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Home Front: Politix
Kerry: "I Had A Dog, And VC Was His Name-O"
2004-03-17
Humane USA is a political action committee devoted to the task of electing humane-minded candidates to public office at the federal and state levels. Democratic presidential hopefuls U.S. Senator John Kerry responded to Humane USA’s presidential questionnaire. Kerry still seems to be answering every question with a reference to Vietnam. Except, of course, about details of his protesting it afterward.
Q: Do you have any pets that have made an impact on you personally?
A: 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.

All I can say is wow, they must have had some bitching dope in the Nam.
Posted by:Steve

#21  I could have sworn (after I stopped spitting coffee on the monitor) that this had to be Scrappleface. Nope. It's on the Humane USA website (www.humaneusa.org).

Read Dennis Kucinich's too ...
Posted by: Sofia   2004-3-17 10:58:54 PM  

#20  I'm pretty sure they'd have Buster act as Kerry's stand-in

That's an insult to test-dummies everywhere.
Posted by: Charles   2004-3-17 7:44:45 PM  

#19  Harvey... that's a nice name. I'll bet you would have liked blue velvet too.
Posted by: Radar   2004-3-17 7:21:15 PM  

#18   The only pet Kerry can think to of that made an impact on Kerry was almost three dozen years ago,and it wasn't even his!This sums up Kerry perfectly-an ambitious,cynical,completely self-absorbed,masterpanderer who uses other people for his gain(it was crew's dog,threw someone elses' medals,sponged off everyone he knew).And the best part of fairy tale for me,he doesn't even answer quetion of pet that made a personal impact-"I think he provided ALL OF US...".

p.s. As for dog surviving unhurt,everyone knows how hard it was to hurt the VC;).
Posted by: Stephen   2004-3-17 6:18:07 PM  

#17  LOL! *spewing coffee* Damnit, FrankG, this is about sentiment! Heart-string tugging "Gosharoonies!" stuff. Warm fuzzy touchy-feely "See how human / humane I am?" PR! Get that damned logic outta here! Damn engineers are all alike - dissecting the story bits into physical events and examining them under the harsh light of reality -- You're Evil! -- you just get a kick outta popping bubbles, doncha?!??!!! Lol! 8->

Fred - Was he invisible? ;-)
Posted by: .com   2004-3-17 5:06:46 PM  

#16  I never got to have a dog in Vietnam. I had a rice beetle, though. His name was Harvey...
Posted by: Fred   2004-3-17 4:27:21 PM  

#15  Best of the Web notes that blogger Steve Sturm is all over this BS :

"Kerry's boat was "heading up a river," which means the boat was moving. I assume Naval doctrine in those days called for ships to maintain a minimum distance from one another in order to minimize damage and casualties in the event one ship draws hostile fire, hits a mine, etc. How far away from Kerry's boat was this other boat--20 yards, 50 yards, 100 yards? Even if they weren't strictly adhering to doctrine, there ought to have been some separation; there's no reason I can think why one boat would be running upriver with another boat tied to its stern.

So, we have Kerry claiming that his ship hit a mine that generated enough explosive energy to propel this dog . . . some 40 yards or so through the air, without hurting the dog? Unlikely.

Now, what are the odds of the dog being catapulted from Kerry's moving boat and landing on another moving boat? It must have been the perfect combination of launch angle, distance, explosive force, trajectory and the like for that to have happened. I know for a fact that this is no easy thing to do: think how hard it is to win that silly carnival frog game--and that's from a stationary platform. Maybe this happens in the movies, but not in real life. Wait a minute, in the remake of Starsky & Hutch, they tried launching a car into the air trying to land it on a moving boat. They failed miserably. So, I take it back, it doesn't even happen in the movies.

And, Kerry's account refers only to "picking ourselves up" after the explosion. There's an explosion so forceful that it launches the dog into near earth orbit and all Kerry and his crew have to do is "pick themselves up"? Again, I'm no physics major, but wouldn't it reasonable to think that an explosion with that much force wouldn't have seriously damaged the boat? What about his crew--granted they're all likely to have been bigger than the dog, and perhaps better able to absorb the shock, but none of them were hurt, knocked out, knocked overboard?"

Posted by: Frank G   2004-3-17 3:48:10 PM  

#14  TGA - Lol! You covered all of the important points per the Skeery talking points committee!

Snopes and Cecil Adams may want to get in on this one... what do the others guys on the boat say? They were quick to say, "Um, yeah - we were very brave and very heroic VC fighters in the 'Nam. Right! What(ever) he says!" - wonder if they'll buy into the ballistic doggie story, too...
Posted by: .com   2004-3-17 3:38:12 PM  

#13  Well, I've always thought that Kerry was a piss-poor Naval Officer, and this confirms it. All GOOD sailors know that a sea story always starts with the words "This is no shit...."
Posted by: Bill   2004-3-17 2:48:08 PM  

#12  I'm pretty sure they'd have Buster act as Kerry's stand-in. They might have to search pretty hard for a canine crash-test dummy.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-3-17 2:47:48 PM  

#11  Well, I've always thought that Kerry was a piss-poor Naval Officer, and this confirms it. All GOOD sailors know that a sea story always starts with the words "This is no shit...."
Posted by: Bill   2004-3-17 2:46:02 PM  

#10  I hope mythbusters does do this myth. That way, they blow up the boats afterwards with a Kerry cardbaord cut-out on board.

I bet the cut-out would run away too.
Posted by: Charles   2004-3-17 2:36:57 PM  

#9  skerry seems like a cat person or at least that's prolly all his wife will let him have......bwhaha
Posted by: Jarhead   2004-3-17 2:02:53 PM  

#8  I wonder if his wife will let him have a dog now? “Can I have a dog?” “only with relish!” According to my father (two tours): “The had some ass-kicking stuff over there.” This was long before drug testing and discharge.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter)   2004-3-17 1:32:16 PM  

#7  VC for VP!!! (After all he served in Vietnam!)

And no, I don't have a dog in this fight!
Posted by: True German Ally   2004-3-17 1:21:10 PM  

#6  "and after we got him back, we ate him"
Posted by: Frank G   2004-3-17 1:14:09 PM  

#5  "This is a job for the Mythbusters!"

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing a small dog made of ballistic gelatin cartwheeling thru the air.
Posted by: SteveS   2004-3-17 1:04:34 PM  

#4  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.

This is a job for the Mythbusters!
Posted by: Steve   2004-3-17 12:54:37 PM  

#3  Do you think they will catch on to the fact that he took a dog into a free-fire combat zone? Someone call PETA.....

bitching dope - LOL - Excellent!
Posted by: CrazyFool   2004-3-17 12:39:42 PM  

#2  To the last yellow highlighted comment the answer is YES!
Posted by: 3dc   2004-3-17 12:35:24 PM  

#1  " The Vietcong are throwing their lunch at us, retreat!"
Posted by: Charles   2004-3-17 12:32:48 PM  

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