What did they write?
No, leave him alone...
What we want to do is see if there is any dirt on him. Like evidence that he is participating in a conspiracy to discredit the Swift Vets.
You wouldn't happen to be a newbie who is trolling for threatening letters?
Say for your next Washington Post article?
This, of course, depends on what the meaning of 'is' is.
Have you made the same level of effort to find such documentary evidence as you made to find the evidence you cite in the article? For the sake of accuracy and fairness to all sides?
Signed,
*******
No response forthcoming...
Most likely Rassman "The Remington Ranger",(That is what military clerks called themselves),is the one that actually wrote and typed the citations. See below.
This from:
VIETNAM SPECIAL FORCES/ AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS OTHER VIETNAM VETERANS EX-POWS-KIA/MIA FAMILIES AND FRIENDS AND THE VIETNAMESE COMMUNITY AGAINST KERRY
http://www.vnsfvetakerry.com/
http://www.vnsfvetakerry.com/jim_rassmann.htm
A CQ reader who wishes to remain anonymous sent this over to me this morning. The reader claims that he had Special Forces experience in Viet Nam and has this to say about Rassman:
There are a lot of angles to the Kerry saga. I doubt anyone gets to every question, but some are compelling to me. The question that goes begging today is why was Rassman there at all?
I don't believe SF will take an official position on this, so I'll post what I have heard. I have never bad mouthed fellow SFers before, but I do have these comments from some sources I trust.
Rassman was reportedly the Asst S-1, which means he was the assistant admininistrative officer. Not exactly a key sought after job for an SF officer LOL. In fact I don't recall knowing of any official Asst S-1 officer slots in the field. Jobs like that are created to keep idiots off the teams.
He was supposedly in charge of awards and decorations (A&D) in a field unit. SF didn't issue many, so it was hardly a taxing assignment. The man doing that job at SF HQ RVN was a Sergeant. Giving it to an officer in a field unit as a primary duty is beyond unusual.
He was probably AWOL when he was with Kerry. At best someone may have said, OK go, just to get him out of the way.
My comments and speculation.
If Rassman was an A&D clerk, his knowledge of how to get awards approved was probably very interesting to Kerry. Since reports indicate he wrote the citation for Kerry's SS, I believe this speculation is well-founded.
And how does an SF LT fall out of a 50' boat? I have been through days and weeks of small boat training and drills, we never had anyone fall out.
Rassman says he was under fire. Anytime anyone was shooting within 50 yds of me I always assumed I was the target until I could prove otherwise. Rassman could not do that while in the drink. I will take the word of the other boat crews that there was no enemy fire at all. They had the best view to assess the situation. My mind keeps going back to Rassman's A&D job. He knew if there was no enemy fire there would be no award citations.
This entire operation smells bad to me. Kerry was in command he gets credit for everything his unit did and everything it failed to do. The Swiftvets are getting heavy pressure and questioning. I would like to see a reporter question Rassman in detail.
To me, the Bronze Star story is really the least of Kerry's problems. However, if the official after-action reports ever come out from the other teams there that day, it may prove rather embarrassing for Rassman, regardless of how many times he can say Spaeth Communications and John McCain in a 1500-word essay. And that's really the crux of the matter: we need to see the entire file on John Kerry to determine who's telling the truth. Is it John Kerry and a handful of people, or over 200 combat veterans who were also there and saw him in action?
Until John Kerry releases his complete military records, the credibility of the Swiftvets will continue to grow. As long as Kerry keeps answering their well-documented allegations with nothing but intimidation tactics, his credibility will be completely suspect. Jim Rassman cannot save John Kerry from himself.
Posted by Captain Ed at 09:56 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/
For those interested, O'neal on Hannity just mentioned that this reporter and others from the Washington Post were invited to meet with the Swift-Vets to discuss this story and more as they were in DC. The Post declined to send a reporter.