"The timeline in "Unfit for Command" for John Kerry's deployment on the USS Gridley doesn't match the ship's operations ..."
Picky, picky, picky - so what if the SBVT can't get their facts straight? They still are telling a whale of a story, no need to have facts correct if they get in the way of the plot. Just ask MM about F911.
The Gridley crew has a Kerry page up on their site. They don't care for him much as a possible president.
http://home.nycap.rr.com/pwcarter/the%20kerry%20page.html
Even if he was off the Gulf of Tonkin, he wasn't on shore being shot at, as he said in his speech.
The First “Tour of Vietnam”
John Kerry’s first year of duty, from June 1967 to June 1968, was spent aboard the USS Gridley, a guided missile frigate. During this year, Kerry experienced no combat. His assignment aboard the Gridley is, however, the basis on which Kerry claims to have served “two tours” in Vietnam. Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign describes his service in the following words, which frequently get picked up uncritically by the news media: “After graduating from Yale, Kerry enlisted in the Navy and was sent to Vietnam in 1967. He served two tours of duty and won a Bronze Star, a Silver Star, and three Purple Heart.”
A closer look at his service record, however, shows that the assignment in 1967 was not to Vietnam, but to the Gridley. The guided missile frigate was in the Pacific and in December 1967 did guard duty for planes operating in the China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin.
To say that Kerry was sent to Vietnam in 1967 exaggerates what was actually service on a deep fleet ocean vessel, involving no combat. Indeed the Gridley operated along the California coast, and on January 2, 1968, the Gridley sailed for Australia and then returned to Long Beach, California on June 8. In other words, the Gridley was in what could be considered a “fighting zone” ( still far off the coast of Vietnam) for probably fewer than five weeks while Kerry was aboard; five week off the coast of Vietnam could hardly be called a “tour of duty”.
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Can you show us the document in question? Kerrys record.
NOT true:
You're reading it wrong:
The Gridley departed FOR Vietnam January 68, arrived off the coast for plane guard and SAR duty first week in March, and departed in late May 68 (a grand total of less than 90 days - all of it safe, easy, air-conditioned duty off-shore!) to arrive BACK in Long Beach the first wek in June.
Kerry, in a March San Diego paper interview this year, told of being "off-Midway" on the way to Vietnam on Feb 25, 1968.
I'm lost. I don't see where the book is wrong. Kerry said he was in combat when King was killed. The Gridley wasn't in combat.
NOT!