't that just say it all.
I'll bet O'Neil and crew will rip this guy's story to shreds too.
I did a google search on this guy and nothing came up.
No bio, no articles, nothing!
So he will be ducking interviews....wow!
It always nice to see the Tribune coming out and doing the political thing as opposed to just reporting the news. Marianne Lipinsky is a graduate of the peoples university of Michigan and she is running the paper as if it was the Michigan Daily.
---NOTE: William Rood will not be available for further comment or interviews. Deputy Managing Editor George de Lama and reporter Tim Jones are available.---
Is this some kind of sick joke?
It IS an interesting approach. Make some claims and then refuse to answer questions. Makes one wonder what he'd back down on under crossexamination.
Was he on Kerry's boat? If not, according to Kerry, he should STFU, because he can't comment.
Mickey Kaus last night posted on his blog that a major paper would have a story coming out on Sunday that would put the SBVT issue to rest.......this looks to be it.
There is a "Bill Rood" who posts stuff like this on Usenet:
Funny, I was one of the 200,000 or so on the Mall on January 18. I didn't
see a single Iraqi. All I saw were Americans, and maybe a few Latin
Americans. I saw young, old, middle class and poor. I saw white, black and
brown. I saw a banner from the Rochester, MN, Mennonite Church that read,
"War is not pro-life."
Before I went, I read an article claiming ANSWER is a front for Workers of
the World Party. Now we're hearing they're Iraqi spies. Which is it? Oh,
I get it. Any slander is OK in attempting to discredit and fragment your
enemy.
Rood labels the Swifties as liars and then won't give interviews........lame.
Do you think any reporter at the Chicago Tribune would ever take this as an answer if they had questions and were trying to get a quote? They'd peseter and hound and annoy trying to get more comments. I'll be they leave Rood alone.
They WISH.
If it is, it does not help Kerry at all.
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