Posted on 09/14/2004 2:20:26 AM PDT by NavVet
For more than 30 years, Kerry has portrayed a heroic version of a life and death struggle -- of staring down a suspected guerilla who was about to fire upon Kerry's swift boat. It was kill. Or be killed. At least, that's the version Kerry tells.
Eyewitnesses offer a far different account. They allege Kerry shot a wounded teenager retreating from battle.
Kerry has made public, hundreds of pages of official Navy documents to bolster his many claims. Conspicuous by its absence is the official after action report of what actually happened that day. The after action report written by John Kerry, himself.
In an exclusive, The Point has obtained this document from U.S. Navy archives (you can see it here). The pertinent section reads:
"PCF 94 beached in center of ambush in front of small path when Viet Cong sprung up from bunker 10 feet from unit. Man ran with weapon towards hootch. Forward M-60 machine gunner wounded man in leg. Officer-in-charge, LTjg Kerry, jumped ashore and gave pursuit while other units saturated area with fire and beached placing assault parties ashore. Kerry chased VC inland behind hootch and shot him while he fled -- capturing one B-40 rocket launcher with round in chamber."
So there you have it. The official record written by John Kerry supports what the critics have alleged rather than the John Wayne Kerry version the Massachusetts liberal has been telling.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscentral.tv ...
Ouch, this is going to leave a mark.
Just to add a touch to my last. I don't believe an AAR is part of an indivduals service jacket. It belongs to the "unit", and ultimately the USN. These are available via an FOI request. The SBVT have their hands on every record they could gather through FOI and it's these records that will cook Kerry.
Getting Kerry's records would be interesting and perhaps even humorous, but his records are not what the SBVTs case is based upon. They have plenty of ammo, and it will be used as needed.
The Beslan Terrorists must have read and been inspired by John Kerry's back shooting report.
This was sent to me in an email regarding Kerry's records. Subject: Kerry's Discharge
The enclosed brings up a new issue. I had noticed that his discharge
was dated in 2001 but didn't think much about it. The enclosed raises
some interesting aspects.
"Unlike McCain, Bush, and Gore, while Kerry has adamantly refused to
authorize the release of his military records. Most think it's because
of his phony battle medals. I think the real reason is below. He was
not granted an Honorable Discharge until March 2001, almost 30 years
after his ostensible service term had ended! This is very much out of
the ordinary, and highly suspect.
There are 5 classes of Discharge: Honorable, General, Other Than Honorable,
Bad Conduct, and Dishonorable. My guess is that he was Discharged in
the '70s, but not Honorably. He appealed this sometime while Clinton
was doing trouser-tricks in the Oval Office. Political pressure was
applied, and the Honorable Discharge was then granted. His file is
probably rife with reports of this, submissions and hearings on the
appeal, reports of his "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy, along
with protests that were filed with respect to his alleged valor under fire.
This will blow up in his face before October 15th.
Isn't this incident one of those that Kerry supposedly recreated for his camera? I've always wondered, if there was so much sniper fire at the time the incident occurred (as reported in Kerry's after-action reports), why Kerry put himself and his men in harms way, by going back to those known hot spots just to get a few feet of film. I've never been in the military, but I worked in a para-military government position, and my first responsibility as a Sergeant was the safety and security of the officers under my supervision.
Yeah, they figured if a U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate can do it, so can they.
With all due respect, the three points above have been debunked repeatedly (seems like they're coming up in every Kerry thread this week). You need to carefully inspect the original docs at johnkerry.com or the election section on Findlaw.
1) Kerry's enlistment contract calls for reserve duty of 48 drills OR 17 days active OR whatever other service the Navy deems suitable.
2) The UCMJ does not apply to reserve personnel except when performing their reserve activities.
3) Kerry's discharge papers are dated 1978. Where does this 2001 date come from?
