John Kerry's Final Mission in Vietnam

American History Magazine via Thehistorynet.com ^ | April 2004 | Douglas Brinkley

[conservative in nyc]

John Kerry's Final Mission in Vietnam

John Kerry's last mission in Vietnam was a deadly Swift boat patrol up the Bay Hap River where everything was ventured but nothing gained -- except another medal and more horrific memories.

By Douglas Brinkley

March 13, 1969, would prove among the worst and best days John Kerry spent in Vietnam. Three years earlier, with the main thrust of the antiwar movement yet to come, Kerry had graduated from Yale University, delivering his class oration. Although he had just signed up with the U.S. Navy, in that address he questioned U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. After completing several assignments and being trained to command a patrol craft fast (PCF), or "Swift" boat, Lieutenant junior grade Kerry was ordered to patrol the Viet Cong–infested rivers of Vietnam's Mekong Delta as part of Operation Sealords.

By that March day he had been on Swift boat duty for only four months, but had already been wounded in action twice and was increasingly frustrated with the course of the river war. It seemed senseless to motor up a river, presenting an easy target on the open water, and then exchange fire with usually unseen enemies safely ensconced in the heavy growth on shore -- only to motor downriver and repeat those same actions the following day. Uncooperative allies and interservice rivalries only added to his frustrations. Yet Kerry, like so many others involved in the conflict, did the best he could to follow orders.

[conservative in nyc]

This is Kerry's account of the events of March 13, 1969 (the day Rassman fell off his boat, for which Kerry was awarded a purple heart and Bronze Star), as written by his authorized biographer, Douglas Brinkley. I'm posting this in part for future reference.

The one thing the article makes clear is a lot of the damage to PCF-94, including the blown out windows and radio problems, occurred before the mine explosion on the Bay Hap River.

Click on the link for more. We may be able to point out other inconsistencies.

[tallhappy]

Dougie Brinkley -- hagiographer for John Skerry.

Never ever did his Kerouac book. He might actually have had to have done some work to do an actual biography.

[Jim Robinson]

Finally figured it out John Kerry's Bronze Star engagement
Questions and Observations ^ | 24 August 2004 | McQ


Posted on 08/24/2004 7:41:51 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16


Finally figured it out Posted by McQ

I've been bothered by a passage that was contained in a NYT article that all three of us had a go at this last Friday. You remember the one, it was the topic of the day. The NYT entitled it: "Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad".

But in that article there was this paragraph:

A damage report to Mr. Thurlow's boat shows that it received three bullet holes, suggesting enemy fire, and later intelligence reports indicate that one Vietcong was killed in action and five others wounded, reaffirming the presence of an enemy. Mr. Thurlow said the boat was hit the day before. He also received a Bronze Star for the day, a fact left out of "Unfit for Command."

Before that time, I had never heard it suggested that there was a report in which a claim of 1 VC being KIA and 5 being WIA. It wasn't until today, when Jon sent me a link, that I found the source of the NYT claims.

They're contained in The Coastal Division Eleven Command History "Chronology of Highlights". I'm not sure how I managed to miss it up to now, but I have.

Anyway to the point at hand which will demonstrate two things:

A) The NYT deliberately left out some of the report. B) The NYT writers who used the report had no idea about the meaning of what they were reading.

First the report (you'll find it on page 8 of the pdf):

March 13, 1969: PCF's 3, 51, 43, 93 and 94 with MSF RF/PF troops conducted SEA LORDS operations in Bay Hop river and Dong Cong canal. A mine detonated under PCF 3 and units were taken under small arms fire several times during the operation. Friendly casualties were 8 USN WIA and 1 MSF KIA. Units destroyed 30 sampans and 5 structures and captured 16 booby trap grenades. Later intelligence reports indicated 1 VC KIA and 5 VC WIA.

Once I read this, I understood why the NYT had screwed up this part of the story so badly.

