Sen. Kerry and His Supporting Crewmates House of Lies

The Bandit | August 7, 2004 | The Bandit

[mcshot]

I'm appalled that I don't even see a hint of the truth in these Kerry stories. This is more than an election, the future of our country is at stake.

mc

[VOA]

Also see Prior Post Hugh Hewitt on SwiftVets and "Christmas in Cambodia"

thanks for the pointer...I'll go bump that puppy...

[Steven W.]

Some more on Short: Vietnam vet praises Kerry

Short, 56, wasn't supposed to be on Kerry's boat. A gunner's mate 3rd class, he was assigned to PCF 94 to replace a gunner who had been wounded. That wounded gunner, the Rev. David Alston of South Carolina, was one of the speakers at the convention Monday.
Short was with Kerry, who was called ``Skipper'' during the combat that won the man now running for president one of his three Purple Hearts and his Silver Star.
``His blood is American red -- all American. There's not a drop of blue in it,'' Short said of Kerry.

[Steven W.]

This seems funny ... now the guy is running up a ridge. First he's in a ditch, now he's on a ridge. Short may well be winging it here. Also seems funny he got to leave Vietnam a month after joining up with Kerry.

Swift boat gunner says Kerry's blood red, not blue

"Unlike they would like you to believe, his blood is crimson red, all American," he told the Ohio delegation yesterday. "There's not a drop of blue in it. I've seen it." Mr. Short was present when Mr. Kerry received a Silver Star and his second Purple Heart medal.
Mr. Short was a 21-year-old replacement gunner in 1969 on the swift boat captained by Mr. Kerry in Vietnam. Proceeding up a narrow canal, the boat came under fire.
"The senator chases the [Viet Cong] up the ridge, and sees him standing up, getting ready to let go his weapon," he said. "I'm 90 feet away now and I'm dead in the water. If he was a good pitcher, he could have taken me out with a baseball. ... Sen. Kerry takes him out and, in doing so, allows me to be here to speak to you this morning."

[Petronski]

House of lies? You're too generous.

I humbly submit it is a "Cathedral of Deceit."

[Helms]

Lets Make This Kerrys "Last Night On The Town"

Wright's first claim was that as his former commanding offcier, Wright frequently had to confront Kerry over willful disobedience to orders aboard Swift Boat patrols.

On frequent occasions Wright stated that Kerry would randomly fire at "things he thought were moving" along the shoreline. Wright stated that the protocol was only to fire when the unit was receiving hostile fire. Wright explained that part of the Swift Boat patrol's goal was to develop contacts with non-combatants living along the rivers being patrolled.

Wright's boldest claim was that after Kerry had in fact received his third purple heart, Wright along with two other ranking officers basically flat out asked Kerry to leave Vietnam. The reason being his behavior continually put the group in greater vulnerability and danger.

According to Wright, Kerry claimed he would not leave, "but was out of there by morning."

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/kmc/

[Steven W.]

Might be some more discrepancies here ... seems Mr. Short misstates distances, one time it's 90 yards away, another it's 30, but, regardless, he's got the eyes of an eagle and can pick out distinct facial features:

ABC News - A Bad Day

Feb. 28, 1969, was a day that started out badly and got much worse. Kerry and his crewmates were given a mission to take their Swift boat up a canal off the Bay Hap River, surrounded by thick mangrove brush and many, many Vietcong. There were two ambushes.
"I guess we had gotten 800 yards or 1,000 yards at the most," recalled crewmate Fred Short. "And this time, another B-40 rocket hit, and maybe a couple more. But this one was close aboard. It blew the windows out of the crew cabin. I see out of a spider hole a Vietcong stand up dressed in a loin cloth, holding a B-40 rocket."
...
They saw their enemy up close, Short noted. "I would say he was so close that I could see that he had a mustache, a very weak mustache, that he was growing. I could see the mustache on his face. And things were going slow-motion now, because you feel you were, you know, this is really getting scary."
...
Tommy Belodeau was manning the boat's M-60 machine gun, Short said. "Tommy in the pit tank winged him in the side of the legs as he was coming across," he said. "But the guy didn't miss stride. I mean, he did not break stride."
...
The man was still running down a path when they got to the bank. Kerry, Belodeau and Michael McDarris, in hot pursuit, saw the Vietcong soldier. Short recalled: "The guy was getting ready to stand up with a rocket on his shoulder, coming up. And Mr. Kerry took him out … he would have been about a 30-yard shot. Which, we were dead in the water up on the bank, point blank. If he missed us, he would have to, you know — there's no way he could miss us. He could've thrown a rock and taken me out."

[lonevoice]

Bump

[StarFan]

Thanks for doing such extensive research and sharing your findings. Excellent job.

[rolling_stone]

1969
Force KIA WIA MIA CIA
US Forces 9,414 1 55,390 112 unknown

ARVN 22,000 131,780 683 unknown

NVA/VC 132,051 unknown unknown 5,905


all of 1969 us KIA 9,414.....must have been a real bad day..

[rolling_stone]

http://members.aol.com/warlibrary/vwc24.htm
a little more breakdown...

[IrishCatholic]

add this to the kerry file.

[rolling_stone]

Interesting, as posted before lots of medals that day..

"In addition to Kerry's Silver Star PCF-94's performance on February 28 also earned Bronze Stars for Tommy Belodeau and Mike Medeiros and Navy Commendation Medals with Combat V Devices for Del Sandusky, Fred Short, and Gene Thorson." - Douglas Brinkley



http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/ker_silv_star.htm

[rolling_stone]

A couple of interesting wartime pictures showing who was on the boat on feb 28, 1868 and again in march 1969,,,I can't see the wound on Kerry's arm...bandaid must have fallen off...

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/page2.html

[mtntop3]

First-class and eminently useful post. As are the incisive comments.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[OXENinFLA]

Bumping for the morning.................