One of the guys, Valadonis I think, doesn’t seem very sure of much, so the two that disagree may be taking their cues from each other.
The problem is that there are too many possibilities to choose from. You’ll note that my scenario means that nobody is mistaken or lying. They are just testifying to different events.
I assume this admiral to be honorable, and I assume the two crewmembers to be honorable.
O’Neill served in two different locations: Sa Dec, and An Thoi. An Thoi is actually off the coast on Phu Quoc Island, and from An Thoi you can be ‘in Cambodia’ simply by sailing north on the sea a couple of miles into Cambodian waters. You can also patrol the coastline of Cambodia from there, or go inland into Cambodia from the sea.
Sa Dec is inland, and it is this area that John Kerry served around Christmas. Sa Dec was the northernmost point of Kerry’s patrol area from Camh Ranh Bay. The Cambodian border is 55 miles from Sa Dec, straight up the Mekong river. From what I understand, it is the Mekong river and tributaries that were blockaded and patrolled to prevent accidental incursions into Cambodia - just before the time that John Kerry said going into Cambodia was ‘routine - no one gave it a thought’, an LST accidentally sailed into Cambodia and created an international incident. After that, the river entries were guarded and barricaded.
John Kerry served at Camh Ranh Bay, inland. He was sent to An Thoi, but for some reason only spent a week or so there before being assigned back to Camh Ranh Bay.
His emphasis of Vietnam was also necessitated by the fact that the Republicans have long been using scare-tactics and scurrilous attacks to imply that the Democrats are not sufficiently patriotic or willing to defend the country or what-not.
So, it is somewhat disingenuous for the Republicans to now be claiming that they had the right to go around and start this gutter-attack because Kerry brought up his service. It is rather like someone spreading rumors about how you are likely the type who beats your wife…And then when you talk about what a warm loving relationship you and your wife have, they argue that it is now open season to pry into every aspect and to dig up people of dubious connections who say various scurrilous things about you and your wife and all that.
On the other hand, you do have to give Karl Rove and company a certain amount of credit as evil geniuses. They certainly know how to keep an election away from a discussion of the issues.
So we agree that O’Neil lied when he said swift boats never went to Cambodia.
And I’ll take the word of two uninterested parties over the word of anyone belonging to a discredited political smear campaign.
That’s not what I said. Please don’t mischaracterize my statements. Plus, what I said appears to be wrong. O’neil’s and Kerry’s locations were not the same.
Zaldonis doesn’t remember whether they had a grenade launcher or whether they took fire. Runyon reported concerning Kerry’s wound “I couldn’t say one way or the other (Regarding taking fire,) I know he did get nicked, a scrape on the arm.”
However, Runyon also told the Globe reporters that he “never knew Kerry was wounded.”
So there’s some problems with remembrances on their part. Kerry has two different stories about the incident, one where it was a “half-assed action that hardly qualified as combat,” and another where it’s his “first intense combat” and the “most frightening night” of his life.
Schacte on the other hand was only the officer in command. It was his boat. He was training Kerry. He originated the tactic. How do you explain him not being there?
O’Neill told CNN that he personally had never been in Cambodia. Locations and times are irrelevant. Never means never. He told Nixon something else. Either he was lying to Nixon or he was lying to CNN. There’s no way out of it.
[quote]
Zaldonis doesn’t remember whether they had a grenade launcher or whether they took fire. Runyon reported concerning Kerry’s wound “I couldn’t say one way or the other (Regarding taking fire,) I know he did get nicked, a scrape on the arm.”
However, Runyon also told the Globe reporters that he “never knew Kerry was wounded.”[/qote]
So what, so what and so what? What does any of that have to do with whether Schachte was on the boat?
It was one of Kerry’s crewmates (one of the guys who was actually on the boat, unlike the lying sack of Schachte) whi called it “the most frightening night of his life,” not kerry. Actually, this crewmate says that his words were distorted by the Swifties to make it appear as if he believed they did not come under fire that night.
Kerry’s story has never changed, He has never once stated that he knew where the shrapnel came from everyone on the boat says that he was looking down at his weapon when he was hit. He has never denied that the shrapnel could have been friendly. He didn’t know and his crewmates didn’t know. You can ridicule him for being lucky enough not to be more seriously injured (as Sam Stone often does), but there isn’t a damn thing dishonorable or illegitimate about that Purple Heart.