Let me translate it for you. Those 5 boats hauled some Mike Strike Force (MSF) Regional Forces/Popular Forces (RF/PF) on a Sea Lords operation. The Ruff Puffs apparently assaulted a village, killed 1 VC and wounded 5 VC, but that final total wasn't clear at the time. During their assault they (and possibly the PCFs) were under enemy small arms fire (stands to reason, wouldn't you say and might also explain the 3 holes in Thurlow's boat). They, the Mike Force and PCFs, destroyed 30 sampans, 5 structures and captured 16 grenades while losing 1 MSF KIA (a booby trap). The Mike Strike Force stayed there at the village site (and thus became the source for the "later intelligence").

On the way back, sans the Ruff Puffs (who are still at the village), PCF 3 hit a mine.

END OF STORY.

There was no reported small arms fire around the mine. There was no reported VC KIA or WIA at that time. Those all took place in the previous Mike Force operation, not the mine detonation.

Which explains why the PCFs were able to spend 90 minutes on site, saving the 3 boat and its crew before towing it in and not suffering one single solitary casualty from small arms or any other type of fire.

Of course if the writers at the NYT had bothered to show their source for the claim of the "later intelligence reports indicate that one Vietcong was killed in action and five others wounded, reaffirming the presence of an enemy" to someone who knew what a Mike Strike Force was, or what they apparently did on that operation, they wouldn't look as foolish, as they'd know the VC KIA and WIA were killed and wounded on a previous part of the operation and not at the mine detonation.

Great research guys.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1198723/posts

[Rastus]

This was the cover article for American History magazine that cemented my decision not to read the magazine any more. To be honest, I had pretty much decided to stop when I got what was my last issue and Brinkley's first as Editor-in-Chief. Never liked Brinkley, nor his mentor Ambrose.

[igoramus987]

I love reading fiction.

[Travis McGee]

Your reply number 3 needs its own thread!

[conservative in nyc]

That thread is exactly what led me to post this article. It confirms McQ's theory that the Swift Boats were carrying Ruff Puffs. In fact, Kerry's boat was overloaded with them, since another PCF was having engine trouble that day. This, plus towing another PCF, might explain the so-called extensive engine damage to PCF-94 mentioned on the After-Action report. And the extra weight of the troops may have helped damage the propulsion systems. Brinkley says that on the way to unload the troops:

The canal was so narrow that the first two boats roiled the waterway around the fish stakes, causing the others to roll wildly from one side to the other. Ridiculously overburdened by the additional troops they had taken aboard from the crippled PCF-24, Kerry's Swift could make only about 10 knots. Fortunately, every so often the rebounding wakes from the boats in front of them would combine into just enough of a wave to pick PCF-94 up and send it hurtling forward.

But I'm far from an expert on boating, and would appreciate others' input.

[nerdgirl]

Reading through the above dissection of the event obviously mischaracterized by the NYT, I was thinking how the MSM just can't get away with things the way they used to. I bet many of them would like to DO AWAY with the internet because of the degree to which it interferes with their ability to create the news in whatever fashion they like. Since conservatives tend to be more ambitious & analytical, (not to mention more computer literate) these frustrated spinmeisters are stuck with the fact that their BS will no longer wash, & online bloggers, freepers, & others don't have to sit around reading their bogus stories silently anymore.

Great job guys!

[Jim Robinson]

It was posted by NavySEAL F-16 here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1198723/posts

Great work!!

[conservative in nyc]

Think like Sun Tzu -- use Kerry's own fiction against him.

[Travis McGee]

I shoulda clicked the link FIRST! LOL!

[markmacg]

Note this sentence:

"The mission had called for the Nung troops to make a sweep for Viet Cong through several thousand yards of jungle before being picked up in another canal on the other side. "When the Nung were on board Swifts, the VC stayed away," Fred Short of PCF-94 recalled. "They were terrified of them."

This of course brings us full circle on the David Alston didn't serve on Kerry's boat argument. If Fred Short was there on 13 Mar. as gunners mate, Alston was not!!!!

[the_Watchman]

This article was GREAT! Compare it with the timeline suggested by the Washington Post diagram. Note that Kerry has conveniently left out the "advance" up the river which took at least 10 minutes. An "advance" which got injected into the account after the Swiftvets for Truth began to tell their side of the story. Until then, Rassman made it sound like all the other boats had "left".

