My own experience, in a peacetime Army, was that I made quite a bond with my fellow junior officers. I'd never go public with any dirt on them, even if one were a liberal running for President. The fact that around 100 vets, including virtually all his fellow junior officers and chain of command, were willing to go public that Effing was lying and/or dishonest about his service is unprecedented and tells me there was something very, very wrong with how young Lt. Kerry conducted himself. They never would have taken this extraordinary step, otherwise.
The extraordinary and unprecedented nature of their action was openly acknowledged and explained by the Swiftvets. They stated that they would have never mobilized had Kerry been content to remain merely a Senator from Massachusetts. As annoying and embarrassing as he may have been in that position, he would not have been able to do much more serious damage to the country and to our armed forces than he had already done years earlier.
However, as President and CIC he would have once again been able to wreak unimaginable new havoc on the Republic and our military. They felt that their sworn oaths of service would not allow them to stand aside in the face of this new threat. For the good of the nation, Kerry could not be allowed the chance to reprise his previous traitorous and destructively insane behavior.
They were absolutely right.