You be the judge if Sen. Kerry or his cast of crew can be trusted to tell the truth....
October 27, 1996, business columnist David Warsh wrote for the Boston Globe about discrepancies in recent accounts of the day Kerry won the Silver Star. He quoted Sen. Kerry's former crewmate during an interview, Tom Belodeau, as saying, "You know, I shot that guy. He jumped up, he looked right at me, I looked at him. You could tell he was trying to decide whether to shoot or not. I expected the guy on Kerry's boat with the twin 50s to blast him but he couldn't depress the guns far enough. We were up on the bank." Bellodeau said he fired at the man, wounding him.
But didn't Kerry shoot him? "When I hit him he went down and got up again. When Kerry hit him, he stayed down," said Bellodeau.
Days later after columnist David Warsh had questioned Sen. Kerry's Silver Star account, Sen. Kerry arranged a hasty Press Conference that had brought together some of his former crewmates and commanders. The following came from this 1996 Press Conference:
Tom Belodeau of Dracut, stood beside Sen. Kerry and said he had been misquoted. "This man was not lying on the ground. This man was more than capable of destroying that boat and everybody on it. Sen. Kerry did not give him that opportunity," Mr. Belodeau said. Mr. Belodeau did concede that he may have wounded the Viet Cong soldier with a burst from his own gun, but he said Sen. Kerry did more than just finish him off.
"The soldier that Sen. John Kerry shot was standing on both feet with a loaded rocket launcher, about to fire it on the boat from which (Sen. Kerry) had just left, which still had four men aboard," Tom Belodeau said.
Former crewmember, Michael Medeiros, who was chasing after Sen. Kerry and the fleeing soldier, said he did not see Sen. Kerry kill him but had no doubt that the senator did so. "The only one that was there was Senator Kerry," he said.
Sen. Kerry added, "I was never out of sight of Tom Belodeau or Mike Medeiros," Kerry said. "I went straight out from the boat to the path so I had a line of fire. I never went behind the hootch, and this is the first time in 30 years that anybody has suggested otherwise."
". . . Without hesitation Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry leaped ashore, pursued the man behind a hootch, and killed him, capturing a B-40 rocket launcher with a round in the chamber."
Excerpt from Sen. John F. Kerry's very own Silver Star citation, given to him on March 6, 1969 by Adm. Elmo Zumwalt:
"With my adrenaline racing, I started following him off the boat," Michael Medeiros recalls in Douglas Brinkley's book, Tour of Duty. "So I was right behind him. . . . As the VC guerrilla got 20 or 30 meters down the path, just about in front of a lean-to, the (future) senator shot the guy. He had been standing on both feet with a loaded rocket launcher about to fire. He fell over dead."
No one had a clear view of the shooting [Kerry killing the VC guerrilla]. But "next thing we know, there's Kerry with the B-40 in his hand," former Kerry crewmate, Del Sandusky said.
Kerry in Vietnam: Daring, doubt by Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times, August 08, 2004
An early 1998 account by Sen. Kerry of a March 13, 1969 incident, that lead to James Rassmann falling into a river and Sen. Kerry recovering him:
There was the time [March 13, 1969] we were carrying special forces up a river and a mine exploded under our boat sending it 2 feet into the air. We were receiving incoming rocket and small arms fire and Tommy was returning fire with his M-60 machine gun when it literally broke apart in his hands. He was left holding the pieces unable to fire back while one of the Green Berets walked along the edge of the boat to get Tommy another M-60. As he was doing so, the boat made a high speed turn to starboard and the Green Beret kept going--straight into the river. The entire time while the boat went back to get the Green Beret, Tommy was without a machine gun or a weapon of any kind, but all the time he was hurling the greatest single string of Lowell-Chelmsford curses ever heard at the Viet Cong. He literally had swear words with tracers on them!
Congressional Record: January 28, 1998 (Senate) Page S186-S187
CENTRAL POINT -- John Kerry brought his campaign to conservative southern Oregon on Thursday, seeking the support of voters he knew might be more inclined to mark their ballots for President George W. Bush.
Heinz Kerry told the audience how Rassmann, a former Green Beret who credits Kerry with saving his life, called the Kerry campaign back in January to ask what he could do to help. He was told that volunteers were needed in Iowa and Rassmann went there and began telling how Kerry pulled him out of the water under enemy fire.
Heinz Kerry said her husband had not even remembered the event [March 13, 1969 rescue], but appreciated Rassmann, who until recently was a registered Republican, speaking up. As she told the story, Kerry put his arm around Rassmann and spoke with him.
