For our international posters who can't get the book yet, i will post excerpts as they come available. I am trying to avoid actually typing out parts of the book manually but will look for Chapters reprinted on the web and pass them on to you.
Today i will share links to chapter 3 and 5. CH 3 is in PDF, i hope that isn't a problem. If you don't have ADOBE dounloaded, now is a good time to do it.
CH 3 http://humaneventsonline.com.edgesuite.net/unfitch3.pdf
CH 5 http://learnedhand.com/kerryunfit5.htm
Full Version: Excerpts From Unfit For Command...
Kerry and Unfit for Command
By Col. John H. Wambough, Jr. USAF (Ret.)
September 10, 2004
Kerry Betrayed His Comrades In Arms. In my article "Bush and Uncommon Valor" I state that although it is fair to recognize Sen. Kerry's four-month war record and medals, it is what he did after leaving the military that deserves the greatest scrutiny. He became a turncoat by misrepresenting to the American public what our soldiers were doing in Southeast Asia. As part of the anti-war movement with Jane Fonda, he maligned, mocked and discredited our soldiers. He lied about what our soldiers were doing in combat. He defamed our brave fighting men. Today, John Kerry holds a place of honor in the Communist War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City for his "heroic" contributions to the North Vietnamese victory.
So he is a war hero for the Communists and a war hero for the United States -- all in the same war. How is that possible? It is certainly a unique accomplishment in the annals of warfare. Now with the book "Unfit for Command" (written by John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi and supported by inputs from more than 60 honorable Swift Boat Veterans), it is clear that several of Kerry's combat awards were based on betrayal and deception as were his attacks against his fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War.
Kerry vilified the reputations of 2.6 million soldiers that served in combat in Southeast Asia (over a ten year period), vilified the 58,000 of our brave fighting men that died during the Vietnam conflict and vilified the 300,000 that were wounded in combat. Is it not ironic then -- that the one war hero who emerges out of the battlefields of Vietnam is John Kerry. He wants to be Commander-In-Chief. Is he a villain or a hero? If he is a hero what about the 2.6 million he labeled as villains? Are they still villains or are they now heroes or is Kerry the only real hero to emerge from Vietnam with his reputation whole?
The greatest insult our citizens could inflict upon the U.S. military would be to vote into office as Commander-in-Chief the very person who betrayed our soldiers -- while they were still fighting and dying on the battlefield and in air combat. In my view, to make him Commander-In-Chief would be unconscionable and demonstrate a profound disregard for the feelings of hundreds of thousands of Veterans.
As a combat veteran having flown in North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Laos in 1968-1969, and knowing of many Tactical Fighter Pilots who lost their lives in combat, I will not be voting for John Kerry -- the man who defamed the reputations of the men and women who gave their all in behalf of the citizens of the United States of America.
My conclusion from reading "Unfit for Command" is that Kerry still owes the U.S. taxpayer 243 days of Vietnam service based on factual misrepresentations made in his award submissions. According to "Unfit for Command," two of John Kerry's Purple Heart awards were based on self-inflicted wounds and were not the result of hostile fire of any kind. Since one of the requirements to be awarded a Purple Heart is enemy fire and given none took place, these awards were fraudulently obtained.
However, read the book and draw your own conclusions. The Purple Heart stories are just the tip of the iceberg of what the Swift Boat Veterans have documented about John Kerry. The book "Unfit for Command" can be purchased at Amazon.com. Should John Kerry become President, who do you think would be in charge of the war against global terrorism? Would it be Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd, Tom Daschel, Nancy Pelosi, Jane Fonda, pacifists, appeasers, Left-Wing anti-war, anti-military, anti-Patriot Act, anti-intelligence gathering people and the United Nations -- to include the French, Germans, Russians and Chinese? These people comprise Kerry's center of influence and the front line of his Left-Wing Democrat Party. These people (given their record) would be a lot more interested in dismantling the U.S. military and turning our national security over to the U.N. than in going after any terrorists. Beware America.
John O'Neill, Jerome Corsi and more than 60 Swift Boat Veterans (that have been courageous enough to set the record straight in "Unfit for Command" should be applauded; they have earned on the battlefield their right to speak out. Their voices need to be heard despite Kerry's many efforts to silence and discredit them. Also, 254 Swift Boat Veterans should be applauded for demanding that Kerry release his military and medical records by executing a Standard Form 180. Immediate release would allow the public time to review all of Kerry's records. Citizens have a right to examine Kerry's credentials prior to voting on November 2, 2004.
Those involved in the exposure of Kerry's military record to the public should know they will be viciously attacked by Kerry and the mass liberal media propaganda machine as being agents of the Bush Campaign -- which they are not. Also, expect that the New York Times (electronically syndicated to over 650 newspapers) will do everything they can to trash the reputations of the Swift Boat Veterans in order to get Kerry elected -- despite the fact that the Swift Boat Veterans are an apolitical group made up of Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Additionally, the New York Times articles (attacking the Swift Boat Veterans) will be echoed by the liberal media's national networks -- CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc. plus National Public Radio (NPR), cable TV and radio talk shows.
In closing, let me ask how many soldiers do you know who are exhibited as honorary war heroes in the Communist War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City? I know of only one, his name is John Kerry. This is hardly a qualification to be Commander-In-Chief of our Armed Forces.
Note: I suspect my fellow veterans have little interest in going back 30 to 35 years to revisit discordant memories of their Vietnam experience; the Vietnam and post Vietnam phase of our lives long ago faded into the sunset of history. However, John Kerry has chosen to bring Vietnam into the forefront of his 2004 campaign (as his most significant qualification to be Commander-In-Chief of our Armed Forces) by portraying himself as a war hero while at the same time deprecating President Bush's military service in the Air National Guard.
