Posted on 08/19/2011 8:31:48 AM PDT by Interesting Times
Last August, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus revoked a Silver Star medal formerly held by retired Navy Captain Wade R. Sanders. In a short, vague memorandum to the Chief of Naval Personnel, Mabus cited "subsequently determined facts and evidence surrounding both the incident for which the award was made and the processing of the award itself" as the reason. Such an action by the Navy is virtually without precedent.
There was no press release and no announcement. Eleven months later, a bare-bones report was finally published by the Navy Times. American Thinker picked up the story from WinterSoldier.com, and after Matt Drudge followed suit, it propagated rapidly.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
If there was a Silver Star, there has to be a citition. I’ve been everywhere and haven’t found it.
it was originally reported as an upgrade for his Bronze Star.
I haven’t been able to find his Bronze Star citation either.
I guess he gets to keep the Bronze ?
Ah..so he was in a position to fake the docs..instead of just lie abouut his heroism...
The Navy should correct the way it keeps its records .
No surprise this was one of Kerry’s biggest supporters.
Thank you. I think it has a significant portion of the inside story.
The citation the Navy provided in response to a FOIA request is linked in the article.
That seems to have been for a separate incident. No action was taken on Sanders' Bronze Star.
HOLY CRAP. Thanks alot ! next time I’ll read the whole story.
During the phoney skerry’s run for the WH the phoney Sanders and I exchanged some rather heated emails when I called BS on lurches purple hearts. He was persistent in his criticism of me....then when I saw years later he was going to prison for being a child predator I looked up his email address from those nasty ones he sent me. Needless to say I doubt he relished reviving my email....the boy never replied...and now this. The sorry bastard, like his buddy skerry don’t have an honest bone in his body. My hope is that the boys in prison have him bent over and when he gets out he has an anus large enough for a gerbil to do laps.
I operated as boat support for three SEAL platoons and one UDT detachment based at Nam Can on the Cau Lon River as part of operation SEA FLOAT (afloat) and later SOLID ANCHOR after we moved ashore. Nam Can was on the north bank of the Cau Lon River. I've been on the Bay Hap River, Cau Lon River, Bo De River, and Dam Doi River about a year after Kerry was there. These were spooky places, even in daylight. Fortunately, our group operations were done on solid tactical intelligence gathered by the SEALs (and their Vietnamese LDNN counterparts).
By the time our detachment arrived, the tactics had shifted away from the PCF incursions with troops embarked. The “heavies” — former MRF boats — were better suited for inserting or extracting infantry. There were a lot of airborne operations staged from both SEA FLOAT and SOLID ANCHOR. [We moved ashore (SA) from the Ammi pontoons moored in the middle of the Cau Lon River (SF)on 5 September 1970.]
Nevertheless, SF/SA was probably one of the “hottest” operational areas in all of the Delta. There were several firefights between the American Patrol Gunboats (PG) that guarded the approaches to SF. USS CANON (PG-90) was ambushed on the Cau Lon while returning to SF after conducting harassment and interdiction (H&I) fire off the mouth of the Bo De River and half her crew of 24 were wounded and three were medevaced, including the captain.
USS KRISHNA (ARL-38) was mined when she came upriver to service the boats at SF/SA. One PCF sailor was killed and KRISHNA had to steam to Saigon for repairs in dry dock.
The VNN landing ship support, large (LSSL) HQ-225 was mined and sunk in a nighttime sapper attack at SF. Back broken, HQ-225 rolled over and sank in less than five minutes with the loss of 28 lives; the hulk remains there to this day.
A sapper attack with water mines on our ex-MRF boats sank two and heavily damaged two others at SOLID ANCHOR. All of this and more happened during our temporary duty tour from May to November 1970. SEA FLOAT/SOLID ANCHOR was like Ft. Apache because it was smack in the midst of Indian country with a 50 kilometer diameter, 360 degree Free Fire Zone.
Thanks for your service and the ability to tell your story.
double holy crap. this is the most info i’ve seen on sanders SS.
thanks again.
Thank you for that info, and for your service!
Thank you for that info, and for your service!
Thank you for serving our country!
EXCELLENT!
One of my correspondents is a retired Chief Quartermaster who was on PCF’s in-country at SEA FLOAT and the surrounding area for a year. He still suffers from PTSD as result of the operations he did on the rivers of the Ca Mau Peninsula. He manned the after .50 caliber/81mm mortar on the PCF — probably the most exposed position for a gunner.
During river operations, the helmsman of the PCF would typically man the emergency steering and throttle controls aft on the deck house, portside. The reason why: the PCF wheelhouse was a rocket magnet and VC/NVA gunners always shot at it hoping to knockout the boat's steering and throttle control. I saw three different Swifts hit in roughly the same place by the portside wheelhouse door. The top twin .50 gunners (whose lower legs were exposed) usually covered them with spare flak jackets to protect them from rocket shrapnel.
Sanders suffers from ADD - Another Demented Democrat
Don't feel obliged. After all, posting without reading the article is an ancient and honorable FR tradition.
It’s a shame I didn’t know about your correspondence with Sanders before I finished the article - no doubt I could have added a few more choice quotes.
You're welcome. It would be nice to see the NCIS report; other than that, I think the story is pretty well nailed down.
Thanks, and thanks again for the assist.
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