Who is Al Hubbard (HOT!)

National Review Online ^ | June 1, 1971 | William Overend

[Remember_Salamis]

Who Is Al Hubbard? A look at John Kerry’s old crowd. April 23, 2004, 9:01 a.m.

By William Overend

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article appeared in the June 1, 1971, issue of National Review.

Al Hubbard is the executive director of the Vietnam Veterans against the War. I first met him the morning of April 21 at the VVAW "camp-in" on the Capitol Mall in Washington. He was sitting on a flatbed truck, explaining to a circle of six hundred or so members of his group that the Supreme Court had upheld the earlier ruling that the Veterans would not be allowed to sleep on the Mall that night. He was very calm and soft-spoken about it all, at one point interrupting himself to ask that volunteers take down a Vietcong flag someone had stuck in a tree. When he was finished talking, I went up to Hubbard and introduced myself and asked him about his service record, among other things. He said he had been an Air Force captain.

Actually, if I had watched Meet the Press the previous Sunday, I wouldn't have needed to ask that question at all. Hubbard had been introduced on that show by Lawrence E. Spivak as a former captain who had spent two years in Vietnam, and who had been decorated and injured in the process. The way it was later explained to me at the Washington "camp-in" was that Hubbard had been flying a transport plane into Danang one day in 1966 when he "caught some shrapnel in the spine."

That was April 21. On April 22, the story began to change. According to Frank Jordan, the Washington Bureau Chief of NBC News, NBC got a tip that Al Hubbard hadn't been an Air Force captain, but instead an Air Force sergeant. NBC reached Hubbard at a Washington hotel that night, asked Hubbard about the tip, and got a confession that, indeed, he had been lying about his rank. NBC broadcast that on its 11 P.M. news that night and also interviewed Hubbard on the Today Show the next morning. As NBC's Jordan remembers it, Hubbard explained he made up the business about having been an officer: "He was convinced no one would listen to a black man who was also an enlisted man."

Two weeks later, John Kerry, Yale's contribution to the VVAW, recalled that Today Show interview, citing it as proof of Hubbard's sincerity. "Al owned up to the rank question," said Kerry. "He thought it was time to tell the truth, and he did it because he thought it would be best for the organization." That, of course, neglects the fact that NBC had confronted Hubbard with its "tip" prior to the interview.

The next development was a Defense Department news release: "Alfred H. Hubbard entered the Air Force in October 1952, re-enlisted twice and was honorably discharged in October 1966, when his enlistment expired. At the time of his discharge he was an instructor flight engineer on C-123 aircraft with the 7th Air Transport Squadron, McCord Air Force Base, Tacoma, Washington. There is no record of any service in Vietnam, but since he was an air crew member he could have been in Vietnam for brief periods during cargo loading, unloading operations or for crew rest purposes. His highest grade held was Staff Sergeant E-5."

That raised an important new question about Hubbard's background. Not only was there his word for it that he'd lied about his rank, now the Defense Department was announcing it didn't have any record of his having served in Vietnam at all. As a liberally oriented newsman, sympathetic to the Vietnam Vets and impressed personally by Hubbard's leadership qualities, that came as something of a jolt.

Clearly, if Hubbard had spent considerable time in VA hospitals, the Veterans Administration would have a record of it. A spokesman for the Veterans Administration, however, while confirming that Hubbard did have a sizable medical record, refused to give out any details, saying that would be an invasion of Hubbard's privacy. He said the only thing the VA would say about Hubbard was that he has a service-connected disability of 60 per cent and that he has been receiving $163 a month.

So Al Hubbard had been seriously injured while in the Service. But the VA would not say whether it was during the Vietnam years or earlier. For after all, Hubbard had enlisted back in 1952. Conceivably, an air crash, if there was one, could have taken place long before 1966. I asked the Defense Department some additional questions: What medals had Hubbard received? What about a plane crash in 1966? And the answers came back: A Korean Service Medal, United Nations Medal, National Defense Medal, four Good Conduct Medals, Air Force Longevity Service Award, Air Force Unit Award and Air Force Expeditionary Medal. But no Purple Heart, and no mention of a Vietnamese Service Ribbon, which, according to the Pentagon, can be rightfully claimed by any member of an air crew serving in Vietnam, even briefly.

