Jake Tapper Claims Vietnam Swift Boat Vets Now Call Selves 'River Boat' Vets

Saturday, April 9, 2011 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

ABC News White House reporter Jake Tapper wrote on Twitter this evening:

"Talking to a Vietnam Navy Vet who says Swift Boat veterans now call themselves "River Boat" vets bc of 2004 campaign."

Tapper did not explain what about the 2004 campaign--John Kerry or the group that challenged Kerry's Vietnam service record, the Swift Boats Vets and POWs for Truth--have caused them to change how they describe themselves.

[FreedomPoster]

Good post, great summary. Bump.

[FreedomPoster]

Wow, that’s just amazing. Look behind the scenes, and it’s just more piles of slime.

Thanks for all the interesting follow up. I’ve always considered the SBVT the most under-reported (of course) aspect of the 2004 campaign. I was a SBVT contributor. IIRC, I gave them the same amount of money I gave the Bush campaign.

[stylin19a]

thanks...I lived on the swift vet message board for a long time.

To this day, it still twists my shorts that the main stream media never reported on the fact that:

the VVLF deposed Campbell and he admitted that it was the first time he or anybody, (including John F’n Kerry) from VVAW was ever put under oath...nobody from VVAW ever gave "sworn" testimony to Senate or House.
Under oath, Campbell admitted he never personally seen or participated in any “war crimes”.

Discovery and depositions are pretty powerful stuff and kerry and his surrogates dropped all lawsuits.

I wonder who Tapper is talking with ?

[RaceBannon]

SF180 or Birth Certificate

Same issue, same response: as long as we make the opponents present their dental records from the Texas Air National Guard, who has to follow the rules?

[R. Scott]

Their website is still titled “Swiftboat Vets.
I was a member during the campaign, I even contributed. Like many I was not on Swift Boats but on an Army LCU. We too ran the rivers but with far less armament and seldom any support. If they ever change the name to River Boat vets I’ll have no objection.

[rlmorel]

Like you, I feel very strongly about the Swift boat vets… I thought that what they did during the 2004 campaign did indeed save this country from the disaster of a John Kerry presidency. (It's hard to believe that there could be a worse person in the White House, but that is clearly the case with Barack Obama…)

For about a year, I drove around with this on my window appear in Massachusetts:

To the Massachusetts moon bats credit (if indeed credit can be given in any way to them) my car never got vandalized, but I did have one incident that makes me laugh every time I think about it. One morning as I was driving into work, a car passed me on my right. As I looked over I saw a hand pressed up against the driver side window with the middle finger extended. To my astonishment, it “looked like a little old lady with a gray bun on her head! (In retrospect, I'm not sure she was actually a little old lady, but one of those 50+ year old aging moon bats, but when they look like that, you can never really tell…) I'll be honest, I very nearly did run off the road!

The night before The Gathering of Eagles in 2007, I had the honor, privilege and pleasure to meet a number of The Swift Boat Veterans at the counter-Code Pink demonstration in front of Walter Reed hospital. I got a chance to talk to them face to face for several hours, shake their hands and extend a genuine and heartfelt “thank you” to them. It was special, being able to stand up there by the side of the road, holding an American flag by their side, and being able to hear their point of view on things.

They told me the story of how John Kerry showed up at their reunion, and he walked in wearing a leather flight jacket expecting everybody to make him the center of attention… instead, all The Swift Boat veterans were saying “Who the hell does HE think he is?”

You know, I always felt that these men could have just kept their mouths shut. They could've just stayed at home and swore at the TV like many of us did. But instead, they got off their rear ends and went back to work in the service of their country. Many of them took heat for this, and there was that one fellow who lost his job because of it.

I say, God Bless The Swift Boat Veterans!

[newfreep]

"...instead, all The Swift Boat veterans were saying “Who the hell does HE think he is?”

That was Calypso Louie Farrahkan who said that to O-zero.

[kabar]

There were two kinds of craft used in Vietnam, the Swift boats (PCFs) and PBRs. In the beginning, the Swift boats were used on the coast and did not venture inland to any great degree on the rivers. The PBRs (patrol boat river) were smaller than the swift boats and were run by enlisted personnel. They were used on the rivers and were part of the brown water navy.

Patrol Boat River

Patrol Boat, River (also referred to as Pibber), or PBR, is the United States Navy designation for a small rigid-hulled patrol boat used in the Vietnam War from March 1966 until the end of 1971. They were deployed in a force that grew to 250 boats, the most common craft in the River Patrol Force, Task Force 116, and were used to stop and search river traffic in areas such as the Mekong Delta, the Rung Sat Special Zone, the Saigon River and in I Corps, in the area assigned to Task Force Clearwater, in an attempt to disrupt weapons shipments. In this role they frequently became involved in firefights with enemy soldiers on boats and on the shore, were used to insert and extract Navy SEAL teams, and were employed by the United States Army's 458th Transportation Company, known as the 458th Seatigers.

