I’m no fan of Hanoi John’s, but it looks like a case of one news writer added some spice and others ran with it. From my experience on the same rivers I doubt a thin skinned Swift boat could take 188 hits from anything bigger than a .22 short.
I’ve considered that as a possibility, but to me it seems more likely Tiede was repeating publicity material he got from Kerry’s campaign—it’d seem strange for a reporter to just pull the number “188” out of thin air, for one thing. Tiede’s still around, hopefully he will comment on the circumstances of the article, or other articles will surface indicating whether or not other journalists covering Kerry reported similar claims.
Good descriptive in “22 shorts”.
I can take a 22 single shot rifle and do quite a bit of damage.
Very accurate and the projectile does bounce around like a ping pong ball.
Scratch a cross in the projectile and it will split apart upon impact and tear up everything.
course my Kimber 45 seems to do an even better job.
Kerry's claim is that he was hit by 188 grains of rice.
Re Tom Tiede: A good, pro-American writer. His information was wrong re 1969, since Kerry didn’t gain any publicity until late 1970, esp. April 71 with his Senate Testimony.
The AAR, After Action Report, on Kerry’s boat doesn’t mention a single bullet hole or any other explosives damage. The boat may have hit an underwater object which knocked the heck out of its frame, windows and underwater propellers.
Alston was not on Kerry’s boat so his Democratic Convention speech for Kerry was another lie of his.
There is the possibility that another of K’s crewmen also was not there. He was wounded about Jan. 31st, 1969, and was sent to a medical hospital for treatment. Doubtful he recovered in time to rejoin Kerry’s ship before Kerry bailed out of Nam.
Kerry claimed that his Swift Boat went 5000 meters under enemy fire on the Bay Hap River. He would have been sunk if he was hit that many times, or at least he would have had dead and wounded, and the boat would have looked like swiss cheese and not been able to pull PC-3 down the river.
Rassmann’s memory is suspect since what he claimed happened to him on Kerry’s boat changed over time, and he supposedly spent a lot of time underwater, not on the surface watching the enemy shoot at him. I think the shock of hitting the water dazed him and he mistook friendly covering fire for enemy fire.
Kerry has a way of corrupting good people to lie for him. That is his legacy.