------------
John Wambough is a retired Air Force colonel with 28 years of service. During his career in the Air Force, Colonel Wambough flew F-105 and F-111 tactical fighter aircraft. His combat tour in Southeast Asia was in the F-105s with the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron. Also, he served in Current Operations at 7th Air Force Headquarters, TanSon Nhut Air Base, RVN. He was a Fighter Squadron Commander (F - 111E aircraft, 55 TFS, Royal Air Force, Upper Heyford, United Kingdom) and later Group Commander at the same base. He served on the Air Staff and Joint Staff in the Pentagon -- and attended the National War College. He was head of the Joint Studies Group at Tactical Command Headquarters, Langley AFB, Virginia and completed his service in the Air Force as Commander of the 4442nd Tactical Control Group and Commandant of the United States Air Force Air Ground Operations School, Hurlburt Field, Florida. He retired in March 1990 - having served 28 years in the Air Force.
By Col. John H. Wambough, Jr. USAF (Ret.)
September 10, 2004
Kerry Betrayed His Comrades In Arms. In my article "Bush and Uncommon Valor" I state that although it is fair to recognize Sen. Kerry's four-month war record and medals, it is what he did after leaving the military that deserves the greatest scrutiny. He became a turncoat by misrepresenting to the American public what our soldiers were doing in Southeast Asia. As part of the anti-war movement with Jane Fonda, he maligned, mocked and discredited our soldiers. He lied about what our soldiers were doing in combat. He defamed our brave fighting men. Today, John Kerry holds a place of honor in the Communist War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City for his "heroic" contributions to the North Vietnamese victory.
So he is a war hero for the Communists and a war hero for the United States -- all in the same war. How is that possible? It is certainly a unique accomplishment in the annals of warfare. Now with the book "Unfit for Command" (written by John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi and supported by inputs from more than 60 honorable Swift Boat Veterans), it is clear that several of Kerry's combat awards were based on betrayal and deception as were his attacks against his fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War.
Kerry vilified the reputations of 2.6 million soldiers that served in combat in Southeast Asia (over a ten year period), vilified the 58,000 of our brave fighting men that died during the Vietnam conflict and vilified the 300,000 that were wounded in combat. Is it not ironic then -- that the one war hero who emerges out of the battlefields of Vietnam is John Kerry. He wants to be Commander-In-Chief. Is he a villain or a hero? If he is a hero what about the 2.6 million he labeled as villains? Are they still villains or are they now heroes or is Kerry the only real hero to emerge from Vietnam with his reputation whole?
The greatest insult our citizens could inflict upon the U.S. military would be to vote into office as Commander-in-Chief the very person who betrayed our soldiers -- while they were still fighting and dying on the battlefield and in air combat. In my view, to make him Commander-In-Chief would be unconscionable and demonstrate a profound disregard for the feelings of hundreds of thousands of Veterans.
As a combat veteran having flown in North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Laos in 1968-1969, and knowing of many Tactical Fighter Pilots who lost their lives in combat, I will not be voting for John Kerry -- the man who defamed the reputations of the men and women who gave their all in behalf of the citizens of the United States of America.
My conclusion from reading "Unfit for Command" is that Kerry still owes the U.S. taxpayer 243 days of Vietnam service based on factual misrepresentations made in his award submissions. According to "Unfit for Command," two of John Kerry's Purple Heart awards were based on self-inflicted wounds and were not the result of hostile fire of any kind. Since one of the requirements to be awarded a Purple Heart is enemy fire and given none took place, these awards were fraudulently obtained.
However, read the book and draw your own conclusions. The Purple Heart stories are just the tip of the iceberg of what the Swift Boat Veterans have documented about John Kerry. The book "Unfit for Command" can be purchased at Amazon.com. Should John Kerry become President, who do you think would be in charge of the war against global terrorism? Would it be Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd, Tom Daschel, Nancy Pelosi, Jane Fonda, pacifists, appeasers, Left-Wing anti-war, anti-military, anti-Patriot Act, anti-intelligence gathering people and the United Nations -- to include the French, Germans, Russians and Chinese? These people comprise Kerry's center of influence and the front line of his Left-Wing Democrat Party. These people (given their record) would be a lot more interested in dismantling the U.S. military and turning our national security over to the U.N. than in going after any terrorists. Beware America.
John O'Neill, Jerome Corsi and more than 60 Swift Boat Veterans (that have been courageous enough to set the record straight in "Unfit for Command" should be applauded; they have earned on the battlefield their right to speak out. Their voices need to be heard despite Kerry's many efforts to silence and discredit them. Also, 254 Swift Boat Veterans should be applauded for demanding that Kerry release his military and medical records by executing a Standard Form 180. Immediate release would allow the public time to review all of Kerry's records. Citizens have a right to examine Kerry's credentials prior to voting on November 2, 2004.
Those involved in the exposure of Kerry's military record to the public should know they will be viciously attacked by Kerry and the mass liberal media propaganda machine as being agents of the Bush Campaign -- which they are not. Also, expect that the New York Times (electronically syndicated to over 650 newspapers) will do everything they can to trash the reputations of the Swift Boat Veterans in order to get Kerry elected -- despite the fact that the Swift Boat Veterans are an apolitical group made up of Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Additionally, the New York Times articles (attacking the Swift Boat Veterans) will be echoed by the liberal media's national networks -- CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc. plus National Public Radio (NPR), cable TV and radio talk shows.
