Vietnam Veterans Question Kerry's Vietnam Service

Though mainstream media is curiously un-curious about it.

First, an article at FrontPage Magazine, Feb. 20 (emphasis in original).

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.

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Second, a blog at The Corner, Feb. 11 (brackets in original; JFK stands for John Forbes Kerry).

VERY interesting, from a military reader. I post the following because of its authentic-sounding quality, with no wish to slight or disparage anyone — certainly not anyone who did combat duty in Vietnam. Would be very interested to hear comments or rebuttals from knowledgable servicemen or ex-servicemen, and will post them, though I reserve the right to edit (as I have, slightly, here).

"Three caveats to remember before examining JFK's war record:

"(1) Medal inflation. The Viet Nam War (VNW) was unpopular; in unpopular wars medals are generously awarded to try (usually unsuccessfully) to boost the morale of personnel and/or alter public opinion [the Wehrmacht on the Russian Front comes to mind]. The Navy was especially troublesome in this area because the majority of Naval personnel (aviators being the most prominent exception) in the VN theater were almost never exposed to enemy fire — there were virtually no naval battles in the VNW (probably not even Ton-kin Gulf as it turns out). River patrol craft personnel were thus the Navy's entree into the medal arena — they got lots of them.

"(2) Three and out. It was a naval tradition — NOT AN OFFICIAL POLICY OR REGULATION — that allowed personnel with three Purple Hearts to transfer to non-combat duty. JFK was well aware of this tradition.

"(3) JFK's Rank. Although JFK was not a high ranking officer he was always the highest ranking officer ON THE SCENE — these were small craft and small operations. Enlisted men would be unlikely to risk contradicting JFK's account of what happened — and 'boot lickers' would be encouraged to corroborate him. As ranking officer he was the one writing the eye-witness reports. In a sense his medals — though approved by higher-ups — were 'self awarded.'

"With these three caveats firmly in mind let's look at JFK's record:

"JFK experienced his first intense combat action on 2 December 1968. He was slightly wounded on his arm, he was awarded his first Purple Heart.

"JFK was awarded his second Purple Heart after sustaining a minor shrapnel wound in his left thigh on 20 February 1969.

"JFK was given a Silver Star for an action on 28 February 1969: JFK's Patrol Craft received a B-40 rocket shot from shore, he beached his craft in the center of the enemy positions and an enemy soldier sprang up from a nearby (10-15 ft.) hole and fled. The boat's forward machine gunner hit and wounded the fleeing VC as he darted behind a hooch. The twin .50s gunner also fired at the VC. The gunner said he 'laid 50 rounds' into the hooch before JFK leaped from the boat and dashed in to administer a 'coup de grace' to the soldier. JFK returned with a B-40 rocket and launcher. [In contrast, Army and Marine personnel were — and are still — routinely trained to engage and close with the enemy. Had JFK been commanding a platoon or rifle company this action — going towards and not running away from enemy fire — would have been routine.]

"On March 13, 1969, a mine [this is dubious; marine mines were hardly used by NV forces; it was probably a propelled grenade of some type] detonated near JFK's boat, slighting wounding Kerry in the right arm. He was awarded his third Purple Heart. On the basis of these awards JFK then petitioned to be removed from combat operations. Interestingly JFK also made sure to have the men who served in his craft transferred to safer positions (easy to due in the VNW Navy) — perhaps to ensure their endorsement of his actions."

See also BUSH WAS AWOL, KERRY AWARDED HIMSELF THAT CHEST FULL 'O' MEDALS.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 02/25/04 07:34:55 AM
Categorized as John Kerry & Political.