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Posted on 09/02/2004 1:36:03 PM PDT by NorCoGOP
MOSCOW, Idaho -- Having watched many of the campaign ads circulated by John Kerry, it's easy to recognize one of the "highlights" of his campaign: His military service.
In one commercial I remember a veteran saying, "The decisions John Kerry made saved lives." After doing a little research on the subject, I have to say that that claim is complete nonsense. John Kerry's service record and the decisions he made at the time do nothing but dishonor all veterans, including those he now claims were his "band of brothers."
After graduating from Yale, Kerry applied for a draft deferment for one year (a common way of avoiding service), but was denied. He then joined the U.S. Navy, serving as an Electrical Officer aboard the USS Gridley.
Kerry's resume, however, did not yet contain any combat experience. As one with political ambitions, he needed combat in his resume. To fulfill this requirement, Kerry volunteered for Swift Boat duty. At the time, this was a relatively safe combat duty as Swift Boats were operating under operation Market Time performing coastal patrols.
Kerry arrived in Vietnam in December 1968 at Cam Rahn Bay. He received his first wound shortly thereafter, but his commanding officer, Hibbard, has said he refused to authorize an award because he felt no enemy actions were involved. The wound was a small scratch with a small piece of shrapnel in it. The doctor who treated the wound reported that Kerry's crew said the wound was from a round fired from an M-79 grenade launcher by Kerry, not in combat, but at some rocks that were too close to the boat.
Subsequently, Kerry was awarded the Purple Heart. To this day, Kerry's commanding officer still does not know how.
To Kerry's surprise, the mission of Swift Boats was changed to the very dangerous river patrol mission. This assignment involved traveling narrow rivers to draw enemy fire and respond with the weapons on board the ship. During that time, Kerry was awarded two more purple hearts for minor wounds. After receiving his third purple heart, about three months into his tour, Kerry requested assignment out of the combat zone and became an Admiral's Aide in the United States.
While on active duty as an Admiral's Aide, Kerry, a pilot, flew anti-war activist Adam Walinsky to speak at various anti-war events.
Kerry requested early separation from active duty in order to run for Congress, which was granted. This resulted in a transfer to the Navy Reserve. At the time, The Boston Globe accidentally reported the transfer as an honorable discharge, an error that Kerry never corrected.
Kerry ran for Congress, but was not elected. He then seized upon the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a radical group funded by Jane Fonda and other Hollywood figures, as an opportunity to gain fame. With his medals and speaking skills, Kerry quickly became a leader of VVAW and its best spokesman.
While a member of VVAW, Kerry committed the following actions:
He threw away his medals, or perhaps someone else's medals. In any case, it was an act that dishonored any who have ever been awarded those medals. He now constantly brags about having been awarded them.
He met with the enemy in Paris.
He gave numerous speeches around the country, spreading his distorted and anti-American view of the war as far and wide as he could.
He attended a meeting where the assassinations of U.S. senators were discussed. He recently tried to cover up his attendance at the meeting, unsuccessfully.
Kerry's most infamous act while a Naval Officer and a member of the VVAW was his perjurious speech to the Senate Foreign Relations committee in 1971.
The speech made many serious (and untrue) charges against the United States, painted those who served in Vietnam as psychologically damaged monsters who daily committed the worst of atrocities and recommended an immediate and unconditional surrender, which would not only have abandoned the South Vietnamese, but also the POWs in the Hanoi Hilton.
The speech was played by the tormenters of those POWs in an attempt to break their will. They heard Kerry recommend their abandonment!
Kerry recently tried to cover up his status as a Naval Officer during his anti-war activities and his meeting with the enemy. Kerry's resume on his Web site showed military service from 1966-70 and then reserve service from 1972-78, a very unusual pattern.
Recently, a possible explanation for how Kerry received his three purple hearts so quickly, allowing him to leave Vietnam not long after arriving there, has arisen. A fellow officer from his unit said, "When he got his third Purple Heart, three of us told him to leave. We knew how the system worked and we didn't want him in Coastal Division 11. Kerry didn't manipulate the system; we did."
I'll admit any day of the week that I flat out do not like John Kerry, but when he tries to use a double-sided service record as his strong point, I'm embarrassed to even call him an American.
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Sums it all up very well.
People who have never had to face an immediate, deadly threat to life will not understand this. But as any street cop in the US knows, there are people that you can not negotiate with. And it is a Cardinal Sin to give those same
thugs credit over your compatriots.
>>> He met with the enemy in Paris.
Not just once. Other threads have mentioned as many as 3 times...and that this is one story that's hovering under the radar, ready to break - bigtime.
There is a whole chapter devoted in UNFIT FOR COMMAND on this subject of Kerry in Paris with the North Vietnamese.
Kerry's cousin, a guy named Forbes, received the very first trade contracts with the North Viet Nam.
They will break this all in good time.
nick
BUMP!
"After graduating from Yale, Kerry applied for a draft deferment for one year (a common way of avoiding service), but was denied. He then joined the U.S. Navy, serving as an Electrical Officer aboard the USS Gridley."
GRIDLEY Crew members (67-68) say Kerry exaggerated in TOUR OF DUTY
"...John Kerry and I were shipmates in the guided missile cruiser USS
Gridley (CG-21) in 1967 and 1968. He served as First Lieutenant, the
officer in charge of the deck division, and I was Executive Officer,
or second in command..."
"...But there is also no doubt in my mind that his anti-war
activities while our troops were still fighting, dying and being
tortured in filthy Vietnam prisons were despicable.