Despite that, Defense Department officials stressed it was still possible Hubbard could have served in Vietnam, flying in and out from Tacoma. However, they were skeptical in the extreme of the Danang air crash story. As one spokesman put it: "As far as we know there is no record of his having been involved in a plane crash ever in Vietnam. If he had been, and he'd been seriously hurt, he would have been in a military hospital in Danang. And it would have shown up in our records."

But what about that 60 per cent disability? Obviously, something had happened to Hubbard at some point during his Service career? It was suggested that I ask Hubbard about that. That seemed to make sense. But there was a slight problem, in that it was becoming difficult to find out where Hubbard was. Most of the Vets had returned to their homes after the April 24 March. But Hubbard and a few dozen others stayed on for the more militant Mayday activities. And on May 3, the first day of big trouble, Hubbard and twenty or so of the others were arrested for throwing cow manure on the steps of the Pentagon.

(John Kerry, one of the many members of the VVAW who had nothing to do with the Mayday protests, denounced them as "horrible": "Ripping out wires from cars, slashing tires — it's criminal. It should be punished.")

Failing immediately to locate Hubbard, I talked to several members of the VVAW at their headquarters in Manhattan. They still remembered the Danang story, although some now emphasized that they had never really heard Hubbard tell it. Scott Moore, a 26-year-old former Army lieutenant, summed up the views of many, saying: "I really don't care whether Al was in Vietnam or not. He's a good man. That's all that counts."

That attitude wasn't shared, however, by the senior leaders of the group. Jan Crumb, the President, admitted he was concerned, and he indicated Moore's comment was primarily for my consumption. Said Crumb: "This matters to all of us, very much. But it's an internal problem for us to solve."

This happened on Friday, May 7. At the time Hubbard had been out of touch for several days. However, Crumb said I could expect a call from him the next week. Hubbard called on Monday morning, May 10. He said he was considering a lawsuit against the Defense Department and had demanded that they send him certain records. He said that until he received them he would make no comment. I asked him about the Danang air crash and he replied: "I told you, I will not cooperate with the media in any way."

Another source, however, was considerably more cooperative. On Thursday, May 13, saying he had seen Hubbard's medical record, this source said there is no mention at all of a 1966 air crash in Danang. There is, he said, a reference to a 1956 rib injury suffered during a basketball game, and a 1961 entry about a back injury suffered during a soccer game. And much later, in 1962, there was a reference by Hubbard to a 1956 plane crash, but nothing, according to the source, about any accident in Vietnam.

And that about wrapped it up. The Pentagon had answered all my questions except the ones touching on Al Hubbard's medical records. Al Hubbard had the opportunity to defend himself. Instead he chose to make no comment, and I was left to draw my own conclusions.

So what to do? First, of course, report it for my employer, CBS News. But the story required a longer telling than broadcast time permits. As a liberal, it had occurred to me that raising questions about Al Hubbard might hurt the antiwar movement, but as a journalist, it didn't seem that that should be a factor. I was wrong. No one would touch the story. Not David Sanford of the New Republic; not any other editor of any liberal publication, I contacted.

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[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Phony Vietnam veterans alleged in books
Guenter Lewy's 1978 book America in Vietnam (pages 316-317) and B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley's Stolen Valor (Verity Press, Inc., Dallas, Texas)(pages 113, 131-137) contain similar information about alleged flaws in Lane's book. Neither book, however, refutes any of the testimony given during the Winter Soldier Investigation.

