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| Home Front: Politix |
| American Spectator Review of "Unfit for Command" (OUCH!) |
| 2004-08-15 |
| Via the Cracker Barrel Philosopher. Severely EFL ... This is an insufficient condemnation if one of the more gruesome passages in the book turns out to be true. That is, one night in January 1969, Kerry and crew were patrolling the banks of the Cua Lon River when all hell descended. Kerry told quasi-official biographer Douglas Brinkley that many minutes of silent patrol had gone by when someone yelled, "Sampan off the port bow!": "Everybody froze and we slowed the engines quickly. But the sampan was already by us and wasn't stopping. It was past curfew and nothing was allowed in the river. I told the gunner to fire a few warning shots and in the confusion all guns opened up. We moved in on the sampan, and taking one of the battle lanterns off the bulkhead shone it on the silhouette of the craft that was now dead in the water." But the presence of eyewitnesses betrays Kerry's self-serving remake of the incident. According to gunner Steve Gardner, who "sat above Kerry on the double .50-caliber mount that night," Kerry stayed in the pilothouse during the incident. Kerry failed to spot the sampan on radar and give warning; he didn't join the crew when they heard an engine noise and saw the boat; he wasn't there when they threw the PFC lights on; he did not order them to fire warning shots; and he wasn't there when Gardner ordered the craft to stop. |
| Posted by:Barbara Skolaut |
| #6 Kerry also contacted Brinkley to "modify" the account he gave to Brinkley. |
| Posted by: jawa 2004-08-15 8:04:20 PM |
| #5 busy trying to figure out where the hell they were - we already know he doesn't know where Cambodia is |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-08-15 5:50:45 PM |
| #4 With a Faruno or an SPS-10 radar you could not have missed that large of a contact. Therefore, he was not looking at the radar - probably asleep, reading, writing or smoking in the pilot house. Must have been awoken by the gunfire. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-15 5:46:11 PM |
| #3 At least this explains why Kery thought there were so many war crimes being committed. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-08-15 5:40:08 PM |
| #2 Explains why Gardner is not on the Kerry platform. It would be hard to live with that every day for the rest of your life. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-15 5:36:05 PM |
| #1 While this account is from a crewman who hates Kerry and may be suspect,I still can't get out of my mind Kerrys' own account of mine/rescue/medal incident out of my mind.When the mine went off,Kerry stated he left(ie fled) the area and then returned-yet the other boats stayed there.Same in his journal account of Christmas Eve,contact and Kerry stayed in middle of river and 2 other boats went to investigate. If any Swift boat vets are reading,was it common practice to break contact as soon as you came under fire? |
| Posted by: Stephen 2004-08-15 3:03:05 PM |