Truespeak

If you're a member of the Swiftboat Vets for Truth, the last few days have been awful. Granted, you're getting more attention than ever, but it's not really the attention you had hoped for. First of all, you've got the Washington Post exposing the discrepancies between Swiftboat member Larry Thurlow's story and his own military records. Then you've got the New York Times exposing all of your ties to the Republicans, the Bush administration, and Karl Rove. Next, you've got KnightRidder basically outing the entire group as liars. And now, there's this from the editor of the Chicago Tribune:

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.

.....

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.

.....

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.

Too bad for the Swift Vets that this comes at a time when they're preparing to roll out a new ad critical of Kerry. Had this article come out a few days earlier, they maybe could have saved their money. But now they're not only out a significant amount of money, but their credibility has been severely damaged. How are they going to counter this? Call him a liar too? By saying that John Kerry got his medals by lying, they are imsinuating that the Navy gave out awards without just cause thereby dishonoring a great number of soldiers who served and won medals themselves. If by making general statements about war-crimes in Vietnam, John Kerry was dishonoring those who served, then the Swiftboat Vets are dishonoring those who were honored for their service. In a sense, they're saying that all medals won during Vietnam will have to be reviewed for their integrity. If I were a veteran, I'd be pissed.