Posted on 08/13/2004 3:36:49 PM PDT by Jewels1091
Fox news just reported there are questions now about where Rassmann actually was. He said he was on Kerry's boat when it got ambushed, but Kerry's web site says Rassmann was on the boat behind his. Just more questions about kerry's seemingly faulty memory.
Kerry was "wounded" on March 13. A cable request was sent to Washington on March 17 from headquarters in Saigon requesting Kerry's transfer based on BUPERSINST 1300.39. He left Vietnam on March 26. So Kerry had to intiate the request to leave almost immediately. He didn't need a lot of convincing or time to think about it.
You can throw the physical medals (ribbons) away, but a record of them being awarded is on one's DD-214 (a copy of which is in the DOD records).
That doesn't get "thrown away".
A person can buy the medals "anywhere".
Kerry's minions lies are being exposed and the boat is sinking rapidly.
This whole sordid mess is going to blow up in the Republicans face.
Most people on this board are too young to remember the Vietnam era. There were hard-core protestors (e.g., Fonda, Kerry, Kovic), moderate protestors, hard-core Vets and moderate Vets. As usual, it was the extremes that fought each other. Kerry with his silly claims about combat experience and Cambodia (trying to justify his position as a "military man" and some hard-core vets who draw strict lines in the sand about what constituted service. Frankly, both sides have gotten unbearable - the hard-core vets will NOT convince the left and may lose the middle - the hard-core left is loved by the left, but may lose the middle. Frankly, most non-Freepers I talk to are starting to list to the Kerry side because of the personal attacks on Kerry. Yes, I know about that fat swine Michael Moore and those creepy leftists; but it is a matter of the swing voters - are they put off by the O'Neill types? My bet is yes, in the aggregate.
This is what O'Reilly was trying to say. ATTACK KERRY'S RECORD IN THE CONGRESS - SHOW HE IS A LAZY SOCIALIST! Attacking his military record does matter (I believe O'Neill and think Kerry is a liar and dangerous). But the swing votes may prefer to see the recent evidence.
Don't flame me. I just want Bush to win and I don't think this is the way to go.
No way. This is not "just about sex," and nobody is supposed to get away with fabricating events in order to get military honors. If this sticks, he has to withdraw his name from contention. If he doesn't, he'll just be badly beat in the election.
John Kerry's Vietnam; The Democratic presidential candidate says lessons learned as a young lieutenant in the Mekong Delta have made him the leader he is now.; [FINAL Edition]
Andrea Stone. USA TODAY. McLean, Va.: Apr 13, 2004. pg. A.18
"The level of danger was extremely high," says Jim Rassmann, the Army Special Forces officer who rode PCF-94 for nearly a month before Kerry saved his life during a ferocious river battle.The noisy boats "had no place to hide. People could hear them coming a half-mile away."
Years later, I told a friend who had been on the Yorktown, and he said that Bull Halsey wanted an Inquiry but was threatened to keep his mouth shut. He was told that Kennedy was connected!
I grew up on military bases, then volunteered myself in '65. Everybody knew to be careful with the 'money boys'!
So Kerry was too cheap to buy them, and needed new Citations to get them without "buying" them.
Seriously, why would Kerry ask Lehman to draft citations years later, when he already had citations on file, plus the DD-214? Kerry's campaign makes no effort to hide the two citations for each, the Bronze Sar and Silver Star.
I don't think it's a big deal, in any event, but am curious about it.
"Throwing the medals away", is a symbolic gesture.
Yup. That's why the second citation is so curious.
So, attack Kerry's record in Congress. Nobody is preventing that sort of attack. The media isn't carrying water for the Swifties.
Bush and the Republican party are playing this just fine. They are leting the Swifties speak, which is showing respect for decorated veterans. They aren't expressing support, agreement, etc. -- they are neutral observers on that point.
You don't get it. The SBVFT are not concerned about the political fallout. The want the truth out about Kerry. It is a matter of principle and honor, not partisan politics. Frankly, I don't care what political impact this has, it is in the hands of the SBVFT, not the RNC. They earned the right to speak out against this creep who slandered their reputations and mine for that matter.
It is up to the RNC to attack Kerry's record in the Senate.
Kerry has just announced a clarification. He was never actually in Vietnam afterall he only thought he was. Turns out he was down on the Bayou in Lousinana which he said during a recent campaign visit he claimed looked to him for all the world like Vietnam.
The family on the other hand was in Vietnam and did in fact visit cambodia or somewhere near there.
An excerpt from Kerry's book, New Soldier:
We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the "greater glory of the United States." We will not accept the rhetoric. We will not readily join the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars-in fact, we will find it hard to join anything at all and when we do, we will demand relevancy such as other organizations have recently been unable to provide. We will not take solace from the creation of monuments or the naming of parks after a select few of the thousands of dead Americans and Vietnamese. We will not uphold traditions which decorously memorialize that which was base and grim.
Maybe it is just as simple as he didn't want to let the moths out of his wallet, called Lehman and requested new citations, with medals to go with.
Lehman was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Reagan in 1981 and served until 1987 ... Kerry First Elected to the Senate 11/06/1984.
"Do you know who I am?"
FYI... there are THREE citations for the Silver.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1189369/posts?page=25#25
Maybe some of you can answer this question, since I won't receive my copy of "Unfit" for another couple of weeks. There were 5 Swift boats in that canal that day, with 4 or 5 individuals from each boat, placing 20 - 25 people on hand for the incident. We are apparently only hearing from 4 individuals (that I am aware of)... Van O'Dell, Thurlow (both Swifties), Kerry and Rassmann. Surely there are other living Viet Nam veterans that remember the incident. Do the Swifties cite any other Swifties as having been present? Was there an After-Action report (that wasn't written by Kerry)?
The media may not be carrying water for the Swifties at this time, it is true. But wait until that book soaks in with the public. It was just released this past Wednesday. Understand more than 200,000 copies were pre-sold. Heck, l'm still waiting for mine to be delivered by amazon. Should have gone to the bookstore.
Thanks. The citation signed by Zumwalt is the "odd one" of the three. Curious, at least.
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