Kerry Cover-up.
Posted By John Moore on April 22, 2004
Kerry Quietly Changes Biography After Records Released
John Kerry’s web site biography used to say[note 1] that he was a Naval Officer until 1970, and then a Naval Reservist from 1972-1978. I and other Vietnam veterans questioned this gap, which conveniently coincided with Kerry’s anti-war activities, and which implied he was not in the military at that time – an “early out” not available to the rest of us.
Kerry’s dates of service are no longer in his biography.
His newly released service record shows he was a sworn officer in the Navy Reserve from 1970-1972. Coincidence or the exposure of a cover-up?
While a sworn Officer in the regular reserve, Kerry [note 2]:
- Met in Paris with the enemy.
- Frequently accused our country of a policy of atrocities.
- Testified before the U.S. Senate that our soldiers routinely committed atrocities.
- Recommended to the Senate that we immediately surrender (unilateral cease fire and withdrawal) on enemy terms, without any guarantee of getting our POWs back.
- Recommended that we pay reparations to Vietnam.
- Told many other slanderous and damaging lies about our country, our soldiers, and our South Vietnamese allies.
One might ask for a question about the discrepancy between the two documents – his service record and his “request for service record (see “Update” below). His orders show release to inactive service in the Naval Reserve (as distinct from a release to the inactive reserve).
His service record, dated 1/25/85, shows:
(Click image for full size:)
This document is from here on Kerry’s campaign web site.
[Update: Strangely, another more recent document , dated 24 May 1986, contains the following:
"Inactive" in this document may mean that he was not required to attend drills. However, his membership was in the regular reserve, not the "inactive reserve" - then called "Standby Reserve."
In other words, whether or not he had to attend drills, he was in the organization subject to immediate callup (active reserve). He was later transfered to the Standby Reserve (inactive reserve). In both cases, he was still a sworn officer of the United States Navy.]
Coincidentally, I am also was a Vietnam Veteran who served in the Naval Reserves after active duty. I joined the Navy the same day as two days after John Kerry.
When I was in the same status as Kerry while he was performing his antiwar activities: (Regular Reservers, inactive status):
- I received orders from the Navy. Civilians do not receive military orders.
- I carried a military ID card (Kerry would have had one for the same reason I did). Civilians do not carry military ID cards. Mine is shown below (with signature and service ID blacked out for privacy).
For some reason, the Wayback Machine does not archive 2004 pages from Kerry's web site.
From another spot on his website (grab it before it too disappears), we find the cover-up version:
John Kerry is a Decorated Combat Veteran of the Vietnam War: Kerry volunteered for the United States Navy after college and served from 1966 through 1970 rising to the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Afterwards, Kerry continued his military service in the United States Naval Reserves from 1972 through 1978. Kerry served two tours of duty in Vietnam--one tour as commander of a Navy Swift Boat in the Mekong Delta. Kerry’s action during the Vietnam War resulted in his being awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star with V, three awards of the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Navy Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. [Selective Service System National Headquarters; Boston Globe, 6/17/03]
Here is another version still on his website that implies his discharge and does not mmention at all his 1972-1978 reserve status. Since this is on a page meant for Veterans, it is likely that he knew veterans would question a 1970-1972 gap.
Mother Jones likewise has the truncated version.]
[Note 2: An annotated version of Kerry's Statements can be found here, along with a link to the full CSPAN transcript.]
Last update: 4/24/2003
Kerry served and spoke out honestly about facts gathered during the “Winter Soldier”veterans gathering.Mr Bush still has not released his full records, and there are irregularities in what he has released.The one person claiming to have seen him in Alabama was there before Mr Bush was. Useful fools are those who ignore reality because it negates an erroneous worldview.A federal republic with strong democratic tendencies such as ours relies on an informed citizenry to function.Kerry is no box of choclates but his service is proven.
rt2prophet
I was in the Reserves the same time Kerry was. My best friend was in the Air National Guard when Bush was.
We know what we are talking about. We investigated the Bush allegations at length, a level of investigation that I predict the press will never give to Kerry’s fabrications.
There are no questions about Bush’s service. Only someone who has never served in the Guards or Reserves would imagine otherwise.
