Posted on 08/21/2004 6:27:02 AM PDT by John Jorsett
Trotwood, Ohio - An Ohio factory worker who was with John Kerry on a dangerous night mission 36 years ago in Vietnam said he has no doubt Kerry was grazed in a firefight and deserves his first Purple Heart for a combat injury.
"We were on about a 14-foot boat with an outboard motor. We started out, taking a guess, around 10 p.m. We were sup posed to sneak up and check sampans," said Pat Runyon, a 58-year-old grandfather from Eaton, a small southwestern Ohio town near the Indiana border.
Runyon, an enlisted man who served on Swift boats in Vietnam, was not a regular member of Kerry's crew.
He said in an interview Sunday he somehow was chosen - "Let me tell you, I didn't volunteer" - to go out on the Dec. 2, 1968, mission, called a "skim op" in Navy slang.
The small, flat-bottomed boat - Runyon called it a "skimmer" - carried three men - Kerry in command, Bill Zaledonis on a machine gun and Runyon operating the outboard motor.
Once in place on the river, the three U.S. sailors paddled and drifted. Covered by the darkness, they hid to stop sampans, small vessels common in Southeast Asia. Guerillas used the sampans to smuggle weapons in the Mekong River Delta.
Runyon said Kerry was wounded after one vessel tried to avoid an inspection.
"Lt. Kerry said, 'I'm going to pop a flare, and when I do, I want that engine started,' " Runyon said. But the outboard would not crank. Meanwhile, the sampan's crew steered it to the riverbank, and people started running on the shore. Runyon said shooting broke out.
Somehow, Kerry's weapon stopped firing. Runyon thinks he ran out of ammunition. He said Kerry bent down to pick up another gun and got hit in the arm.
"It wasn't a serious wound," Runyon said, and Kerry was able to start shooting again. When the firefight was over, Runyon said Kerry told him all he felt was a "burning sensation."
Runyon said he remembers the incident clearly because it was the first time he had been in combat. "I hadn't seen any kind of action or anything," he said.
He said Kerry, Zaledonis and himself were the only men aboard. When he got the motor started, they took off. He said the outboard was in bad condition and did not have a handle to steer with. "I had to wrap my arms around it, like hugging it, to turn it," he recalled.
Runyon now works the second shift at a plant that makes auto parts in Eaton. He works in the shipping department.
He is supporting Democratic nominee Kerry for president, but said he is not a Democrat and has never been active in politics. He said he and Kerry met for the first time since that night in 1968 at a rally in Dayton this year.
Runyon said he introduced himself to the Massachusetts senator and Kerry did not remember him. "When I talked to him about that night, he remembered the incident but not my name. He just eased up once he knew I was who I said I was."
Runyon was at a Democratic picnic Sunday in Trotwood, a Dayton suburb, where he told the small gathering of party activists that an anti-Kerry veterans group was smearing the senator with false charges. "It's very poor to try and discredit him after [36] years," Runyon said. "That's very poor."
Runyon said that firefight with Kerry is his brush with fame.
"I saw a nice, quiet guy who knew he was in command and didn't flaunt it. He could make a decision, and he made the right one because we got out of there alive. That's all I can tell you."
Senility sets in again. I wanted to also ask: when you look at the fact that the 3 Purple Hearts were received within a 20 day period, and that Kerry had actually been denied the first Purple Heart, but pursued it after he left the Division, why aren't more questions being raised about this timeline? I'm wondering if the award of these 3 PH's in such a short timespan isn't worth mention in the Guiness World Records book.
I might add that the so called injuries justifying the three PHs occurred on December 2 (approved Feb 28), Feb 20 (approved March 5), and March 13 (approved April 17). What is interesting that Kerry requested to leave on March 17 and left Vietnam on March 26 before the third award was even approved on April 17.
Boy, he couldn't wait to get his a$$ out of 'Nam could he? Chicken $hit that he is.
Re the twenty days: I think you are mixing up the dates when the "injuries" occurred with the dates awarded. Although the first PH was approved on Feb 28, the PH is for injuries occurred on Dec 2.
Exactly right. O'Neill makes that point. Kerry told Brinkley that it was an agonizing decision for him to decide to leave his shipmates behind and after two weeks, he decided to leave because he could be more effective in stopping the war being in the US. The only problem is that Kerry was "wounded" on March 13 and a request was sent to BUPERS on March 17 for him to be reassigned based on 3 PHs. Kerry must have put his request to leave almost immediately to have the command in Saigon request his transfer just four days later. The guy is a fraud and maybe nuts.
I had suspected it was because it was just a goofy training mission
OK. Thanks. Normally, an AAR is only filed after enemy action or a major event.
Johnson was awarded his Silver Star for that one combat mission on June 9, 1942, on a bombing run in which 11 American B-26s attacked a Japanese base in Lae, New Guinea. It was his only combat experience in an eight-month military career.
The source for most accounts of what happened is a book titled "The Mission," published in 1964 after Johnson became president.
Based on the crew's firsthand account, authors Martin Caidin and Edward Hymoff painted a vivid picture of how the B-26 bomber -- hobbled by a failed generator -- limped back to base, fending off attacking Japanese fighters, using its crippled guns and evasive maneuvers.
In the book, Johnson is described as "cool as ice" and "laughing" in the face of a withering attack by Japanese Zeros.
