War stories collide as Kerry's Vietnam medals come under fire
Monday, August 16, 2004
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Washington Bureau Chief
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Vietnam veterans, says Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry lied to get several of his commendations for gallantry in military service 35 years ago and later lied about other aspects of his service. An independent research organization, FactCheck.org, affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, recently examined some of the claims. Here are the conclusions from it and other sources:
The award:
Silver Star, for "extraordinary daring and per sonal courage . . . in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of in tense fire."
On Feb. 28, 1969, Kerry, commander of a Swift boat in Vietnam, first attacked an "entrenched enemy" less than 50 feet away, ordering "his boat to attack as all units opened fire and beached directly in front of the enemy ambushers," according to the commendation. "This daring and courageous tactic surprised the enemy and succeeded in routing a score of enemy soldiers" and capturing "many enemy weapons."
Later, 800 yards away, Kerry's boat encountered a second ambush and a B-40 rocket exploded "close aboard" Kerry's boat. "With utter disregard for his own safety, and the enemy rockets, he again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only 10 feet away from the VC [Viet Cong] rocket position, and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy."
The charge:
That Kerry was not forthright about what happened - specifically, that after beaching the boat he pursued a wounded enemy and shot him in the back. George Elliott, the retired Navy captain who recommended Kerry for the Silver Star, and now a Swift Boat Veteran for Truth, recently signed an affidavit saying: "I was never informed that he had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back."
The facts:
The official citation shows Kerry was not awarded the Silver Star for simply pursuing and dispatching the Viet Cong. The killing is not even mentioned in the official citation but, rather, covers Kerry's decision to attack rather than flee from two ambushes. The citation was based on what Elliott wrote up at the time.
Elliott was quoted by the Boston Globe Aug. 6 as saying he had made a "terrible mistake" in signing the affidavit against Kerry. Later Elliott signed a second affidavit saying he still stands by the words he said in a recent TV ad: "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam." But Elliott also said in that second affidavit, "I do not claim to have personal knowledge as to how Kerry shot the wounded, fleeing Viet Cong."
Rather, Elliott said his new beliefs were based on accounts including a book in which Kerry is quoted as saying of the soldier, "He was running away with a live B-40 [rocket launcher] and, I thought, poised to turn around and fire it."
Elliott previously defended Kerry. As recently as June 2003, he called Kerry's Silver Star "well deserved" and his action "courageous."
The award:
Bronze Star, for rescuing Jim Rassmann, an Army Special Forces lieuten ant, from the water while un der enemy fire. According to the official citation, Kerry's boat was under enemy fire on March 13, 1969, and Kerry had been wounded when an enemy mine exploded near his own boat. Rassmann, a longtime Republican, has said he was under sniper fire from both banks of the river when the wounded Kerry helped him aboard, risking his life "to save mine."
The charge:
Van O'Dell, a former Navy enlisted man who says he was the gunner on another Swift Boat, states in an affidavit that he was "a few yards away" from Kerry's boat when Kerry pulled Rassmann from the water. O'Dell insists "there was no fire" at the time, adding: "I did not hear any shots, nor did any hostile fire hit any boats" other than his own, PCF-3.
Others in Swift Boat Veterans for Truth back up that account. Jack Chenoweth, who was a lieutenant (junior grade) commanding PCF-3, said Kerry's boat "fled the scene" after a mine blast disabled PCF-3, and returned only "when it was apparent that there was no return fire." And Larry Thurlow, who says he commanded a third Swift Boat that day, says "Kerry fled while we stayed to fight," and returned only "after no return fire occurred."
The facts:
The proximity of these men to Kerry's boat during the incident is in dispute. They did not serve on Kerry's crew, and their statements are contrary to the accounts of Kerry and those who served under him.
"This smear campaign has been launched by people without decency," Rassmann, who considers Kerry a hero, said in a Wall Street Journal guest column last week. Retired Adm. William Crowe, a Kerry supporter, said on CNN that if Kerry had fled, it would have been a court-martial offense, yet none of the officers who now say he fled brought him "into account with a senior officer. That makes no sense whatsoever, that defies reason."
