Posted on 08/27/2004 1:43:09 PM PDT by trueamerica
Chapter 12: "Taking Command of PCF-94" in Douglas Brinkley's book "Tour of Duty" has the following quote from John Kerry:
"When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."
I really don't find a whole lot of what Kerry says all that interesting anymore. It hurts my head trying to figure out if he is telling the truth or not, so I just try not to listen.
Yep. A caller to the Hugh Hewitt show was speaking about this a couple weeks ago.
It's a bummer to request a safe job and find yourself in the thick of it. My own assignments, on paper, were yanked from one end of Vietnam to the other, but somehow I wound up at Cam Ranh Bay. And we know from Kerry's first Purple Heart how hazardous that was.
>>I really don't find a whole lot of what Kerry says all that interesting anymore. It hurts my head trying to figure out if he is telling the truth or not, so I just try not to listen.<<
You're still trying to "figure out" if he is lying??
Did you, like, leave off the sarcasm tag? 8^>
ping
Kerry got in theater, and he upped for a safe billet.
Kerry got a chance to go home, and he took it ASAP.
Kerry got home, he jumped in front of a parade headed the wrong way, and those folks are still following him.
Kerry runs against a ANG pilot who spent serious time learning to fly a fighter, and keeping current. So after condemning Vietnam front-line service, he now condemns everything less than front-line Vietnam service.
Kerry is in it for Kerry.
That's what war heroes do. </sarcasm>
Here's another viewpoint: Drop the last two letters from his first and last name and what do you end up with?
JOKER !!!
.
bump TO SUPPORT THE NEW SWIFT VETS AD AND GEORGE BUSH... http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/gardner2.mpg
"Kerry initially thought about enlisting as a pilot. But his father, Richard Kerry - a test pilot who served in the Army Air Corps - warned him that if he flew in combat, he might lose his love of flying. So Kerry, who sought in so many ways to emulate John Fitzgerald Kennedy, took to the water, just as his idol served on a World War II patrol boat, the 109. . .
Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe.
"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."
But two weeks after he arrived in Vietnam, the swift boat mission changed -- and Kerry went from having one of the safest assignments in the escalating conflict to one of the most dangerous. Under the newly launched Operation SEALORD, swift boats were charged with patrolling the narrow waterways of the Mekong Delta to draw fire and smoke out the enemy. Cruising inlets and coves and canals, swift boats were especially vulnerable targets.
"I thought this was just going to be a photo-op"
(Actually, he was "Robin." Still quite the cartoon, though.)
Your right, I've read so many stories this morning my head is spinning faster than the media. Admiral William L. Schachte, Jr. was Batman
I did not see Lt. (jg) Kerry in person again for almost 20 years. Sometime in 1988, while I was on Capitol Hill, I ran into him in the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building. I was at that time a Rear Admiral and in uniform. He was about 20 paces away, waiting to catch the underground subway. In a fairly loud voice I called out to him, "Hey, John." He turned, looked at me, came over and said, "Batman!" We exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes, agreed to have lunch sometime in the future, and parted ways. We have not been together since that day.
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