In closing, let me ask how many soldiers do you know who are exhibited as honorary war heroes in the Communist War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City? I know of only one, his name is John Kerry. This is hardly a qualification to be Commander-In-Chief of our Armed Forces.
Note: I suspect my fellow veterans have little interest in going back 30 to 35 years to revisit discordant memories of their Vietnam experience; the Vietnam and post Vietnam phase of our lives long ago faded into the sunset of history. However, John Kerry has chosen to bring Vietnam into the forefront of his 2004 campaign (as his most significant qualification to be Commander-In-Chief of our Armed Forces) by portraying himself as a war hero while at the same time deprecating President Bush's military service in the Air National Guard.
------------
John Wambough is a retired Air Force colonel with 28 years of service. During his career in the Air Force, Colonel Wambough flew F-105 and F-111 tactical fighter aircraft. His combat tour in Southeast Asia was in the F-105s with the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron. Also, he served in Current Operations at 7th Air Force Headquarters, TanSon Nhut Air Base, RVN. He was a Fighter Squadron Commander (F - 111E aircraft, 55 TFS, Royal Air Force, Upper Heyford, United Kingdom) and later Group Commander at the same base. He served on the Air Staff and Joint Staff in the Pentagon -- and attended the National War College. He was head of the Joint Studies Group at Tactical Command Headquarters, Langley AFB, Virginia and completed his service in the Air Force as Commander of the 4442nd Tactical Control Group and Commandant of the United States Air Force Air Ground Operations School, Hurlburt Field, Florida. He retired in March 1990 - having served 28 years in the Air Force.
Great thread, politipile! Good thinking... 
Swiftees Strike Back at Kerry
An intense political firefight broke out this week when a group of U.S. Navy Swift Boat veterans--calling themselves Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--released a television advertisement accusing John Kerry of lying about his record in Vietnam. At the same time, Regnery Publishing, a sister company of HUMAN EVENTS, released excerpts from Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, a book out next week that is deeply critical of Kerry's Vietnam experiences. Both the ad and and a copy of an embargoed chapter were first exclusively available on Human Events Online (see the ad here; get a free chapter here).
The television ad brought a swift response from Kerry's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. On August 5, two lawyers representing the campaign and the Democratic National Committee, sent a letter to television station managers, which was first revealed here at Human Events Online, claiming some statements in the ad were "demonstrably and unequivocally false, and libelous" and darkly warning station managers that if they ran the ad their stations would be "responsible for the false and libelous charges made by this sponsor."
On the Record
Meanwhile, in the excerpt from Unfit for Command, authors John O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi say Kerry sought a Purple Heart after he fired a grenade from too-close range into a shoreline where it exploded, sending a small piece of shrapnel back to slightly wound his arm.
Kerry's boat did not come under enemy fire the night Kerry received this minor wound, the authors say. Kerry did not require hospitalization or even a single stitch for it. And Kerry's commanding officer refused Kerry's request that the officer recommend Kerry for a Purple Heart as a result of the incident.
That officer told O'Neill and Corsi his story on the record.
O'Neill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, took command of the very same Swift Boat Kerry had commanded in Vietnam, after Kerry went home in March 1969 after serving only four months of the standard one-year tour in the country. He took advantage of what O'Neill and Corsi call in the book "an obscure regulation that permitted release of personnel with three Purple Hearts." Corsi holds a Ph.D from Harvard.
In Tour of Duty by historian Douglas Brinkley, Kerry described the night he received the shrapnel wound in terms reminiscent of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
He was paddling down a dark bay, on a mission to stop the Vietcong from moving contraband from one shore to the other. Spying a group of sampans sneaking onto a beach, he fired a flare.
"The entire sky seemed to explode into daylight," Brinkley writes in Tour of Duty. "The men from the sampans bolted erect, stiff with shock for only an instant before they sprang for cover like a herd of panicked gazelles Kerry had once seen on TV's 'Wild Kingdom.'"
"We opened fire," Kerry told Brinkley. "The light from the flares started to fade, the air was full of explosions. My M-16 jammed, and as I bent down in the boat to grab another gun, a stinging piece of heat socked into my arm and just seemed to burn like ######. By this time one of the sailors had started the engine and we ran by the beach, strafing it. Then it was quiet."
But O'Neill and Corsi tell a different story. Kerry went out that night in a Boston Whaler (called a "skimmer" by the Navy) with a more senior officer.
Doctor's Diagnosis
"The truth is that at the time of this incident Kerry was an officer in command (OinC) under training, aboard the skimmer using the call sign 'Robin' on the operation, with now-Rear Admiral William Schachte using the call sign 'Batman,' who was also on the skimmer," the authors write. "After Kerry's M-16 jammed, Kerry picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and fired a grenade too close, causing a tiny piece of shrapnel (one to two centimeters) to barely stick in his arm. Schachte berated Kerry for almost putting someone's eye out. There was no hostile fire of any kind, nor did Kerry on the way back mention to PCF [Swift Boat] OinC Mike Voss, who commanded the PCF that had towed the skimmer, that he was wounded."
The authors quote at length Dr. Louis Letson, who they report treated Kerry after the incident. "It did not require any sutures to close the wound," Letson says. "The wound was covered with a band-aid. No other injuries were reported and I do not recall that there was any injury to the boat."
Letson appears in the TV ad, saying: "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury." In their letter, the Kerry and DNC lawyers accuse Letson of "pretending to be the doctor who treated Senator Kerry for one of his injuries" and say he "was not the doctor who actually signed Senator Kerry's sick call sheet."
In Unfit for Command, however O'Neill and Corsi quote Letson as saying: "I remember that Jess Carreon was present at the time and he, in fact, made the entry into Lt. Kerry's medical record."