Read “Stolen Valor” or check other sources. Winter Soldier was a fraud. Have you read Kerry’s testimony to the Senate (it’s on this blog).
I dare you, I really dare you, to take my fisking of that testimony and show me that even one of the things I call a lie by kerry is not a lie by Kerry.
Good luck.
As you say, an informed citizenry is important. Why don’t you try to inform yourself from people, like myself, who were there and know something about the issue.
If I had more time, I’d give you the rundown on Bush’s records. But if you are seriously interested in the issue, as opposed to just Bush bashing, you can find what you need in the last few months of this blog.
Sorry gonna Bush Bash.
Why wasn’t Bush as forthcoming with his records as Kerry was, and how does Bush’s record compare to Kerry’s?
I think Bush wasn’t that forthcoming because he wanted the whole country to see the Democratic spokesmen as a bunch of lying fanatics and the press pool as a bunch of ignorant jackals.
But Bush did provide all of his records, while Kerry still has not. Although receiving three purple hearts was what allowed him to leave Vietnam after only 4 months, he has chosen not to release the medical reports on two of them.
Bush had a good strategy – almost the all current and former Reserve and National Guard members and their families and friends (and that’s a LOT of people) heard the Democrats denigrate their service when attacking Bush. Those of us who had served in those years knew that the whole attack was phoney, because ex-military people know how the system works. Another thing the Democrat spokespeople and press jackals showed was that they didn’t know this, which means they had never served their country in the military. Finally, they showed their rage and hatred and their willingness to lie for their cause.
How does Bush’s record compare? What a dumb question.
Why should we compare the records? Both did their duty (although Kerry, between 1970 and 1972 engaged in conduct unbecoming an officer, to put it mildly). Both went in harms way. Both were in units that fought in Vietnam during their service and both volunteered for Vietnam duty. Either could have ended up in the heavy combat, but Kerry, in spite of his efforts to do otherwise (by volunteering for Swift Boats when they had pretty safe off-shore patrol duty), pulled the short straw when the Swift Boat mission was changed after he was committed.
I think comparing combat records or lack thereof is a rather silly exercise. As any veteran can tell you, joining the military makes the next few years a matter of chance. A random article in a newspaper, at just the right time, led me into Naval Air after I had already signed up for the Army (yes, I volunteered, and not to dodge the draft, and I joined on the same day John Kerry did). A friend and I signed up together. He ended up doing very dangerous duty in the Tonkin Gulf on the deck of the USS Ticonderoga. I ended as a volunteer crew member in a combat aircraft.
So who is the greater soldier, John Kerry, or my friend John Kelley, who was killed flying an Air National Guard fighter in New Mexico around the time Bush was doing the same thing in Texas?
Who risked more and who gave more? How about Kerry vs. Mike Merz, a father of two who taught me my job in the Navy, and who was killed (along with other friends) in a training crash? They aren’t war heroes only because their deaths didn’t take place in a war. But they are dead and John Kerry isn’t. I could have been on that flight, especially since I voluntarily flew more hours than anyone else in my squadron.
My problem with John Kerry is simple. After he came back from Vietnam, he was anti-American to the edge of (treason. He not only protested the war, as was his right, he used his connections with the Kennedy clan and Jane Fonda to get lots of publicity for lies. He had a right to lie, but that hardly recommends him as a future commander in chief.
He acted as an agent for the enemy, not a mere protester. In my pantheon of the worst Americans during the Vietnam war, he is below Jane Fonda and Lt. Calley and Robert MacNamara, but worse than anyone else I know of. His behavior was despicable. His accusations against all veterans were despicable. He lied so many times before the Senate that I didn’t even bother to refute all of them.
He cost the lives of Americans at a time when we were winning the war, by encouraging the enemy – they knew they could only win by destroying our will to fight, and Kerry helped a lot with that. He was so popular with the North Vietnamese that they played his speeches at the Hanoi Hilton, where the real heroes were being tortured. I have a number of letters from former POWs asking people to not vote for Kerry.
If I had a choice between going to Iraq right now with Bush as the next president, or staying home and letting Kerry win, I’d take the first in a heartbeat! That’s how strongly I feel about John Kerry.
