John Kerry--Truth or False

[lcpd24]

Hi Guys--Got this e-mail this morning, so was wondering how you all feel about John Kerry running for office. Just don't know if this an attack on him or if it is the truth. You guys have always been straight shooters on this web site, I respect your views.



I don't know who wrote this, but I agree with it completely. A retired Army Reserve Special Forces Colonel sent it to me. He doesn't know who the author is either. I exhumed too many American servicemen while serving with the Joint Casualty Resolution Center, men who might not have died had it not been for Fonda and Kerry. If you are of the Democrat persuasion, John Edwards would be a better choice.
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I hope none of us who fought in that war never forget what this guy has done to our legacy. Now that U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is claiming the veteran vote based on his war record, both sides of that story should be told.

To appreciate the dark side of Kerry's war record, you should know a few things about Vietnam veterans.

The public and the press make a mistake when they divide us into decorated veterans like Kerry and then all the others.

We like to think of ourselves as brothers -- those who fought the enemy directly in combat and those who provided vital support in protected areas that were in many cases exposed to attack.

Even today, when two Vietnam veterans meet for the first time, they might say, "Welcome home, brother!" because many were never welcomed home. They met the cold shoulder of an ungrateful nation on their return.

Those of us whose job was combat feel an even deeper sense of brotherhood. We learned to trust our brothers on the ground, on the water and in the air to do the right things to protect one another, a bond that cannot be fully explained in words.

We quietly feared dying in battle, but there was something we feared even more. We knew if we should panic under fire and fail to do our job, we might lose our brothers' trust or we might lose their lives, and this we feared more than anything.

Like Kerry, I have a couple of medals, but who has what medal among combat veterans doesn't make a dime's worth of difference between us. What matters is that we are, for the rest of our life, brothers who kept faith with one another in a miserable war.

A young Kerry, however, broke faith with his brothers when he returned to the United States. With the financial aid of Jane Fonda, he led highly visible protests against the war. He wrote a book that many considered to be pro-Hanoi, titled "The New Soldier."

The cover photo of his book depicted veterans in a mismatch of military uniforms mocking the legendary image of Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi in the 1945 battle for Iwo Jima, holding the American flag upside down.

Kerry publicly supported Hanoi's position to use our POWs as a bargaining chip in negotiations for a peace agreement. Kerry threw what appeared to be his medals over a fence in front of the Capitol building in protest, on camera of course, but was caught in his lie years later when his medals turned up displayed on his office wall.

Many good and decent people opposed the Vietnam War. Many of us who
fought it hated it, too. I know I did.

But like Fonda's infamous visit to Hanoi in 1972, Kerry's public actions encouraged our enemy at a time they were killing America's sons. Decades after the war was done, interviews with our former enemy's leaders confirmed that public protests in the United States, like Kerry's, played a significant role in their strategy.

Many of us wonder which of our brothers who died young would be alive
today had people like Fonda and Kerry objected to the war in a more suitable way.

Now that it serves his ambition to be president, Kerry reminds the public of his war record daily. But the dark side of that record is not being told. Many Vietnam veterans have taken notice, and many of us will vigorously oppose Kerry's election to any office." :cd:

[Packo]

This post is kinda in the middle. It kinda fits the politcal threads, yet is certainly a Vietnam thing.

All evidence so far is that Kerry was financed by Fonda, et. al, and was the head guy in the Winter Soldier thing. (The Winter Soldier "Vets" testified that we were slaugtering women and children, murdering civilians, all that atrocity stuff.) Turns out that all the "Vets" that testified in Kerry's Winter Soldier thing were really not vets or were not in the combat they say they were in, all wannabee's in some way. That's been documented in Stolen Valor and other stuff. Also, try and find a copy of Kerry's book now......they have all disappeared. I think he had a helluva combat record. I think he was duped and used by the Fonda people. I also don't like that he threw someone else's medals away when in Washington at the protest. I find that real odd.

Packo

[Keith_Hixson]

He wanted to keep his own medals so he could show them off when running for public office.