A footnote to this quotation states: "Kerry's campaign has tried to deny Dr. Letson's treatment of Kerry by pointing to the different signature on Kerry's medical report. The report was signed by the corpsman assigned to Dr. Letson, Jess Carreon, now deceased, according to U.S. Navy records."
Retired Navy Commander Grant Hibbard, who headed the Naval division to which Kerry was assigned, also spoke to the authors on-the-record.
"The next morning at the briefing, I was informed that no enemy fire had been received on that mission," said Hibbard. "Our units had fired on some VC units running on the beach. We were all in my office, some of the crewmembers, I remember Schachte being there. This was 36 years ago; it really didn't seem all that important at the time. Here was this lieutenant, junior grade, who was saying, 'I got wounded,' and everybody else, the crew that were present were saying, 'We didn't get any fire. We don't know how he got the scratch.' Kerry showed me the scratch on his arm. I hadn't been informed that he had any medical treatment. The scratch didn't look like much to me. I've seen worse injuries from a rose thorn."
The authors asked Hibbard if Kerry wanted Hibbard to recommend him for a Purple Heart. "Yes, that was his whole point," said Hibbard. "He had this little piece of shrapnel in his hand. It was tiny. I was told later that Kerry had fired an M-79 grenade and that he had misjudged it. He fired it too close to the shore, and it exploded on a rock or something. . . . I told Kerry to 'forget it.' There was no hostile fire, the injury was self-inflicted for all I knew, besides it was nothing really more than a scratch. Kerry wasn't getting any Purple Heart recommendation from me."
When asked how Kerry did get a Purple Heart for the incident, Hibbard told the authors: "I don't know. It beats me. I know I didn't recommend him for a Purple Heart."
The "Drudge Report" website, which featured excerpts from the book this week, said that the Kerry campaign believes the book is "the dirtiest of dirty tricks ever played on a candidate for President."
Author O'Neill debated Kerry 33 years ago--rebutting Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony that U.S. forces routinely committed war crimes in Vietnam--on an episode of the Dick Cavett Show that was replayed on CSPAN earlier this year. He is a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the non-profit "527" group that produced the television ad attacking Kerry's record that has so excited the ire of the Kerry campaign and the DNC. The group is made up solely of military personnel who served on Swift Boats in Vietnam ("swiftees" as they call themselves) or in affiliated commands. In May, 190 members of this group signed a letter to Kerry asking him to sign a Navy Standard Form 180, which would authorize the independent public release of all Kerry's war records. That would allow them to be reviewed in full by the public and press, and allow people to better judge who is telling the truth in this controversy. Thus far, Kerry has not signed the form.
With a Democratic convention that focused heavily on Kerry's war record, and with the release of the swiftees' TV ad and the O'Neill-Corsi book, Kerry's role in Vietnam and in the anti-war movement is certain to be a burning hot issue as the presidential campaign heads toward the fall.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2004 HUMAN EVENTS.
An intense political firefight broke out this week when a group of U.S. Navy Swift Boat veterans--calling themselves Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--released a television advertisement accusing John Kerry of lying about his record in Vietnam. At the same time, Regnery Publishing, a sister company of HUMAN EVENTS, released excerpts from Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, a book out next week that is deeply critical of Kerry's Vietnam experiences. Both the ad and and a copy of an embargoed chapter were first exclusively available on Human Events Online (see the ad here; get a free chapter here).
The television ad brought a swift response from Kerry's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. On August 5, two lawyers representing the campaign and the Democratic National Committee, sent a letter to television station managers, which was first revealed here at Human Events Online, claiming some statements in the ad were "demonstrably and unequivocally false, and libelous" and darkly warning station managers that if they ran the ad their stations would be "responsible for the false and libelous charges made by this sponsor."
On the Record
Meanwhile, in the excerpt from Unfit for Command, authors John O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi say Kerry sought a Purple Heart after he fired a grenade from too-close range into a shoreline where it exploded, sending a small piece of shrapnel back to slightly wound his arm.
Kerry's boat did not come under enemy fire the night Kerry received this minor wound, the authors say. Kerry did not require hospitalization or even a single stitch for it. And Kerry's commanding officer refused Kerry's request that the officer recommend Kerry for a Purple Heart as a result of the incident.
That officer told O'Neill and Corsi his story on the record.
O'Neill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, took command of the very same Swift Boat Kerry had commanded in Vietnam, after Kerry went home in March 1969 after serving only four months of the standard one-year tour in the country. He took advantage of what O'Neill and Corsi call in the book "an obscure regulation that permitted release of personnel with three Purple Hearts." Corsi holds a Ph.D from Harvard.
In Tour of Duty by historian Douglas Brinkley, Kerry described the night he received the shrapnel wound in terms reminiscent of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
He was paddling down a dark bay, on a mission to stop the Vietcong from moving contraband from one shore to the other. Spying a group of sampans sneaking onto a beach, he fired a flare.
"The entire sky seemed to explode into daylight," Brinkley writes in Tour of Duty. "The men from the sampans bolted erect, stiff with shock for only an instant before they sprang for cover like a herd of panicked gazelles Kerry had once seen on TV's 'Wild Kingdom.'"
"We opened fire," Kerry told Brinkley. "The light from the flares started to fade, the air was full of explosions. My M-16 jammed, and as I bent down in the boat to grab another gun, a stinging piece of heat socked into my arm and just seemed to burn like ######. By this time one of the sailors had started the engine and we ran by the beach, strafing it. Then it was quiet."
But O'Neill and Corsi tell a different story. Kerry went out that night in a Boston Whaler (called a "skimmer" by the Navy) with a more senior officer.