(Kerry on state stump, The News Review Online, August 13, 2004)
"John, shot and bleeding, laid down and pulled up Rassmann by his belt."
(Former crew member Del Sandusky, CNN NewsNight, Aired May 31, 2004)
Note: Sen. Kerry was never shot in Vietnam or bleeding when he help pull Jim Rassmann out of the water.
Humane USA Presidential 2004 Candidate Questionnaire
Candidate: JOHN KERRY
Staff Contact: LUIS NAVARRO Phone: (202) 548-6800
E-mail: lnavarro@johnkerry.com
Question: Do you have any pets that have made an impact on you personally?
Kerry: I have always had pets in my life and there are a few that I remember very fondly. When I was serving on a swiftboat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called VC. We all took care of him, and he stayed with us and loved riding on the swiftboat deck. I think he provided all of us with a link to home and a few moments of peace and tranquility during a dangerous time. One day as our swiftboat was heading up a river, a mine exploded hard under our boat. After picking ourselves up, we discovered VC was MIA. Several minutes of frantic search followed after which we thought we'd lost him. We were relieved when another boat called asking if we were missing a dog. It turns out VC was catapulted from the deck of our boat and landed confused, but unhurt, on the deck of another boat in our patrol.
"The fact of the matter remains that after I received my third wound, I was told that I could return to the United States. I deliberated for about two weeks because there was a very difficult decision in whether or not you leave your friends because you have an opportunity to go, but I finally made the decision to go back and did leave of my own volition because I felt that I could do more against he war back here."
The Dick Cavett Show, June 30, 1971
But Kerry thought he had seen and done enough. The rules, he said, allowed a thrice-wounded soldier to return to the United States immediately. So Kerry went to talk to Commodore Charles F. Horne, an administrative official and commander of the coastal squadron in which Kerry served. Horne filled out a document on March 17, 1969, that said Kerry "has been thrice wounded in action while on duty incountry Vietnam. Reassignment is requested ... as a personal aide in Boston, New York, or Wash., D.C. area."
(John F. Kerry, Candidate in the Making -- Boston Globe, June, 16, 2003)
Note: Kerry was last wounded on March 13, 1969.
Former Sen. Kerry crewmate, David M. Alston, spoke on ABC's Nightline on June 22 of being present for Kerry's Silver Star-winning actions on February 28:
"I know when John Kerry told [crew member Del Sandusky] to beach that damn boat, this was a brand-new ball game We wasn't running. We took it to Charlie."
Note: Alston was not part of Sen. Kerry's crew on February 28, 1969, and may not have ever been part of Sen. Kerry's crew during anytime of Kerry's four months in Vietnam.
"I was assigned to John Kerry's swiftboat on February the 18 of 1969, and I went on my first patrol, which happened to be my 21st birthday, and I was rewarded with three fire fights that day. I've seen John Kerry in action, I have seen John Kerry under fire," said Fred Short, of Little Rock, Ark., who served with Kerry.
The Boston Channel, July 28, 2004
Speaking to Arkansas delegates earlier this week, [Fred] Short told of how Kerry saved his life in 1969 when their Swift boat was ambushed during his first day on patrol under Kerry's command.
Kerry used an M-16 to kill a Vietcong who rose up ready to shoot at their boat with a rocket-propelled grenade, Short recalled.
The Times Record, July 29, 2004Note: This would have been Feburary 28, 1969.
"We were in a small canal and normally we would have tried to exit, but Mr. Kerry ordered us to charge," Short said. "While I shot high, he and Tommy Bellodeau charged under me, right at the guy, and we routed them. That's why Mr. Kerry won the Silver Star."
Short said the crew avoided any casualties, even though 800 of 900 American troops caught in that zone died that day. He said it was a few weeks later, April 28, 1969, that he finished his tour and last saluted Kerry.
(Sen. Kerry Reunites With Vietnam Crewman, Associated Press, April 29, 2003)
Note: Sen Kerry had reported for duty at the Military Sea Transportation Service, U.S. Atlantic Fleet in Brooklyn, NY on April 11, 1969. Note also that 800-900 casualties in a single incident in the Delta would have been added to every history book ever written on Vietnam, but no references to this many US service men dying in a single day cannot be found.
"I was there when Sen. Kerry got shot, and I've seen his blood on the deck of a swift boat."
(Former Crewmate Fred Short, Scripps Howard News Service, July 29, 2004)
Note: Sen. Kerry was never shot while serving in Vietnam.
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Prepared by The Bandit
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