Posted on 08/25/2004 12:19:46 PM PDT by Nasty McPhilthy
There is nothing said in this article to indicate Bangert was a shipmate of or served with Kewwy. What's the criteria for becoming one of Kewwy's Band of Brothers? Is there any criteria at all?
Just noticed they first met in 1970. By that measure, Al Hubbard could be in Kewwy's Band of Brothers.
A typical example of an individual who is slinging BS big time is this guy Bangert from the Winter Soldier Investigation. Here's a summary of what he told the Winter Soldier "Investigation":
Joe Bangert enlists in 1968, and serves in VMO-6, an aviation unit that flies very small observation planes. Banger does not state his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), but almost all the enlisted men in these units were maintenance types - fix airplanes, attach bombs, fix radios, etc. They usually did not fly, and they saw very little combat.
Bangert says he sees a truck load of Marines murder a bunch of children on his first day with two officers present. Then he sees bodies "crucified" on perimeter wire, apparently cut up with knives and hung on the wire. Then he has a friend who is CIA who takes him somewhere, murders a woman with twenty shots, then cuts open her vagina, takes out her organs and skins her. The perpetrator was a former military officer, and two other field grade officers knew about it.
Then Bangert works with the pacification program in Vietnam, and travels extensively through Quang Tri Province. He sees approximately twenty deformed infants under the age of one.
Bangert sees journalists, specifically women journalists who were readily welcomed into the unit. There was always this whitewashing thing. Well, sometimes these people would go right past the bodies and come into our base to get a story. They were kept away from the enlisted men, away from the people who were involved. The typical thing was to take them down to the Officers Club, get them soused.
Elsewhere in his testimony, Bangert claims to be a door gunner with two helo units.
Anybody who believes these tall tales is awfully gullible. Bangert worked for a light observation squadron - very little combat. The men worked like coolies, often 16 hours a day 7 days a week, servicing planes, refueling, rearming, preparing, cleaning, maintaining. Usually they did not fly. They did not get to wander off on secret CIA missions. They did not participate in the CAP program - these were separate small units who lived permanently in villages, protecting the villages from the VC. They did not get to wander around Quang Tri looking at deformed kids. He states on his first day he sees a bunch of kids murdered on Route 1 -- this the main thoroughfare through the area, not some remote area. Can you imagine the press coverage? He says the press saw the crucified bodies, but were wooed with booze and did not report on this. Come on, get real.
Source - FR's wintersoldier.com - "Incoming":
Apparantly Viet Nam war berry-berry good for Mr. Bangert.
Just think of all the flack this guy would get if he was a Republican for having no businesses here in U.S.....
I would give odds that both of Bangert's "incidents" were made up out of whole cloth.
Makes me wonder if Bangert ever served -- in the Marines, or in any other branch.
And I have to wonder exactly what it was that inspired him to fabricate this bizarre tale. It's not like the VVAW and WSI didn't have more than their share of Communists and Commie sympathizers...
A regular Viet Nam regular...
First met Kerry in 1970 in Detroit. Anyone have this guys record?
Kerry is a Vietnam Veteran and we Vietnam Vets can never really be welcomed home 'back in the world' until one of our own calls the White House home. Its time to give Bush his marching orders- "to the rear- march!"- Back to Crawford,TX. And let 44- JFK- restore America to her Camelothian BEST!
Joe Bangert, March 14, 2004.
Distinctly odd that Joe, who claims only to have witnessed atrocities in Viet Nam, looks upon Kerry's election to "welcome" Viet Nam Vets "back into the world".
What is it that they share, besides bearing witness to these "atrocities", that makes J. Effin' K. the absolver of their sins?
Joe is clearly alienated, still intoxicated with the whiff of his apostasy, and a lover of all things North Viet-Namese...and its Communist system.
Bangert is a certified "America hater" -- who believes that John Kerry can somehow make it well. It's appalling that a man so motivated would be anywhere close to a presidential candidate's inner circle.
I'm not sure I want any part of what Joe Bangert wants...
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