WAR STORIES

Good Morning, All

As every Military person knows, regardless of branch, there are two totally diferent measures of respect and reputation.

The first measure of the respect and reputation is what is shown flaunted on one's uniform, which may (or may not, depending on honesty) on that serviceperson's DD-214. Awards and decorations are not always given out for actions, they are sometimes (maybe more than sometimes) given out for polititcal, press/photo ops, or because "someone knows someone. These mean ZERO.

The other meausre of respect and reputation is what is bandied about over beer and shots in the bars/ clubs. This is the rep which is gained with one's peers, and means one hell of a lot more than all the awards/decorations in the world. I was, and still am, proud to have a good rep among the guys with which I served, that I pulled my weight....

I wonder what John Kerry's rep is in the bars??? Maybe I shouldn't ask, the rep might be different in the "wrong" bars. McGreevy must have spread great stories about the man

nuff said...

Keep the faith for Freedom

Greg

Hugh Hewitt -- Kerry-in-Cambodia Update
Guns, Guts, and That Damn Hat (my title)
August 17, 2004
Posted at 2:35 PM, Pacific
The May 8, 2000 article from U.S. News & World report reproduced below begins by stating that John Kerry conducted clandestine forays into Cambodia during the Vietnam War to deliver weapons to anticommunist forces. Because that statement isn't a direct quote of Kerry, I contacted the reporter, Kevin Whitelaw, this afternoon. Whitelaw still works at U.S. News & World report where he covers foreign affairs and intelligence matters.
Hugh: "Did John Kerry tell you that he ran guns into Cambodia?"
Kevin Whitelaw: "That's exactly what he told me."
Mr. Whitelaw declined my invitation to appear on my radio program, explaining that he doesn't report on or comment on the presidential campaign.
Can we now agree that John Kerry has engaged in wild claims about his service? Since he told that tale to Mr. Whitelaw, who else has he told it to?

Hugh Hewitt Web Update:
August 17, 2004
Posted at 4:55 PM, Pacific
Another interesting e-mail on Kerry's extravagent claims of secret missions to Cambodia:
"I believe that we must substantiate facts before forwarding informational pieces to others. This is the right thing to do. Accuracy in our assessments is the mark of intellectual honesty and moral clarity. To do so is a mark of honor and credibility and stands in stark juxtaposition to the slanderous falsehoods of those extremists who discredit the charachter of good men and women."
"As a Vietnam veteran who may have boarded Kerry's swift boat or provided air coverage for Kerry, I am aware of some of his shortcoming (a mild description). For instance, in 2003, Kerry publioshed his book, A Call to Service. See page xii:
"'And John [McCain] knew that I had been a Navy officer, commanding a 'swift boat' --a small, fast patrol boat used for counter-insurgency missions-- in the Mekong Delta for two tours of duty.'"
"As written by Kerry, the above statement is false. Kerry was aboard the U.S.S. Gridley from February 1968 to approximately August 1968. The ship did patrol the Tonkin Bay and made one port call to Danang, Vietnam for briefings. Kerry served on PCF swift boats in Vietnam from November 1968 until late March 1969. This four month tour was his only tour in Vietnam on PCF swift boats, nor did he have any other tour in country."
"My interest in this matter? I was the Assistant Navy Intelligence Liason Officer (NILO), Ca Mau -- situated between the U Minh Forest and Nam Can Forest in the Ca Mau Peninsula (sometimes identified as the Mekong Delta) and was selected, but did not serve, as the first NILO Sea Float on the Cua Lon River in the Nam Can. My tour of duty was July 1968 - July 1969."
Signed Dar Weston. Commander, USNR-Ret.
I haven't seen Kerry's book, but I cannot imagine what would lead a guy to so blatantly expand his service on the swift boats from one tour to two. Just weird. And in his own book?

Pathological Liars

http://www.healthyplace.com/Radio/articles/pathological_liars.htm

There is a reason why you are asked in court to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It is because most of the time that is not what people do. Everyone lies sometime. There are many reasons to lie. Sometimes it is to not hurt someone's feelings. Sometimes a lie is for our own advantage. Some people lie in conducting business and in their personal lives. Most adults are aware of when they lie.

Young children sometimes have problems telling fantasy from reality. When a 3-year-old insists that he flew to Mars this morning, he may not be lying on purpose. He may not even be aware that it is a lie. Children with good imaginations often take longer to learn what a lie really is. It is important to work with children to teach them about fantasy and reality, instead of punishing them for these kinds of beliefs.

