Posted on 08/13/2004 5:39:20 AM PDT by Interesting Times
I served as Officer-in-Charge of a Swift Boat (PCF-71) in Vietnam and my tour overlapped with that of John Kerry. With regard to your editorial ("Kerry's 'Christmas in Cambodia'," Tuesday), I can tell you that my crew and I also went into Cambodia (without orders). As units assigned to Coastal Division 11, we patrolled the Ha Tien River and an adjacent canal that ran along the Vietnam-Cambodian border and, on occasion, crossed into Cambodia.
Mr. Kerry was assigned to Coastal Division 11 in December 1968, and, while I don't recall who was where on Christmas 35 years ago, it is certainly plausible to me that Mr. Kerry and his crew could have been across the border that night.
STEPHEN D. HAYES
U.S. Navy (1966-1969)
Alexandria
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
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In his recent letter, "I also went into Cambodia," Stephen Hayes claims that he, like John Kerry, entered Cambodia as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a swift boat during his time in Vietnam. Mr. Hayes claims "Mr. Kerry was assigned to Coastal Division 11 in December 1968."
That is not the case. Mr. Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo at the time, not Coastal Division 11. The area patrolled by Coastal Division 13 extended as far north as Sa Dec, which lies about 55 miles from the Cambodian border.
Every surviving officer in Mr. Kerry's chain of command denies that Mr. Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia or possibly could have gone there on Christmas Day 1968, as he claimed before the Senate in 1986.
Also, of the five crew members on Mr. Kerry's boat at the time, three - Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch and Steve Gardner - are on the record stating that neither they nor their boat were ever in Cambodia.
The other two have declined to comment. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth documented this further in the material they supplied to television stations with their recent ad, "Any Questions?": "At Sa Dec, where the Swift boat patrol area ended, there were many miles of other boats (PBR's) leading to the Cambodian border. There also were gunboats on the border to prevent any crossing. If Kerry tried to get through, he would have been arrested."
Given the above, I don't think Mr. Hayes' efforts are likely to solve John Kerry's Cambodia problem.
SCOTT SWETT
Falls Church
BTTT!
Great article!!
Disinfopedia - Stephen D. Hayes
Stephen D. Hayes "serves as Senior Vice President-Business Development at Gannon International. [1]
"Prior to joining Gannon International, Mr. Hayes served for five years as Managing Director-Public Relations for the 44 million member American Automobile Association (AAA). He was a senior political appointee in both" the Reagan administration and George H.W. Bush administration "and has managed the public affairs activities for three major Federal agencies. His government experience also included service as Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Thad Cochran.
"Mr. Hayes has extensive experience in the transportation sector. He served as Assistant Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration and as a Vice President of the Air Transport Association (ATA). At ATA, he helped develop a national grass roots effort in support of aviation system modernization. While at AAA, he spearheaded 'Crisis Ahead,' a national AAA campaign in support of transportation infrastructure improvements.
"In addition to his expertise in public affairs and communications, he has a strong background in international business. He served as Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs at the U.S. Agency for International Development when the agency was facing numerous international challenges including the civil war in Somalia, famine elsewhere in Africa and U.S. support for the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq. In the early 1990s, Mr. Hayes was one of the founders and managers of The Gannon Pacific Company. He worked for six years on the staff of the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Joint Economic Commission, which provided U.S. technical and managerial expertise to assist in Saudi Arabian economic and social development.
"Mr. Hayes served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and was awarded the Bronze Star and Meritorious Commendation Medal for heroism in combat in Vietnam.
"He holds an M.A. in Government and International Relations from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Philosophy from Dartmouth College."
Freepers rule!
Leni
Even the Kerry campaign has admitted that Kerry was not in Cambodia on Christmas 1968.
Now, what are the ramifications of that admission? Was the story (that Kerry was in Cambodia on Christmas 1968) successful in advancing a political and/or personal agenda?
bump
The commander of the Swift boat in which sKerry replaced was not wounded until January 29, of 1998, so sKerry was not in unit 11 in December of 1998.