Swift Boat

Patrol Craft Fast (PCF), also known as Swift Boats, were all-aluminum, 50-foot (15 m) long, shallow-draft vessels operated by the U.S. Navy's Brown Water Navy for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations during the Vietnam War.

Note: When Kerry volunteered for Swift Boats, they were used on the coast. By the time he arrived in Vietnam, they started moving inland on the rivers, which is why he was desperate to figure out how to get out of Vietnam as fast as he could, i.e., just 4 months after he arrived.

[calcowgirl]

Sometimes I feel like the 700-year-old Knight Templar in one of the Indiana Jones films — the Last Defender of the Swift Boat Veterans....

If you were, I'd consider that a badge of honor.
You performed a great service, and not just keeping JF'nK out of the White House.
You helped educate many people, including me. I am very thankful for that.

[MasterGunner01]

There were three waterborne elements to the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam: (1) Task Force 115 — Operation MARKET TIME — where the PCF or Swift boats were; (2) TF-116 — Operation GAME WARDEN — where the PBRs and Spec Ops people were; and TF-117 — Mobile Riverine Force — a joint USN-Army 9th Infantry Division operation with troops and modified landing craft. The fourth element was the Naval Support Activities (NSA) and Advanced Tactical Support Bases (ATSB).

Aft first, the Swifts (PCFs) were used for offshore interdiction of supplies. Later they were sent into the canals of the Ca Mau Peninsula which was a very dangerous place for them. The jungle grew down to the water's edge (perfect for ambushes), the canals were subject to tidal drops that could leave the boat high and dry until the next tide, and (3) the canals would narrow so it was impossible to turn the 50-foot PCF around.

The “Swiftie” crews are bona fide members of the Brown Water Navy (aka “River Rats”) band of brothers. To learn more about these three task forces and NSA/ATSB, go to: www.warboats.org, Vietnam War, and scroll down to “The Brown Water Navy in Vietnam.”

[Interesting Times]

For anyone who might be interested, here are my articles on the Winter Soldier Investigation and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth:

February 24, 2004: Doonesbury and the Winter Soldier (WinterSoldier.com, TownHall.com)

March 9, 2004: The Rest of the Kerry Transcript (WinterSoldier.com, GOPUSA)

May 16, 2004: Swift Boat Veterans and the Media Iron Curtain (WinterSoldier.com, SwiftVets.com)

June 4, 2004: Coordinating With the Enemy: Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Paris and Hanoi (WinterSoldier.com - with Jerry Corsi)

June 9, 2004: American Genocide: Fonda, Kerry, and the war crimes propaganda campaign (WinterSoldier.com)

August 18, 2004: The War Hero That Wasn’t (FrontPage Magazine Interview)

September 6, 2004: Yesterday’s Lies: Steve Pitkin and the Winter Soldiers (WinterSoldier.com)

October 26, 2004: John Kerry and the VVAW: Hanoi’s American Puppets? (WinterSoldier.com - with Jerry Corsi)

November 18, 2004: They Served Twice: The Return of the Vietnam Veterans (WinterSoldier.com)

March 23, 2006: The Washington Post and the Winter Soldiers (WinterSoldier.com, FrontPage Magazine)

August 15, 2006: Still Slandering the Troops (WinterSoldier.com, FrontPage Magazine)

January 30, 2008: To Set The Record Straight (FrontPage Magazine Interview)

February 25, 2008: Newly Discovered Army Reports Discredit “Winter Soldier” Claims (WinterSoldier.com, FrontPage Magazine)

March 13, 2008: Did the LA Times Conceal Evidence of Winter Soldier Lies? – Scott Swett (WinterSoldier.com, FrontPage Magazine)

August 21, 2008: “Swiftboating,” Media Myths and the 2004 Campaign (Accuracy in Media)

May 25, 2009: Media still lying about the Swift Boat Veterans (American Thinker)

-----

Then, of course, there the book Tim Ziegler and I wrote: To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry

We're overstocked on the book - drop me a freepmail for a great deal on a box of 'em.

[Interesting Times]

Thanks.

[MEG33]

AMEN!

[Interesting Times]

The VVLF (for which I was briefly the executive director) did obtain testimony under oath from a number of “winter soldiers” that completely undermined their war crimes claims. Unfortunately, the group then proceeded to run themselves out of money and out of business. Unless someone comes up with money to pay the attorneys, it’ll be a long time before any of that information sees the light of day.

[zot]

Thanks for the links to your articles.

[bitt]

ah, those were the good ol’ days of politics..when the libs only lied, cheated, and manipulated the American PEOPLE to achieve their ends...and the good SBVets managed to give the people a voice..

Now the ‘progressives’ are much more sophisticated..controlling the SOS in states to manipulate the votes, ...placing czars over Congress’ oversight to take over FCC,.. blackmailing the Congress and Executive Branch that they’ll crash the financial systm of the world if they don’t ‘go along’ with their global objectives ..

let me know if you all want to start some trouble again..!

[JMJJR]

That’s were my campaign donations went in 04.

Welcome Home Brothers !

[bitt]

read the thread, buy a book!

see#51

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!