My memory about Kerry goes way back, to his leadership of VVAW. It was not the easiest path to success for a Yale graduate and Forbes relative. I remember him being very passionate and sincere about protesting the war in VietNam once he was discharged. Having been in harms way, he's the last person I'd believe would be advocating war as a solution to this quagmire. Also, he's not stupid and I find it hard to understand why he hasn't addressed our questions about the circumstances of chemical weapons being unleashed in Syria.
The Swift Boat thing I always thought was an exaggeration and it was easy for veterans who did not fare as well as he did after the war to "remember" the incident.
Kerry and even Biden might be weak links for Obama, having actually had experience with the horrors of war. We might get further with them with serious questions and some respect for their life experiences. JMHO
To #75: Re’ The Swift Boat thing I always thought was an exaggeration and it was easy for veterans who did not fare as well as he did after the war “to remember” the incident.
BULLSHIT!
Every Swift Boat veteran who provided anything for the book “Unfit for Commmand” had to provide their DD215’s etc, and many provided sworn statements about Kerry’s recklessness and cowardice (on the Bay Hap River where he did “leave a man behind” when he fled the scence of PC 4’s hitting a mine).
Out of all the crew members who served under Kerry on PC 94, (with the exception of an earlier deceased one), either condemned Kerry as a liar and fraud, or in two cases, lied about their even serving under Kerry, which they NEVER DID.
Kerry did some brave things as a Swift Boat commander, and some cowardly things. I won’t take away his successful operations because they were legit, but his three Purple Hearts were fraudulent claims (the rice in the ass from his own grenade, a piece of small metal fragment in his arm due to his short-firing an M79 grenade launcher into part of his boat, and the non-existent “mine blast” injury on his boat on the Bay Hap River. AAR (After Action Report) and ship-damage survey showed that the damage to his boat was caused by hitting something underwater i.e. rock, sandbar, log, because it bent the propeller blades backwards instead of mangling them as an explosion would.
He got banged up because of the collision, not because of the non-existent mine. No “5,000 meters of small and heavy arms” fire from the VC (that’s 15,000 feet up and down a river only 275 feet wide where you could make a SwiftBoat look like swiss cheese with an AK47. No bullet holes in Kerry’s boat. No RPG hits or damage. No nothing for this 3 mile trip into hell because there was no enemy).
Also, the FAC (Forward Air Controller) killed the one VC seen fleeing the scene of the original PC4 explosion. No green enemy tracers were ever seen along the “5,000 meters up and down” the river where Kerry claimed he took heavy fire. A friend of mine, for the follow-up book “To Set the Record Straight”, located two FACs and got their first hand accounts of what they saw that day. (I worked on both books).
By the way, my friend was actually in charge of the combined US/SVN operations taking place downstream from where the 5 PC’s were operating. He said that Kerry was a liar and a fraud about the whole operation. I’ll take the word of a combat seasoned Special Forces (5th) leader over “I’ve got to get home” Kerry any day.
Over 260 Swift Boat veterans signed the original letter calling Kerry “Unfit for Command”, and others joined it later on. A lot of us Vietnam hands also joined in supporting the Swifties.
There was no “exaggeration” about Kerry, only the TRUTH, which is why it hurt him so badly.
In my opinion, Kerry is “Unfit” to be an American.
By the way, Kerry is extremely “STUPID” but in the Democrat Party, that is the criteria for office. For guys like Kerry, “there is no cure for stupid” or treason (one day it will all come out).