COME CLEAN JOHNNY!
Posted on 08/08/2004 2:38:47 PM PDT by BonnieBeth
The political heat being turned up this summer results from the new Kerry campaign themes: service, love of country, flag and heroism. These words resonate as loudly as the buzz of the season’s cicadas. A new book to be released next week, “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against Kerry,” may dampen the volume on this new patriotic theme and possibly his hope for the White House.
While the candidate Kerry chooses to present himself as a war hero and patriot, he resents questions surrounding his war record and the medals awarded to him. His campaign has been successful in removing negative television ads sponsored by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Organization from some key battleground states by presenting to station management the alleged recantation by one the group’s key members. The article printed in the Boston Globe purports to directly quote former Kerry commander, Captain George Elliott (USN Ret.), recanting negative allegations made about Kerry’s three Purple Hearts and Bronze/Silver Stars. Captain Elliott has since denied making the quotes to the Globe and has reaffirmed his allegations.
Unlike his brave ex-Senate colleague, Bob Dole, Kerry returned to the U.S. after his Vietnam tour unscathed (despite 3 Purple Hearts for battle wounds) to denounce the war effort and brand his fellow servicemen as “war criminals”. Today he wraps himself in the red, white and blue, which only highlights his hypocrisy.
The left takes peculiar pleasure in pointing out that the Swift Vet group has received funding by “the biggest Republican campaign donor in Texas.” (FactCheck.org, August 6, 2004). In a hypercritical Salon piece entitled “Smear Boat Veterans for Bush” Joe Conason writes: “The "swift boat" veterans attacking John Kerry's war record are led by veteran right-wing operatives using the same vicious techniques they used against John McCain four years ago.” Republicans do not lead the group; its members are non-partisan.
Swift Boat veteran William Franke’s contributory chapter, “The Purple Heart Hunter” from the book “Unfit for Command” is now available online. Mr. Franke recounts discrepancies between John Kerry’s story of that night in the skimmer when he fired the M79 grenade, the Boston Globe’s account, and the recollections of Kerry’s crewmates. In the Boston Globe biography of John Kerry, there were already questions about whether the extent of his injury merited a Purple Heart:
“The Kerry campaign showed the Boston Globe a one-page document listing Kerry’s medical treatment during some of his service time. The notation said: #3 DEC 1968 U.S. NAVAL SUPPORT FACILITY CAM RANH BAY RVN FPO Shrapnel in left arm above elbow. Shrapnel removed and apply Bacitracin dressing. Ret to duty.”
The Globe reporters note that “Kerry’s commander, Grant Hibbard, was very skeptical about the injury,” and William Schachte, who supervised the mission and later became an admiral said in 2003: “It was not a very serious wound at all.” When Grant Hibbard learned about the injury that Dr. Louis Letson treated with a pair of tweezers, he turned Kerry down for the Purple Heart award “since there was no hostile fire.” To date, no one knows how Kerry got his first Purple Heart because, as Mr. Franke asserts, “his (Kerry’s) refusal to execute Standard Form 180 means that whatever documents exist are known only to Kerry, the Department of Defense, and God.” If Mr. Kerry would only agree to release his Navy service records, much of this confusion might be resolved.
For an ex-veteran and “patriot,” John Kerry’s 19 years in the Senate have been quite unremarkable except to accumulate a more liberal voting record than the ultimate demagogue, Ted Kennedy. Can anyone name a single piece of important legislation attributed to Kerry? Kerry, however, never forgot to vote against funding critical weapon systems and our troops in Iraq.
Senator Kerry equates his war experiences 34 years ago with our current fight against terrorism today. He says he is a proven leader with the vision and demonstrated courage to deal with our enemies both here and abroad. However, he continues to rally against renewing the Patriot Act, a vital tool in the continuing War on Terror.
The recent arrests of suspected terrorists in Pakistan and Britain only underscore how deeply entrenched al-Qaeda and their ilk are. Allegations even surfaced that a member of the U.S. Navy was communicating with one the Pakistani arrested regarding secret battle formations and possible attacks against our fleet in the Middle East.
Despite the rock star and Hollywood hyperbole of late, I believe that President Bush has done an exceptional job in keeping America safe from attack. Continued verbal assaults by Democratic spin-doctors regarding the political motives behind the heightened terror alerts in New York City, Newark, New Jersey and Washington DC have been proven false. The announced arrests in Pakistan this week has yielded proof that as late as January 2004, al Qaeda was updating attack plans against prime targets in these cities.
We require true leaders and patriots to continue to lead and protect America for the next four years. Senator Kerry should be kept outside of the White House fence to contemplate those medals and ribbons he tossed away so many years ago.
Copyright 2004 by Bonnie Chernin Rogoff. All rights reserved.
Hey, Hey!
Ho, Ho!
Kerry sign
the form
ONE EIGHT OH!
"My name is Steve Gardner. I served in 1966 and 1967 on my first tour of duty in Vietnam on Swift boats, and I did my second tour in '68 and '69, involved with John Kerry in the last 2 1/2 months of my tour. The John Kerry that I know is not the John Kerry that everybody else is portraying. I served alongside him and behind him, five feet away from him in a gun tub, and watched as he made indecisive moves with our boat, put our boats in jeopardy, put our crews in jeopardy... if a man like that can't handle that 6-man crew boat, how can you expect him to be our Commander-in-Chief?"
