A spokesman for John Kerry who was cited in the senator's Vietnam biography as a witness to "atrocities" in his battalion, privately revised his remarks when confronted by a colleague but has not corrected the public record. John Hurley, national coordinator of Veterans for John Kerry and a member of the 69th Engineer Battalion in Vietnam, is cited in Douglas Brinkley's "Tour of Duty," which was published earlier this year. " ... John Hurley had befriended Kerry in early 1970. A veteran of the 69th Engineers operating in the Mekong Delta, Hurley had put in his yearlong tour of duty...