Posted on 09/21/2004 7:02:21 AM PDT by doug from upland
FROM KRANISH ARTICLE WRITTEN IN MARCH:
"Steven Michael Gardner served side by side with John Forbes Kerry in Vietnam, was wounded under Kerry's command, and was manning twin .50-caliber machine guns on a night that has forever haunted Kerry -- the night his crew killed a young boy in a sampan."
LINK TO ORIGINAL BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE FROM MARCH.
I briefly reached Kranish on his cell phone, and he asked me to leave a message on the office phone. I left him the message challenging him to do an update of this story. It haunted Kerry? Kerry's report did not mention a dead child. It did mention 5 Viet Cong killed!
That incident created heroic status for Kerry after he wrote the phony report. Gardner learned for the first time about the phony report about two or three months ago.
Kranish has now been given the info he did not have when he wrote the original report. What will he do?
Please call newsrooms around the nation-- TV and print -- and get them to do this story! (Maybe I'll phony up a document and send it to Rather.)
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
No need to phoney it, just "CBS" it.
The way to tell if an after action report was falsified....is to look at the number of weapons captured and type...
If the report says 5 VC Killed.... "negative weapons"....that's suspicious...
imo
To his credit, Kranish just called me back. He did followup work and said it is in the biography. Does anyone have that book or am I going to have to buy it?
Get the story of your investigation to Drudge and/or major bloggers, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit and Hugh Hewitt, who also has a radio show.
E-mail them your results.
Good work.
Gardner has been on talk radio saying the report was phony. He is astounded that the dead child was not mentioned.
Maybe he had a flashback to the dead kid in the sampan and not the badly wounded teenage Viet Cong he wasted (an act I do not blame him for, but for which he should not have received any commendation, much less a Silver Star).
Why hasn't this been seen on television???
Kerry's reportThe Commander Coastal Surveillance Force Vietnam (CTF 115) Quarterly Evaluation Report of March 29, 1969, states: " ... 20 January PCFs 21 and 44 operating in An Xuyen Province ... engaged the enemy with a resultant GDA of one VC KIA (BC) [body count], four VC KIA (EST) and two VC CIA."
This is Kerry's victory: killing in action (KIA) five imaginary Viet Cong, capturing in action (CIA) two Viet Cong (an exaggeration of the mother and baby who were actually rescued from the sampan) and simply omitting the dead child from the body count (BC) and the estimate (EST).
Roy F. Hoffmann, then commander of Coastal Surveillance Force Vietnam, CTF 115, received Kerry's false report of probably killing five Viet Cong and capturing two others. Hoffman sent Kerry a congratulatory message.
Upon learning of what Kerry actually had done, Hoffmann, who retired as a rear admiral, recently expressed his contempt for Kerry as a liar, false warrior and fraud.
"I do not believe John Kerry is fit to be commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States," Hoffman said in May. "This is not a political issue. It is a matter of his judgment, truthfulness, reliability, loyalty and trust — all absolute tenets of command."
Gardner needs to make a formal complaint to the U.S. Navy alleging Kerry filed fraudulent after action reports.
A few days ago the Navy's inspector general found that the Navy "followed procedure" in awarding Kerry his medals. That means they took the reports and those with decision authority awarded the medals. The Navy's inspector general did not have before him a complaint that said, "Kerry falsified after action reports." Gardner should file such a complaint which would force the Navy's inspector general to delve into the facts.
That is a great idea. How do we advance it?
doug from upland is a frequent caller and has recently been a guest; with Laguna Woods Larry, Colonel USMC Ret., on The Hugh Hewitt Show. You should listen sometime.
I just left that message for John O'Neill on his machine.
I think they know about it and they don't care, the new media will have to work it...
I am not certain exactly how to make the complaint in the Navy. In the Air Force anyone who becomes aware of a crime -- and filing false after action reports IS a crime -- can file a written complaint with any commissioned officer. The person to whom the complaint is filed is obligated to forward it through channels so it reaches the proper commander.
My understanding is Mr. Gardner only learned of the false after action report a few months ago. I believe the after action report was filed in what was then the Naval Pacific Command so the complaint should probably be filed with the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Walter F. Doran. But since Kerry has asked for new citations from the CNO and later the Secretary of the Navy, the complaint should be filed with Admiral Vernon Clark and the Honorable Gordon R. England.
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