Doctor's Diagnosis
"The truth is that at the time of this incident Kerry was an officer in command (OinC) under training, aboard the skimmer using the call sign 'Robin' on the operation, with now-Rear Admiral William Schachte using the call sign 'Batman,' who was also on the skimmer," the authors write. "After Kerry's M-16 jammed, Kerry picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and fired a grenade too close, causing a tiny piece of shrapnel (one to two centimeters) to barely stick in his arm. Schachte berated Kerry for almost putting someone's eye out. There was no hostile fire of any kind, nor did Kerry on the way back mention to PCF [Swift Boat] OinC Mike Voss, who commanded the PCF that had towed the skimmer, that he was wounded."
The authors quote at length Dr. Louis Letson, who they report treated Kerry after the incident. "It did not require any sutures to close the wound," Letson says. "The wound was covered with a band-aid. No other injuries were reported and I do not recall that there was any injury to the boat."
Letson appears in the TV ad, saying: "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury." In their letter, the Kerry and DNC lawyers accuse Letson of "pretending to be the doctor who treated Senator Kerry for one of his injuries" and say he "was not the doctor who actually signed Senator Kerry's sick call sheet."
In Unfit for Command, however O'Neill and Corsi quote Letson as saying: "I remember that Jess Carreon was present at the time and he, in fact, made the entry into Lt. Kerry's medical record."
A footnote to this quotation states: "Kerry's campaign has tried to deny Dr. Letson's treatment of Kerry by pointing to the different signature on Kerry's medical report. The report was signed by the corpsman assigned to Dr. Letson, Jess Carreon, now deceased, according to U.S. Navy records."
Retired Navy Commander Grant Hibbard, who headed the Naval division to which Kerry was assigned, also spoke to the authors on-the-record.
"The next morning at the briefing, I was informed that no enemy fire had been received on that mission," said Hibbard. "Our units had fired on some VC units running on the beach. We were all in my office, some of the crewmembers, I remember Schachte being there. This was 36 years ago; it really didn't seem all that important at the time. Here was this lieutenant, junior grade, who was saying, 'I got wounded,' and everybody else, the crew that were present were saying, 'We didn't get any fire. We don't know how he got the scratch.' Kerry showed me the scratch on his arm. I hadn't been informed that he had any medical treatment. The scratch didn't look like much to me. I've seen worse injuries from a rose thorn."
The authors asked Hibbard if Kerry wanted Hibbard to recommend him for a Purple Heart. "Yes, that was his whole point," said Hibbard. "He had this little piece of shrapnel in his hand. It was tiny. I was told later that Kerry had fired an M-79 grenade and that he had misjudged it. He fired it too close to the shore, and it exploded on a rock or something. . . . I told Kerry to 'forget it.' There was no hostile fire, the injury was self-inflicted for all I knew, besides it was nothing really more than a scratch. Kerry wasn't getting any Purple Heart recommendation from me."
When asked how Kerry did get a Purple Heart for the incident, Hibbard told the authors: "I don't know. It beats me. I know I didn't recommend him for a Purple Heart."
The "Drudge Report" website, which featured excerpts from the book this week, said that the Kerry campaign believes the book is "the dirtiest of dirty tricks ever played on a candidate for President."
Author O'Neill debated Kerry 33 years ago--rebutting Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony that U.S. forces routinely committed war crimes in Vietnam--on an episode of the Dick Cavett Show that was replayed on CSPAN earlier this year. He is a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the non-profit "527" group that produced the television ad attacking Kerry's record that has so excited the ire of the Kerry campaign and the DNC. The group is made up solely of military personnel who served on Swift Boats in Vietnam ("swiftees" as they call themselves) or in affiliated commands. In May, 190 members of this group signed a letter to Kerry asking him to sign a Navy Standard Form 180, which would authorize the independent public release of all Kerry's war records. That would allow them to be reviewed in full by the public and press, and allow people to better judge who is telling the truth in this controversy. Thus far, Kerry has not signed the form.
With a Democratic convention that focused heavily on Kerry's war record, and with the release of the swiftees' TV ad and the O'Neill-Corsi book, Kerry's role in Vietnam and in the anti-war movement is certain to be a burning hot issue as the presidential campaign heads toward the fall.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2004 HUMAN EVENTS.
When the Government takes his medals away from him for fraudulently applying for, and recieving them. Only then will Justice have been done
QUOTE (politiphile @ Sep 11 2004, 04:40 PM)
When the Government takes his medals away from him for fraudulently applying for, and recieving them. Only then will Justice have been done
sounds like u need to take that up with the NAVY instead of obsessing over John Kerry on a day to day basis.
Now that's what i'm talking about huey. The Navy has started a full blown investigation and doesn't require his signature on form 180 to look at his records, so rest assured that the truth will come out and you will have to finally admit you are backing a criminal and a fraud. Please reread my signature at the bottom of this post and commit it to memory if your capable, it will change your outlook on life and Politics.
Although this is a little tongue in cheek,( funny, for you libs) i thought it a good read. enjoy and respond if you like it.
The Unexpurgated
Unfit for Command
By Arthur Levine
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington Monthly has obtained a memo containing excerpts from the original manuscript of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's book, Unfit for Command, including editor's notes.
To: John O'Neill, author Unfit for Command
From: Chip Regnery IV
Re: double-checking your mss.
