When swift boats encountered enemy fire did they routinely call for combat support (such as arty or air). If so would those units have after action reports for the Rassman rescue incident? If they normally call for support, but in this case there are no records for any such requests, does that imply there was no or insignificant enemy fire?
One of the major disputes is whether there was enemy fire during the time Kerry picked up Rassman and Thurlow brought the mine damaged PCF 3 under control.
The online version of Dobbs' Washington Post "Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete" articles includes a copy of the after action report. The last section describes the casualties.
Most of the casualties described seem to be of the type caused by the mine explosion rather than by intense, heavy automatic and small arms fire from both shores.
I served with the First of the Ninth Air Cav (the chopper unit depicted in 'Apocalypse Now'). If there was heavy enemy fire against sitting ducks (boats) in the water, there would have been more and different types of wounds than those described.
The Viet Cong were not such bad shots as to miss that many times during a two hour rescue attempt. So either those Swifties were the luckiest bunch alive, or the fire was not so intense.