[R. Scott]

Kerry’s account to Douglas Brinkley: “PCF 94 had taken a rocket-propelled grenade off the port side. . .Kerry felt a piece of hot shrapnel bore into his left leg.”

“Off the port side” means it was a miss - hitting the water on the left of the boat.
We experienced a lot of near misses, everything from 60 mm mortars to 130 howitzers. The shrapnel does not leap from the water and hurt people. We have all seen movies showing a column of water rising from the explosion. The shrapnel is in the water column. If close alongside the shrapnel falls gently to the deck along with the water.

Kerry campaign press release, January 17, 2004: “On March 13, 1969, Rassmann, a Green Beret, was traveling down the Bay Hap river in a boat behind Kerry’s when both were ambushed by exploding land mines

“Ambushed by exploding land mines”??? I wonder how the boat - on the water - set off the LAND mines?

[Fedora]

"“Off the port side” means it was a miss - hitting the water on the left of the boat.
We experienced a lot of near misses, everything from 60 mm mortars to 130 howitzers. The shrapnel does not leap from the water and hurt people."

Good point. On a related issue about terminology, maybe you can help answer something I've been wondering about: what does the phrase "close aboard" mean in this part of the after-action report?

"KERRY SUFFERED SHRAPNEL WOUNDS IN HIS LEFT BUTTOCKS AND CONTUSIONS ON HIS RIGHT FOREARM WHEN A MINE DETONATED CLOSE ABOARD PCF-94"

I'd seen the "land mines" thing pointed out before. I guess that one could be written off as a sloppy description of underwater mines, perhaps. It would seem to indicate that whoever wrote the after-action report didn't have much experience with the terminology for describing mines.