Free Republic

A Chicago Tribune editor who served with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during the Vietnam War as the commander of a Navy swift boat on a 1969 mission is challenging the attacks on Kerry's account of the event. William Rood, 61, said he decided to break his silence Saturday about the Feb. 28, 1969 mission because recent reports of Kerry's actions in that battle are incorrect and darken the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune's Sunday editions. Before the 1969 mission, Kerry told Rood and another officer to attack ambushers if...