electricparadise

How does it feel to know ya'all were bushwacked by a great smear job? Subject: 1st person account of Kerry's heroism in Vietnam

FEB. 28, 1969: ON THE DONG CUNG RIVER

`This is what I saw that day'

By William B. Rood
Chicago Tribune
Published August 22, 2004

There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago--three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969.

One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other.

For years, no one asked about those events. But now they are the focus of skirmishing in a presidential election with a group of swift boat veterans and others contending that Kerry didn't deserve the Silver Star for what he did on that day, or the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts he was awarded for other actions.

Many of us wanted to put it all behind us--the rivers, the ambushes, the killing. Ever since that time, I have refused all requests for interviews about Kerry's service--even those from reporters at the Chicago Tribune, where I work.

But Kerry's critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have charged that the accounts of what happened were overblown. The critics have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there.

Even though Kerry's own crew members have backed him, the attacks have continued, and in recent days Kerry has called me and others who were with him in those days, asking that we go public with our accounts.

I can't pretend those calls had no effect on me, but that is not why I am writing this. What matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it.

I was part of the operation that led to Kerry's Silver Star. I have no firsthand knowledge of the events that resulted in his winning the Purple Hearts or the Bronze Star.

But on Feb. 28, 1969, I was officer in charge of PCF-23, one of three swift boats--including Kerry's PCF-94 and Lt. j.g. Donald Droz's PCF-43--that carried Vietnamese regional and Popular Force troops and a Navy demolition team up the Dong Cung, a narrow tributary of the Bay Hap River, to conduct a sweep in the area.

The approach of the noisy 50-foot aluminum boats, each driven by two huge 12-cylinder diesels and loaded down with six crew members, troops and gear, was no secret.

Ambushes were a virtual certainty, and that day was no exception.

Instructions from Kerry

The difference was that Kerry, who had tactical command of that particular operation, had talked to Droz and me beforehand about not responding the way the boats usually did to an ambush.

We agreed that if we were not crippled by the initial volley and had a clear fix on the location of the ambush, we would turn directly into it, focusing the boats' twin .50-caliber machine guns on the attackers and beaching the boats. We told our crews about the plan.

The Viet Cong in the area had come to expect that the heavily loaded boats would lumber on past an ambush, firing at the entrenched attackers, beaching upstream and putting troops ashore to sweep back down on the ambush site. Often, they were long gone by the time the troops got there.

The first time we took fire--the usual rockets and automatic weapons--Kerry ordered a "turn 90" and the three boats roared in on the ambush. It worked. We routed the ambush, killing three of the attackers. The troops, led by an Army adviser, jumped off the boats and began a sweep, which killed another half dozen VC, wounded or captured others and found weapons, blast masks and other supplies used to stage ambushes.

Meanwhile, Kerry ordered our boat to head upstream with his, leaving Droz's boat at the first site.

It happened again, another ambush. And again, Kerry ordered the turn maneuver, and again it worked. As we headed for the riverbank, I remember seeing a loaded B-40 launcher pointed at the boats. It wasn't fired as two men jumped up from their spider holes.

We called Droz's boat up to assist us, and Kerry, followed by one member of his crew, jumped ashore and chased a VC behind a hooch--a thatched hut--maybe 15 yards inland from the ambush site. Some who were there that day recall the man being wounded as he ran. Neither I nor Jerry Leeds, our boat's leading petty officer with whom I've checked my recollection of all these events, recalls that, which is no surprise. Recollections of those who go through experiences like that frequently differ.

With our troops involved in the sweep of the first ambush site, Richard Lamberson, a member of my crew, and I also went ashore to search the area. I was checking out the inside of the hooch when I heard gunfire nearby.

Not long after that, Kerry returned, reporting that he had killed the man he chased behind the hooch. He also had picked up a loaded B-40 rocket launcher, which we took back to our base in An Thoi after the operation.

John O'Neill, author of a highly critical account of Kerry's Vietnam service, describes the man Kerry chased as a "teenager" in a "loincloth." I have no idea how old the gunner Kerry chased that day was, but both Leeds and I recall that he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the VC usually wore.

The man Kerry chased was not the "lone" attacker at that site, as O'Neill suggests. There were others who fled. There was also firing from the tree line well behind the spider holes and at one point, from the opposite riverbank as well. It was not the work of just one attacker.

Our initial reports of the day's action caused an immediate response from our task force headquarters in Cam Ranh Bay.