If you look at the article that you responded to, there is a bill of particulars about John Kerry’s crimes against his country and his comrades in arms. It is only a small part of the indictment against him.
If you read this and still feel that Kerry should be president, than either don’t love your country or you are so partisan that the truth doesn’t affect your opinions, because that link is his own words, and the lies in it should be obvious to anyone, and if not can be easily checked.
That posting is linked to the CSPAN transcript of what Kerry said. The words of Kerry in there are all in the transcript. The interpretation I put in there is correct.
I challenge you to defend Kerry from his own words in that article. If you can’t, there is no reason to take you seriously, because the issue of betrayal of comrade and country rises so far above anything else that other issues aren’t even interesting.
I know that John Kerry is an opportunist who climbed on the bodies and reputations of his comrades in arms, and knowingly betrayed his country in cooperation with its enemy in order to get the office he now holds. I can prove it. You can find out if you want to, because it is all in his words on the CSPAN site. I also have the video and audio of that speech.
Nobody should need to know more than that. I don’t care what he says, because he’s a proven liar and has betrayed his comrades and his country. I don’t care about his policies. They are meaningless when somebody of his character has to be trusted to carry them out.
Is that clear enough?
John:
There ought to be some standard of validity for questions of the kind you just answered…over and over, I might add. Moreover, in the information-laden environment we live in, both “m” and the inimitable “IX”, are posing questions that can be answered by sentience alone.
IX, by the way, is also constituionally unable to answer ANY tough question put to him, so you treat him with more respect than he deserves. I repeat my theory. The Left doesn’t believe, The Left simply disbelieves, which is a puzzle that only anthropologists can explain. The corporeal world usually imposes some evidential awareness on creatures within it, but sadly not on The Left. Pathetic.
I want to see the justification paperwork for his three Purple Hart medals. The only things showing in Kerry ’s website are the endorsing documents delivering the medals,.. nothing else. No record regarding his “injuries” under enemy fire.
How much injury did he endure to receive the PH’s? That is the information Kerry will never provide. Revealing that information will prove embarrasing to Kerry. He is a fake opportunist hero.
There is an instinct among military men. Its easy to sniff out an opportunist like one who lives by the creed “what looks good…is good”. There are always a few around. Kerry impresses me as one who fits that mold.
I joined up after college and volunteered for SEA duty. Fortunately or unfortunately the war ended while I was in pilot training, and I missed the active combat of SEA by being assigned to Europe.
Over the next several years, I saw many cohorts killed in aircraft accidents. As you have reflected upon, there is danger in peacetime flying as well as in combat. That is why I paid higher life insurance premiums during that period of my life. Young, healthy, and in shape, but a dangerous occupation doubled my premiums.
The thought of voting for Kerry turns my stomach.
It is simply amazing, that those that declare their “intelligence” are so stupid. It is either that, or blindness. John Kerry is a scary prospect, for the future of this country. Thank the Lord, for people that report what needs to be reported.
Too bad rightwingnut partisans can’t be bothered to check FACTS through simple RESEARCH before posting. Then they’d not post so many outright false statements.
Inactive reserve (standby reserve) are designated as CIVILIANS. NOT military;
Normally these reservists are key federal employees, such as senators, congressmen and senior agency officials. They can also be civilians in the defense industry whose employers designate them as crucial to the national security.
This status allows them to maintain their rank and standing in the reserves while serving the government in other ways.
http://djsharpe.tripod.com/TheUSArmedForces/id11.html
The Standby Reserve consists of personnel who maintain their military affiliation without being in the Ready Reserve. They may have been designated as key civilian employees, or have a temporary hardship or disability. These individuals are not required to perform training and are not part of units (10 USC 10151, 10152, 10153).
Inactive Status List
Those Standby Reservists who are not required by law or regulation to remain in an active program and who retain their Reserve affiliation in a non-participating status and those who have skills which may be of possible future use to the Armed Forces. Inactive Status List members may not train for points or pay, and are not eligible for promotion. Standby Reservists include members transferred to inactive status in lieu of separation under 10 USC 1209.
http://www.navytimes.com/channel.php?GQID=292317
In FACT John Kerry was a CIVILIAN after he was discharged from ACDU in 1970, and he was in FACT legally allowed to be anti-war, to campaign for government, etc.