A pathological liar believes in the lies, at least at the time that she or he is talking. Their stories tend to be very dramatic. They often portray the person as being smarter, braver, more attractive, or more interesting than she or he really is. Sometimes people begin to catch onto pathological liars because of obvious flaws in the stories. A fairly young man will describe his heroics in the Vietnam war. A homely woman will talk about all the men who fell instantly in love with her. Sometimes the flaws may be more subtle and it may take a knowledgeable person to find them. Often it happens that a pathological liar will be caught out at a party by someone who really was a pilot, really lived in Africa, or really was a fashion model.

Suspect a pathological liar if:

the stories seem too dramatic or unrealistic

the lies seem to serve no purpose except to impress people or

the lies can easily be shown up

Sometimes pathological lying appears to be related to physical causes, such as problems in the brain. Other times they appear to be related to low self-esteem. In any case, good diagnosis and treatment is needed. Contact your healthcare provider for assistance and referrals if needed.

FITS HANOI JOHN TO A T.

'Cambodia Man' Speaks Again via Washington Times 8/18/04
Secret missions in Cambodia
By Andrew Antippas
I understand that the campaign of candidate John Kerry is now asserting that not only did Navy Lt. Kerry visit Cambodia in his swift boat in 1968-69, but he performed four missions to drop off agents inside Cambodia. Perhaps, but I don't think so.
In my Aug. 13 column in this paper, I described my job in the American embassy 1968-1970 as the "Cambodia man." My job was to follow events in Cambodia as they impacted the United States in Vietnam. This related in most part to border incidents. However, I did chair, on behalf of the American ambassador, a group known as the "Cambodia Committee," composed of Army, Navy intelligence, CIA and Special Forces representatives. The function of this committee was to supervise authorized cross-border operations — principally insertion of U.S. and Vietnamese Special Forces into the northeastern part of Cambodia and the panhandle of Laos to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This mountainous and jungled area had no civilian population, with the exception of some hill tribe villages. These teams performed very dangerous tasks, and the reaction of the Communists was invariably violent. Most extractions were done under fire.
Main force American units also performed reconnaissance of Communist border concentrations in their areas of operations with Long Range Patrols, known colloquially as "LRPs." Those that probed Cambodian base areas also received violent reactions. The Communist base areas after 1965 were extensive, well camouflaged and frequently underground. When U.S. and Vietnamese forces entered those areas during the incursions of May and June 1970, they encountered fierce resistance when destroying massive amounts of food and material. Military intelligence kept tabs on the more than one dozen base areas in Cambodia principally by signal intercepts, aircraft using side-looking radar, prisoner interrogation and some agent reports. At one Special Forces camp that I visited in the Mekong Delta swamps on the south side of the "Parrot's Beak" of Cambodia, the Green Berets had a ground radar system for monitoring infiltration that could discern humans from cattle as well as direction of movement.
I assisted in the delivery of five separate intelligence dossiers in 1968 on the Cambodian base areas through the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh to the Cambodian government. We know the dossiers had a significant impact on the Cambodians, and we began a low level of cooperation as a result of the information.
The Navy kept track of Communist shipping to Cambodia, and the U.S. mission in Vietnam was persuaded that most of the munitions to the Communist forces in the southern half of South Vietnam were delivered through the Port of Sihanoukville.
Line crossers were not generally used in the populated portions of Cambodia that stretched along the borders of Vietnam's III and IV Corps to the Gulf of Siam because of the concern for the impact on civilians that could enrage Prince Sihanouk, the fiery head of state of Cambodia. Intelligence operatives had great trouble penetrating base areas. Even Cambodian provincial officials were prevented from traveling in their jurisdictions where there were base areas.
This was, by the way, one key reason for the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk in March 1970. His seeming acceptance of Vietnamese Communist usurpation of Cambodian land alienated many of his subjects, including the peasants on the border who were shot at by both sides. The Cambodian farmers detested the land grabbing of the Vietnamese. The relative openness of the terrain also militated against armed groups of Americans scouring the countryside.
I believe, based on the foregoing, that I would have been aware of Navy operations inserting agents into the southern parts of Cambodia.

Andrew Antippas is a combat infantry veteran of the Korean War and served eight of his 32 years in the U.S. Foreign Service working on Cambodia.

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