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please everybody...vote issues, not this vetern
record...i didn't care much for the attack on bush's national guard record, and
this is nothing more that throwing sand in your eyes. Vote
issues...
tony
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 8:08
PM
Subject: [QUAD-L] here we go again,
Stuntman
Fellow
Skipper's Citation Refers To Enemy Fire
Washington
Post
by
Michael Dobbs
Newly
obtained military records of one of Sen. John F. Kerry's most vocal critics,
who has accused the Democratic presidential candidate of lying about his
wartime record to win medals, contradict his own version of
events.
In newspaper interviews
and a best-selling book, Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy Swift boat
alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has strongly disputed Kerry's claim that the
Massachusetts Democrat's boat came under fire during a mission in Viet
Cong-controlled territory on March 13, 1969. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his
actions that day.
But Thurlow's
military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington
Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to
"enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at "all units" of the
five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation
praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat "despite enemy
bullets flying about him."
As
one of five Swift boat skippers who led the raid up the Bay Hap River, Thurlow
was a direct participant in the disputed events. He is also a leading member
of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a public advocacy group of Vietnam veterans
dismayed by Kerry's subsequent antiwar activities, which has aired a
controversial television advertisement attacking his war
record.
In interviews and
written reminiscences, Kerry has described how his 50-foot patrol boat came
under fire from the banks of the Bay Hap after a mine explosion disabled
another U.S. patrol boat. According to Kerry and members of his crew, the
firing continued as an injured Kerry leaned over the bow of his ship to rescue
a Special Forces officer who was blown overboard in a second explosion.
Last month, Thurlow
swore in an affidavit that Kerry was "not under fire" when he fished Lt. James
Rassmann out of the water. He described Kerry's Bronze Star citation, which
says that all units involved came under "small arms and automatic weapons
fire," as "totally fabricated."
"I never heard a
shot," Thurlow said in his affidavit, which was released by Swift Boats
Veterans for Truth. The group claims the backing of more than 250 Vietnam
veterans, including a majority of Kerry's fellow boat
commanders.
A document
recommending Thurlow for the Bronze Star noted that all his actions "took
place under constant enemy small arms fire which LTJG THURLOW completely
ignored in providing immediate assistance" to the disabled boat and its crew.
The citation states that all other units in the flotilla also came under fire.
"It's like a Hollywood
presentation here, which wasn't the case," Thurlow said last night after being
read the full text of his Bronze Star citation. "My personal feeling was
always that I got the award for coming to the rescue of the boat that was
mined. This casts doubt on anybody's awards. It is sickening and disgusting."
Thurlow said he
would consider his award "fraudulent" if coming under enemy fire was the basis
for it. "I am here to state that we weren't under fire," he said. He
speculated that Kerry could have been the source of at least some of the
language used in the
citation.
In a telephone
interview Tuesday evening after he attended a Swift Boat Veterans strategy
session in an Arlington hotel, Thurlow said he lost his Bronze Star citation
more than 20 years ago. He said he was unwilling to authorize release of his
military records because he feared attempts by the Kerry campaign to discredit
him and other anti-Kerry veterans.
The Post filed an
independent request for the documents with the National Personnel Records
Center in St. Louis, which is the central repository for veterans' records.
The documents were faxed to The Post by officials at the records center
yesterday.
Thurlow and other
anti-Kerry veterans have repeatedly alleged that Kerry was the author of an
after-action report that described how his boat came under enemy fire. Kerry
campaign researchers dispute that assertion, and there is no convincing
documentary evidence to settle the argument. As the senior skipper in the
flotilla, Thurlow might have been expected to write the after-action report
for March 13, but he said that Kerry routinely "duked the system" to present
his version of events.
For much
of the episode, Kerry was not in a position to know firsthand what was
happening on Thurlow's boat, as Kerry's boat had sped down the river after the
mine exploded under another boat. He later returned to provide assistance to
the stricken boat.
Thurlow, an
oil industry worker and former teacher in Kansas, said he was angry with Kerry
for his antiwar activities on his return to the United States and particularly
Kerry's claim before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that U.S. troops
in Vietnam had committed war crimes "with the full awareness of officers at
all levels of command."
"
'Upset' is too mild a word," said Thurlow, a registered Republican, of his
reaction to Kerry then. "He did it strictly for his own personal political
gain, and it directly affected every single one of us as we were trying to put
our lives together."
Two other
Swift boat skippers who were direct participants in the March 13, 1969, mine
explosion on the Bay Hap, Jack Chenoweth and Richard Pees, have said they do
not remember coming under "enemy fire." A fourth commander, Don Droz, who was
one of Kerry's closest friends in Vietnam, was killed in action a month later.
The incident featured
prominently in an anti-Kerry television ad produced by Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth earlier this month. "John Kerry lied to get his Bronze Star," says Van
Odell, a gunner on PCF-23, one of the boats that came to the rescue of the
stricken boat. "I know. I was there."
The Bronze Star
controversy is also a major focus of an anti-Kerry book by John E. O'Neill,
"Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," which
will hit No. 2 on The Post's bestseller list this weekend. The book accuses
Kerry of "fleeing the scene" and lying repeatedly about his
role.
Members of Kerry's crew
have come to his defense, as has Rassmann, the Special Forces officer whom he
fished from the river. Rassmann says he has vivid memories of being fired at
from both banks after he fell into the river and as Kerry came to his rescue.
The two had an emotional reunion on the eve of the Iowa Democratic caucuses in
January, an event that some political analysts believe helped swing votes to
Kerry at a crucial time.
The
Bronze Star recommendations for both Kerry and Thurlow were signed by Lt.
Cmdr. George M. Elliott, who received reports on the incident from his base in
the Gulf of Thailand. Elliott is a supporter of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
and has questioned Kerry's actions in Vietnam. But he has refused repeated
requests for an interview after issuing conflicting statements to the Boston
Globe about whether Kerry deserved a Silver Star. He was unreachable last
night.
Money has poured into
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth since the group launched its television
advertisement attacking Kerry earlier this month. According to O'Neill, the
group has received more than $450,000 over the past two weeks, mainly in small
contributions. The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that the
organization has also received two $100,000 checks from Houston home builder
Bob Perry, who backed George W. Bush's campaigns for Texas governor and for
president.
Bush campaign
officials have said they have no connection to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,
which is not permitted to coordinate its activities with a presidential
campaign under federal election
law.
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