Lawyer and leftist activist Mark Lane was one of the organizers of Winter Soldier. In 1970, Lane had published a book called Conversations With Americans purporting to be interviews with Vietnam veterans about war crimes, containing Vietnam tales of atrocities. Reporter Neil Sheehan showed some interviewed in Lane's book had never served in Vietnam and others had not been in the situations they described. Lane admitted he did not check military records, as confirmation of details was not relevant. Lane later confirmed these militarty records.
The following are often falsely listed as being participants in Winter Soldier, but were actually in Lane's book instead. This confusion is probably due to Stolen Valor having an explanation of Lane's history within the section on Winter Soldier.
Chuck Onan, stock room clerk in Beaufort, S.C.
Michael Schneider, deserted in Europe and deserted again in the USA.
Terry Whitmore, was in an unpopulated area of Vietnam.
Garry Gianninoto, medical corpsman at battalion headquarters.
VVAW leader and Winter Soldier co-organizer Al Hubbard lied about being an officer, and sustaining war injuries - but he never testified at Winter Soldier .
According to the investigative work of Burkett, Lewy and others, there were many imposters, liars, and plain nutjobs who infiltrated the ranks of the anti-war movement, and, in some cases, testified to war crimes and atrocities that never occurred in order to get attention, sympathy, and, in one documented case, medals and honors."

http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/W/Winter-Soldier-Investigation.htm


"...At the time, Kerry was serving as the point man for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The president of the organization was Al Hubbard, who claimed to be an Air Force captain who was severely injured during his service in Vietnam.

It turned out Hubbard was a sergeant who never served in Vietnam.

He did, however, as Kerry knew, serve the communist cause with great enthusiasm and distinction – making propaganda trips to Hanoi paid for by the Communist Party USA. "

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39982

[E.G.C.]

BTT!!!!!!!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thanks for the BTT!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Washington Post 8/21/04

"Although Kerry campaign officials insist that they have published
Kerry's full military records on their Web site
(with the exception of medical records shown briefly to reporters earlier this year),
they have not permitted independent access to his original Navy records.
A Freedom of Information Act request by The Post for Kerry's records produced six pages of information.
A spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command, Mike McClellan,
said he was not authorized to release the full file,
which consists of at least a hundred pages. "

TRANSCRIPT: 8/26/04
Steve Gardner, Foregunner, PCF44:
http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/gardner2.mpg

"I spent more time on John Kerry's boat than any other crewmember.

John Kerry hasn't been honest - he has been deceitful.

John Kerry claims that he spent Christmas, in 1968, in Cambodia.

And that is catagorically a lie. Not in December. Not in January.

We were never in Cambodia on a secret mission. Ever."

Ramsey Clark to Join Panel for Saddam’s Defense

arabnews press release 25 August 2004

NOTE :
Ramsey Clark is pictured below with Kerry and
Vietnam phony vet Al Hubbard
Who was head of the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement.


Al Hubbard Sgt., 22 Troop Carrier Squadron Aug. ’65-June ’66
- Al Hubbard, proven fraud who never set foot in Viet Nam.
The only Vietnamese he ever met was
when he was collaborating with the North Vietnamese in Paris
on the American Communist Party's nickel.

John Kerry's explanation:
"He (Hubbard) simply exaggarated his particular position.
But nobody knew it at the time. And those things happen."

NEW:
FReeper smith288 has an online version of
Kerry's "The New Soldier"
You can read it without downloading pdf files!
CLICK HERE

The New Soldier, (46 pages)
By John Kerry
and Vietnam Veterans
Against the War
PART I (pdf file)
PART II (pdf file)
PART III (pdf file)

Kerry hopes everyone
in the USA gets this book!

NEW:
“Without question,
we were held captive longer
because of the anti-war people,
the Kerrys, the Fondas and Haydens,
the names we knew over there -
they encouraged the enemy to hang on.”
Excerpt from “Stolen Honor” website
- Leo Thorsness
Former Vietnam POW
CLICK HERE

Jane Fonda tells the student audience at the Michigan State University in 1969;
"I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope,
you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communist."

Joe Moore, Can Tho Airfield 550th Signal Company

Copy and paste the links to everyone you know.

