Posted on 10/28/2004 6:26:08 AM PDT by Number_Cruncher
"The value of truth is one of the most central values in America, and this administration has violated it," Kerry said in an interview with The Washington Post aboard his plane. "Their values system is distorted and not based on truth."
In the world of politics when a candidate makes such harsh criticism of his opponent’s honesty, you can bet they themselves are guilty of the very violation they accuse their opponent. In the case of John F. Kerry, the violation he speaks of are not only his own, almost daily violation, but also those who claim to be witness to his courage and trustworthiness. No where is this more apparent than from the testimony he approves and allows from his former crewmates.
"I know him from a small boat in Vietnam, where we fought and bled together, serving our country. There were six of us aboard PCF-94, a 50-foot, twin-engine craft known as a "Swift Boat." We all came from different walks of life, but all of us-including our skipper; John Kerry-volunteered for combat duty. And combat is what we got," said the Rev. David Alston who was introducing Kerry during the Democratic convention.
What the Rev. David Alston or Sen. Kerry did not tell democratic delegates or the national audience that was watching that night is the truth. The Rev. David Alston and Sen. Kerry never were on the same boat together in combat. Newly released documents under the FOIA for David Alston shows he never returned to active duty during the time Kerry was in Vietnam commanding the swift boat PCF-94 after suffering wounds from an ambush on January 29, 1969.
Kerry took over a swift boat (PCF-44) on December 6, 1968 while assigned to coastal division 11; David Alston on the other hand was on the PCF-9 commanded by Bob Crosby under coastal divison 13. Later in January of 1969 Alston was assigned to PCF-94 commanded by Tedd Peck. On January 29 both Alston and Peck's active duty came to an end when both were seriously injured and medevaced.
Questioned about his time with Kerry by National Review Online writer, Byron York, Rev. Alston attempted to dance around the issue by suggesting his wounds were not serious because he claims never required hospitalization for his injuries and was able to return to Kerry's boat within two weeks. Alston suggested the scar tissue on his head is from a scalp condition and not from some grievous war wound. Alston described another injury he received as a "clean bullet wound" through his arm he suffered at the same time he received shrapnel to his head.
When Byron York asked John Hurley, the Kerry campaign's national director of veterans' issues about Alston's time with Kerry, said, "My understanding is that he [Alston] was gone for a month...Fred [Short] was on the boat for about a month." Hurley said he has not checked the specific dates of Alston's time on PCF-94. Hurley did confirm that Alston was not on Kerry's boat on February 28, 1969, the date Kerry was awarded a Silver Star for killing a Viet Cong guerilla.
Hurley did suggest that Alston was on board PCF-94 during the March 13, 1969 engagement in which Kerry pulled Army Green Beret Jim Rassmann from a river after falling off a boat.
Both Hurley and Alston were clearly attempting create a plausible timeline that could show Alston and Kerry serving together. However, whether it was known or not to Alston, his official Navy casualty report had been briefly released (and removed) by the Kerry Campaign showing that he had suffered head wounds and was medevaced to the 29th Evac. Hospital at Bin Thuy. His mother, Ida Alston, was interviewed following her son's convention speech said she could see his "war wounds" on his head and not his "scalp condition" on TV. The fact Alston was still missing on February 28, four weeks after his injury, clearly suggests he was way longer than the two weeks he attempted to claim and that his wounds were far more serious then he let on.
It was widely known by those who have been researching Kerry's Vietnam service that Alston was not part of Kerry's crew for the February 28, 1969 action that had lead to Kerry being awarded the Silver Star. Suspicion was raised when Alston was found to be suggesting that he was part of Kerry's crew on that day.
"I know when John Kerry told [crew member Del Sandusky] to beach that damn boat, this was a brand-new ball game," Alston told ABC's Nightline on June 22. "We wasn't running. We took it to Charlie."
During his convention speech, Alston again suggests he was part of Kerry's crew on February 28, when he said, "Once, he even directed the helmsman to beach the boat, right into the teeth of an ambush, and pursued our attackers on foot, into the jungle. In the toughest of situations, Lieutenant Kerry showed judgment, loyalty and courage. Even wounded, or confronting sights no man should ever have to see, he never lost his cool."
Alston's false testimony is not limited to just his convention speech. He has provided false testimony in at least one political Ad on Kerry’s behalf by recalling his combat experiences with him. A political Ad produced by Riverfront Media shows Alston saying, "When the bullets began to hit the side of the boat, the boom, the pow, pow, pow, we found out that John Kerry can lead."