Dear John:
In the rush to get your book to press, our president Marjorie Ross has asked me to take over the final edit of Unfit for Command. We're very high on the book's prospects to be a smash bestseller -- and, we hope, affect the presidential race. A personal note: I wasn't born until 1973, so your book was a real education for me on the Vietnam War and the way left-wingers like Kerry have distorted what happened there. I had no idea, for example, that virtually all the so-called "atrocities" in Vietnam were either done by Kerry himself or made up out of whole cloth by Seymour Hersh. What an eye-opener! Of course, I have a few minor questions and comments I'd like you to check, noted in brackets. All in all, you've made an air-tight case against Kerry.
Get back to me as soon as you can on these items, and we'll ship the final galleys to you for proofing. Here are the sections we'd like you to revise or double-check:
JOHN KERRY: CHARLATAN OR WAR CRIMINAL?
John Kerry has built his entire political career on the myth that he is a "war hero." But Sen. John Kerry is no hero, as I and the other Swift Boat veterans who fought alongside him know all too well. He is a liar, a coward, a psychopathic baby-killer -- and should have been executed for treason a long time ago. [Tone it down a bit here, please. We don't want to lose readers at the beginning -- ed.] Instead, he's a candidate for president who claims he deserves to be the commander in chief of the United States. But as someone who has engaged in the most reprehensible conduct in the history of mankind [what about Hitler?], Kerry doesn't deserve to be a petty officer third class, let alone the commander in chief of our great country. He must be stopped by any means necessary [Cut this! Sounds like you're promoting his assassination.] before he betrays our country again just to serve his insane ambition. This lying son of a ##### will stab our country in the back just like he did his fellow Navy men over 30 years ago. [Way too emotional. How about "hypocrite" instead of S.O.B.?]
John Kerry served in Vietnam for only four months. Yet he still managed to hoodwink his commanding officers into giving him three Purple Hearts, which allowed him to flee combat to pursue his goal of selling out America as an anti-war protester. He did it by "gaming" the Navy rules that allow any sailor to claim awards for combat injuries merely by filling out the official "E-Z I WANT A PURPLE HEART" form and sending it in without verification to headquarters. [Is it that easy? Double-check.] In fact, according to most Swift Boat veterans who either served on nearby boats or heard rumors about him from his crewmates, Kerry only had a few minor scratches that he deliberately inflicted on himself. They were not the result of any hostile fire.
Take a look at John Kerry's first Purple Heart he won for a made-up "incident" on Dec. 2, 1968. He says he was patrolling on a "skimmer" boat near Cam Ramh Bay when he was wounded by shrapnel fire while bending down to pick up another gun. In fact, before the so-called "attack," Kerry actually practiced with different weapons the best way to give himself a plausible wound. Here's what we were told by now-Rear Adm. William Schachte, who was not only a crewmate but also Kerry's best man when Kerry married his first wife in 1970 [Are you sure about that part?]:
"In the early-morning darkness, I saw him pick up a pen-knife and scratch his upper arm with it a few times. He was cackling to himself, and I'll never forget it. After that, he got a gun, placed the muzzle against his arm, but he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. Finally, he bent down and picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and kept it close to his arm while he turned his head away from the weapon, grimaced and fired away. Finally, he got the shrapnel wound he always wanted. It still didn't amount to much." [Great stuff! Any back-up evidence?]
Kerry then demanded that the boat rush to a sickbay miles away so he could be "treated." The sole attending physician was Dr. Louis Letson. Already an expert on wounds, Dr. Letson told us, he would years later win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his discovery of the cellular mechanisms underlying infections. [You verified his award? Reminder: please Google your interview subjects! We don't have a fact-checking staff anymore.] Letson vividly recalled that when Kerry appeared at the sickbay, the doctor asked him, "Why are you here?" in surprise, observing Kerry's unimpressive scratch. "I've been wounded in hostile fire, and if I'm ever going to be president of the United States, I must win a Purple Heart!" Kerry pleaded. Dr. Letson was shocked by Kerry's naked ambition, but treated him anyway. Using a nuclear microscope, Letson said, he finally spotted the subatomic sliver of shrapnel and removed it with a tweezer.
While other sailors and soldiers lost their lives and limbs in 'Nam, and George W. Bush trained for years in the Air National Guard to protect our country, John Kerry got a quick ride home by concocting his Purple Heart "wounds."
JOHN KERRY: MASS MURDERER
John Kerry burst on the national stage with an appalling attack on his fellow soldiers in 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He compared all of us who served in Vietnam to Genghis Khan, raping and killing civilians. Yet if anyone was guilty of such behavior, it was Kerry himself. Numerous Coastal Division 11 Swiftees recall his bloodthirsty hunger to kill civilians. Swift Boat veteran Bill Franke, a Silver Star winner, remembers seeing Kerry at the helm of his boat, PCF 21, speeding up and down the Cua Lon River, hunting for any Vietnamese to kill. Franke says:
"His motto was 'The more kills, the more medals for me.' I was shocked. Even during daytime patrols, Kerry routinely attacked sampans with fishermen on them who were just dangling their poles in the water. Then he ordered his men to kill everyone on the boats, women and babies included. Afterwards, acting more like a pirate than a naval officer, he led his crew in raiding the boats to steal anything of value on board, mostly fish. Then he ordered his cook to prepare his favorite French gourmet fish dishes from his Swiss boarding school days, such as Filet de Poisson aux Pommes. His crew always ate well after a massacre."
But waterway kills weren't enough to satisfy Kerry's blood-lust. Once, early in his 1968 tour of duty, he saw smoke rising from a small village called My Lai. [He was there? Please double-check My Lai massacre date with Kerry's timeline in Vietnam.] He disembarked, and while Swifties in other boats looked on in horror, he waded into the jungle to join the carnage. [Check: How far inland from the river was My Lai?]
