These bolded points don't seem to match the exhaustively researched story and graphics featured in the big Washington Post article.
The rabidly anti-Bush WPost gives a pretty fair account of the March 13 incident, if you can ignore a totally imaginary, "unidentified" second explosion the newspaper invents to cover Kerry's butt.
The graphic shows Kerry in panic flight going up the river away from the group--the only one who bailed--and he ran 3 miles along the opposite bank from the mine explosion--dumping Rassmann along the way. Kerry bruised his shoulder/arm in his reckless flight--but will get a Purple Heart for yet another self-inflicted injury.
But right now, the key point in this graphic history is the one thing that is not mentioned at all in the highly focused detail of the action--the Washington Post's illustrated history contains NO DESCRIPTION--NO MENTION WHATSOEVER OF A HOSTILE FIREFIGHT.
The River, The Mission, The Ambush
Washington Post ^ | 8-21-2004 | Thorp, Spirito, Kirkman
Posted on 08/22/2004 1:48:37 AM EDT by XHogPilot
The Mission, The River, The Ambush. On March 13, 1969, John F. Kerry participated in the mission that has become a centerpiece of his campaign for the presidency- and his account has been disputed by some fellow Swift boat veterans. The dispute focuses on when and how Kerry was injured on the mission, and whether the force of five Swift boats came under Vietcong fire after one was hit by a mine on the Bay Hap River. Here are the events of the mission and ambush, according to eyewitness accounts and U.S. Navy reports:
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Thank you SO MUCH for that map & diagram! That is the first time I've seen it. I have read too many accounts that confuse up & down stream, so that I ended up with the impression they were headed UP river, to a base; not out to sea.
I notice in the boat diagram, Gardener is not listed nor shown. He is also not shown in the photo, nor mentioned as absent, unlike Madieros. I thought he was still there for this incident??
Gosh, so much to try and keep straight, about who was where when, according to whom. It is more confusing to keep score on than a DNC convention in a whore house!
Lambert is so far away from all other descriptions; and the AP story even left out the more damaging chunks of it, is why I posted that.
To hear him, they were pretty much 'crossing the bar' into the bay; and it didn't last long, both patently false.
I knew his story wasn't straight, but too many young people with no knowlege of Vietnam, matters-military, and reading/reasoning skills 'honed' by public schools will read it totally uncritcally. Worse, they will read it without even knowing what was left out that makes it stink even more, and on that basis, along with the other crap that was trotted out, decide "Kerry is right; they're liars!"