Posted on 08/07/2004 1:23:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
There’s dissention in the ranks and the smell of mutiny on deck as a parade of Vietnam veterans who served with and/or knew John Kerry in Vietnam come forward to denounce him as a leader, officer and veteran. This situation has helped becalm Kerry’s already some say foundering campaign warship, which got little if any boost from the Democratic National Convention and which also got about the same result from Kerry’s selection of John Edwards as his vice-presidential running mate.
Kerry’s latest headache is followed by frustrating events like Shove-It-Gate, Sandy Berger’s light-fingers episode in the National Archives, and Kerry’s voting to send the United States to war and then voting to not authorize funds earmarked to buy those troops weapons and equipment for that war.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, founded in May 2004, consists of hundreds of Vietnam veterans who served in Swift Boat units there. This group has released an anti-Kerry ad in which a host of vets, some saying they knew Kerry personally and others saying they served with him and saw him in action, call him a liar, a fraud and an all-around untrustworthy officer.
This annoys Kerry because far more of his fellow Swift Boats vets have lined up against him than have signed up for him. It doesn’t help matters when only two of the officers in Kerry’s division, out of twenty-some-odd men, endorse him for president. Nor does it help when the rear admiral who was Kerry’s boss vehemently says Kerry is unfit to be our commander in chief. And when a superior officer of Kerry’s steps up and says one of Kerry’s Purple Hearts was bogus, i.e., it was a miniscule (fixed with a Band-Aid) self-inflicted wound that Kerry got in a “firefight” that involved no enemy fire whatsoever, that isn’t good, either. (According to this officer, Kerry improperly fired a grenade at some Vietnamese he thought were the enemy. The grenade hit too close to Kerry and a tiny piece of shrapnel nicked him. No enemy were involved in the incident. Kerry asked this superior officer to put him in for a Purple Heart, but the officer refused. But Kerry somehow ended up with the medal anyway. Some vets have insinuated Kerry put himself in for the medal, but that is unproven.)
Sen. John McCain, also a Vietnam veteran but who never served with Kerry, is calling the ad “dishonest and dishonorable.” Many vets want to know why McCain thinks this way, as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did serve with Kerry. Why are these vets the bad guys if they served with Kerry and have a different opinion of him?
What do I think of Kerry’s medals? I have not and will not form an opinion, because I was not there. No veteran who did not serve with Kerry should say a damn word about Kerry’s medals. And the Bush campaign is right not to comment on Kerry’s medals. But these other vets who served with Kerry and who now oppose him have the right to voice their opinions, and McCain is wrong to attack and degrade them simply because their opinions differ from his.
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Bob Newman, a decorated, retired US Marine, is co-host of "Redmond & Newman http://www.khow.com/hosts/redmond_newman.html on 630 KHOW in Denver. His “Global Positioning Statement,” a daily insider’s update on the war on terror, is carried by various Clear Channel radio stations from coast to coast. A ground-combat veteran, “Gunny Bob” is the director of international security & counterterrorism services for The GeoScope Group and is the military & terrorism columnist for The Denver Daily News.
bobnewman@clearchannel.com
I just realized, after reading your account of the incident, that Rassman must have been the source of the army gear that Kerry donned for his film of his trek through the jungle. It has been said that he borrowed it from somewhere, but no one knew where.
I don't know. The story has been published both ways.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1132586/posts <-- Two versions here
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml <-- Boston Globe online (no registration required, long read, worth the time)
"A couple of weeks later, on March 13, 1969, a mine detonated near Kerry's boat, wounding Kerry in the right arm, according to the citation written by Zumwalt. Guerrillas started firing on the boats from the shoreline. Kerry then realized that he had lost overboard a Green Beret who is identified only as 'Rassman.'"
Here's an interesting tidbit from the Globe article ...
" Kerry's early departure meant that he was leaving behind a crew that had suffered through many bloody battles with him. Worried that crew members would be killed, he arranged for them to receive a safer assignment. When one crew member, Medeiros, tried to stay, Kerry "came and talked to me and said, `I really would like you to go. ... I'd like to know you are safe, or safer."'"
That's odd...
That's odd too...
Not really. Kerry had to make sure that he had people that 'owed' him that would attest to his heroism. So of course he got them transfered to cushy billets. Since Steve Gardner had already PCSed to the ZI, he never got paid off to keep quiet. The others had recieved favors from Kerry, and so they have to support him.
I wonder how many other Vets can say they have a medal, for pulling someone from the river...
I haven't read up, much, on the incident. I've heard a couple things that perk up my antennae. The citation recites that Kerry pulled Rassmann from the water, while under fire. That is, while Viet Cong were shooting at the flotilla, and perhaps even trying to hit Rassmann. Some people who were on that flotilla disagree with that recitation. But, assuming the citation is correct, Kerry's actions were indeed heroic in nature.
The other thing I've read is that other men were in the water, in the same incident. Whether or not these men had to be pulled from the water, I don't know. If there were other men in the water, and they were assisted out of the water by Swift boat crew members, then it is necessary to differentiate their circumstance from Kerry's, to explain why -only- Kerry was awarded a Bronze Star for his action in that incident.
Great post, CW.
Excellent editorial by Jim Wrenn at the link you posted, too.
Thanks.
What does "PCS'd to the ZI" mean, other than "removed from the situation and no longer beholden to Kerry for anything"?
Outstanding synopsis, musicman!
It's a keeper.
I read this free chapter last night, it's 21 pages and if your not pi$$ed already this will make you quite angry !
Purple Heart Hunter..
http://humaneventsonline.com.edgesuite.net/UnfitCh3.pdf
I will buy the book.
Bob Newman is spot on and written the same points we have been making here on FR. These men have a right to be heard.
Very good.
Medals DO NOT equal heroism, just as the map is not the territory...
No, but I will point out that it is he and his campaign that displays that picture of Kerry surrounded by men--most who are now member of the SBV, falsely implying that the men in the picture support him when only one does.
Well I would agree with this statement as long as the SBV are allowed to speak out their message.
Just think of all the warnings that were trying to come out about Clinton's women. That was squashed.
Can you imagine the peaceful 8 years we could have had if we could have voted based on that info? No presidential scandels with women.... and no selling our nuke secrets to the ChiComs?
I wish.....
Bump!
I want the TRUTH!
I've contributed to the Swift Boat Veterans at their web site to help keep the ad on the air.
Thank you, Swift Boat Veterans for speaking the truth in the face of an enemy no less vicious than the enemy in Vietnam.
Was he lying then or now?
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