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Got this from a friend this morning. I know just about nothing about how the boats operated but Joe definately spent enough time on the rivers to know what the tactics were.
I see that I'm not the only one wondering how he managed to get so many combat medals in so short a time.
LRB
BT
>
>
> Subject: Fw: interesting reading (as received...)
>
> Sent to me by an old shipmate. Interesting perspective.
>
> Joe
> re: Kerry
>
> I was in the Delta shortly after he left. I know that area well. I know
> the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the doctrine
> used. I know the equipment. Although I was attached to CTF-116 (PBRs) I
> spent a fair amount of time with CTF-115 (swift boats), Kerry's command.
>
>
>
> Here are my problems and suspicions:
>
>
>
> (1) Kerry was in-country less than four months and collected, a Bronze Star,
> a Silver Star and three purple hearts. I never heard of anybody with any
> outfit I worked with (including SEAL One, the Sea Wolves, Riverines and the
> River Patrol Force) collecting that much hardware so fast, and for such
> pedestrian actions. The Swifts did a commendable job. But that duty wasn't
> the worst you could draw. They operated only along the coast and in the
> major rivers (Bassac and Mekong). The rough stuff in the hot areas was
> mainly handled by the smaller, faster PBRs.
>
>
>
> (2) Three Purple Hearts but no limp. All injuries so minor that no time
> lost from duty. Amazing luck. Or he was putting himself in for medals
> every time he bumped his head on the wheel house hatch? Combat on the boats
> was almost always at close range. You didn't have minor wounds. At least
> not often. Not three times in a row. Then he used the three purple hearts
> to request a trip home eight months before the end of his tour. Fishy.
>
>
>
> (3) The details of the event for which he was given the Silver Star make no
> sense at all. Supposedly, a B-40 was fired at the boat and missed. Charlie
> jumps up with the launcher in his hand, the bow gunner knocks him down with
> the twin .50, Kerry beaches the boat, jumps off, shoots Charlie, and
> retreives the launcher. If true, he did everything wrong.
>
> (a) Standard procedure when you took rocket fire was to put your stern
> to the action and go balls to the wall. A B-40 has the ballistic integrity
> of a frisbie after about 25 yards, so you put 50 yards or so between you and
> the beach and begin raking it with your .50's.
>
> (b) Did you ever see anybody get knocked down with a .50 caliber round
> and get up? The guy was dead or dying. The rocket launcher was empty.
> There was no reason to go after him (except if you knew he was no danger to
> you just flopping around in the dust during his last few seconds on earth,
> and you wanted some derring do in your after-action report). And we didn't
> shoot wounded people. We had rules against that, too.
>
> (c) Kerry got off the boat. This was a major breach of standing
> procedures. Nobody on a boat crew ever got off a boat in a hot area. EVER!
> The reason was simple. If you had somebody on the beach your boat was
> defenseless. It coudn't run and it couldn' t return fire. It was stupid and
> it put his crew in danger. He should have been relieved and reprimanded. I
> never heard of any boat crewman ever leaving a boat during or after a
> firefight.
>
>
>
> Something is fishy.
>
>
>
> Here we have a JFK wannabe (the guy Halsey wanted to court martial for
> carelessly losing his boat and getting a couple people killed by running
> across the bow of a Jap destroyer) who is hardly in Vietnam long enough to
> get good tan, collects medals faster than Audie Murphy in a job where lots
> of medals weren't common, gets sent home eight months early, requests
> separation from active duty a few months after that so he can run for
> Congress, finds out war heros don't sell well in Massachsetts in 1970 so
> reinvents himself as Jane Fonda, throws his ribbons in the dirt with the
> cameras running to jump start his political career, gets Stillborn Pell to
> invite him to address Congress and Bobby Kennedy's speechwriter to do the
> heavy lifting, winds up in the Senate himself a few years later, votes
> against every major defense bill, says the CIA is irrelevant after the Wall
> came down, votes against the Gulf War, a big mistake since that turned out
> well, decides not to make the same mistake twice so votes for invading Iraq,
> but oops, that didn't turn out so well so he now says he really didn't mean
> for Bush to go to war when he voted to allow him to go to war.
>
>
>
> I'm real glad you or I never had this guy covering out flanks in Vietnam. I
> sure don't want him as Commander in Chief. I hope that somebody from
> CTF-115 shows up with some facts challenging Kerry's Vietnam record. I know
> in my gut it's wildy inflated. And fishy.
>
>
>
> Keep smiling,
>
>
>
> Mike
>
>
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