Because I could type, when I got home from Vietnam in 1971 I was assigned to the Ft Riley post where servicemen were awaiting discharges other than Honorable, which is the term for any discharge below the Honorable level. Most men who got less then honorable discharges got them because they were offered an opportunity to accept a certain level of punishment or accept an Undesirable Discharge, which was the most common and it had the added caveat of "FOR THE GOOD OF THE SERVICE". If they had clean Vietnam service under their belt they would usually get a General Discharge (under Honorable Conditions), which meant they kept their veterans benefits. On rare occasions, in which there was violence or serious criminal behavior they would get Bad Conduct discharges. Honorable Discharges are extremely rare, inspite of the fact that term gets thrown around a lot. About 99 percent of the discharges were based on drug use.
It is highly unlikely Kerry got a less than Honorable discharge. He was an officer and for him to get a bad discharge would have required a Courts Martial and some egregious conduct. Had he been given a bad discharge based on his anti war activities there would have been a Courts Martial and considering his profile at the time it would have been highly publicized. The only situation I can imagine that would have left him with a less than honorable discharge is if he was being threatened with a Courts Martial and was offered a General Discharge as an escape. I have to believe he would have loved being the martyr and would have turned the entire affair into a platform.
I have a feeling that you are correct.
Thank you for clarifying that...I will make sure this information is relayed to my friend. Gee, I dont want to be another Dan Blather!
Hey John, you better put some ice on that.
IMHO they recreated the incidents on Phu Quoc Island, which is where An Thoi is. An Thoi was where CD11 was headquartered. Most PCF missions were from an LST in the Cua Song Bai Hap or from An Thoi. There was no way a LtJG would take a PCF out from the LST for a joy ride to take pictures.
Besides, I consider him a coward. He took those films in a totally safe area and Phu Quoc Island was the only place available to him.
http://www.thegantelope.com/html/KV2.htm
Thanks for that info. I particularly like the link to The Hitchhiker's Guide to
John Kerry's Vietnam Service. What a great title for a book.
Unless the wounded teenager was running backwards, then John Fn Kerry shot the kid in the back!
And for this he got a medal? Not for heroic!
OUCH!!! THAT'S GONNA LEAVE A MARK!
Thanks for the map pointers.
Since you've looked into it so carefully, wondering if you know where PCF patrols operated from Sa Dec. Would they have been down to Long Xuyen, Chau Phu, and Chau Doc? Or were those places patrolled later (after Kerry left) as Slingshot progressed into March/April 1969?
I haven't memorized Kerry's short VN history, but it looks like the majority of his tenure was at An Thoi/Ha Tien and further south near Ca Mau.
An aside: It's kind of weird that in a mere 4 months he was in Cam Ranh, Cat Lo, Sa Dec, An Thoi, and Ca Mau.
I wish Kerry would sign the 180 and clear up all the speculation. There must be something in his records he does not want the voters to see...I am waiting for a October surprise.
Check this out!!
In addition to Kerry's Silver Star, his crew received TWO Bronze Stars and THREE Navy Commendation Medals. The 3 PCFs were loaded with troops. Why did the OinC of any PCF leave his command?
This is good stuff. Freepers--please post all the Kerry versions of this story for comparison. I suspect that his defenders will point to the recovered rocket as evidence that Kerry saved his crew.
Of more interest to me is the AAR for the so-called "Sampan Incident" where Kerry shot up a mother and baby, then supposedly wrote it up as a VC kill. I believe this is the primary reason he cannot sign the 180, although the dishonorable discharge stuff has gotta sting too.
bttt
Also, is this new news? Is this the first time the after action report has been available?
I think you are correct in pointing out the different treatment of officers and enlisted men in the type of discharges issued. One real possibility in Senator Kerry's case is that he "resigned for the good of the service". In that case, he would have been issued an honorable discharge with a notation in the reason for discharge section. An upgraded discharge could have later been issued to remove the notation about "resignation for the good of the service." I do know this is one of the few times the Veterans Administration refuses to pay benefits based on an honorable discharge. (See 38 CFR 3.12(C)(3).