My tag line says it all
Just to give you an idea of what we are up against, I wrote a letter to Mike Barnicle after his appearance on Imus yesterday, where he proceeded to plug Kerry and rip into the SBVT.
My letter:
Dear Mr. Barnicle,
This morning, I heard you on Imus, where you proceeded to denounce, defame and other wise ridicule the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth (SBVT). Have you met and spoken with a single one? Have you even bothered to read their book? For that matter, the same might be asked of John McCain. You both are criticizing without all (any?) of the facts.
Why are the SBVT veterans any less believable, any less veterans, than Kerry? Because Kerry says so? The SBVT vets have all signed affadavits under oath attesting to their story, while Kerry certainly has not. In fact, parts of Kerry's story are now falling apart, i.e. "Christmas in Cambodia." The "atrocities" story is not backed up by any vets, and the only one admitting to committing any is Kerry himself!! If he had that 8mm camera with him, why didn't he film some of these claimed atrocities? Why didn't he report them as he was obligated to do, both from a moral standpoint and a military one. The doctor that treated his "wounds" says he does not desever a Purple Heart, nor does his commander (Hibbard?).
If the SBVT vets are lying, they lay themselves open to lawsuits, which Kerry could easily afford and would certainly pursue, yet Kerry has only threatened radio stations with bogus warnings. Kerry could simply release his military/medical records to disprove their allegations, yet he will not. I wonder why? I think I know the answer, but I will let you form your own conclusions. The next time you are at the mansion, you might ask.
You and others call on Kerry to denounce the SBVT, yet no such call was made to Kerry about the weeks of frontpage handwringing about Bush's National Guard service, or Micheal Moore's Bush bashing "documentary." In fact, Kerry himself belittled the President on his National Guard service, and even had Moore in the Presidential box at the DNC convention!
Rassman is dealt with pretty handily by the SBVT, but as a former SCUBA instructor, I can state for the record that the vantage point from a person floating in the water is poor at best. And Barnicle never mentioned the testimony of Steven Gardner, who was stationed ON KERRY"S BOAT, directly behind him. Now that is what I call a vantage point. And the possibility that the other crewmen were "compensated" for their support is not unlikely either, and should be investigated.
Kerry forced this issue by making his four months of service "in country" the centerpiece, no the ONLY piece, of the DNC convention, probably to cover up the fact that his record of achievement in the Senate is pathetic, and his attendance on the Senate Intelligence Committee is best described as AWOL, as is his current attendance in the Senate. If national security is the primary topic of the election, as you state, then Kerry's record of voting against America's intelligence community and military for all of his twenty odd years in the Senate will hang around his neck like cinderblocks around the neck of a guest of honor at a Mafia squealer beach party.
Maybe that is why he took such great pains to hide this record of shame during the DNC convention. Speaking of "missing in action," did you know that Kerry was Mike Dukakis' Lieutenant Governor? Now why would he leave that off of his resume?
Imus did a pretty good job of playing devil's advocate with you, but as you can see, there are plenty of issues that should have been brought up, and still beg to be asked of Kerry. Do you have the journalistic integrity to ask Kerry the hard questions?
I hope you do.
Sincerely,
"...yeah, I was in Sang-Bang, Gang-Gong, Special Unit Airborne Battalion... my name was Agent Orange, yeah, Agent Orange."
Good letter. Bump
Great job!
BTTT
Kerry's fitness reports show that he was/was assigned to Coastal Division ELEVEN on December 8, 1968 and served there until March 26, 1969. I find Hayes' letter very disturbing and a problem for SBVFT. I hope they respond.
Great letter! Thank you!!!
Nice response.
I think Barnicle PO'd the wrong Freeper.
BTW - I used to be a huge Imus fan. I haven't listened to him in about two months now. Now he parrots for MoveOn.org.
Maybe Kerry was in Cambodia on a secret meeting and that is were he committed all the war attrocities he claimed to have committed in front of Congress?
Mr. Hayes also admits that he went (or may have gone) into Cambodia WITHOUT ORDERS. However, Kerry SWEARS that he went into Cambodia UNDER ORDERS.
This guy isn't helping.
Why, to got the leftist slant again?
"I did not have sex with that Cambodian"
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