...
"I was there when Sen. Kerry got shot, and I've seen his blood on the deck of a swift boat. And I can assure you it's American red, and there's not a speck of blue in that blood," said Fred Short, 56, of Little Rock, Ark.
Short, who served as a gunner's mate under Kerry's command, said he knows how Kerry earned his three Purple Heart medals and one Silver Star in Vietnam, and he is angry that people who never served under Kerry now are questioning whether Kerry earned the medals he received.
"What boat were they on when they make these claims?" Short said. "They are just making up tales to support their view. I'm sorry George Bush does not have that record that John Kerry has. Life is full of choices. You can go, or you can stay," he said.
...
Short said he vividly remembers the incident for which Kerry received the Silver Star when the swift boat came under attack from two ambushes. After a Viet Cong fighter aimed a rocket-propelled grenade at the boat, Kerry beached his boat and jumped in the water to shoot the man.
"If that RPG had hit the boat, I would not be at this convention - none of us would," said Short, who was operating the twin machine guns on the boat and had a view overlooking the firefight. The commendation given Kerry for the action credits him with "extraordinary daring and personal courage."
Kerry and Short are going to have to get their stories straight.
Kerry in 1996- "I never went behind the hootch, and this is the first time in 30 years that anybody has suggested otherwise."
Ahh- Perhaps you might want to check with Fred Short:
" As Short recalled, the guerilla ran behind a hut."
Page 102--" The Complete Biography of John F Kerry, By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best:-Michael Kranish"
Short claims the kid aimed his weapon-however on
Pages 101- 102 ibid :
the kid is described as " holding, "
"clutching, " and
" with " a rocket-the word aimed is never used.
Page 102 ibid :
" I'll never be able to explain,
we were literally face to face, he with his B-40 rocket and us in our boat, and
he didn't pull the trigger .. Kerry said in an interview."
The kid popped his head up when Kerry beached the boat and took off running.
" He was running away with a live B 40 and, I thought, poised to turn around and fire it."
"Asked whether that meant Kerry shot the guerilla in the back,
Kerry said "No, absolutely not."
Medeiros and the others saying -" The guy was getting ready to stand up with a rocket on his shoulder, coming up."
and that he saw the VC guerilla standing on both feet ready to fire a rocket at Kerry's boat "
are contradicted in Kranish's book.
Page 101- " a teen ager in a loin cloth, popped out of narrow spider hole..looked surprised.. and (after Medeiros shot him in the leg)," he got up off the ground and started running."
And also contradicted by John Kerry in his own words.
In an interview with Joe Klein for the New Yorker in 2002 " The Long War Of John Kerry " :
Kerry says-
"When he first stood up, he froze, because he didn't expect to see us staring him in the face, literally ten yards away. "
Klein continues-
"The man was wounded by one of Kerry's crewmates and began to run; Kerry leaped off the boat and chased him. "
It's obvious that in all the years that Kerry and his crew mates have been telling their stories, no one has ever challenged all the discrepancies.