I don’t have to explain it, he does. I think it’s horseshit that Kerry couldn’t go out alone. He was on his second tour. He wasn’t that green.
Zaldonis is a member of Kerry’s Band of Brothers, so he’s not necessarily disinterested as Kerry had been putting him up in hotels and flying him around during the tour.
This cite has him serving at AnThoi/Cat Lo at the time in question (look for PCF-31) and not at Cam Ranh Bay.
I’m not going to say that he was lying and wasn’t there based on this alone, but it is worth noting.
He’s contradicting himself concerning the incident. It goes to credibility.
On page 36 of UFC they quote Kerry from the Brinkley interview saying it’s the “most frightening night” of his life. Next, you’ll need to cite this “crewmate” who says his words are distorted because UFC cites Zaldonis’ interview not with the Swiftees but with the Boston Globe reporters who wrote Kerry’s biography (page 35)
Finally, you should be careful of what you say about Schacte Rear Adm. William L. Schachte, Jr., was the Acting Judge Advocate General of the Navy upon his retirement. Admiral Schachte’s honors include–the Defense Distinguished Medal; the Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit with Gold Star; the Bronze Star with `V’; Combat Action Ribbon; and the Meritorious Service Medal with Gold Star. He served for 30 years and was the veteran of 99 combat missions.
“Sack of shit” Shame on you.
I’ve already cited two different versions of it.
He does. He was the commander in charge. He was training Kerry. That was the whole reason Kerry was there. To get trained. That was the reason Kerry was on the boat. To get experience from Schacte. That’s why he was in Cam Ranh Bay. For training on how to command a boat. He was “Batman” and there were apparently several “Robins” at different times.
The first tour was on the Gridley. From June to November of 67 the Gridley was off the California coast. It went back to Long Beach, I believe and in January went on an extended cruise down to Australia and back to Long Beach in June of '68. In the course of this cruise it spent 5 weeks or so in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Gridley, a guided missile frigate was a deep fleet vessel.
So yes, it was Kerry’s second tour, but it was radically different from his first. Regardless of whether you think it was horseshit Kerry’s purpose in Cam Ranh Bay was to receive training to prepare him for command of a Swiftboat. It appears that you are trying to argue that a guided missile frigate is interchangeable with a Swiftboat.
That’s not a cite, that’s merely a repetition of the allegation. There is no appeal to authority there. It’s like saying “Bush snorts cocaine off hookers’ breasts” - www.kittykelley.com or “Clinton, Gore: Illuminati Space Aliens!” - www.lyndonlarouche.com. Couldn’t you be bothered linking to Free Republic or something?
That’s the Modern Republican “Debating” Tactic for you; just keep repeating the same garbage in hopes of driving away your opponents in exasperation, then declare yourself the “winner” by default.
Regarding the “M-79 wounds,” I wrote that it seemed unbelievable that he could wound himself like that twice on purpose, and you respond:
My impression, from having perused the Swiftvets message board, is that in fact many people believe just that. YMMV.
Then why on earth do these baseless accusations take up so much space, both on their web site and in their book?
Perhaps. But which one’s service was more honourable, do you think?
Yet the fact that Bush lied in order to start an unprovoked war of choice in Iraq, which you have freely admitted, somehow doesn’t damage him in your eyes – at least not to the extent that you would consider voting for someone else. I find this discrepancy simply mind-boggling.
Well, his biographer claims that he was there, but just got confused about the dates. It’s possible that with the passage of years he got confused about the dates and came to genuinely believe he was in Cambodia on Christmas: these things actually happen, as any psychologist can tell you (ask Hentor, for example). Or, indeed, he may have purposely chosen to ”fib” a bit for the sake of rhetoric – how many old vets don’t occasionally exaggerate a war story or two? Or, finally, he may have been lying outright, although this is simply a faith-based assertion on your part, since you have no evidence whatsoever that he wasn’t in Cambodia.
No.
YOU ASKED ME TO PRESENT AN EXAMPLE IN WHICH DEMONSTRATED THAT THE SWIFTVETS WERE ”FULL OF IT.” I PRESENTED ONE QUOTE FROM THEIR BOOK WHICH IS DEMONSTRATABLY FALSE.