As George Bates, an officer in Coastal Division 11, remembers it:
"Those Marines were on some kind of search and destroy mission that had gotten out of control. They were bayonetting old men, shooting old women and children, it was horrible. But Kerry, always the brown-noser, saw a chance to make up another combat medal for himself. 'Hey, let me help!' Kerry shouted, and eagerly joined in. He warmed up by killing numerous small animals with heavy machine-gun fire. He then moved on to shooting little children and throwing their bodies in a ditch. Finally, he ran around the hamlet with a Zippo lighter, setting the huts on fire. All this was in addition to the aerial bombing of the village with napalm. He stood there in the safari hat he always wore during combat, and announced, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning!'" [Love that quote. This book would make a great movie!]
Afterwards, Kerry tried to justify his war crimes to the other Swift Boat sailors in the area. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it," he said. We weren't buying it. Kerry didn't file an after-action report, so he managed to avoid being mentioned as part of the incident. Ironically, Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life in prison, but Lt. John Kerry gets to run for president after boasting about his "heroic" war record.
As for Bates, he is still haunted by Kerry's actions and was appalled by the complete hypocrisy of Kerry's shift to the role of peace activist condemning war crimes upon his return. "John Kerry is a moral monster who is possessed by a satanic demon. Indeed, I have no doubt that he is the anti-Christ himself," the devout Bates concludes. [Cut Christian fundamentalist stuff. Could hurt East Coast sales.]
VIETNAM: TRY-OUT FOR TREASON
Bates and the other Swifties were equally galled by Kerry's insistence on practicing his anti-war speeches while still in uniform. One night, while the rest of his crewmates slept, Kerry stood near the bow, gazing at himself in a hand-held mirror and trying out lines. "How do you ask a man to be the last American to die for misguided policy decisions?" he announced in stentorian tones, according to eyewitness Steve Gardner. Then Kerry tried another variation: "How do you ask a man or woman to be the last person to get killed for errors in judgment?" He continued refining it until nearly dawn. Finally, he got the exact phrasing that later catapulted him into national fame: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
As Gardner says, speaking for all those Swifties who know John Kerry best, "The only mistake we made in Vietnam was letting a self-serving war criminal like John Kerry get away with murder, lie about his war record and betray our armed forces."
As a result, 50,000 Americans lost their lives because of his treachery. [I suggest cutting this. Can we get away with blaming every U.S. death there on John Kerry? We've already said that he is a pathological liar who isn't fit to command and was a Communist stooge. That should be plenty.]
Art Levine is a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly and writer of the Art Levine Confidential blog. Yes, this was a parody.
The Unexpurgated
Unfit for Command
By Arthur Levine
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington Monthly has obtained a memo containing excerpts from the original manuscript of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's book, Unfit for Command, including editor's notes.
To: John O'Neill, author Unfit for Command
From: Chip Regnery IV
Re: double-checking your mss.
Dear John:
In the rush to get your book to press, our president Marjorie Ross has asked me to take over the final edit of Unfit for Command. We're very high on the book's prospects to be a smash bestseller -- and, we hope, affect the presidential race. A personal note: I wasn't born until 1973, so your book was a real education for me on the Vietnam War and the way left-wingers like Kerry have distorted what happened there. I had no idea, for example, that virtually all the so-called "atrocities" in Vietnam were either done by Kerry himself or made up out of whole cloth by Seymour Hersh. What an eye-opener! Of course, I have a few minor questions and comments I'd like you to check, noted in brackets. All in all, you've made an air-tight case against Kerry.
Get back to me as soon as you can on these items, and we'll ship the final galleys to you for proofing. Here are the sections we'd like you to revise or double-check:
JOHN KERRY: CHARLATAN OR WAR CRIMINAL?
John Kerry has built his entire political career on the myth that he is a "war hero." But Sen. John Kerry is no hero, as I and the other Swift Boat veterans who fought alongside him know all too well. He is a liar, a coward, a psychopathic baby-killer -- and should have been executed for treason a long time ago. [Tone it down a bit here, please. We don't want to lose readers at the beginning -- ed.] Instead, he's a candidate for president who claims he deserves to be the commander in chief of the United States. But as someone who has engaged in the most reprehensible conduct in the history of mankind [what about Hitler?], Kerry doesn't deserve to be a petty officer third class, let alone the commander in chief of our great country. He must be stopped by any means necessary [Cut this! Sounds like you're promoting his assassination.] before he betrays our country again just to serve his insane ambition. This lying son of a ##### will stab our country in the back just like he did his fellow Navy men over 30 years ago. [Way too emotional. How about "hypocrite" instead of S.O.B.?]
John Kerry served in Vietnam for only four months. Yet he still managed to hoodwink his commanding officers into giving him three Purple Hearts, which allowed him to flee combat to pursue his goal of selling out America as an anti-war protester. He did it by "gaming" the Navy rules that allow any sailor to claim awards for combat injuries merely by filling out the official "E-Z I WANT A PURPLE HEART" form and sending it in without verification to headquarters. [Is it that easy? Double-check.] In fact, according to most Swift Boat veterans who either served on nearby boats or heard rumors about him from his crewmates, Kerry only had a few minor scratches that he deliberately inflicted on himself. They were not the result of any hostile fire.
