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August 13, 2004
Kerry's War Record
It is an interesting exercise to juxtapose John Kerry's statements about his war record with the facts. There are several persistent myths that an educated voter might want to examine more closely:
1. Kerry volunteered to serve in Vietnam while Bush hid in the National Guard:
Kerry web site: As he was graduating from Yale, John Kerry volunteered to serve in Vietnam, because, as he later said, "it was the right thing to do." He believed that “to whom much is given, much is required.” And he felt he had an obligation to give something back to his country.
The facts: "He wrote to his local recruitment board seeking permission to spend a further 12 months studying in Paris, after completing his degree course at Yale University in the mid-1960s...The Harvard Crimson newspaper followed a youthful Mr Kerry in Boston as he campaigned for Congress for the first time in 1970. In the course of a lengthy article, "John Kerry: A Navy Dove Runs for Congress", published on February 18, the paper reported: "When he approached his draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy."
2. Kerry volunteered for combat duty:
Kerry web site: On his second tour, he volunteered to serve on a Swift Boat in the river deltas, one of the most dangerous assignments of the war.
The facts: "As Chris Suellentrop pointed out on Slate, Kerry volunteered for swift boat duty before it became so dangerous...Kerry's biography on his campaign website (which Edwards echoed almost directly) promotes this confusion, citing the Globe's description of the revised mission of the swift boats and implying it was what the Massachusetts senator volunteered for."
In Kerry's own words: "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing." But two weeks after he arrived in Vietnam, the swift boat mission changed -- and Kerry went from having one of the safest assignments in the escalating conflict to one of the most dangerous.
3. Kerry's antiwar protest activities are admirable:
Kerry's web site: "He decided he had a responsibility to his friends still serving, the friends he had lost, and his country, to help restore responsible leadership in America.
So he decided to become active as a Vietnam Veteran Against the War (VVAW). He became a spokesman for VVAW and later co-founded Vietnam Veterans of America. Only 27 years old, John Kerry sounded this call to reason in April 1971 when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and posed the powerful question, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
Interesting question: Did Kerry's protest activities violate the UCMJ and possibly other laws?
John Kerry signed a 6 year contract (plus 6 months extension during war time) with the Navy. John Kerry also signed a Officer Candidate contract for 5 years of active duty and active Naval Reserves. Kerry was required to attend 48 drills per year and go on active duty for training each year 14 days. Kerry was also subject to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Additionally, Kerry, as a commissioned officer, was prohibited from making adverse statements against his chain of command or statements against his country, especially during time of war.
...Kerry was clearly a commissioned officer at the time of his 1970 meeting with NVA Communists in Paris -- in direct violation of the UCMJ's Article 104 part 904, and U.S. Code 18 U.S.C. 953. That meeting, and Kerry's subsequent coddling of Communists while leading mass protests against our military in the year that followed, also place him in direct violation of our Constitution's Article three, Section three, which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of warfare. (As General Vo Nguyen Giap is his witness....)
4. Bush was AWOL while Kerry served his commitment:
John Kerry signed a 6 year contract (plus 6 months extension during war time) with the Navy. John Kerry also signed a Officer Candidate contract for 5 years of active duty and active Naval Reserves. When John Kerry was discharged from TOTAL ACTIVE DUTY of 3 years and 18 days, he was required to attend weekend drills in the Ready Reserve for at least 2 years.
It is also interesting to note that Kerry did not get an Honorable discharge until Mar. 12, 2001 even though his service obligation should have ended July 1, 1972, about 29 years later when he plans on running for the presidency.
5. Kerry's Band of Brothers support him 100%, while the Swift Vets "never served with Kerry":
What of Steven Gardner, a Swift Boat Vet? Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty is often cited as proof that Kerry's crew unanimously support him:
Brinkley claimed to have interviewed "every single one" of Kerry's swift-boat crewmates. It turns out he missed a guy named Steven Gardner, who happens to be the one fellow who is less than worshipful of his former commander. "I would have talked to Gardner, but I couldn't find him," Brinkley explained. When others did reach Gardner this spring, Brinkley scrambled to catch up. Instead of interviewing him, however, Brinkley warned Gardner against criticizing Kerry in public. Then, in an article posted on Time magazine's website, he accused Gardner of inventing stories and playing "politics."
Brinkley also failed to speak with Lieutenant Commander Grant Hibbard, who made the memorable observation that Kerry won his first Purple Heart for a wound that resembled "a scrape from a fingernail."
Note: Hibbard was Kerry's CO and turned down his request for a Purple Heart.
Jim Rassmann, the soldier pulled from the water by Kerry, makes conflicting statements (as does Kerry) about which boat he was on at the time.