The WaPo diagram and the current Kerry story make it plain that Kerry left him by "advancing" up the river while the rest of the swifts surrounded PCF-3 to give it protection.

According to the WaPo diagram Kerry was far the first on the scene which is the impression given in this account.

[John Valentine]

Not to quibble, but Kerry was "advancing" DOWN the river. they were on their way home when all this went down.

[John Valentine]

If the water was roiled as described, it was more likely because it was shallow, not narrow.

When a displacement hull is moving quickly, and there isn't much clearance between the bottom of the boat and the bottom of the waterway, all the water has to be pushed violently to the side. When this phenomenon is combined with operating near one side of a river, it's worse, as water forced toward the bank comes right back at the boat.

Steering becomes very difficult as turbulence buffets the rudders.

I have no doubt that these boats passing between the fish weirs and the riverbanks could create just such a condition. I have experienced it myself operating in the shallow creeks of Maryland's Eastern Shore.

[Texasforever]

I had posted portions of that last night. It is damning to his story. One hour before his supposed heroics in braving "withering fire from all sides as he pulls Rassman to safety" he is huddled in a ditch in a firefight letting all around him fight while he is " preserving ammunition and remembering eating ice cream in New York".

As the landing party turned back up the path, "light fire suddenly started to rake up from a field over the trees to the left," Kerry recorded. "Everyone dove instantly into the ditch by the side of our dike and I landed in water and mud up to my waist with the muzzle of my M-16 firmly planted in the crap. A whole line of mercenaries had already formed in the ditch, all shooting madly at what seemed like nothing. However, the whiz of the bullets over our heads that was visually nothing was clearly lethal." Kerry continued: "And Bac She De lay in front of us crumpled in the poncho while this holocaust went on. His feet were sticking out of one end, and I couldn't take my eyes off the boots -- one going one way and the other the opposite direction -- and the whole thing just silhouetted where he had been dropped suddenly when the shooting began. The alive shooting over the dead to remain alive.

"I was amazed at how detached I was from the whole scene," Kerry went on. "I just lay in the ditch, not firing because I wanted to save ammo and because I couldn't see what I was firing at, and I thought about what was happening in New York at that very moment, and if people really felt that I was doing something worthwhile while they went down to Schrafft's and had another ice cream sundae, or while some fat little old man who made another million in the past months off defense contracts was charging another $100 call girl to his expense account. And then, when the shooting stopped, I came back to where I was."

[conservative in nyc]

Thanks. Sounds to me like the water in the canal was shallow and PCF-94 was overburdened, making PCF-94 run close to the bottom of the river, increasing the possibility for damage.

This maneuver may also explain how PCF-94's steerage control after helm became inoperable and/or screws curled and chipped:

Just as they reached the mouth of the river, the crewmen aboard PCF-94 and the other healthy Swift positioned their boats on either side of their endangered cohort to hold the boat up between them

[conservative in nyc]

Not to quibble, but Kerry was "advancing" DOWN the river. they were on their way home when all this went down.

That's likely how it happened. But whoever wrote the reports (likely Kerry) probably screwed up the location listed in the injury reports.

The mine that hit PCF-3 supposedly exploded at VQ 995770. A secondary explosion occurred (by my calculations) about 1.9 kilometers upriver at WQ 010782. It's not clear what that secondary explosion was (perhaps from Ruff Puff mortar fire at a VC location near the river spotted by a spotter aircraft), but the injury reports refer to WQ 010780 as the location of the injuries.

Probably a screwup in the paperwork, but an interesting footnote. And, in any event, proof that the "official" Navy records aren't necessarily correct, as Kerry and the MSM seem to claim.

[the_Watchman]

Not to quibble, but Kerry was "advancing" DOWN the river. they were on their way home when all this went down.

Please quibble away! We conservatives need to be careful to be very precise. If I had said this in a published report, then CNN, ABC, et. al., would have reported that my comment was "proven false" based on that simple typo!

[Malesherbes]

Great thread. Kerry and his stooges are having nightmares about what's happening. Soon he'll be so rattled that he will treat us to a Deaniac moment.