Whether Kerry ever was or was not in Cambodia is really irrelevant to this point. In the passage from the book cited above, the Swifties claim that NO SWIFTBOATS WERE ALLOWED TO TRAVEL NORTH OF SA DEC IN DECEMBER OF 1968. The cite I’ve presented, which is a history of Operation Sealords, CLEARLY SHOWS THIS CLAIM TO BE FALSE, AND STATES UNEQUIVOCALLY THAT BY LATE NOVEMBER OF 1968, SWIFT BOATS WERE PLAYING AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN SEALORDS OPERATIONS NORTH FROM SA DEC TO WITHIN AT LEAST 5 KILOMETERS OF THE CAMBODIAN BORDER.
Sorry for the all the caps, but I feel like I have to keep addressing the same objections over and over again. You don’t seem to be reading my links very carefully.
The challenge was not to ”prove” the Swifties were lying, by the way, just that they were ”full of it.” One can be full of it because one is flat out wrong, you know.
And by the way: the claim made by the Swiftvets, that the waterways into Cambodia were marked and blocked by concertina wire, pylons, and so forth, is absurd on the face of it, and has also been shown to be false, in the previous thread on this topic. That’s two examples of the Swifties being ”full of it” thus far, with regard to this story alone. But there’s more.
By spring of 1970, Nixon had officially sanctioned such incursions into neutral Cambodia.
I can’t really judge if it’s the best. It was just the first example I happened to find handy. We have more, many more. If you concede that this an example of ”inaccuracy” on the part of the Swifties, we can move on to the next one, if you like. I’ve got time.
Why is it that when I give you what you request, you always degrade it as a ”potential inaccuracy on a minor point”? This, you claim, is a minor point. That the Kerry campaign has admitted that Kerry ”might” have wounded himself with his own M-79 on December 2, 1968, is a ”minor point,” you tell me.
When does a lie or inaccuracy become a ”major point”?
I don’t want to send you on a fruitless hours-long search over things you believe to be minor. Concede that you have no real evidence for your statement and we can forget it. But if you want to cling to this claim, or make it in other arguments, then I’m going to be forced to ask you to back it up.
By the way, I don’t really consider this statement to be minor. If the Kerry campaign has admitted that Kerry may have wounded himself, by mistake, with his own M-79, for which he received his first Purple Heart, I would consider it to be major. Remember, though, that the quote in question must specifically concede that, in the incident that led to Kerry’s first Purple Heart, Kerry wounded himself with his own M-79, as claimed by Schacte.
Continuing: with regard to this first Purple Heart, I wrote that ”within 9 days he (Kerry) was commanding a Swift boat all on his own.” You respond:
?
Kerry received his first Purple Heart on Dec 2, 1968. Yes? He was given command of PCF 44 on Dec. 6, 1968. That’s four days later, which is certainly a period ”within 9 days.” In what way have I been inaccurate?
Finally: I’m not all that concerned about Kerry’s memory. I’m asking you about Hibbert’s memory. See my post #145, bottom section.
He started using the ‘Christmas in Cambodia’ story shortly after returning from Vietnam. Within a few years, anyway. He used it on the Senate floor in 1986, 18 years ago. It was already a well-known story by then. You might make a case that if someone asked Kerry about a detail that he had forgotten about 40 years ago, he might remember it incorrectly. But at the time Kerry started using the Christmas in Cambodia story, the events should still have been fresh in his memory.
Plus, this is the ONLY Christmas he spent in Vietnam. Don’t you think he’d remember where he was? Special Christmases like that do not fade from memory.
Plus, Kerry himself claimed that it was ‘seared’ into his memory, not that he’s pretty sure he was there but it was a hectic time and he can’t remember. Until he got caught, the story was told as a certitidude, complete with corroborating details like having the enemy shooting guns into the air in celebration.
There is no doubt about it - Kerry made up that story, and continued to repeat it for decades until someone caught him.
However, I’ll give you an ‘out’. The ‘shooting guns in celebration’ thing confuses me, because Vietnamese are not mostly Christians, and do not celebrate Christmas. But they do celebrate Tet, which I believe was in late January or February. So it’s possible that Kerry conflated that particular detail with seeing a Tet celebration later.
I’m surprised more supporters of Kerry haven’t figured out the Tet angle. I haven’t seen anyone mention it yet.