For that reason, even aside from his anti-defense voting record in
the Senate, he is one ex-shipmate that I could never support as
commander-in-chief of the armed forces."
J. F. Kelly, Jr.
USS Gridley (CG-21) Executive Officer in 1967 and 1968.
GRIDLEY Website page on John Kerry
http://home.nycap.rr.com/pwcarter/the%20kerry%20page.html
Other crew members speak about John Kerry
(Looks like Kerry's shipmates, who did serve with him,
say he lied and told whoopers about his time on the GRIDLEY.
Remember these are not Swift Boat Vets,
BUT Kerry's crewmates who served with him on the GRIDLEY)
Examples follow:
"As everyone must surely know by now, John F. Kerry came on board
GRIDLEY as a boot Ensign when we returned from our 1967 Westpac
Cruise. He remained on GRIDLEY through the 1968 cruise. Politics
aside, shipmates of the time who have read TOUR OF DUTY, the
authorized campaign biography, will have something to say about the
chapter on GRIDLEY. "
1. Kerry never talked about his time on GRIDLEY. He says on page
74 that it is because “nothing much of note” happened while
he was
onboard. He uses words like monotony and tedious, when, despite
being a boot ensign he was given every opportunity for responsibility
by Captain Slifer and Commander Kelly (XO). He came aboard
designated for Electrical Officer (80100), a grunt position in the
Engineering Department and spent four months in that position. He
was assigned duty as First Lieutenant, as Commander Kelly recalls,
because of his knowledge of seamanship and his experiences with small
boats and sailing. Besides being responsible for the decks of the
ship, the First Lieutenant is also responsible for the ship’s
small
boats. He also was assigned collateral duties as Public Affairs
Officer. Despite all the responsibilities he was given, he gives the
impression that serving on GRIDLEY was somehow beneath him. He
certainly had less of an opportunity to collect “gongs” there.
2. Page 78 – “motivate 400 swabbies” – The First
Lieutenant is
responsible only for the personnel of 1st Division, not the entire
crew. 1st Division had a roster of about 30 in 1968. To the extent
that other divisions had responsibility for deck space, their
officers would have been responsible for motivating them.
3. Page 87 has Kerry “shuttling sailors and provisions”
between
GRIDLEY and KITTY HAWK in a small motor whaleboat out in the Gulf of
Tonkin. The regular method of travel between the two ships was via
helo. That is how I went over to the KITTY HAWK. If such an event
did occur, it would have been unusual and hardly a shuttle.
4. Later on page 87 Kerry talks about Olongapo in the Philippines.
He talks about bloated corpses floating in the river and starving
women with babies dying of malnutrition. Now Olongapo was a wild and
wooly town that existed solely for the entertainment of the US Navy,
but in over three years of calling there, I never saw a single
instance of either thing happening. Kerry uncovered this in his
first visit. If this was from his letters home then he was certainly
writing for dramatic effect. Balderdash.
5. The trip to Danang – GRIDLEY went into Danang for briefings
before going to Northern SAR. This section is so full of hyperbole
that the urge to giggle is almost uncontrollable. “The panic and
pressure onboard GRIDLEY, strapping on a .45, wondering if I would
have to use it, B-52’s howling overhead”. A B-52 over Danang
would
have been so high that only contrails would have been visible, cloud
cover permitting. David Simons confirmed my recollection that during
our brief stay in Danang Harbor, the sky was overcast to the point of
being ominous.
More seriously, no one can remember John Kerry going ashore. I was
part of the shore party that went to Monkey Mountain. We were taken
in a screened in truck (to protect against grenades being tossed in)
and made to unload our .45’s. The driver said that he did not
want
us newbies to shoot anyone by accident.
Neither Commander Kelly nor LCDR Rueckert (Kerry’s immediate
boss)
can recall approving a trip ashore for Ensign Kerry. The author uses
remarks of David Simons IC2 as a lead in to the Danang section. I
spoke to David and he has no personal knowledge of Kerry going ashore
at all. He did talk to a researcher and made some generic remarks
about Danang but had never discussed Danang with Kerry. He recalls
arguing with the researcher because he tried to put the
words “cowboy” in his mouth, which ended up in the book.
There is no mystery about the “gruesome site of a pile of dead
VC.”
We saw no sign of anything like this. However, our escort to Monkey
Mountain did tell us how the VC bodies were stacked up on the
LZ’s
after the TET Offensive, which had been several months before.
Ensign Kerry would have been told this story by members of the shore
party.
If, indeed, he got to the pier, because he was in charge of the
motor whaleboat, it certainly would not have been within his purview
to wander Danang, eating dog meat and drinking beer in a bar (under
arms). It also seems amazing that he had all these observations on
Vietnam in such a brief visit.
6. In command – Again with the hyperbole. Kerry makes much
about
being “in charge” of the ship after the Captain and XO. The
OOD is
in charge of the operation of the ship during his four hour watch but
hardly in charge of the ship. Kerry qualified almost immediately as
OOD(P), in port OOD but that is a given. For much of his time
onboard he would have been Junior Officer of the Deck when underway.
Although his fitness report as of 22 March says "he is qualified as
OOD(I) now" (Independent steaming – with no ships or land
anywhere
near) , only OOD(P) is listed under duties. His Fitness Report from
July 1968 lists two months as OOD(I) which would mean he qualified
after leaving the war zone.
Read tomorrow.
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