Just ANYTHING to discredit the left. Lies no problem.
Lynn:
Your reserve definitions ought to be checked, that’s for sure. If we’re wrong, we’re wrong…on this issue. It isn’t easy being a rightwingnut partisan in this mission to discredit the left. The attack machine malfunctions sometimes. There’s so much material and so little time to discredit you, at least in cases where you don’t do it yourself.
Given the legality of Kerry’s treachery, excuse me, PROTEST, is there anything that bothers you about the dishonesty that Civilian Kerry brought to his testimony in 1971 and virtually every issue since then? Or, in your FACT fetish, where is Kerry’s allegiance to FACT in his Senate testimony? The universe of distortion, outright lying, misrepresentation and hackery on your side is pretty large, but you can’t hide in it no matter how hard you try.
Searching for Truth is a form of partisanship to you, a mental illness. You can erect a wall of legalities around Kerry, but the smell is still there. Everybody knows it, even you.
Lynn
Too bad you didn’t read closely. Kerry did not join the Standby Reserve (which you are talking about) until 1 July 1972. Before that, he was an inactive member of the Naval Reserve. Those do not mean the same thing.
Furthermore, not one of your quotes, even had it applied to Kerry’s status (which they didn’t until July 1972) shows that he was a civilian. Until one receives an Honorable (or other) Discharge, one is a soldier, whether you have to drill or not.
You might also want to know that this “rightwingnut” partisan was also a Naval Reservist, active and a Naval Reservist, inactive, just like Kerry. I joined the Navy two days after John Kerry did. After my own active service, while I was in the same status as Kerry – Naval Reserve, inactive, this “civilian” received a set of orders. Do you really believe that civilians can receive orders from the Navy? Furthermore, this “civilian” carried the ID card that I have added to the posting above. Note the expiration date – 6 years after the date I enlisted. Kerry would have had a similar one. How many civilians do you know that carry military ID cards?
[Because of his disgusting comments about Pat Tillman over at Daily Pundit, IXLNXS is banned from this blog.]
Lynn,
John Kerry was helping with Moratorium Day on
October 15, 1969. I remember the day, as
I demonstrated in favor of the War at City Hall, Worcester Ma, with about 6 other Vietnam Vets. We must have had 20 cops surrounding us. There were 20,000 lefties against the war and against us.
Those Moratorium Day demonstrations gave heart to the commies who were killing our guys in Vietnam on those very days.
Wasn’t John Kerry on active duty in the Navy on October 15, 1969? And didn’t I read on his website that he was discharged from active duty on January 2, 1970? That means he was giving aid and comfort to our enemies while under obligation to present himself as an officer and a gentleman.
Oh, he was later on a member of the VVAW also. You know, the guys who were bragging about getting National Guardsmen to go AWOL, the guys who were bragging about getting the info out on how to dud the U.S. bombs so they would not explode when dropped.
Kerry and his VVAW were the people who defiled Valley Forge, in part by cozying up to the Quakers, those pacifistic parasites who had
refused to feed the REAL winter soldiers at Valley Forge in 1777.
Paul L
Efrain writes that he wants to see the justification paperwork for Kerry’s three purple hearts. I agree, but what I really want to see is Kerry’s scars.
If he’s proud of his hearts, wouldn’t he also be proud of his scars, his very own “red badges of courage”? Scars can’t just by tossed over a fence, symbolically or otherwise.
I predict he’ll never show those scars because (as I believe) they aren’t there, or if actually present, they are too pathetically minor to stir a sympathetic response in potential voters.
Dear John:
Thank you for the high standards that you have maintained on your websites. The Left is rotten with the likes of IX, the lowest sort of dishonest, snarling and smirking stooge hiding hiding out in the disguise of a hippy. Whatever else the hippy culture produced, it did sometimes offer a kind of placid understanding of tragedy amongst the best of them, and even courage of a sort. Not with IX, who never once had the guts or intellect to face a challenge to his dissolute worldview and emptiness. What a disgrace.
