New Navy After-action Report Backs Swiftvets

Newsmax.com ^ | Sept. 19, 2004

[ArmyBratproud]

A never-before-published after-action report obtained from the Naval archives by "Unfit for Command" co-author Jerome Corsi confirms key contradictions cited by the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth about John Kerry's Vietnam battle claims.

The documents contain battle damage reports from a March 1969 incident that show Kerry's PCF 94 swiftboat sustained no bullet hole damage after being exposed to what the report claims was "heavy A/W and S/A from both banks" of the Bay Hap River that lasted "for about 5000 meters."

The episode is the most famous of Kerry's combat exploits, the one where he claims to have rescued Special Forces officer James Rassman while under heavy fire after PCF94 was hit by a mine.

The explosion tossed Rassman overboard.

But despite the supposed barrage of gunfire, the after-action report lists damage to PCF94 as follows:

"Two stbd and one port main cabin windows blown out. VRC-46 radio and all remote units pilot house inop. AC wiring shorted out. Onan generator inop. Steerage control after helm inop. Stbd bilge pump broken. Screws curled and chipped. Radar gear box frozen. Main engines experienced RPM drop."

Nowhere is any bullet hole damage noted.

[Stoat]

"waiting for apologies from Kerry, Democrats, major media outlets"

Don't worry, I'm not holding my breath :-)

[Jewels1091]

Read that list...how could he even steer that boat??? If he had THAT much damage, with NO bullet holes and NO mine going off close to it, how did all this happen????

[rolling_stone]

obviously forged by partisans/sarcasm

[conshack]

I don't suppose anybody here is surprized about this are they? Suppose it will be identified by the MSM?

[Terabitten]

OK, let's play devil's advocate here. From my vantage point as a former mech infantry battalion motor officer, that seems like a heck of a lot of damage. I doubt the form would be written up as "radio inop due to bullet impact" or something like that. I think it was probably taken as a given that the kind of damage caused here was caused by bullets or concussion effects of a mine, etc.

From what I see here, this dog don't hunt.

[Higgymonster]

All that damage is from the day before when there was a mine incident which is of record. The point here is that Kerry says that he faced withering fire for a considerable distance while returning to the scene. As I recall (without looking it up) the river was hardly a river and more of a canal only a couple hundred feet wide. How did he not get any bullet holes in that withering fire? That's why it backs up the Swift Vets. They say there was no fire that day, and since no other boats had any bullet holes either, there obviously wasn't any fire that day.

[aviator]

Kerry hit an underwater object; likely a log.

[Higgymonster]

This dogs hunts. All the damage is from the day before. Kerry's boat was able to travel with this damage as it had obviously been doing for 24 hours. There was no new damage from this incident, with the possible exception to Kerry's reputation 35 years later.

[Jewels1091]

What did he do...save up his damages for one report to look good????

[taxesareforever]

5000 meters? That's over three miles that Kerry and his swiftboat ran to get away from the "firefight". Lends a lot of credence to Oneill saying that Kerry took off and then came back to rescue Rassmann. Its no wonder Kerry doesn't even try to answer charges to "Unfit for Command". He would be flip flopping worse than a windshield wiper in a hurricane.

[Terabitten]

All that damage is from the day before when there was a mine incident which is of record.

Ahhh, I didn't know that, hence the "from what I see here."

Okay, it's f*cked up, and he shoulda had some bullet holes.

[BoBToMatoE]

This will never, ever, ever, EVER reach the MSM.

If a reporter even DARED to write this up it would be spiked in a heartbeat and the reporter or producer would be fired on spot.

Welcome to Pravda er the MSM.

[Callahan]

Move along people. Nothing to see here. Dan Rather assures me there is no story here. However, the Bush Guard records he found scribbled on the back of a Denny's napkin could break this election wide open.

[Higgymonster]

This is the day he got the medal. This is the day he put all the damage into his report.

[COEXERJ145]

That is why we need to make sure that Rush, Hannity, and everyone else who will run the story, hears about it.

[Callahan]

The popular move is to equate this stuff with the CBS forgeries and dismiss them both with a huffy "Let's get back to the issues." Nevermind that these are authentic and damning.

[radicalamericannationalist]

I think it would say the cause of damage, for nothing else than to differentiate between combat damage or some fool spilling his water on it.

[Terabitten]

I think it would say the cause of damage, for nothing else than to differentiate between combat damage or some fool spilling his water on it.

Not necessarily. Lots of stuff gets written off as "combat damage" when it may or may not have been directly caused by combat. Also, if the Navy maintenance form is anything like the one the Army uses, there's not much space to write what caused the damage, ya just write in what's broken/missing, whatever.

It would be real easy to match up to the after action report though.

[greasepaint]

These boats had two 'steering wheels'.
The 'outside' steering wheel was not working.
The wheel inside the pilot house was working.