-- Steven Gardner
The above quote was from a press conference given at the National Press Club in Washington on May 4, 2004. You may view Steven’s comments at the following web site. Just scroll down to Steven’s picture and click on it.
http://swift1.he.net/~swiftvet/index.php?topic=SwiftVetQuotes
Searching through that web site, you will find 250 men who served on Swift boats, including the entire chain of command above Lt. Kerry, agree with Steven Gardner that Kerry is not fit to be Commander-in-Chief. That compares to the 13 crew members who support his candidacy.
in view of flip-flop Kerry's constant flip-flops we can expect him to do a 180 and sign his180
Perhaps they have been promised cushy jobs in a J Kerry administration. That seems likely to me, though shameful.
One question I have about Kerry: Was he sent home after four months because he was considered a danger or was he sent home because he had received his third Purple Heart (pursuant to his scheme to get out of the combat zone)?
or both?
Go to the swiftboat web page. How I understand it is that they basically told him to leave.
WHY is there no search for the TRUTH???
But if they told him to leave, how does that fit into the story that he learned about this obscure "three Purple Heart" rule and set out to put in for Purple Hearts for scratches so he could get sent home after he had acquired enough film footage for later political campaigns?
Here, I'll try to find the quote...be right back..
John Kerry has long insisted that using the three-injury loophole to leave combat early was his own idea, but Kerry's fellow Swift officer Thomas Wright, who served on occasion as the OIC (Officer in Charge) of Kerry's boat group, contradicts that claim. Wright reports that he "had a lot of trouble getting Kerry to follow orders," and that those who worked with Kerry found him "oriented towards his personal, rather than unit goals and objectives." He therefore requested that Kerry be removed from his boat group. After John Kerry qualified for his third Purple Heart, Thomas Wright and two fellow officers informed him of the obscure regulation, and told him to go home. Wright concluded, "We knew how the system worked and we didn’t want him in Coastal Division 11."
I think both - he was anxious to bolt asap and all of his fellow officers and chain of command were more than willing to see him go.
It is worth remembering that most of the press dodged service in Vietnam...they deal with their feelings of guilt by saying, "Anyone who served is a better man than me".
Hence, Kerry MUST be a hero and there is nothing more to say. GWB, on the other hand, is fair game since he didn't leave the US.
Almost everything that has been revealed in the last week has been known to Freepers for 6 months. But the press won't touch the story.
If it boils down to a 'he said' / 'he said' dispute, there is no There, there.
Thank you. That is very helpful.
Why? Because this issue illustrates the ineptitude of the news media *and* the corrupt nature of establishment power.
It's been over 20 years. No one has asked Kerry to back up his statements. No one in a position of leadership has ever made an attempt to make his statements an issue. No. The lies, the anti-American and anti-military fabrications of John Kerry, have never been subject to any scrutiny at all.
Vietnam veterans are again being betrayed by people who put politics above patriotism. The Beltway scumbags are closing ranks. The people who have fought and died for this country are again expected to shut their mouths and go along.
Steve Gardner must know something about Kerry's whereabouts on the infamous Christmas of '68.
…this obscure "three Purple Heart" rule…
Elsewhere it's been reported that the paperwork was signed by a named officer in Saigon with no apparant connection to the SWIFT command. That officer is since deceased. C.O. Hibbard has said that he didn't realize until many years after Vietnam that Kerry had gotten that Purple. I'm going to guess - and it's only a guess - that Kerry found a friendly officer in Saigon during his transfer from Cam Ranh Bay to Cat Lo on the Delta. IIRC Kerry got his "wound" after two weeks in CRB, and was transferred to the Delta two after that. Was the Operation Overlords meeting with Zumwalt held in Saigon?
For YEARS.....Kerry "fired" at the Vietnam vets and warriors STILL in country fighting..
He called them EVERYTHING from baby killers to rapists...
He branded EVERY warrior with the crimes HE admitted to and the crimes that were committed by a tiny minority of warriors...
This time --- the Warriors are fighting back..
They should shove the lies of Kerry's world -- straight up his @$$ until he chokes on them...
I choose to believe the dozens of Swift Boat Officers and the one Kerry crew member who have come forth with THEIR story....
Their stories "ring true" to those of us that served...
They don't have the Hollywood Ring of Kerry's version...
I suspect that there are so many Kerry's crew mates "supporting" Kerry - due to the "circle of fraud" that was practiced in some instances, where everyone recommending each other for UNEARNED decorations....
It would be interesting and informative to compare the "decorations" earned by Kerry's crew - compared to the other boats that served in their division......
It might be "enlightening"....and go to "motive".
Semper Fi
bump
COME CLEAN JOHNNY!
I've been seeing a lot of negative comments on Fox News' sudden negative reporting on issues important to conservatives. Maybe they have a death wish.
I don't subscribe to cable or satellite so it's something I'm just hearing about from Freepers.
If what is being reported is true, why not react to their "we-don't-need-you anymore" attitude and quit watching? You really don't need Fox, do you?
I've said from the beginning that the Beltway establishment will do their best to kill this story.
Why? Because this issue illustrates the ineptitude of the news media *and* the corrupt nature of establishment power.
But FOX usually disputes the BS that major media chooses not to cover. FOX is not doing the Swiftvets any favors here. The pure numbers of 250/13 should lend some credence to this issue, but...........
It would be interesting and informative to compare the "decorations" earned by Kerry's crew - compared to the other boats that served in their division......
I've said this all along. If the Swiftvets(serving 12 month tours vrs 4 months) get the word out about how many awards they received during one ore even two tours compared to what Kerry got in four months, maybe even some of the lefties will do the math and figure out that Kerry is a fraud.
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, 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."
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