Posted on 08/21/2004 3:43:58 PM PDT by Pikamax
Military records support Kerry's account of Vietnam service
BY Joseph L. Galloway
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Military records back John Kerry's account of his service in Vietnam and have backed at least two of his accusers into a corner.
Kerry this week was forced to defend himself against accusations by a group of fellow Navy veterans of Vietnam that he was a liar and a coward. The charges were made in a book and in an attack ad that polls show have chipped away at Kerry's standing with veterans in three critical states - West Virginia, Wisconsin and Ohio.
The long-ago Vietnam War has suddenly become a central issue in the presidential campaign. The attacks by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have called into account Kerry's conduct during the war, when he volunteered for one of the most dangerous duties - the so-called Brown Water Navy, which regularly penetrated Viet Cong-controlled territory via the maze of waterways in the sodden Mekong Delta.
Although the 15 veterans featured in the attack ad all state "I served with John Kerry," none of them served on the same boat with him. Those who did, such as retired Chief Petty Officer Del Sandusky, 60, of Clearwater, Fla., praise Kerry for his leadership and credit him with keeping them alive to make it home.
"We are really upset at this stuff," Sandusky told Knight Ridder. "They are calling us all liars. They dishonor us and they dishonor all those who died over there. They are getting awfully desperate. Last year many of them were on board with us. Now they are telling outrageous lies."
Kerry has said that members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth lied when they said he inflated his role in various combat actions in the Mekong Delta in 1968 and 1969 and had manipulated the award of three Purple Heart medals for wounds and Bronze and Silver Star medals for valor in combat.
Kerry released a stack of his military records - including after-action reports, citations for his medals, boat battle damage reports and his officer efficiency reports. These records - and the military records of at least one of his accusers - cast serious doubt on some of the more inflammatory charges raised by the group.
It didn't help the cause of the Swift Boat Veterans group that some of them, including their leader, retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, were on the record praising Kerry for his service in Vietnam.
Kerry's commanding officer in Vietnam, George Elliott, said in an attack ad: "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam."
But during the Vietnam War, Elliott recommended Kerry for the Silver and Bronze Star medals for valor in combat and gave him the highest possible praise in his officer efficiency reports.
"In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, LTjg Kerry was unsurpassed," Elliott wrote in 1969. He went on to rate Kerry as "calm, professional and highly courageous in the face of enemy fire."
Elliott added: "(Kerry) emerges as the acknowledged leader in his peer group." In 16 categories on Kerry's officer efficiency report, ranging from professional knowledge to moral courage to military bearing to reliability, Elliott gave Kerry the highest possible rating - "is not exceeded" - in 11 categories, and the second highest, "one of the top 10" in five other categories.
Elliott in 1996 supported Kerry in his re-election campaign for the Senate and during an appearance in Boston declared that Kerry had earned the Silver Star "for an act of courage."
Another critic, Larry Thurlow, a fellow Swift boat commander in the Mekong Delta in 1969, disputed Kerry's claim that his boat and others in the five-boat patrol came under enemy fire during a March 13, 1969, mission that earned Kerry a Bronze Star.
Thurlow said that although one of the Swift boats was disabled by a mine explosion, there was no enemy fire from shore, as Kerry and others testified, and that Kerry's account was "a total fabrication." Thurlow said in an affidavit: "I never heard a shot."
However, a citation for the Bronze Star with valor awarded to Thurlow for that same mission stated that his actions "took place under constant enemy small arms fire which (Thurlow) completely ignored" while he provided assistance to the damaged Swift boat and the wounded aboard.
Thurlow said he had lost his medal citation for that incident over two decades ago and stood by his account that there was no enemy fire at the time.
His account was further called into question by a battle damage assessment report on another Swift boat, PCF-51, involved in the March 13 action. The report listed three .30-caliber bullet holes in the superstructure of the 50-foot patrol boat.
The Swift boat veterans also have cast doubt on Kerry's account that a second mine explosion damaged his boat, PCF-94, and blew an Army Special Forces officer, Jim Rassmann, overboard. Kerry's Bronze Star was awarded for his rescue of Rassmann, who credited Kerry with saving his life.
Among the records was a battle damage report filed the following day, March 14, which stated that PCF-94 had three windows blown out, radios and radar inoperable, the boat's auxiliary generator inoperable, screws curled and chipped, aft helm steerage control not working. The boat was judged incapable of executing patrols without repairs.
In the TV ad Swift Boat veteran Adrian Lonsdale declared Kerry "lacks the capacity to lead." Yet he, too, appeared to support Kerry in 1996, saying of him: "He was among the finest of those Swift boat drivers."
In a month when the Democratic nominee had hoped to avoid running any ads to conserve funds for the final sprint this fall, Kerry strategists instead prepared to spend nearly $200,000 responding to the attack ads of the veterans group in key states.
The bulk of the funding for the Swift Boat veterans' group comes from wealthy Texas Republicans.
A new ad was scheduled to begin running shortly, focusing this time on Kerry's testimony against the Vietnam War in 1971.
Check if the ink's dry.
If the records support his story, then Kerry should have no problem signing the Form 180.
Hey hey! Ho ho! Kerry sign the 180!
blah,blah,blah Barf!
Yeah, because Kerry wrote the citation.
Only 3 holes in a 50 foot boat and he said "withering fire". What's wrong with this picture?
Well there certainly is no bias in this "news" story, nope none at all.
What's next--the Swifties are liars because they never had sex with F'in?
"-The bulk of the funding for the Swift Boat veterans' group comes from wealthy Texas Republicans-"
Big lie number 1 !!!
Is this the same Joe Galloway who wrote 'We were soldiers....'?
Jeez, I hope not.
I didn't know that the V.C. or NVA used .30 Cal.
Learn something new everyday.....
redrock
THIS is a crock. He has already admitted he volunteered for Swift Boat duty at a time when those boats were off shore patrols (safer duty). A few weeks after he got there the mission was changed, and he was in brown water.
For instance, much is being made over the fact that an admiral signed Kerry's Silver Star. That would imply that the admiral was personally aware of Kerry's conduct. No.
The admiral simply made a decision, based on the "information" presented to him, and the recommendations of an awards board (people who read the original recommendation), based on the recommendation of whoever put him in for the award (it can be anyone, even a E-1 that he pays) and probably backed up by an after action report (that Kerry wrote).
I know a lot of people have a lot of faith in military awards, but in MOST cases the award is nothing more the actual decision to give one or not is nothing more than an administrative action by people with absolutely no real knowledge of the actions or deeds.
This not wealthy vet from New Jersey is going back to SBVT and giving another $50 and will donate $50 every week till this POS signs his form 180!
Oh by the way, the original author cannot even spell Republican's correctly.
Thurlow is also on the record as stating that that citation was based on an after action report written by:
..............John Kerry.
"Well there certainly is no bias in this "news" story, nope none at all."
Please be careful here as Joe Galloway is not your average flak for the democrats. This guy stood shoulder to shoulder with the troops of the 7th Cav in the Ia Drang in '65.
http://www.lzxray.com/
He will get both sides of the story out...and I for one, am glad that he is looking at it.
-Toonces
I WANT TO SEE HIS MEDICAL RECORDS. No shrapnel, no credit.
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