Take a look at John Kerry's first Purple Heart he won for a made-up "incident" on Dec. 2, 1968. He says he was patrolling on a "skimmer" boat near Cam Ramh Bay when he was wounded by shrapnel fire while bending down to pick up another gun. In fact, before the so-called "attack," Kerry actually practiced with different weapons the best way to give himself a plausible wound. Here's what we were told by now-Rear Adm. William Schachte, who was not only a crewmate but also Kerry's best man when Kerry married his first wife in 1970 [Are you sure about that part?]:
"In the early-morning darkness, I saw him pick up a pen-knife and scratch his upper arm with it a few times. He was cackling to himself, and I'll never forget it. After that, he got a gun, placed the muzzle against his arm, but he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. Finally, he bent down and picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and kept it close to his arm while he turned his head away from the weapon, grimaced and fired away. Finally, he got the shrapnel wound he always wanted. It still didn't amount to much." [Great stuff! Any back-up evidence?]
Kerry then demanded that the boat rush to a sickbay miles away so he could be "treated." The sole attending physician was Dr. Louis Letson. Already an expert on wounds, Dr. Letson told us, he would years later win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his discovery of the cellular mechanisms underlying infections. [You verified his award? Reminder: please Google your interview subjects! We don't have a fact-checking staff anymore.] Letson vividly recalled that when Kerry appeared at the sickbay, the doctor asked him, "Why are you here?" in surprise, observing Kerry's unimpressive scratch. "I've been wounded in hostile fire, and if I'm ever going to be president of the United States, I must win a Purple Heart!" Kerry pleaded. Dr. Letson was shocked by Kerry's naked ambition, but treated him anyway. Using a nuclear microscope, Letson said, he finally spotted the subatomic sliver of shrapnel and removed it with a tweezer.
While other sailors and soldiers lost their lives and limbs in 'Nam, and George W. Bush trained for years in the Air National Guard to protect our country, John Kerry got a quick ride home by concocting his Purple Heart "wounds."
JOHN KERRY: MASS MURDERER
John Kerry burst on the national stage with an appalling attack on his fellow soldiers in 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He compared all of us who served in Vietnam to Genghis Khan, raping and killing civilians. Yet if anyone was guilty of such behavior, it was Kerry himself. Numerous Coastal Division 11 Swiftees recall his bloodthirsty hunger to kill civilians. Swift Boat veteran Bill Franke, a Silver Star winner, remembers seeing Kerry at the helm of his boat, PCF 21, speeding up and down the Cua Lon River, hunting for any Vietnamese to kill. Franke says:
"His motto was 'The more kills, the more medals for me.' I was shocked. Even during daytime patrols, Kerry routinely attacked sampans with fishermen on them who were just dangling their poles in the water. Then he ordered his men to kill everyone on the boats, women and babies included. Afterwards, acting more like a pirate than a naval officer, he led his crew in raiding the boats to steal anything of value on board, mostly fish. Then he ordered his cook to prepare his favorite French gourmet fish dishes from his Swiss boarding school days, such as Filet de Poisson aux Pommes. His crew always ate well after a massacre."
But waterway kills weren't enough to satisfy Kerry's blood-lust. Once, early in his 1968 tour of duty, he saw smoke rising from a small village called My Lai. [He was there? Please double-check My Lai massacre date with Kerry's timeline in Vietnam.] He disembarked, and while Swifties in other boats looked on in horror, he waded into the jungle to join the carnage. [Check: How far inland from the river was My Lai?]
As George Bates, an officer in Coastal Division 11, remembers it:
"Those Marines were on some kind of search and destroy mission that had gotten out of control. They were bayonetting old men, shooting old women and children, it was horrible. But Kerry, always the brown-noser, saw a chance to make up another combat medal for himself. 'Hey, let me help!' Kerry shouted, and eagerly joined in. He warmed up by killing numerous small animals with heavy machine-gun fire. He then moved on to shooting little children and throwing their bodies in a ditch. Finally, he ran around the hamlet with a Zippo lighter, setting the huts on fire. All this was in addition to the aerial bombing of the village with napalm. He stood there in the safari hat he always wore during combat, and announced, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning!'" [Love that quote. This book would make a great movie!]
Afterwards, Kerry tried to justify his war crimes to the other Swift Boat sailors in the area. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it," he said. We weren't buying it. Kerry didn't file an after-action report, so he managed to avoid being mentioned as part of the incident. Ironically, Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life in prison, but Lt. John Kerry gets to run for president after boasting about his "heroic" war record.
As for Bates, he is still haunted by Kerry's actions and was appalled by the complete hypocrisy of Kerry's shift to the role of peace activist condemning war crimes upon his return. "John Kerry is a moral monster who is possessed by a satanic demon. Indeed, I have no doubt that he is the anti-Christ himself," the devout Bates concludes. [Cut Christian fundamentalist stuff. Could hurt East Coast sales.]
VIETNAM: TRY-OUT FOR TREASON
Bates and the other Swifties were equally galled by Kerry's insistence on practicing his anti-war speeches while still in uniform. One night, while the rest of his crewmates slept, Kerry stood near the bow, gazing at himself in a hand-held mirror and trying out lines. "How do you ask a man to be the last American to die for misguided policy decisions?" he announced in stentorian tones, according to eyewitness Steve Gardner. Then Kerry tried another variation: "How do you ask a man or woman to be the last person to get killed for errors in judgment?" He continued refining it until nearly dawn. Finally, he got the exact phrasing that later catapulted him into national fame: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
As Gardner says, speaking for all those Swifties who know John Kerry best, "The only mistake we made in Vietnam was letting a self-serving war criminal like John Kerry get away with murder, lie about his war record and betray our armed forces."
As a result, 50,000 Americans lost their lives because of his treachery. [I suggest cutting this. Can we get away with blaming every U.S. death there on John Kerry? We've already said that he is a pathological liar who isn't fit to command and was a Communist stooge. That should be plenty.]
Art Levine is a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly and writer of the Art Levine Confidential blog. Yes, this was a parody.
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