A letter from a Navy Vietnam Vet in my e-mail. Interesting read and explanation of Kerry's tactical errors in the field.
>>>I've long thought that John Kerry's war record was phoney. We talked about
it when you were here. It's mainly been instinct because, as you know,
nobody who claims to have seen the action he does would so shamelessly
flaunt it for political gain. So I spent a couple of hours on the internet
yesterday, made a bunch of notes, and I'm sending them as an attachment.
In addition, look at the website
25thaviation.org Somebody went to a lot of
trouble to chronicle Kerry's checkered career.
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 on a one year assignment
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 Jap 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 ! |
