03-09-2004, 05:51 AM
Subject: John Kerry...You decide
Sent to me by an old shipmate....
I was in the Delta shortly after he (Kerry) 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 visable signs? 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.
© 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 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 our 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.
:angry:
Sent to me by an old shipmate....
I was in the Delta shortly after he (Kerry) 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 visable signs? 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.
© 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 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 our 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.
:angry:
I am trying to see things from your perspective....But I can't get my head that far up my ass!
Remember - The TOES you step on today maybe attached to the ASS you have to kiss tomorrow.
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