"Tour of Duty," a book by historian Douglas Brinkley based largely on accounts from Kerry, describes Rassmann's rescue and the sniper fire as happening "several hundred yards back" from where the crippled PCF-3 was lying, not "a few yards away," the distance from which the anti-Kerry veterans claim to have witnessed the incident.
The award:
Purple Heart (Kerry's first), for a shrapnel wound to Ker ry's left arm from a grenade on Dec. 2, 1968.
The charge:
Louis Letson, a medical officer and lieutenant commander, says Kerry's wound was self- inflicted and does not merit a Purple Heart. Letson says "the crewman with Kerry told me there was no hostile fire, and that Kerry had inadvertently wounded himself with an M-79 grenade." And Grant Hibbard, Kerry's commanding officer at the time, said in an affidavit that he "turned down the Purple Heart request" and recalled Kerry's injury as a "tiny scratch less than from a rose thorn."
The facts:
Letson says he treated Kerry for the wound. However, medical records provided by the Kerry campaign list another officer, not Letson. The Kerry campaign says the two crewmen with Kerry that day deny ever talking to Letson. And though Hibbard calls the wound "a tiny scratch," Letson's affidavit describes shrapnel "lodged in Kerry's arm" - though, he notes, "barely." Hibbard told the Boston Globe in an interview in April that he eventually acquiesced about granting Kerry the Purple Heart, an award sometimes granted for even relatively minor wounds during the Vietnam War, according to the Globe's biography of Kerry.
The award:
Purple Heart, Kerry's third, qualifying him to leave Vietnam more than six months early, for the injuries he received the day he rescued Rassmann. (Kerry got his second Purple Heart after re ceiving a shrap nel wound in his leg on Feb. 20, 1969, during a firefight, but that award has not been controversial.)
The charge:
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth says Kerry didn't deserve his third Purple Heart, which was received for shrapnel wounds in left buttocks and contusions on right forearm. The Swift Boat group's affidavits state that the wound in Kerry's backside happened earlier that day in an accident, not in the heat of battle. "Kerry inadvertently wounded himself in the fanny," Larry Thurlow said in his affidavit, "by throwing a grenade too close (to destroy a rice supply) and suffered minor shrapnel wounds."
The facts:
The grenade incident is actually supported by Kerry's own account, but the shrapnel wound was only part of the basis for his third Purple Heart, according to official documents. The evidence here is contradictory, says FactCheck.org.
Kerry's account is in the book "Tour of Duty": "I got a piece of small grenade in my ass from one of the rice-bin explosions and then we started to move back to the boats." He said his arm was hurt later, after the mine blast that disabled PCF-3, when a second explosion rocked his own boat and "threw me violently against the bulkhead on the door."
According to a Navy casualty report released by the Kerry campaign, the third Purple Heart was received for "shrapnel wounds in left buttocks and contusions on his right forearm when a mine detonated close aboard" Kerry's boat. The official citation for Kerry's Bronze Star refers only to his arm injury, not to the shrapnel wound. It says he performed the rescue "from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain."
Even a "friendly fire" injury such as the wound from the grenade can qualify for a Purple Heart if the grenade is released with the intent of damaging or destroying enemy troops or equipment. Rice was being destroyed by grenades that day on the assumption that it otherwise might feed Viet Cong fighters.
Other dispute:
Kerry became an anti-war activist after returning from Vietnam, accusing American troops of rapes, beheadings, torture, and various other war crimes.
His critics say this was based on exaggerations and falsehoods that maligned all Vietnam veterans as misfits, addicts and baby killers.
Kerry also said in the Senate in 1986 that he entered Cambodia on secret missions, which would have been illegal, and in other accounts he specifically recalled being there on Christmas Eve, 1968, a memory "seared" in his mind.
Fellow officers and living commanders said he was 55 miles from the Cambodian border and never entered Cambodia.
They also criticize him for associating President Nixon with the alleged Cambodian incursions of 1968, since Nixon didn't take office until 1969.
Kerry adviser Michael Meehan said on Friday that Kerry was "near and around the border" on Dec. 24, 1968 - Christmas Eve - and "for certain he transported Special Operations folks into Cambodia" other times.
© 2004 The Plain Dealer.
