Posted on 08/06/2004 1:56:51 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Friday, August 6, 2004
By Kevin McCullough
The image Americans were asked to believe, at the Democratic National Convention, of a John Kerry who "defended this nation" as a soldier in Vietnam and "will defend this nation" as its commander in chief has hit a snag. The soldiers he served alongside of don't really believe that he did defend his country very well. And as one of his former commanding officers told my radio show on Wednesday, Kerry's chain of command was so fed up with his actions, they asked him to go home after he received his third purple heart.
Retired U.S. Navy officer Thomas Wright served our nation for 21 years. He also served as one of Kerry's superiors in the tough assignment of SWIFT Boat (Shallow Water Inshore Fast Tactical) patrols on the southern tip of Vietnam. Lt. Wright frequently experienced trouble with Kerry. According to Wright, Kerry frequently broke protocols of engagement for SWIFT Boat commanders.
When you're in a group (of boats on patrol) you don't open fire unless the person in charge tells you to or unless you are defending yourself from an immediate attack ... I'd have problems because we'd be running on a river and Kerry would see something off in the distance and he'd take a pot-shot at it, to see what happened. And that wasn't the way we were trying to run the patrols. We were trying to get in and find out what was going on, and hopefully make contact and begin to work with some of the people that lived there ... And you don't get to go shake their hands when you're shooting at them.
I asked Wright how Kerry would respond to the necessary correction that would follow such unilateral actions.
Well, during the mission you just continue to issue the orders that you expect people to follow and, if they don't do them, you would continue to press until you got the results that you need. After a mission, is generally when you work out the more difficult problems. And those are done in private. I'd go talk to John Kerry and I'd tell him that I was unhappy with his opening fire, or pulling out of a column when he wasn't supposed to, or failing to communicate when he needed to ... And I'd always get an excuse. I wouldn't get a direct answer. I'd get "I didn't hear that," or "We thought we saw something" or "My radio was on the other side of the boat" or "I didn't have time." It was always an excuse. After three or four times ... I went to the division commander, told him about the problems I [had] been having and told him [the commander] that he needed to take steps to correct it.
That brought me to the shocker of the interview. To hear John Kerry speak about his time in Vietnam is to hear a self-personified story of heroics. Lt. Wright remembers what happened after Kerry's third purple heart quite differently.
When he got his third purple heart, that evening, and we didn't particularly care what it was for, we knew that he had three. That evening, I and two other people went in and told him that we felt that he should go home. It was something that he could do ... He told us that he didn't want that, it was his intention to serve his country, and the next morning he was gone. And we were happy and didn't worry about it.
John Kerry was barely able to endure four months on SWIFT Boat detail. Since I am sure the War on Terror will endure a bit longer than that, the idea of him commanding our troops with his unsteady hand is making me ... well ... seasick.
Editor's note: The actual audio of this entire interview can be heard on Kevin McCullough's website.
Kevin McCullough is heard daily from 1 to 4 p.m. EST in New York City on AM 570 WMCA, and in New Jersey on AM 970 WWDJ. Additionally, you can read his daily postings at The KMC Blog. For information on how to bring "The Kevin McCullough Show" to a station near you, call Dave Armstrong at 201-298-5700.
Kerry was asked to leave Vietnam
Posted: August 6, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
The Navy has some serious explaining to do.
If this clown was such a *uckup then why in hell did they give him a Bronze Star and a Silver Star? Hellooooooo
Purple Hearts for scratchs on days there was no enemy contact? And Bronze & Silver Stars for doing what all of us who were in combat did every day ??? Hellooo again? Is anybody home????
This whole record of Kerry smells to high heaven!
Semper Fi,
Kelly
I agree. In the Army 3 hearts might get you out of the field, but I never saw anyone get a free pass home. Until the rules changed in '67 or '68, in the Army, they gave out Hearts by the crate load, after that you had to actually had to get wounded and recieve medical attention, if I remember correctly.
Anybody who went to Viet Nam with a video recorder and believes he was "born to run" for President scares me.
She's always been rabid, but was usually able to conceal it fairly well. Remember, 'pod, she was a top honcho in the Dukakis Debacle, er Campaign.
But the 'rats are getting desperate (just look at how Frenchy was attacking President Bush for not immediately jumping up and leaving the little kids on 9/11) and the cracks are beginning to show.
You know I asked the same thing. The reply I got from someone here was that he was a friend of the Kennedy's. And they couldn't get rid of him like that. Don't really buy it, but that is one school of thought.
I don't believe that's the case. He tried to avoid service by applying for a student deferral. When that application was denied, he enlisted. I'll try to find the thread that shows he was anti-war before he went in. There have been so many threads on him, it may take a while to find it.
Regarding the circumstances of his transfer stateside:
The officers who suggested his departure may not have shared their views and actions with all of their fellow officers. Another officer, not knowing what they had done, could have easily assumed that kerry's rapid departure was the result of his own initiative. Even if the others had suggested that he leave, he had to apply for the transfer himself. They couldn't do it for him.
You're assuming that he was a self-respecting naval officer. I've seen no indication that that is the case.
Googling the words "Kerry", "kennedy", and "yacht" turned up this link as the first hit:
He was photographed aboard the Kennedy yacht with JFK in the early 1960's. Political influence, big time.
Both can be true. "Don't throw me into that briar patch!"
I smelled the Kennedy's in this matter of privileged special treatment. As they say, F-up and then move-up. The Kennedy's have always been a stain on the office of the President like billy blythe. Bush/Cheney 2004
Kerry, whose prep-school friends say he has always loved all things Kennedy, was a full-time volunteer in Ted Kennedy's first Senate race the summer before he entered Yale, in 1962. "I was one of the headquarter brats hanging around making a nuisance of myself,'' he says. He briefly dated Jackie Kennedy's half-sister Janet Auchincloss that same summer, and even got to sail Narragansett Bay with JFK at the helm.
I read a Boston Globe article that says Kerry requested transfers for his men, to get them out of harm's way. One guy asserted that he wanted to stay, and Kerry imposed on him more directly.
Kerry did two tours. That is correct. Neither was of one year duration. A ship-bound "tour" was the first, his assignment on Swift boats was the second.
Elliott signed off on at least one citation (the Silver Star), and now has come saying that if the information is true, that Kerry chased one Viet Cong and dispatched him, had he (Elliott) been given that version of events when he was considering the citation, he (Elliott) would not have signed off. He has sworn this in an affidavit dated August 6, 2004.
I forgot which one of Kerry's superiors said it, but I heard this in an interview: It was MUTUAL!! Kerry wanted out of Vietnam and his leadership wanted to get rid of him!
(The previous address had insufficient bandwith and was constantly overloaded.)
This is an excellent site to Bookmark:
After several weeks of being counseled about his actions, he probably decided that he'd had enough (who are these middle-class nimrods, talking to ME like this!). He acquired his 3rd Purple Heart and finagled his departure. Sounds like those in the know were only too glad to see the arrogant little SOB leave.
In the tin-can Navy, we always referred to our deployments as cruises and never as tours. Out of respect, the term tour was reserved for the folks who were serving in-country. There was a world of difference between the two and we knew it.
Thank you for your service, sir. And for the correction in jargon.
Myself, out of high school in '73, lottery number of 55. Dithered between sign up for the Navy and "wait and see." "Wait and see" won, Nixon ended the draft, and I went to Valaraiso University's College of Engineering.
did he have a friend in teddy kennedy at that time??--if so, that is what protected his sorry ass
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