Soldier with Kerry in '68 says he earned first medal

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.

"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."

"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."

Kerry claims to have arrived at Coastal Division 14 for duty on Nov. 17th, 1968. Approximately two weeks after his arrival, he either volunteers or is sent on the Dec. 2nd mission. There were apparently two boats on this mission as the Boston Globe story of Kerry's life states that Kerry's smaller boat was named "Batman" and the larger back-up craft was named "Robin." "Robin" had some engine problems and "Batman's" departure was delayed until both boats could leave together. The article also says that Schachte oversaw the mission, which means it's possible that he was on the second boat. Since it's previously been stated on other threads and in other articles, that no one went out on a mission alone, and that there were always at lease one other boat or more that went along on these outings, it stands to reason that "Robin" was close enough to see what was going on. The question is, if Kerry, Runyon and Zaldonis were on "Batman," who was on "Robin" that night?

It was approved on February 28, 1969

I don't get your point. I was stating that Kerry was officially awarded his first PH on February 28 for injuries received on Dec 2. It took almost three months to process compared to far less time for the other two. The reason is that Coastal Division Fourteen (Hibbard) didn't approve it. Kerry must have shopped around the award when he went to Coastal Division 11. Kerry has never released an offical casualty report for the first PH. We have the casualty reports for the other two.

I realize that Kerry could receive his orders to leave on March 26 without having the PH officially approved by his command until April 17.

FYI Kerry's certificates for his PHs were all signed on Aug 12, 1969.

Three excerpts from John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi's Unfit For Command were published in the Washington Times Aug 18-20 2004. You can search the archives and read these articles, which are relevant to the fraudulent awards, kerry deemed necessary for his politicasl ambitions. kerry will never fill out SF 180 pertaining to his 4 months in country authorizing the release of all his records (unless he can alter the reports) so his accounts true or not are moot. What we should focus on are those incidents, actions and words that are a matter of record and he can't refute.

For example, he has given 5 accounts on his great Cambodian adventure, two or three accounts on the sampan incident and at least two accounts on the mine that hit PCF 3. He met with the North Vietnamese in Paris in violation of the UCMJ - a court martial offence. He was present at a Vets Against the War meeting where there was discussion about killing US Senators. He denied it and then was caught lying about that. That's conspiracy to commit murder and kerry was still technically in the US Navy. He lied about being the Vice Chairman on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and this lie surfaced after he was charged with being AWOL from these meetings. He used the power of his office to have a fire hydrant removed from the front of his Boston mansion to around the corner. He deprived the little people of a parking space so he could have two. He went to the front of a grocery line jumping in front of the little people saying he was an important US Senator and was in a hurry. He has never introduced a bill as a senator, received the most liberal voting record,has voted to cut and gut our intelligence and military while voting against tax cuts. I have received documented evidence of his intelligence voting record and an account by a USAF pilot, Chris Thomas, who ferried kerry on a POW trip to Viet Nam. I'll post them if you would like.

The point is, kerry is one sick, insecure puppy. He sees himself as no one else does - a great warrior and leader carrying the world on his shoulders to Utopia. Problem is kerry has no track record; everthing is fabricated and based on lies that in his very infertile brain have become the truth. Anyone pointing the facts out instantly is accused of calling kerry unpatriotic. Of course we are reminded daily that kerry served in Viet Nam. Did you know that kerry served in Viet Nam?

Probably get more traction if ads centered on facts kerry can't lie or spin his way out of. Remember this election is not about Iraq or the economy but instead of who will appoint federal judges for the next 4 years.

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