Keith

[MORTARDUDE]

I was going to not reply..but since this in the vietnam forum I will respond..what dubya and kerry did 35 years ago is not going to change anything that needs changing in the next 4 years...so what is the point ? i don't like kerry's politics, but i sure don't like what dubya and his cohorts have done. that is about as plain as i can state it. all IMHO.

larry

[SuperScout]

If, for instance, one was committed to less than honorable behavior 35 years ago, the indelible stain is probably still apparent. What Kerry did in his anti-war days is strikingly dishonorable, and as such, cannot be spun away with mere objections of "impetuous youth," "misguided passions," or other bogus excuses. And now the Law of Unintended Consequences is waving an indictment. Fast-forward to his repeated votes against some of the most basic and necessary weapons systems, against the requisite intelligence funding, and against adequately funding the counter-terrorist programs, and another indictment is hand down, rendering him unfit to serve in any further capacity.

[BLUEHAWK]

In time of war, best to stick with the CINC, always... as our manner of government now stands.

[Seascamp]

As a general practice I take military decos at face value as properly earned and awarded. I have no reason to think otherwise about the Silver Star awarded to Kerry but this could well become an issue and long silent opinions may be voiced. If a question is raised, I would want to know why a Naval Officer and Commanding Officer of a USN combat vessel would leave his command and go scampering off to do things usually assigned to crew members. All this was done while his command was in hostile waters and presumably under immediate threat of hostile action. That is highly unusual and not Navy doctrine or standing orders that I recall. To my knowledge of that exact small craft scenario, Sailors were trained and used as quasi infantry landing parties/boarding parties. (Not to be confused with Marines, etc. as that is an entirely different mission.)

The possible reason is that the B-40 launcher was spotted and that was always reason to pull out all the stops and go get some. Same with a 75mm recoilless rifles and crew served 51 cal MG?s. Or maybe the entire crew was disabled and Kerry was the last man standing, but in that instance he should have been hauling ass out of there, post haste.
I won?t speculate but it all seems to me to be a bit odd and very unusual, possibly for very good reasons, I don?t know.

We had a landing party that repatriated 7 cases of JD that some how escaped form the China Beach R & R facility. We were actually looking for a VC beachfront bean, bullet and band aid storage hooch and got lucky I suppose. Or at least some people got lucky as booze is strictly forbidden aboard a USN vessel or at least in some areas of the ship/vessel it?s forbidden.

Scamp

[travisab1]

Seascamp;
Quote;

"booze is strictly forbidden aboard a USN vessel or at least in some areas of the ship/vessel it?s forbidden"

I couldn't resist. When we swabs fell in the waters we received Brandy from sickbay... Remember?

On a Destroyer such as the one I was on we always had, at the very least a case of Booze in the peak tank, ie Suntories/tories/ocean whiskey, ETC... for the crew in time of need.

Thought I'd throw that in Boat's.

Travis

P.S. Kerry sucks!!!

[Seascamp]

I remember the brandy shot but was never so ?officially? privileged or invited. When things got slow and boring we?d find a more or less non-hostile cove, drop the hook, pipe away swim call, jump in and tempt the sharks for a while. :ek:

Now then, I don?t recall grog being offered after swim call and I reckoned that was real chicken-shit of them. I mean details, details for crying out loud, LOL.

Scamp

[travisab1]

Boat's;
You ain't-a-gonna believe this unless you've seen it. While underweigh at 5 knotts coming into port I was on a Boson's chair over the side of the ship painting touch-up back in 61 or 62. I didn't fall in the waters at that time,(danger of a twin screw rash), but had I fallen in and not paid tribute to the twisting of the screw I would have received that wonderious shot of Brandy. How ever I have fallen in the waters at other times as many other's have just to receive that nector of warmth.

You never related to the peak tank storage locker. The crawl holes forward the Boson's locker and below the Boson's locker on my destroyer were so small that out of the over 350 seaman onboard there were only three trusted sailors that could fit through them to the Booze.

I'm most positive that when the Bausell was sank at target practice back in the 70's a lot of Booze went down with it!!!

Travis