SOURCE: THE PLAIN DEALER BEWARE POPUPS
Monday, August 16, 2004
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Washington Bureau Chief
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Vietnam veterans, says Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry lied to get several of his commendations for gallantry in military service 35 years ago and later lied about other aspects of his service. An independent research organization, FactCheck.org, affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, recently examined some of the claims. Here are the conclusions from it and other sources:
The award:
Silver Star, for "extraordinary daring and per sonal courage . . . in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of in tense fire."
On Feb. 28, 1969, Kerry, commander of a Swift boat in Vietnam, first attacked an "entrenched enemy" less than 50 feet away, ordering "his boat to attack as all units opened fire and beached directly in front of the enemy ambushers," according to the commendation. "This daring and courageous tactic surprised the enemy and succeeded in routing a score of enemy soldiers" and capturing "many enemy weapons."
Later, 800 yards away, Kerry's boat encountered a second ambush and a B-40 rocket exploded "close aboard" Kerry's boat. "With utter disregard for his own safety, and the enemy rockets, he again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only 10 feet away from the VC [Viet Cong] rocket position, and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy."
The charge:
That Kerry was not forthright about what happened - specifically, that after beaching the boat he pursued a wounded enemy and shot him in the back. George Elliott, the retired Navy captain who recommended Kerry for the Silver Star, and now a Swift Boat Veteran for Truth, recently signed an affidavit saying: "I was never informed that he had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back."
The facts:
The official citation shows Kerry was not awarded the Silver Star for simply pursuing and dispatching the Viet Cong. The killing is not even mentioned in the official citation but, rather, covers Kerry's decision to attack rather than flee from two ambushes. The citation was based on what Elliott wrote up at the time.
Elliott was quoted by the Boston Globe Aug. 6 as saying he had made a "terrible mistake" in signing the affidavit against Kerry. Later Elliott signed a second affidavit saying he still stands by the words he said in a recent TV ad: "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam." But Elliott also said in that second affidavit, "I do not claim to have personal knowledge as to how Kerry shot the wounded, fleeing Viet Cong."
Rather, Elliott said his new beliefs were based on accounts including a book in which Kerry is quoted as saying of the soldier, "He was running away with a live B-40 [rocket launcher] and, I thought, poised to turn around and fire it."
Elliott previously defended Kerry. As recently as June 2003, he called Kerry's Silver Star "well deserved" and his action "courageous."
The award:
Bronze Star, for rescuing Jim Rassmann, an Army Special Forces lieuten ant, from the water while un der enemy fire. According to the official citation, Kerry's boat was under enemy fire on March 13, 1969, and Kerry had been wounded when an enemy mine exploded near his own boat. Rassmann, a longtime Republican, has said he was under sniper fire from both banks of the river when the wounded Kerry helped him aboard, risking his life "to save mine."
The charge:
Van O'Dell, a former Navy enlisted man who says he was the gunner on another Swift Boat, states in an affidavit that he was "a few yards away" from Kerry's boat when Kerry pulled Rassmann from the water. O'Dell insists "there was no fire" at the time, adding: "I did not hear any shots, nor did any hostile fire hit any boats" other than his own, PCF-3.
Others in Swift Boat Veterans for Truth back up that account. Jack Chenoweth, who was a lieutenant (junior grade) commanding PCF-3, said Kerry's boat "fled the scene" after a mine blast disabled PCF-3, and returned only "when it was apparent that there was no return fire." And Larry Thurlow, who says he commanded a third Swift Boat that day, says "Kerry fled while we stayed to fight," and returned only "after no return fire occurred."
The facts:
The proximity of these men to Kerry's boat during the incident is in dispute. They did not serve on Kerry's crew, and their statements are contrary to the accounts of Kerry and those who served under him.
"This smear campaign has been launched by people without decency," Rassmann, who considers Kerry a hero, said in a Wall Street Journal guest column last week. Retired Adm. William Crowe, a Kerry supporter, said on CNN that if Kerry had fled, it would have been a court-martial offense, yet none of the officers who now say he fled brought him "into account with a senior officer. That makes no sense whatsoever, that defies reason."