Back in May of 2002 during a fund-raiser in Columbia, S.C., Kerry himself had placed himself and Alston together in combat by saying: "Every time we got ambushed, which was often, we relied more on this fellow [Alston] to get us out than anybody else." Kerry continued in saying, "This gunman kept firing even though he was wounded - one bullet going through his helmet, grazing his head and another hitting him in the arm...I had no idea there was a holy man on those guns."
Great speech if only the events being described were true. David Alston was shot up and injured as Kerry says, only Kerry wasn't there, it was LTJG Tedd Peck who was commanding the PCF-94 when Alston sustained his injuries while Kerry was assigned to the PCF-44. Of course, this didn't stop Kerry from initially claiming he was Officer-in-Charge of the PCF-94 during Alston's January 29 ambush on his web site.
Even more suspicious is the fact we've have never seen David Alston speak of the events of March 13, a date that according to John Hurley, Alston may have participated in. Obviously if someone is placing themselves somewhere they could not have possibly been while also never talking about a place they could have is a clear indication of a false witness.
There is little doubt that both swift boats that Alston and Kerry were assigned shared the same floating docks in the Gulf of Thailand where they were able to meet and even have their picture taken together prior to Alston being wounded. But they never had the opportunity to be part of the same crew or experience combat together either from the same boat or from different boats on the same missions since we have complete records of each boat activity on any given day.
So while the evidence is conclusive that David Alston and John Kerry never served together, David Alston leaves us with another little mystery statement in the August 2 issue of Newsweek:
"I owe John Kerry my life...But John Kerry owes his life to me, too."
A rather bizzare comment to make when neither was in a position to save the others life -- unless Alston is referring to Kerry's "political life."
The question then is, why did a man who has dedicate himself to the ministry throw away his dignity and falsely testify to something that he and Kerry both knew was false? Did Kerry somehow pay off Alston for his testimony? These are questions that only David Alston or John Kerry will be able to answer.
Of course, Kerry's games of deception do not solely begin or end with the Rev. David Alston. His other so-called "band of brothers" has very troubling discrepancies in their personal testimonies to Kerry's heroics.
Former Crewmate, Del Sandusky, told the Washington Post, "I would do anything for him [Kerry]."
Mr. Sandusky must had fabrication in mind, because on May 31, he was on CNN's Newsnight when he testified to what he had witnessed on March 13, 1969: "John, shot and bleeding, laid down and pulled up Rassmann by his belt." It is widely accepted that Kerry was neither shot nor bleeding when he helped Rassmann onboard his swift boat.
Crewman Fred Short, whom the Kerry campaign had tried to place on Kerry's boat for an entire month, actually was only present for one mission, and that was February 28. It appears he came aboard as a trainee, replacing the trainee, Mike Givens, who had been shot in the arm the day before. Whenever Fred Short speaks of his first combat mission under Kerry he qualifies it by saying he was ambushed three or four times on his first mission with Kerry.
After action records for the entire time period Mr. Short could had served with Kerry shows the only date possible that could account for three ambushes is February 28. Fred Short, like Mr. Sandusky has no problem fabricating events they claim to have witnessed as evidenced by this statement by Short: "I was there when Sen. Kerry got shot, and I've seen his blood on the deck of a swift boat."
Others have researched and documented Kerry and his supporter’s tales of fabricated events at length -- which in return causes us to reevaluate everything we’ve been lead to believe by Kerry and his "band of brothers." The only question now confronting researchers is why did Kerry decide to deliberately discard honesty and replace it with such obvious falsehoods which once uncovered could be as self-destructing to him as Watergate was to Nixon?
Philosopher Immanual Kant once described the consequences of people who choose falsehoods over honesty when he said, "the greatest violation of a human being's duty to himself regarded merely as a moral being is the contrary of truthfulness, lying...by a lie a human being throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a human being." Clearly, Sen. Kerry is not Commander-in-Chief material that anyone could ever completely trust.
Back in May of 2002 during a fund-raiser in Columbia, S.C., Kerry himself had placed himself and Alston together in combat by saying: "Every time we got ambushed, which was often, we relied more on this fellow [Alston] to get us out than anybody else." Kerry continued in saying, "This gunman kept firing even though he was wounded - one bullet going through his helmet, grazing his head and another hitting him in the arm...I had no idea there was a holy man on those guns."
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