Some of Kerry's Band of Brothers may not have served with him at all:
Kerry site: "David Alston, Kerry Crewmate & Gunner from PCF-94: “David Alston was the gunner atop Kerry's pilot house. Kerry, he told an audience here, was a compassionate commander. ‘We were in a lot of firefights,’ Alston said. ‘You learn a lot about people. After a firefight, John would come up to me and he would put his hand on me and he'd say, 'David, are you all right?’ ‘I didn't know then that I had a man of God on my boat,’ Kerry said. ‘That's probably why I'm here today’."
But the facts cast doubt on whether Alston served on Kerry's boat:
From December to January 29, 1969 Sen. Kerry commanded the PCF-44 while David Alston was the Gunner onboard the PCF-94 under Lt.(jg) Peck. On January 29, 1969 both Peck and Alston were wounded and hospitalized.
Now that we know when and how Alston was wounded, we can see how Alston could not have been part of Sen. Kerry's crew on the PCF-94 because he had been replaced, just as the wounded Lt. Peck had been replaced by Kerry after the January 29th incident that lead to both Alston and Peck being hospitalized. Was David Alston able to return to the PCF-94 during anytime between February 1 and March 13, Kerry's last combat mission? No evidence that he did or even the suggestion he physically could have with the injury he had suffered, because we know that on February 28, 1969, Fred Short was onboard and described as an replacement for a wounded David Alston. We Know David Alston was not onboard for Kerry's last combat mission on March 13, either. Therefore, we can confidently say David Alston was never part of Kerry's PCF-94 crew from February 1 through March 13, 1969 because he was still recovering from his head wounds.
UPDATE: Byron York of NRO did some additional research on the Alston story. Although Alston claims not to have been off the boat for more than 2 weeks (which would put him there after Feb. 15th), Fred Short, the gunner who replaced the wounded Alston aboard PCF 94 says Alston was gone for all of February and did not return until March:
According to Short, who supports the Kerry candidacy and appeared alongside Alston with Kerry at last month's convention, Alston was gone during the month of February and did not return to the boat until March. Short remembers going on his first patrol on PCF-94 on February 18, 1969 — he recalls the date clearly because it was his birthday. Short remembers taking part in his last operation on PCF-94 around March 4. He believes Alston returned a few days later.
The official record shows that Short won a Navy Commendation Medal on 2/28 for an action aboard PCF 94 and there is no mention of Alston in the after-action report. John Hurley, Kerry's campaign manager agreed, saying ""My understanding is that he [Alston] was gone for a month.... Fred [Short] was on the boat for about a month."
On a television show, however, Alston described the action as though he had been there. "I know when John Kerry told [crew member Del Sandusky] to beach that damn boat, this was a brand-new ball game," Alston told ABC's Nightline on June 22. "We wasn't running. We took it to Charlie."
Short says his last mission was 3/4, Hurley says Alston was present on 3/13 when Kerry won his Silver Star for pulling Rassmann from the river. The Kerry site and official records list only 2 combat actions during that period: on 3/12 and 3/13. So it appears that Alston may have been on the same boat with Kerry for anywhere from 7 to 13 days, during which there were only 2 combat incidents.
6. Questioning Kerry's war record is "beyond the pale":
Kerry campaign admits error of fact in statements about Christmas in Cambodia. Unexplained is how Kerry's journal comes to talk of recollections specific to Christmas Day if he was never there on that date. If the man lies in his own journal, why should we unquestioningly accept that he is telling voters the truth?
You call down to one of your men and ask him to draft a message to the Admiral in Command of all Naval Forces in Vietnam and also to the Commander of Market Time. IT says "Merry Christmas from the most inland Market Time unit." You hope that they'll court marshal you or something because that would make sense. But the night soothes everything and the people and things that are close to you dart through the mind and bring the only warmth and peace that there is. Visions of sugar plums really do dance through your head and you think of stockings and snow and roast chestnuts and fires with birch logs and all that is good and warm and real. It's Christmas Eve.
Other distortions of the record on Kerry's web site.
It would seem to a reasonable observer that there is much to question in Kerry's version of events. If Mr. Kerry is telling the truth (and he has already had to retract several statements or remove them from his web site) then he has nothing to fear. An impartial observer might even go so far as to entertain the possibility that the Swift Vets, who have sworn affadavits to back up their allegations, might be right.
- Cassandra
August 13, 2004 at 09:40 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Bravo Zulu Cass!!! Well done!
But as you're being supported by Karl Rove's gang of facist thugs funded by Haliburton blood for oil money the truth doesn't matter. I mean, why won't you just let the past be the past? You conservatives are all such mean spirited poopy heads.
Posted by: spd rdr at Aug 13, 2004 9:51:42 AM
Kerry's war record? It has a nice beat, but I just can't dance to it. I give it 47% and 185 electoral college votes.
Posted by: College aged boy at anti-war protest to pick up easy chicks at Aug 13, 2004 10:00:33 AM
Hey lets discuss GWs lack of war record
Posted by: me who else at Nov 5, 2004 7:45:40 PM
Nothing like being up to the minute with a slick line.
Posted by: RIslander at Nov 5, 2004 8:26:56 PM