Lynn, while you’re out and about doing such assiduous research work on political reputations and SRB’s, suppose you tell us–we ‘rightwingnuts,’ that is–just how Senator Kerry–an officer and a billionaire–earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts in just 120 days’ ‘action.’ I’ve spent the past six years researching for a book on WWII, and of the thousands of WWII vets I’ve spoken with since 1997, a good many are asking the same question of Mr. Kerry, these days. Your side has spent considerable time labeling Mr. Bush a ‘deserter’–now, please fill us in on the real details surrounding Kerry’s ‘Kennedyesque’ heroism, will you? For one, I’m a vet myself, and no one is more suspect of ’stolen valor’ or ‘fabricated heroism’ than a vet. Know what I mean?
–And by the way, Mr. John Moore: Your expression on that ID card somehow epitomizes for me all the ‘fun and games’ I ‘enjoyed’ while on active duty. Funny how one’s military service always looks better in retrospect….
Robert…
It’s not the greatest picture. Actually I was unhappy because I was being RIF’ed into the Reserves and I wanted to stay on active duty but not enough to re-up.
I suppose it is superfluous to point out Lynn’s hypocrisy of “researching” using non-official sites, that her “facts” are erroneously stated, and that her ad hominem attack on a Vietnam Vet in defense of Kerry is probably more indicative of her leftwingnut partisanship.
I would like to point out that Kerry’s transfer to Standy Reserve points out that Kerry’s stint in the Ready Reserve between 1970 and 1972 meant he was “available immediately for active service in the event of war or national emergency.”
I’m not aware of a formal defintion for civilian, in the military it is used to denote those with no affiliation to the uniformed military. Obviously, that does not apply to Kerry between 1970 and 1972. Citizen-soldier as a Reservist recently separated from active duty – OK – but from what I can tell, Kerry was required to have a military ID card, was subject to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. I think it is also evident he was furthering his own political aspirations and personal ambitions using his ribbons, fatigues and rank as props in his demonstrations and testimony. I think this is also evident by his meeting with North Vietnamese negotiators in Paris while a Ready Reserves LT, unsuccessful political candidate and member of the VVAW.
John, do you have any documents that were signed by the Secretary of the Navy at the time, John Chafee? I have been following the medals story over at Kerry Haters and it sure looks to me like the signature on the paperwork that accompanied Kerry’s Silver and Bronze Stars is that of John Lehman, who was not the Secretary of the Navy until much later (the Reagan administration, to be precise. This might back up the notion that Kerry did actually toss his medals in 1971, and obtained backups for them much later.
PAT CURLEY…
The smell gets stronger and stronger!!
John H Chafee, SecNav, Jan 69 – May 72
John (NMI) Lehman, SecNav, Feb 81 – Apr 87
As medal citations usually do not carry any datestamps, it would be interesting to see the Certificates of Awards for the Silver Star and Bronze Star, which show both “award given” dates and signatures of both the MajCom commander and the service Secretary, who in Kerry’s case would have been John Chafee.
The signature on Kerry’s Silver Star Citation, as well as the Bronze Star Citation sure looks like Lehman’s!!
Please explain, Pinocchio…!!!
…..that’s John Forbes Pinocchio
All that we can find out about ‘Hanoi John’ is that he had a 6 year obligation to the United States. He finished in 1970, and was issued an reserve ID card as John has posted above. This in no way relieve him of his obligations to the UCMJ.
Which he violated big time by aiding and abetting the enemy.
Whatever kerry accomplished in Viet Nam pales in comparison to the damage he did to the American servicemen, country and the war effort. He was not just a protestor he was part of the enemies force being used in this country to subvert the war effort in south-east asia.
Because he was still part of the military he should be held accountable, and even though it has been 34 years he should be brought up on charges and forced to address these issues.
