Posted on 08/21/2004 4:27:34 PM PDT by backinthefold
Every candidate for public office probably has some excess baggage to carry around 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 officer in charge of the deck division, and I was Executive Officer, or second in command. 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. To put it another way, 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 theatre 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 shot up 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 reports was an exercise in the use of superlatives. In fact, of the thirty 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, were 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 telephone call, I didn’t hear further from John until I read about his anti-war antics including his appearance with Hanoi Jane Fonda and the famous episode of throwing medals onto the capitol steps 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 in getting involved in that war, two presidents, both Democrats, committed the armed forces they commanded to fight it. Make no mistake; actions by the likes of 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 anti-war protests is before the war starts.
There is no question that John Kerry earned his decorations and that he put his life at risk in the service of his country. There is no doubt in my mind, moreover, that he has the intelligence to serve as president. But there is also no doubt in my mind that his anti-war activities while our troops were still fighting, dying and being tortured in filthy Vietnam prisons were despicable.
For that reason, even aside from his anti-defense voting record in the Senate, he is one ex-shipmate that I could never support as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
"When I read “Tour of Duty”, I became concerned because the material on Kerry’s time on GRIDLEY appeared in many instances to be exaggerations and in some cases figments of an overactive imagination."
What do you expect...this is a statement from one of those war criminal Vietnam Vets. We all know only one of them ever told the truth.
I can't understand how any veteran could support him. Even lefties.
Trouble is that Kerry is now saying that his testimony before the senate when he was 27 yrs. old was excessive due to his youth.
27? - youth? bull......he was old enough to live with the consequences for the rest of his life.......
He was probably older than the skipper of the Gridley.
Either they really cleaned that place up by the time I got there in 1972 or kerry was lying about what he saw. My bet's on the latter.
Did anybody else see corpses floating in the $h!+ River? I sure didn't. The kids would have pushed them out of the way diving for coins anyway. :=)
Except for a few statements, this writer could be constued as a strong Kerry supporter.
A small point but a First Lieutenant is a Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG).. and an Ensign (ENS) is a Second Lieutenant.
Even though the writer says at the end he wouldn't support sKerry, it's not that difficult to get grades correct.
Mr. Kerry broke the faith, pure and simple.
That's the way I look at it. It's his activities and Washington voting record since leaving Vietnam that are the biggest problem. He can't explain them away as just the "overzealousness of youth."
Actually, this is one of the many wonderfully confusing terminologies in our Navy. On United States Ships "First Lieutenant" is a title, not a rank. It signifies the officer in charge of the "Deck" department of the warship.
This is similar to the commanding officer of a ship always being addressed as "Captain", regardles of his rank. Not only does it make sense to our seamen, but it drives the other services crazy!
The thing I don't get is that Kerry must be the bravest man to ever have served. To have acquired one medal in three months of combat (one month of that in training) is amazing enough. But three medals??? We lesser humans aren't worthy to breath the same atmosphere with J F'in' Kerry.
Another thing that I don't understand. I know of vets, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, who were a part of and participated some seriously heavy duty sh*t. These guys are heroes, no doubt about it, but you'd never know about it unless SOMEONE ELSE told you. They have been there and done that, but they never wear the t-shirt.
These guys RARELY bring it up, mention it casually, or talk about it. But if and when they do, they speak with the most solemn of attitude and demeanor. Even then, they'll tell you it's no big deal and how you should hear so and so's story. "now that guy's a hero" they'll say.
Kerry "the war hero gone public" ain't cutting with me. He's lying.
Trouble with that excuse is that the heroism that is the foundation of his qualification for president was when he was 26 years old. If the man today is different from the man at 27, it’s even more different from the man at 26.
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Thank you for clearing me up on that!
It was only recently that he ever spoke of his experience in combat, never showed us his purple heart and we only recently learned that he actually earned two medals.
It is simply something he chose to never ever mention in all these years.
None of his experience would even have arisen if we didn't get into a discussion of women in combat.
Don't ask!!!!
Bump and bookmark.
So the writer's mind is shown. Despite the global and general "there is no question" asserion of the factual truth that "that he earned his decorations", we find in the very next sentence via the linking "moreover", that the Naval Officer is really more limited in the assertion of fact that the "decorations" were earned. That he qualifies it by "no doubt in my mind". That is, he believes that there could well be doubt in other people's minds.
Further we can guess that the USN Gridley's wartime officer doe indeed have doubts about Kerry's brown water performance. How? Becuase of that word he uses "decorations". Otherwise he would have called them "awards", or "honors". Instead they are mere decorations.
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