[LANMaster]

A Vet Questions John Kerry's Military Service

Link

The following was sent to a Marine chat net by a retired Marine Master Sergeant who was in S-2, 3rd Bn, 1st Marines, Korea in 1954. It calls into serious question John Kerry's military actions in Vietnam. We present it to give our readers another perspective to the media's one-sided "war hero" adulation, and to open his actions to the light of public discourse. -- The Editors.

I was in the Delta shortly after John Kerry left. I know that area well. I know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the doctrine used, and 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 that 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) He collected three Purple Hearts but has no limp. All his injuries were so minor that he lost no time 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 were 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 Japanese 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 and requests separation from active duty a few months after that so he can run for Congress. In that election, he finds out war heroes don't sell well in Massachsetts in 1970, so he 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 has Bobby Kennedy's speechwriter to do the heavy lifting. A few years later he winds up in the Senate himself, where he votes against every major defense bill and says the CIA is irrelevant after the Berlin Wall came down. He votes against the Gulf War (a big political mistake since that turned out well), then decides not to make the same mistake twice so votes for invading Iraq -- but that didn't fare as well with the Democrats, 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.

[Stoner]

Ummmm....LAN, this has already been posted.

only difference was the source
from ChrisA's thread, it came from:"This was written by a retired admiral and Annapolis graduate. "

Yours came from: "Marine Master Sergeant who was in S-2, 3rd Bn, 1st Marines,"




Ha ha ha ha

You Bushies must be starting to sweat, you don't even read each others posts in order to get your stories straight

[LANMaster]

hmmmmm, I notice that you have no comment on the content.

[Stoner]

Rather dubious sources provide dubious content

[Stoner]

At least co ordinate your attacks, LAN

[It Wasn't me]

Was this another Drudge report? We know he does not make things up or lie. Or maybe it was first heard on the right wing hate radio? Why would anyone want to comment on the content of a slanderous bunch of lies intended to attack a REAL war hero. I would post a comment on Boomhauer bush's record during the Vietnam war but if you recall he doesn't have one.

[bassetman]

I keep snopes.com open for Lanbasher's stories!

[bassetman]

Originally posted by Stoner:
Ummmm....LAN, this has already been posted.

only difference was the source
from ChrisA's thread, it came from:"This was written by a retired admiral and Annapolis graduate. "

Yours came from: "Marine Master Sergeant who was in S-2, 3rd Bn, 1st Marines,"




Ha ha ha ha

You Bushies must be starting to sweat, you don't even read each others posts in order to get your stories straight

That starts right after they get their "one-way" radios issued to them!

[EdGreene]

Originally posted by LANMaster:
A Vet Questions John Kerry's Military Service

Link

(SNIP)

I was in the Delta shortly after John Kerry left. I know that area well. I know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the doctrine used, and 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:

(SNIP)

(2) He collected three Purple Hearts but has no limp. All his injuries were so minor that he lost no time 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 were 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) (SNIP)

Something is fishy.

[/b]

Purple Hearts, for those who don't know, reflects wounds in battle. The dead each get a Purple Heart. As long as a wound, any wound is earned in battle or as result of hostile enemy action, the severity of the wounding is of no consequence; you still get the Purple Heart.
My first Purple Heart was a through and through wound in my left Triceps muscle. I was attended to at a Battalion Aid station and returned to duty in 12 hours. My second Purple Heart came from a piece of frag that ricocheted off a Huey skid and slammed into my mouth, smashing a tooth. There was so much blood some had coagulated in my throat and air passageway, I was Triaged and left for the dust offs.
When they rolled me onto a stretcher, the glob of blood restricting my airway literally fell out of my mouth, allowing me to breath. Both incidents took no time and came within 26 days of the other.
My two Bronze Stars happened nearly as quickly, seven weeks apart.
I earned two (2) Air Medals and a Joint Services Commendation Medal in the same time frame as the Bronze Stars.
So don’t go counting “how quick” as a benchmark.
And I’m no “Steenking” boat driver but any action in combat by an individual which may be put up for a medal/ribbon, must be observed by an, and certified by an independent observing officer(s), not the recipients themselves.

Your flutter-brained Sergeant-reporter sounds awfully like a neo-con trying to rag on Kerry to me.

[bassetman]

Proof that Bush served!
rtsp://a1703.v9950f.c9950.g.vr.akama...eadline_300.rm

[Stoner]

Don't see anything but:The page cannot be displayed.......

[bassetman]

Sorry Stoner, that one requires RealPlayer.
See if this one will work and click on the AWOL link.
http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_show...ithjonstewart/

[Stoner]

no go

Don't want to instal RP
may look for an alternative later

Thanks anyway bassetman, I ll try later

[bassetman]

OK

It really is worth watching!

[Stoner]

Yes it was...............