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In a development that the establishment press is treating like bombshell news, former Swiftboat commander William B. Rood has stepped forward to defend John Kerry against the charge that he exaggerated his valor during the Vietnam War in descriptions of a foiled Feb. 1969 ambush on his boat. But unmentioned in coverage of Rood's story so far is one salient fact: His account is sharply contradicted by one of Kerry's own crewmates, who complained eight years ago that Kerry took credit for bravery he didn't deserve - in an action that earned him the Silver Star. In Sunday editions of...

Kerry's Silver Star incident is supposed to be told with such bravado you'd think Rood could come up with something more colorful to justify its awarding. An ambush without much action and a couple-few if any more fleeing, if even that's to be believed, or even minor activity described as being from the other side of the river aside ... Here is how Kerry's citation describes the incident (Unfit for Command pages 81-82): On a request from U.S. Army advisors ashore, Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY ordered PCFs 94 and 23 further up river to suppress enemy sniper fire. After proceeding...

WASHINGTON -- The co-author of the best-selling book "Unfit for Command" says today's statement by a Chicago Tribune editor and former swift boat commander does not substantively contradict his findings about John Kerry's Silver Star. William Rood, 61, said he decided to break his silence today about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission because recent reports of Kerry's actions in that battle are incorrect and darken the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

Former swift boat officer, William Rood, has broke 35 years of silence about the Feb. 28, 1969 mission that he, as skipper of the PCF-23, had participated alongside Sen. Kerry's swift boat (PCF-94) that had lead to Kerry receiving a Silver Star by killing an enemy soldier while preparing to fire a B-40 rocket at their beached swift boat. The reason Rood, 61, has broken his 35 years of silence is because Kerry had personally contacted him and other crew members in recent days asking that they go public with their accounts of what happened on that day he...

The single best development for Sen. John F. Kerry during the past two weeks is the just-published first-person account from former Swift Boat skipper William B. Rood of the action on February 28, 1969, that resulted in Kerry's Silver Star. Mr. Rood's memoir, entitled "Anti-Kerry vets not there that day," deserves a respectful and careful reading from anyone interested in the SwiftVets vs. Kerry controversy. It provides context and some credible opinions that are unquestionably favorable to Sen. Kerry. But neither it, nor the companion news article by Rood's Chicago Tribune colleague Tim Jones, directly contradicts the SwiftVets' principle allegations...

THE MILITARY RECORD A Vietnam veteran who had served with Senator John Kerry in a Swift boat group broke a 35-year silence this weekend to back Mr. Kerry's version of events from their mission together, and to chastise veterans critical of the senator as having "splashed doubt on all of us." The veteran, William B. Rood, is now an editor at The Chicago Tribune, which ran a first-person article in which he recounted the day on its Web site yesterday. His account added to a growing debate over the most serious claims from the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth....

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. John Kerry's campaign released a video Saturday comparing the controversy over Kerry's Vietnam service to attacks on John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries. The video, sent via e-mail to supporters, says, "George Bush is up to his old tricks" and shows then-Texas Gov. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain at a debate in February 2000. McCain, sitting next to Bush, says that when "fringe veterans groups" attacked him at a Bush campaign function, Bush stood by and didn't say a word. McCain says a group of senators wrote Bush a letter that said: "Apologize. You...