Congratulatory message

Known over radio circuits by the call sign "Latch," then-Capt. and now retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, the task force commander, fired off a message congratulating the three swift boats, saying at one point that the tactic of charging the ambushes was a "shining example of completely overwhelming the enemy" and that it "may be the most efficacious method of dealing with small numbers of ambushers."

Hoffmann has become a leading critic of Kerry's and now says that what the boats did on that day demonstrated Kerry's inclination to be impulsive to a fault.

Our decision to use that tactic under the right circumstances was not impulsive but was the result of discussions well beforehand and a mutual agreement of all three boat officers.

It was also well within the aggressive tradition that was embraced by the late Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, then commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam. Months before that day in February, a fellow boat officer, Michael Bernique, was summoned to Saigon to explain to top Navy commanders why he had made an unauthorized run up the Giang Thanh River, which runs along the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Bernique, who speaks French fluently, had been told by a source in Ha Tien at the mouth of the river that a VC tax collector was operating upstream.

Ignoring the prohibition against it, Bernique and his crew went upstream and routed the VC, pursuing and killing several.

Instead of facing disciplinary action as he had expected, Bernique was given the Silver Star, and Zumwalt ordered other swifts, which had largely patrolled coastal waters, into the rivers.

The decision sent a clear message, underscored repeatedly by Hoffmann's congratulatory messages, that aggressive patrolling was expected and that well-timed, if unconventional, tactics like Bernique's were encouraged.

What we did on Feb. 28, 1969, was well in line with the tone set by our top commanders.

Zumwalt made that clear when he flew down to our base at An Thoi off the southern tip of Vietnam to pin the Silver Star on Kerry and assorted Bronze Stars and commendation medals on the rest of us.

Error in citation

My Bronze Star citation, signed by Zumwalt, praised the charge tactic we used that day, saying the VC were "caught completely off guard."

There's at least one mistake in that citation. It incorrectly identifies the river where the main action occurred, a reminder that such documents were often done in haste and sometimes authored for their signers by staffers. It's a cautionary note for those trying to piece it all together. There's no final authority on something that happened so long ago--not the documents and not even the strained recollections of those of us who were there.

But I know that what some people are saying now is wrong. While they mean to hurt Kerry, what they're saying impugns others who are not in the public eye.

Men like Larry Lee, who was on our bow with an M-60 machine gun as we charged the riverbank, Kenneth Martin, who was in the .50-caliber gun tub atop our boat, and Benjamin Cueva, our engineman, who was at our aft gun mount suppressing the fire from the opposite bank.

Wayne Langhoffer and the other crewmen on Droz's boat went through even worse on April 12, 1969, when they saw Droz killed in a brutal ambush that left PCF-43 an abandoned pile of wreckage on the banks of the Duong Keo River. That was just a few months after the birth of his only child, Tracy.

The survivors of all these events are scattered across the country now.

Jerry Leeds lives in a tiny Kansas town where he built and sold a successful printing business. He owns a beautiful home with a lawn that sweeps to the edge of a small lake, which he also owns. Every year, flights of purple martins return to the stately birdhouses on the tall poles in his back yard.

Cueva, recently retired, has raised three daughters and is beloved by his neighbors for all the years he spent keeping their cars running. Lee is a senior computer programmer in Kentucky, and Lamberson finished a second military career in the Army.

With the debate over that long-ago day in February, they're all living that war another time.

tanfixr

Quote:How does it feel to know ya'all were bushwacked by a great smear job? Subject: 1st person account of Kerry's heroism in Vietnam

I guess the other vets who were also on OTHER boats in the same group Kerry was a part of don't count if they disagree with this guy or Kerry. Apparently only the 1st person accounts that agree with Kerry's version of events are valid. Even if they were given to **** Cavet back in the 1970's before anybody even knew who Bush was. Maybe that was part of his master plan that he dreamed up back then..."lets start a smear job because I'll be President in 30 years". Oh, you didn't know about those interviews? Oops.

electricparadise

Saw that **** Cavet show on PBS. O'neil was peeed back then & he's peeed today (& yes I think first person reports are a LITTLE MORE BELIEVALBE)HE ,was coached by the Nixon team back then & probably coached by the republicans today /That first ad has been shown that A. they have changed their story over the yrs. B. the Dr. 's name isn't on the medical record C. keep believing in fairy tales.jUST LIKE YOU PROBABLY BELIEVE THE ECONOMY is just swell & we've turned the corner.& the war is almost done (troops will be home by Xmas) Got the terrorists on the run ,cept code red or yellow ( cause of 3yr. old info but trust us ,we are doing a first rate job/everything is well in hand .uh don't pull back the curtain to far TOTO ya might see something bad.LIKE THE TRUTH.gOD WHAT A SLOW DAY.

