Or how about these stat's?...
Ann's next President's Silver Star...
Silver Star
'Only eight days later, on February 28, came the incident for which Kerry was awarded the Silver Star. On this occasion, Kerry was in tactical command of his Swift boat and two others. Their mission included bringing a demolition team and dozens of South Vietnamese soldiers to destroy enemy sampans, structures and bunkers. Along the Bay Hap River, they ran into an ambush. Kerry directed the boats “to turn to the beach and charge the Viet Cong positions,” and he “expertly directed” his boat’s fire and coordinated the deployment of the South Vietnamese troops, according to the Navy’s medal citation to Kerry. When Kerry heard that another Swift boat had been ambushed, he and his crew rushed to assist them. Kerry’s boat came under fire from several Viet Cong B-40 rockets, with one hitting and shattering the crew cabin windows. The normal procedure would have been to fire to shore and then retreat to an off-shore location.
Instead, Kerry ordered Sandusky, the second-in-command and navigator, to take the boat ashore, directly towards the enemy's position. As they reached the shore, a Viet Cong soldier jumped out of the brush, carrying a rocket launcher that could have seriously damaged the boat. With the enemy soldier only a short distance away from the boat and crew, forward gunner Tommy Belodeau shot him in the leg with the boat's 7.62x51 caliber M-60 machine gun. "Tommy in the pit tank winged him in the side of the legs as he was coming across," Short said. "But the guy didn't miss stride. I mean, he did not break stride." According to crewmate accounts, Belodeau's machine gun jammed after he fired, and while fellow crewmate Michael Medeiros attempted to fire, he was unable to do so. Kerry leaped ashore and, followed by one of his crewmembers, pursued the man and killed him. The medal citation notes that Kerry "then led an assault party and conducted a sweep of the area" until the enemy had "been completely routed." As the Swift boats returned from the mission they again came under fire, but Kerry "maneuvered his craft through several strafing runs which completely silenced the enemy."
Kerry and Medeiros searched the soldier's corpse and took the rocket launcher, returning to the boat. The mission was judged highly successful for having destroyed numerous targets and confiscated substantial combat supplies while sustaining no casualties.
Kerry's commanding officer, Capt. George Elliott, joked that he didn't know whether to court-martial him for beaching the boat without orders or give him a medal for saving the crew. Elliott recommended Kerry for the Silver Star, and Admiral Zumwalt flew into An Thoi to personally award the medal to Kerry. The Navy's account of Kerry's actions is presented in his medal citation.
Sources close to Kerry say the incident had a profound effect on him: "It's the reason he gets so angry when his patriotism is challenged. It was a traumatic experience that's still with him, and he went through it for his country." It affects the way Kerry lives his life every day, the source said, since "he knows he very well would not be alive today had he not taken the life of another man [he] never ever met."
Sioux |
