Hear about the whole incident as told by Steve Gardner, a swiftie who was there in Kerry's boat. Take the link and find the interview of 8/5/04 Steve Gardner down a little on the right on the page. It's streaming audio. It's pure dynamite. Whoa. Something's not right here.
Gardner was on PCF-44, kerry's first boat. This incident occurred when kerry was OIC on PCF-94, his second boat. This is the first indication that I've ever seen linking Gardner to the Rassman/Bronze Star incident.
Time for some more digging on my part.
Both Gardner and Kerry served on more than one boat. I may have given the impression that Gardner was on Kerry's boat during the Rassman rescue incident. I don't know that one way or the other. Listen to the streaming audio, Gardner may have said what boat he was on. He did say he was there though.
Sorry for any confusion I caused.