Posted on 08/09/2004 7:49:43 AM PDT by dano1
I think it's the song from Pirates of Penzance, "I'm the very model of a modern Major General". (I also like the song, "I am a Pirate King" from that musical) Unfortunately it the movie version has Linda Ronstadt in the lead role, back when she was thin and cute.
I found a story last week that Kerry's first cousin was a major of a small town in France who later ran for president of the country. Earlier, he was a socialist, student activist and Greenpeace activist. When they were both students, Kerry visited him and was impressed at the power he generated through students--the people. It may have been his primary introduction to the power generation of socialism.
It totally depended on where the patrol areas were located. The boats at the beginning were escorting freighters up the Saigon river and suffered casualties.
The mission from the beginning was, as I recall, coastal surveillance, interdiction, and support to ops on shore. We were always firing illumination rounds from our mortar and supporting both US Army and RVN troops on missions when they were operating near the coast. We worked a lot with small fixed wing army spotters and provided mortar support when we could.
Yes, river patrol was much more dangerous than off-shore patrol, but the boats were sitting targets. Plus they only had a 3/8ths aluminium hull, which meant a recoiless rocket would pretty much easily sink a boat.
Even on coastal patrol, we were quite often working very close to the shore and used to get fired on regularly.
They were good boats manned by good crews and it infuriates me that Kerry is getting a free ride on his self-proclaimed "heroics".
It may not have been the most correct thing to do. But there used to be an old adage about bad civil service employees (it is not easy to fire a civil servant). The easiest way to get rid of them is to promote them; and it was done often.
You didn't read my post...what I said was it might be a good idea to back off from the claim that the mission changed from the time Kerry volunteered to the time he went through training and arrived in-country.
I've not seen any of my fellow Swift Boats Vets claiming this was what happened, only occassional posters on FReep who seem to agree with me once they understand what went on.
Never saw either one. But I like the new lyrics.
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