electricparadise

Saw that **** Cavet show on PBS. O'neil was peeed back then & he's peeed today (& yes I think first person reports are a LITTLE MORE BELIEVALBE)HE ,was coached by the Nixon team back then & probably coached by the republicans today /That first ad has been shown that A. they have changed their story over the yrs. B. the Dr. 's name isn't on the medical record C. keep believing in fairy tales.jUST LIKE YOU PROBABLY BELIEVE THE ECONOMY is just swell & we've turned the corner.& the war is almost done (troops will be home by Xmas) Got the terrorists on the run ,cept code red or yellow ( cause of 3yr. old info but trust us ,we are doing a first rate job/everything is well in hand .uh don't pull back the curtain to far TOTO ya might see something bad.LIKE THE TRUTH.gOD WHAT A SLOW DAY.

electricparadise

Hey ,sorry about the double post .Just reread that article, & DUH DUDE according to this O'neil alludes there was a teenager in a loin cloth ....bla h blah blah....Sir O'niel took over Kerrys boat ....so how can he talk about that particular day with any verasity when he WASN'T EVEN THERE!!!!! OH but you don't believe someone who was there or the official record. You need a LOT OF fairy dust.

electricparadise

Yo tanny babe you aren't that busy !!!!!! Nothing to say about the truth? And all those SBFTguys ,if you know any ........tell em to KMA

tanfixr

I always pretty much assumed the "loin cloth" deal was a little bit of an exaggeration. But since Oneil isn't the issue because it is NOT just Oneil that has pointed out some of the inconsistencies in Kerry's stories. And since there ARE vets that WERE there that dispute Kerry's stories. And since Kerry himself has changed some of his stories about what happened, and where, and when. And since some of the disputes over Kerry's actions are supported by his own words and his own books, it is obvious that he padded his service experiences "a little".

But frankly, that doesn't bother me as much as the fact that he is trying to use his four month experience as a political advantage 30 years later. From the day he got back he sought to weaken the U.S. military. He has given reasons for this if anyone would bother to pay attention. His supporters love the Boston Globe so much, why don't you all go back and read his campaign positions from the very beginning.

That's a little truth for you.

If he would run on the positions he has championed for 30 years instead of pretending to be somebody else, then that would be ok. People could make choice. As it is now, he is whoever he thinks the most people want him to be.

bjhcpa

still nothing positive about Kerry other than he served in Vietnam for 4 months. It was honorable and he should be rightfully commended....but with that said, what else is there. He comes back and spends the next 3 years as an anti-war protestor, putting down those still serving, saying those serving over there are committing war crimes (and being commended as a National Hero in North Vietnam for doing so). Also getting himself arrested in one protest. Also, 20+ years of the most liberal voting record ever recorded in the history of the senate.

Im sure most of us could pull a 4 month period out of our life and look perfect. There is allot more to a person than any given 4 month period that stands alone. Would be nice to hear something other than the only four months of his life he is proud to talk about.

electricparadise

Well here's about 5 months of our fearless leader not fullfilling his commintment & to my knoweledge there is nothing to back up when he split drilled (note to self explain to these non guard people what split drill means)..Hey Kiddies "split drill " is when you don't drill with your buds but you make it up some other time & there is or should be a paper trail,ie..pay stubs recollection of gateguards OER reports some darn thing that y'll can point to to defend this wimp (note to self to explain the $10,000 reward) . By the way this is the same time period that Doonesbury,you know the cartoon that gets its facts straight 95% of the time (compared to Rush "the druggie" limbough who gets his "facts" right 45% of the the time) but I digress , said he would pay that large sum of money to anybody that could prove "Mr wimp can't talk straight president" was there when he said he was ....the money is still at the cartoon site
Memos Show Bush Suspended From Flying
By PETE YOST

WASHINGTON (AP) - Newly unearthed memos state George W. Bush was suspended from flying for the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war because he failed to meet Guard standards and failed to take his annual flight physical as required.

The suspension came as Bush was trying to arrange a transfer to non-flying status with a unit in Alabama so he could work on a political campaign there.

A memo written a year later referred to one military official ``pushing to sugar coat'' Bush's annual evaluation.

``On this date I ordered that 1st Lt. Bush be suspended from flight status due to failure to perform to USAF/TexANG standards and failure to meet annual physical examination ... as ordered,'' says an Aug. 1, 1972 memo by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who is now dead.

The same memo notes that Bush was trying to transfer to non-flying status out of state and recommends that the Texas unit fill his flying slot ``with a more seasoned pilot from the list of qualified Vietnam pilots that have rotated.''