I don't know anything about after-action reports. But I have some questions. How do they know Kerry wrote it himself? Why was it not available before? Is it real?
Those in the MSM and liberal cheering squad who got burned by the fake Killian memos would like to see the same thing happen to us. So we need to be sure that these are authentic.
Shooting a guy in the back, who is running away WITH A ROCKET is not dishonorable.
Should you wait until the guy runs behind a tree and aims the rocket at another Swift boat?
If this guy was running away to FLEE, he would have dropped the rocket. It's instinct, life and death, if this rocket is slowing you down, get rid of it.
The VC was likely going to use the rocket again, and Kerry did not want to wait for the smoking gun before he protected his comrades.
I've never been in war, but I, like the president, will not dispute that it took GUTS to leave his boat, all alone, with an unknown number of enemy all around. Kerry did not know this guy with the RPG was alone, but he knew he had to take him out before that VC had a chance to re-position himself for a better shot at Kerry's comrades with the RPG.
I hate Kerry. I think what he did after the war was treason.
But what happened IN Viet Nam, to me, is off limits.
Thanks.
I agree. Executing someone hit with a .50 calibre is most likely an act of kindness. He shouldn't have earned a medal for it, that's a bit of pandering.
I agree his post Viet Nam activity is the problem. I do not think the Navy gives honorable discharges to Traitors.
Clinton appointees may have entered the "appeal" process, but Kerry Needs to Sign Form 180.
Dan Rather, demand Kerry sign the form!
Why are Leftist Democrats embracing a man who killed one of their own? They supported the VC and hoped they would defeat us in the war.
I really HATE to defend this POS Kerry, but here goes. Look at the citations that American soldiers have recieved for the Medal of Honor and other decorations. I am consistently amazed at how many of them were awarded for actions performed after they recieved serious near incapacitating wounds and injuries, during which they killed numerous enemy soldiers.
I was on a daily mine sweep mission on the DMZ near a ville close to FSB A-4, in Sep 0f 1970 with a platoon of Mech Infantry grunts. I was a tank commander on an M48A3 tank with the only .50 cal MG in the operation. We were ambushed by some NVA on what had to be a botched operation with a greatly insufficient force. They opened up with their only RPG7 from 75 yards off the road, and I immediately shot back with the cupola mounted .50 at the backblast from the RPG. The grunts shot back and did a beautiful couter-ambush SOP. They killed 8 NVA and captured 2 after a 15 minute firefight. One of the captured NVA died shortly afterwards had been the one with the RPG. His leg had been blown off by the burst from my .50 MG. That gun had a ruptured cartridge case after the first 10 round burst which put it out of action for the rest of the fight. The whole time you could see backblasts from the RPG as this guy kept firing and changing his location in the brush by half hopping and crawling, despite a near blown off leg.
A wounded, determined man can still pose a geat threat to you despite severe wounds. I don't know if that was the case with Kerry, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt untill I find out different. His actions didn't justify a Silver star any more than mine did.
I served has a tank commander on an M48A3 tank on the DMZ in Vietnam. I killed enemy soldiers with the cupola mounted Browning M2 50 caliber machine gun that it was equipped with. My gunner killed enemy soldiers with 90 mm canister rounds from the main gun. I don't care what John Kerry says or implied at the Winter Soldier hearings, and in an interview on the Dick Cavett show, I am not a war criminal, nor was my gunner. When I later transferred to a Mech infantry outfit, I directed H&I mortar and artillery fire on suspected enemy routes of movement. I am not a war criminal for having done that either.
I will never vote for a man who has so calumnied his comrades in arms, met in Paris with officials of the NLF, an organization that was killing his comrades in arms, for his personal political gain. Benedict Arnold was a great hero at the Battle of Saratoga, but that does not change the fact that he was also a traitor. I do believe that Kerry's actions gave aid and comfort to the enemy.
rebump
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