"Bullets were singing through the plane all about us," waist gunner Lillis Walker told the authors, who are now dead. "We were being hit by those cannon shells, and he was -- well -- just calm and watching everything." graphic
The passage was a gripping account of courage under fire -- except, according to the sole surviving crew member -- it was pure fiction.
"No way," said retired Army Staff Sgt. Bob Marshall. "No, that story was made up, put in there in my mind by the author of the book. 'Cause we never seen Zero, was never attacked. Nothing."
"The Mission" authors portrayed Marshall, a 19-year-old gunner on Johnson's plane, as overcoming the loss of electrical power by using brute strength to aim his guns against the Japanese.
But Marshall insists it never happened.
On Page 39, the book also states that After Action and casualty reports were required whenever hostile fire occurred and/or casualties were sustained. None of these reports were ever filed on this incident. That's because there was no hostile fire, casualty or action on Dec. 2nd. Only a medical treatment form and a PH certificate signed 3 months later have been produced.
Amazing. They can't even mention that this entire episode is in dispute by the Commander of the Swift Boats as well Schachte, who says he was there (and letter went on to become Judge Advocate General of the Navy)? Amazing.
This is from an article on Human Events web site:
"The truth is that at the time of this incident Kerry was an officer in command (OinC) under training, aboard the skimmer using the call sign 'Robin' on the operation, with now-Rear Admiral William Schachte using the call sign 'Batman,' who was also on the skimmer," the authors write. "After Kerry's M-16 jammed, Kerry picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and fired a grenade too close, causing a tiny piece of shrapnel (one to two centimeters) to barely stick in his arm. Schachte berated Kerry for almost putting someone's eye out. There was no hostile fire of any kind, nor did Kerry on the way back mention to PCF [Swift Boat] OinC Mike Voss, who commanded the PCF that had towed the skimmer, that he was wounded."
This is from an August 16th Robert Novak column in the Chicago Sun Times:
By the time (Kerry defender Lanny)Davis appeared on CNN's ''Crossfire'' on Thursday, he had read the book and changed his emphasis. Davis was appearing for the first time on television next to O'Neill. He hammered home the point that nobody who ever had been in the same boat with Kerry has criticized his war service. O'Neill reiterated his contention in the book that Lt. William Schachte (later a rear admiral) was aboard the small whaler as Kerry's training officer and ''witnessed Kerry, with an M-79 [grenade launcher], fire and wound himself.'' Davis interrupted, shouting, ''That was a false statement.'' At Davis' suggestion, I telephoned the two crew members who said they were on the whaler that night: Patrick Runyon and William Zaldonis. Each said they did not know whether there was enemy fire and did not know how Kerry was wounded. But each said he was certain that they alone were in the boat with Kerry and did not even know Schachte.
When I called O'Neill, he told me Schachte was sure he was aboard the whaler and would speak out later.
It will be interesting to hear Admiral Schachte's version, if he does come forward. That could be devestating.
I have confirmed the comment about him being JAG. Here is Schachte's bio from his law firm web site:
Bill Schachte (R. Adm. USN Ret.) has an extensive background in Naval and maritime issues.
After law school, he began his legal career assigned to the Naval Legal Service Office, Charleston, South Carolina. After receiving his Masters of Law, Rear Admiral Schachte served as the Head of the Law of the Sea Branch, International Law Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General. He was next assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs (ISA) and served as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the UN Conference on Law of the Sea. In 1984, Admiral Schachte was assigned as the Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General (Military Personnel) where he served as the JAG Corps community manager and was also responsible for managing the LDO (Law) and Legalmen (LN) communities. In 1986, he was assigned as the Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General (International Law), and additionally appointed by the Secretary of Defense as the Deputy DOD Representative for Ocean Policy Affairs. In May 1987, Admiral Schachte was appointed Acting DOD Representative for Ocean Policy Affairs while continuing to serve as Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General (International Law). Subsequently, the Secretary of Defense designated him DOD Representative for Ocean Policy Affairs again, representing both the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in that capacity until August 1989. In October 1992 Admiral Schachte was appointed Acting Judge Advocate General of the Navy. He served in these four assignments until he retired in October 1993.
During his distinguished Naval career, Admiral Schachte was a Vietnam volunteer and served in combat from January to December 1968. He also served as Executive/Operations Officer for Coastal Division Fourteen, Republic of Vietnam.
Admiral Schachte's personal decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with Gold Star (in lieu of second award), the Bronze Star with "V", the Meritorious Service Medal with Gold Star (in lieu of second award) and the Combat Action Ribbon.
He might be constrained from getting publicly involved as a partner in this firm. We'll have to see.
No. It's just a matter of when he knew. He obviously knows now, but did he know then?
Cannon to right of him,
Cannon to left of him,
Cannon in front of him
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
So simple isn't it? Oh wait, truth is not on sKerry's side........
And as soon as the check from Mama T clears, he'll tell us more!
Correct.
Fraudulent Purple Heart.
Thank you.
I'm going to say this yet again and be ignored again. We have a big-time "he said, he said" here FRiends! Nothing is going to be unequivocally proven to most voters. There will be veterans blasting Kerry and veterans supporting Kerry. The overall effect will be nil or even a backlash against Bush due to media scorn. I can't believe y'all can't see where this is headed - the press is going to shred the Swifties and "vindicate" Kerry by trotting out those who served with Kerry and support him. The vietnam conflict is NOT going to be resolved or avenged here. Why are we playing to the one, single, solitary perceived strength of Kerry?
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