Send this url for the Steve Gardner video

http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/gardner2.mpg

Send this url for the online version

http://ejsmithweb.com/fr/newsoldier/

Send this url for the Stolen Honor website

http://www.stolenhonor.com/

Print this out (46 pages) and disribute it,
especially to the liberals you know.

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier%20Inro.pdf

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier.pdf

http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier%20Epilogue.pdf

[blackie]

Hang 'em High ~ Bump!

[vetvetdoug]

I am not defending Hubbard but the years in the USAF from 1955 to about 1965 were thin times. Rank was very difficult to come by and they were stingy with giving promotions. My father made M/Sgt. from 1947-53 and got out of the USAF for 18 months. He rejoined the USAF and was only allowed to retain his S/Sgt. rank. From 1955 to 1965 he stayed a S/Sgt. From 1965 to 1976 he made it back to SM/Sgt. I joined the USAF in 1974 and made it to E-6 by 1983.

Hubbard was a pimp.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[BunnySlippers]

Where is Al Hubbard now?

[Cuttnhorse]

Also, 14 years in the Air-Force and he only reached E-5? The man wasn't just a liar but a total incompetent.

That was my first thought! LOL! Geez, I made E5, (Quartermaster 2nd class) in two years. Lots of guys were rapidly promoted during Vietnam.

Cheers,
Swift Boats 10, 45, 50 (combinations of these numbers have NOT won me the lottery...yet)
1965-1966

[christie]

.


Visit the John F. Kerry Timeline . . .
.

[EternalVigilance]

Al Hubbard was obviously John Kerry's mentor.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Useful info here!

By THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB Special to the Sun

Publication:The New York Sun; Date:Mar 22, 2004; Section:Front page; Page:1

[arasina]

From The Washington Times "Inside Politics" 3/24/04:

Kerry 'misspeaks'

"CBS and ABC on Monday night ran full stories on how the FBI trailed antiwar activist John Kerry in the early 1970s, but only ABC's Dan Harris pointed out what CBS's Byron Pitts missed, how the FBI 'documents do show that some of Kerry's recent statements about his antiwar activism are inaccurate,' " the Media Research Center reports.

"Both March 22 stories were prompted by an article in that day's Los Angeles Times about the FBI documents obtained a few years ago by a book author," Brent Baker writes at www.mediaresearch.org.

"Harris explained on 'World News Tonight': 'While the FBI ultimately concluded that Kerry had no link to any violent activity, these documents do show that some of Kerry's recent statements about his antiwar activism are inaccurate. Two weeks ago, Kerry was asked about Al Hubbard, an activist with whom he had appeared on national TV in April 1971. Shortly after that appearance, Hubbard was exposed for having lied about his service record.'

"Kerry in his Senate hallway press conference a couple of weeks ago: 'I haven't talked to Al Hubbard since that week.'

"Harris: 'But the documents show that Kerry was with Hubbard at many subsequent meetings. Also, Kerry has repeatedly denied being at a November 1971 meeting where this man [photo of man with long hair], Scott Camil , proposed a plan to assassinate members of Congress who supported the war. That plan was quickly voted down. The FBI documents show Kerry was, in fact, at that meeting. A Kerry spokesman said today that these events happened 30 years ago and the senator simply misspoke.' "

[christie]

.

Kerry was against the war before he even signed up for the Naval Reserves (to avoid the draft). His father (Richard Kerry) was a leftie and a much bigger influence. All this predates his association with Hubbard by years. More info on my John F. Kerry Timeline.

.

[MeekOneGOP]

[EternalVigilance]

I understand.

My point was that Kerry obviously emulated Hubbard's skills at creating fiction.

[christie]

No, Kerry did a good job at creating fiction when he wrote the "after action reports." And he was a good actor, he even filmed reenactments of his exploits. LOL!

[EternalVigilance]

If only he would limit himself to what he is good at:

Writing fiction! ;-)

[submarinerswife]

bump

[christie]

He's also a real cute bunny!!!!