Some more Kerry Nonsense that doesn't add up!

CalHunter · 03-10-2004, 12:23 AM

The more you read, the more Kerry keeps unravelling.

Quote:

Subject: Some more Kerry Nonsense that doesn't add up!

I know nothing about "Swift Boat" tactics so I can't judge the veracity
of this letter. Maybe a more knowledgeable classmate can shine
some light on this. It was forwarded to me by a high school classmate,
USNA grad ('59) and Rear Admiral (Ret.)

Walt Plaue

----- Original Message -----

I was in the Delta shortly after he left. I know that area well. I know
the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the
doctrine used. I know the equipment. Although I was attached to
CTF-116 (PBRs) I spent a fair amount of time with CTF-115 (swift
boats), Kerry's command.

Here are my problems and suspicions:

(1) Kerry was in-country less than four months and collected,
a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three purple hearts. I never heard
of anybody with any outfit I worked with (including SEAL One, the Sea
Wolves, Riverines and the River Patrol Force) collecting that much
hardware so fast, and for such pedestrian actions. The Swifts did a commendable job. But that duty wasn't the worst you could draw.
They operated only along the coast and in the major rivers (Bassac
and Mekong). The rough stuff in the hot areas was mainly handled
by the smaller, faster PBRs.

(2) Three Purple Hearts but no limp. All injuries so minor that no time
lost from duty. Amazing luck. Or he was putting himself in for medals
every time he bumped his head on the wheel house hatch? Combat on
the boats was almost always at close range. You didn't have minor
wounds. At least not often. Not three times in a row. Then he used
the three purple hearts to request a trip home eight months before the
end of his tour. Fishy.

(3) The details of the event for which he was given the Silver Star make
no sense at all. Supposedly, a B-40 was fired at the boat and missed.
Charlie jumps up with the launcher in his hand, the bow gunner knocks him down with the twin .50, Kerry beaches the boat, jumps off, shoots Charlie,
and retreives the launcher. If true, he did everything wrong.
(a) Standard procedure when you took rocket fire was to put your
stern to the action and go balls to the wall. A B-40 has the ballistic
integrity of a frisbie after about 25 yards, so you put 50 yards or
so between you and the beach and begin raking it with your 50's.
(b) Did you ever see anybody get knocked down with a .50 caliber
round and get up? The guy was dead or dying. The rocket
launcher was empty. There was no reason to go after him (except
if you knew he was no danger to you just flopping around in the
dust during his last few seconds on earth, and you wanted some
derring do in your after-action report). And we didn't shoot wounded
people. We had rules against that, too.
(c) Kerry got off the boat. This was a major breach of standing
procedures Nobody on a boat crew ever got off a boat in a hot area.
EVER! The reason was simple. If you had somebody on the beach
your boat was defenseless. It coudn't run and it couldn' t return fire. It
was stupid and it put his crew in danger. He should have been
relieved and reprimanded. I never heard of any boat crewman ever
leaving a boat during or after a firefight.

Something is fishy.

Here we have a JFK wannabe (the guy Halsey wanted to court martial for carelessly losing his boat and getting a couple people killed by running
across the bow of a *** destroyer) who is hardly in Vietnam long enough
to get a good tan, collects medals faster than Audie Murphy in a job where
lots of medals weren't common, gets sent home eight months early,
requests separation from active duty a few months after that so he can
run for Congress, finds out war heros don't sell well in Massachsetts in
1970 so reinvents himself as Jane Fonda, throws his ribbons in the dirt
with the cameras running to jump start his political career, gets Stillborn
Pell to invite him to address Congress and Bobby Kennedy's speechwriter
to do the heavy lifting, winds up in the Senate himself a few years later,
votes against every major defense bill, says the CIA is irrelevant after the
Wall came down, votes against the Gulf War, a big mistake since that
turned out well, decides not to make the same mistake twice so votes for invading Iraq, but oops, that didn't turn out so well so he now says he really didn't mean for Bush to go to war when he voted to allow him to go to war.

I'm real glad you or I never had this guy covering out flanks in Vietnam.
I sure don't want him as Commander in Chief. I hope that somebody from CTF-115 shows up with some facts challenging Kerry's Vietnam record. I know in my gut it's wildy inflated. And fishy.

Keep smiling,

Mike

Coastie · 03-10-2004, 03:50 AM

There are many things about Kerry that I don't like, among them his use of his combat record as a platform from which to launch his attempt at the presidency. Whether his combat record is as heroic as it appears on the surface we will never know, only those that served with him can ever clarify that and they don't seem to be forthcoming about it, either to support or to deny. Anecdotal evidence, conversations with a senior Naval officer, recorded by others, seems to indicate he was a bit of an embarrasement and a loose cannon during his stay in RVN and they were happy to see him leave. His actions upon his release from active duty certainly are not to be commended, and then some 30 years later to use the service he condemned as his launching point seems hypocritical.
I have seen two different versions of the action for which he received the Silver Star, the version in this thread is the more questionable of the two. The other involves his picking up a wounded (or several wounded) U.S. soldiers from the water while under fire, that would be a more fitting reason for the award, but even that is questionable since without anybody from the unit coming forward and without the official citation at hand, it is impossible to say which event is true.

CalHunter · 03-10-2004, 04:32 AM

Coastie, I'd be interested in seeing any other info you have on Kerry's silver star. I'll give anybody a fair shot but I do find it odd that he would be so decorated in such a short time when that was not the norm for his area of service.

Tazman · 03-10-2004, 04:53 AM

I could really care less if Kerry was a real hero or not in Nam. What I care about is what he has done as an elected official, and in that part of his life he is way to far out in left field for me!

Coastie · 03-10-2004, 04:55 AM

Cal, I went back to try to locate the piece but could not find it. The location where I thought it had been "Is no longer available"--interesting. This is not something I just happened to read, it was an article I had sought out when Kerry first started to make some headway in the Iowa Caucus and I wanted to find out more about his record. I read it myself but did not copy it to anything.

logs · 03-10-2004, 06:08 AM

Cal, this is a very interesting analysis of kerrys tour.
Any one that was in the bush in combat knows his combat history is fishier that the smell of an NVA regiment.

slugman · 03-10-2004, 07:28 AM

and dont forget that once he was out he demonstrated against the war. Wonder if he gave the medals back ? NOT

ButchA · 03-10-2004, 07:41 AM

Kerry is a gold-digger and is WAY WAY WAY WAY too far out in left field (as Taz put it) to be a good candidate for President. WHEN WILL AMERICA WAKE UP AND REALIZE HOW DANGEROUS THIS MAN IS TO OUR COUNTRY?!?!? [&:]

Butch

slugman · 03-10-2004, 07:44 AM

Funny thing is I ask about who ppl would vote for while I'm at work and ppl say Kerry. This whole thing is becoming SCAREY. Hopefully when its time for Bush to break out the big guns he'll be shown for what he really is