Posted on 08/27/2004 6:28:26 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16
Did John Kerry write the after-action report for the March 13, 1969, incident for which he was awarded the Bronze Star? Is that after-action report true or false?
These are the two fundamental questions at the core of a dispute between two sets of Vietnam veterans who were there that day and who now tell dramatically differing stories. In an ironic twist, the anti-Vietnam War testimony Kerry himself delivered in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971 is now casting at least some doubt on Kerry's claims that he did not write the March 13, 1969, report, but that this report is accurate.
In this testimony (see key excerpt below and click here for the entire official transcript), Kerry told the committee he recalled "often sending in the spot reports which we made after each mission," and that he would later "often read about my own missions in the Stars and Stripes and the very mission we had been on had been doubled in figures and tripled in figures."
(Excerpt) Read more at humaneventsonline.com ...
Yes but was it SEARED into his mind?
Bump...
Yes, he wrote his own reports. And also his commendations.
I swear Free Republic furthers debate in the media!
I was going ask the same question but I wasn't sure if the Navy had SPOT Reps.
I'm still waiting fro the Unit Diaries that give the day by day summaries of everything - especially contact and casualties!!
They are unclassified and available on line at several locations.
While important, this issue needs to take a back seat to Kerry's voting record in 20+ years in congress. The VietNam issue has been vetted (no pun intended), it is time to move on to what he has done since then.
I dont know where they came from, sir, maybe Vietnam. I had direct experience with that. Senator, I had direct experience with that and I can recall often sending in the spot reports which we made after each mission, and including the GDA, gunfire damage assessments, in which we would say, maybe 15 sampans sunk or whatever it was. And I often read about my own missions in the Stars and Stripes and the very mission we had been on had been doubled in figures and tripled in figures. The intelligence missions themselves are based on very, very flimsy information. Several friends of mine were intelligence officers and I think you should have them in sometime to testify. Once in Saigon I was visiting this friend of mine and he gave me a complete rundown on how the entire intelligence system should be re-set up on all of its problems, namely, that you give a young guy a certain amount of money, he goes out, sets up his own contacts under the table, gets intelligence, comes in. It is not reliable; everybody is feeding each other double intelligence, and I think that is what comes back to this country. I also think men in the military, sir, as do men in many other things, have a tendency to report what they want to report and see what they want to see. And this is a very serious thing because I know on several visits Secretary Laird came to Vietnam once and they staged an entire invasion for him. When the initial force at Dang Tam, it was the 9th Infantry when it was still there when the initial recon platoon went out and met with resistance, they changed the entire operation the night before and sent them down into the South China Seas so they would not run into resistance and the Secretary would have a chance to see how smoothly the war was going.
'I'm still waiting fro the Unit Diaries that give the day by day summaries of everything - especially contact and casualties!!
They are unclassified and available on line at several locations.'
Well, Good Lord, man, what are we waiting for!!!!!
Where do we go to get them? There are enough people available here to read every page in 5 minutes and then report back to put it together!
I can hear it now...
" I said I can recall sending them in, but I didn't say I wrote them..."
I disagree.... Free Republic IS the media that forces the alphabet channels to cover a story........
point taken
It would be interesting to turn up those Stars & Stripes articles.
I SPIT ON YOU!
Very Sincerly, Viet-Boat-Rider Mekong Delta 1970 - 1971
Yes, we should spend the next two months going over Kerry's accomplishments in the United States Senates. I mean two weeks. Umm, days. Minutes? Seconds??
Honestly, we need to bang the drum about what the numb nutz HASN'T done for 20+ years.
We had better get our Bill Clinton memorial sentence parsing glasses on, when Kerry says:
"I was wounded in the buttocks when a mine went off."
It depends on what the meaning of "when" is. For example, if, somewhere in Viet Nam, a mine exploded at the same approximate time that Kerry blew rice into his butt, he could honestly make the above statement.
Can you do it twice? Once for you and once for me. I'm not good at spitting, it's unlady like.
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