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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (42804)	5/8/2004 9:06:20 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793717

I looked through those links and can't reconcile one detail. A detail that I had been wondering about already. The second link states, "Kerry said, he had gone several miles inside Cambodia, which theoretically was off limits, prompting Kerry to send a sarcastic message to his superiors that he was writing from the Navy's "most inland" unit." I have read that elsewhere too. I have read other reports that Kerry's assignment was to patrol between Camh Rhan Bay and Nha Trang. Both locations are on the coast...(remember that for a moment.) I am very familiar with that area as I have participated in extensive combat operations, in liason with the Korean White Horse Regiment, in the Dong Bo Mountains which run from just N of Camh Rhan to just S of Nha Trang. I have also been on combat patrols on 2 of the offshore islands there. One was Hon Tre Island. I do not recall the name of the second. Later I also flew on at least 30 sniffer missions in the hills along the Cambodian border in the same area. I did know that entire area quite well. I have driven and/or ridden in jeeps up and down the highways and biways in the entire Dong Bo area. This was certainly not the high risk area that I found in a previous less luxurious tour of the mountains along the Laotian border. The little detail that is bugging me is this. To get from the Camh Rhan Bay/Nha Trang area to Cambodia, Kerry would have had to cross the entire width of Vietnam (150-200 miles) with his little boat. Camh Rhan was a major Air Base. Nha Trang was the HQ for II Corps and Special Forces. Both are on the coast. I can understand him having the mission to protect the coastline in both areas...but I don't understand why he would leave that post to make an unauthorized run all the way across S Vietnam to Cambodia. I am not even sure it is possible by boat in that area. But lets assume that Kerry told the truth this time and did make this unauthorized run. It means he abandoned his assigned post and went AWOL. unclewest

To: Sully- who wrote (42804)	5/8/2004 9:29:30 AM
From: unclewest	Respond to of 793717

To make matters worse, a mortar round ricocheted back at the boat and wounded three crewmen. That little quote doesn't make sense to me either. I have absolutely never ever heard of a mortar round ricocheting back. I do not believe it is in any way possible. Even if you could make it happen, it could not explode. I am not an expert mortarman but I have fired them numerous times. Mortar round fuzes are designed to activate the round after it has been fired. You would never set the fuze to activate immediately after leaving the barrel. I don't believe you can. Mortars are an indirect fire weapon they travel high into the air.