"Tour of Duty," a book by historian Douglas Brinkley based largely on accounts from Kerry, describes Rassmann's rescue and the sniper fire as happening "several hundred yards back" from where the crippled PCF-3 was lying, not "a few yards away," the distance from which the anti-Kerry veterans claim to have witnessed the incident.
The award:
Purple Heart (Kerry's first), for a shrapnel wound to Ker ry's left arm from a grenade on Dec. 2, 1968.
The charge:
Louis Letson, a medical officer and lieutenant commander, says Kerry's wound was self- inflicted and does not merit a Purple Heart. Letson says "the crewman with Kerry told me there was no hostile fire, and that Kerry had inadvertently wounded himself with an M-79 grenade." And Grant Hibbard, Kerry's commanding officer at the time, said in an affidavit that he "turned down the Purple Heart request" and recalled Kerry's injury as a "tiny scratch less than from a rose thorn."
The facts:
Letson says he treated Kerry for the wound. However, medical records provided by the Kerry campaign list another officer, not Letson. The Kerry campaign says the two crewmen with Kerry that day deny ever talking to Letson. And though Hibbard calls the wound "a tiny scratch," Letson's affidavit describes shrapnel "lodged in Kerry's arm" - though, he notes, "barely." Hibbard told the Boston Globe in an interview in April that he eventually acquiesced about granting Kerry the Purple Heart, an award sometimes granted for even relatively minor wounds during the Vietnam War, according to the Globe's biography of Kerry.
The award:
Purple Heart, Kerry's third, qualifying him to leave Vietnam more than six months early, for the injuries he received the day he rescued Rassmann. (Kerry got his second Purple Heart after re ceiving a shrap nel wound in his leg on Feb. 20, 1969, during a firefight, but that award has not been controversial.)
The charge:
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth says Kerry didn't deserve his third Purple Heart, which was received for shrapnel wounds in left buttocks and contusions on right forearm. The Swift Boat group's affidavits state that the wound in Kerry's backside happened earlier that day in an accident, not in the heat of battle. "Kerry inadvertently wounded himself in the fanny," Larry Thurlow said in his affidavit, "by throwing a grenade too close (to destroy a rice supply) and suffered minor shrapnel wounds."
The facts:
The grenade incident is actually supported by Kerry's own account, but the shrapnel wound was only part of the basis for his third Purple Heart, according to official documents. The evidence here is contradictory, says FactCheck.org.
Kerry's account is in the book "Tour of Duty": "I got a piece of small grenade in my ass from one of the rice-bin explosions and then we started to move back to the boats." He said his arm was hurt later, after the mine blast that disabled PCF-3, when a second explosion rocked his own boat and "threw me violently against the bulkhead on the door."
According to a Navy casualty report released by the Kerry campaign, the third Purple Heart was received for "shrapnel wounds in left buttocks and contusions on his right forearm when a mine detonated close aboard" Kerry's boat. The official citation for Kerry's Bronze Star refers only to his arm injury, not to the shrapnel wound. It says he performed the rescue "from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain."
Even a "friendly fire" injury such as the wound from the grenade can qualify for a Purple Heart if the grenade is released with the intent of damaging or destroying enemy troops or equipment. Rice was being destroyed by grenades that day on the assumption that it otherwise might feed Viet Cong fighters.
Other dispute:
Kerry became an anti-war activist after returning from Vietnam, accusing American troops of rapes, beheadings, torture, and various other war crimes.
His critics say this was based on exaggerations and falsehoods that maligned all Vietnam veterans as misfits, addicts and baby killers.
Kerry also said in the Senate in 1986 that he entered Cambodia on secret missions, which would have been illegal, and in other accounts he specifically recalled being there on Christmas Eve, 1968, a memory "seared" in his mind.
Fellow officers and living commanders said he was 55 miles from the Cambodian border and never entered Cambodia.
They also criticize him for associating President Nixon with the alleged Cambodian incursions of 1968, since Nixon didn't take office until 1969.
Kerry adviser Michael Meehan said on Friday that Kerry was "near and around the border" on Dec. 24, 1968 - Christmas Eve - and "for certain he transported Special Operations folks into Cambodia" other times.
© 2004 The Plain Dealer.
SOURCE: THE PLAIN DEALER BEWARE POPUPS
posted by Jerry Simpson at 4:28 AM
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