The Vietnam-era documents add details to the bare-bones explanation of Bush's aides over the years that he was suspended simply because he decided to skip his flight physical.

The White House said in February that it had released all records of Bush's service, but one of Killian's memos stated it was ``for record'' and another directing Bush to take the physical exam stated that it was ``for 1st Lt. George W. Bush.''

``I can't explain why that wouldn't be in his record, but they were found in Jerry Killian's personal records,'' White House communications director Dan Bartlett told CBS's ``60 Minutes II,'' which first obtained the memos.

Bartlett said Bush's superiors granted permission to train in Alabama in a non-flying status and that ``many of the documents you have here affirm just that.''

A memo dated May 19, 1972, five days after Bush was supposed to have completed his physical, summarizes a telephone discussion with Bush about how he ``can get out of coming to drill from now through November.'' It says Bush was ``told he could do ET for three months or transfer.'' ET referred to equivalent training, a procedure for meeting training requirements without attending regularly scheduled drills.

The same memo says ``we talked abut him getting his flight physical situation fixed'' and quotes Bush as saying he would ``do that in Alabama if he stays in a flight status.'' It also says, I advised him of our investment in him and his commitment.''

Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe said, ``George W. Bush's cover story on his National Guard service is rapidly unraveling. ... George W. Bush needs to answer why he regularly mislead the American people about his time in the Guard and who applied political pressure on his behalf to have his performance reviews 'sugarcoated'''

Bartlett told CBS, ``As it says in your own documents, President Bush talked to the commanders about the fact that he'd be transferring to a unit ... in Alabama that didn't fly that plane,'' the F-102, the type Bush was trained in.

Using only last names, one of the newly disclosed documents points to sharp disagreement among Bush's superiors in Texas over how to evaluate his performance for the period from mid-1972 through mid-1973.

``Stuart has obviously pressured Hedges more about Bush,'' Killian wrote on Aug. 18, 1973. ``I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job - Harris gave me a message today from Grip (a headquarters unit) regarding Bush's OETR (officer efficiency training report) and Stuart is pushing to sugar coat it. Bush wasn't here during rating period and I don't have any comments from 187th in Alabama. I will not rate.''

The memo concludes: ``Harris took the call from Grip today. I'll backdate but won't rate. Harris agrees.''

At the time, Walter B. Stuart was commander of the Texas National Guard; Lt. Col. Bobby Hedges was one of Bush's superiors in Texas who two years earlier had rated Bush an outstanding young pilot; and Lt. Col. William D. Harris Jr. was another superior of Bush's.

Records released this year when Bush's military service re-emerged as a campaign issue contain no evidence that he showed up for duty at all for five months in mid-1972 and document only a few occasions later that year.

Asked about Killian's statement in a memo about the military's investment in Bush, Bartlett told CBS: ``For anybody to try to interpret or presume they know what somebody who is now dead was thinking in any of these memos, I think is very difficult to do.''


09/0 9/04 06:15 Also here are some of Kerry'stuff that he has done while in the Senate, could find the site that tracked all of it ,but WILL post it for y'll whenI do find it:Kerry wrote the first bill reducing acid rain. In 2003, Kerry voted the preferred position of the environmental group, the Sierra Club, 100 percent of the time.

In 2003, Kerry also voted the preferred position of Alliance for Retired Americans, a group concerned about Social Security and Medicare, 100 percent of the time.

John Kerry serves on the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the Committee on Finance, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Eric Jaffa, Brooklyn Center.

bjhcpa

Wow, thats a surprise, the answer to "what do you think is positive about John Kerry" is a negative comment about Bush.

So, when do we get whats good about Kerry?


Dont really think what either of them did 30 years ago is really relavent to what they stand for today....but since it is such an issue I would much rather a president who 30 YEARS AGO managed to get into the air national guard because of who he was and squeaked his way through, than a president who came back from Vietnam and disgraced our country and military, who testified under oath that he agreed with the Communist North Vietnam that our men committed horrific war crimes (of which he said he witnessed, but did nothing about), who wrote a book putting down this country, the American military, as well as supporting socialism over our democratic government (the cover of which mocks the flag raisers in Iwo Jima, one of our most famous and proudest photographs in American history) and who's picture is hanging and honored in a museum (along with Jane Fonda's) in communist North Vietnam as a war hero for the other side

I dont know, but if we are going to focus on what happened 30 years ago which is absolutely ridiculous, I will take the actions committed by Bush as a 20 year old over the actions of Kerry any day....