Free Republic

May 06, 2004, 8:27 a.m. Overspun Defense Why two of John Kerry’s critics were defending him in 1996. By Jim Geraghty The Kerry campaign clearly didn't want Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to go unanswered this week. A candidate who had rocketed to the Democratic nomination on a war-hero biography and by referring to his service in Vietnam in almost every answer to every question, including ones on animal rights, didn't need a boatload of his former commanders declaring him "unfit to be commander in chief." So after Swift Boat Veterans for Truth made their presentation at the National Press...

In a development that the establishment press is treating like bombshell news, former Swiftboat commander William B. Rood has stepped forward to defend John Kerry against the charge that he exaggerated his valor during the Vietnam War in descriptions of a foiled Feb. 1969 ambush on his boat. But unmentioned in coverage of Rood's story so far is one salient fact: His account is sharply contradicted by one of Kerry's own crewmates, who complained eight years ago that Kerry took credit for bravery he didn't deserve - in an action that earned him the Silver Star. In Sunday editions of...

Crew Member Questioned Kerry's Silver Star in 1996 A Swift Boat veteran who was a member of Sen. John Kerry's crew when their boat was targeted in February 1969 by an enemy rocket launcher has refuted Kerry's claim that he single-handedly saved his crew from the attack - an account that earned the top Democrat the Silver Star. Interviewed during Kerry's 1996 Senate re-election battle, Kerry crew member Tom Bellodeau told the Boston Globe that he - not Kerry - fired the shot that brought down the enemy fighter, who had aimed a loaded rocket launcher at their boat just...

A Swiftboat veteran who was a member of Sen. John Kerry's crew when their boat was targeted in Feb. 1969 by an enemy rocket launcher has refuted Kerry's claim that he single-handedly saved his crew from the attack - an account that earned the top Democrat the Silver Star. Interviewed during Kerry's 1996 Senate reelection battle, Kerry crew member Tom Bellodeau told the Boston Globe that he - not Kerry - fired the shot the brought down the enemy fighter, who had aimed a loaded rocket launcher at their boat just after Kerry beached it on the Ca Mau peninsula....