Yours jingoistically
Mark
I grew up a confused kid in the 60’s, with a rebel streak a mile long, but a lot of my family in Viet Nam. Some of them didn’t make it back, and those who did didn’t all make it back whole mentally or physically. I didn’t like the idea of war, but realized sometimes you have to fight for what is right (I grew up on the South side of Chicago, and learned from experience). So unlike my hippie friends, I may have disagreed with many things about the government, but did everything to support the military. I remember watching soldiers in my family spit on by protesters and called baby killers as they left the planes and walked toward us for the first time in a year or more when they got back from Nam (Most enlisted, and were not drafted). I graduated right after the war ended, and did Army ROTC in HS and College. I decided not to make the military a career and taught school, while my brother spent 20 years in Army Special Forces. I see a man like Kerry say and do the kinds of things he has done and it enrages me. Not just that he is such a two faced liar, and a traitor, but that people blindly follow him because of his party. There are many Democrat politicians who served there country loyally and I am amazed that they don’t speak out regardless of party. Americans should have freedom of speech. But no person should be allowed to be a treasonous traitor, conspiring with the enemy, and defeating the efforts of his country to win the war, whether they agree with it or not. They can express opinions without being someone who goes against their country as Kerry did. I cringe every time I hear him talk, and I wonder why the Democrats seem to feel the need to bring forth liars as their choice for President when there are honorable men available (even if I don’t agree with them politically). It’s time for Americans to stop following others blindly, and stop letting Kerry get away with changing his stories every day about another issue that comes up.
Article published Tuesday, April 6, 2004
Blade wins Pulitzer: Series exposing Vietnam atrocities earns top honor
Publisher John Block, left, looks on as executive editor Ron Royhab, back to camera, congratulates Mike Sallah.
( THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER )
By KELLY LECKER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Three Blade reporters won the Pulitzer Prize — journalism’s highest honor — yesterday for uncovering the atrocities of an elite U.S. Army fighting unit in the Vietnam War that killed unarmed civilians and children during a seven-month rampage.
Michael D. Sallah, Mitch Weiss, and Joe Mahr received the investigative reporting prize for their series — “Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths” — which detailed how the Army failed to stop the atrocities after commanders were told about them. The reporters also discovered that the Army failed to prosecute soldiers who killed unarmed civilians after an investigation found the platoon had committed war crimes .
It was The Blade’s first Pulitzer Prize.
“I’m glad we won, but it’s really a somber victory,” Mr. Weiss said. “Tiger Force killed innocent men, women, and children and the men who committed these acts continue to go unpunished.”
“What’s important to me is the Army get to the bottom of who killed this investigation 29 years ago,” he said.
The New York Times and The Washington Post were other finalists in the investigative reporting category.
The Blade reporters scoured government records, interviewed 43 former Tiger Force members, and went to Vietnam to talk to family members of the victims to detail a pattern of violence by the unit during a seven-month period in 1967.
What the series found was that the highly trained reconnaissance unit killed unarmed civilians, including children, and that Army leadership knew of and in some cases encouraged the unit’s actions (See Kirk’s editorial cartoon).
“We had a moral obligation to report this news,” he said. “Where the government failed, The Blade closed that chapter.”
●Investigative Reporting: Michael D. Sallah, Mitch Weiss and Joe Mahr of The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, for their series on atrocities by Tiger Force, an elite U.S. Army platoon during the Vietnam War.
●Explanatory reporting: Kevin Helliker and Thomas M. Burton of The Wall Street Journal for coverage of aneurysms.
●Feature writing: No winner.
The reporters went beyond detailing the violence and showed how the atrocities continue to haunt the veterans nearly 40 years after the killings. A dozen Tiger Force members expressed remorse for their actions – nine have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder – and several described vivid flashbacks or nightmares.
Even though the Army investigated the actions of Tiger Force for 4 1/2 years, finding that 18 soldiers committed war crimes ranging from murder and assault to dereliction of duty, the case never reached a military court and no one was ever charged.
Mr. Royhab, The Blade’s executive editor, pointed out that the reporters did not know what they would find when they started digging through thousands of military records. It wasn’t until the team made countless trips to Washington, scoured documents, and tracked down veterans that the truth about Tiger Force became clear.
A Vietnamese military official said in October that he plans to investigate the Tiger Force unit’s actions to try to determine how many people died in the rampage. Since the series ran, the Army has begun interviewing former Tiger Force soldiers as part of a new review of the platoon’s actions in Vietnam.
Rion Causey, an Army medic during the war who witnessed the Tiger Force unit’s atrocities, said he hopes the prize brings more attention to what happened so many yuears ago. Former Army journalist Dennis Stout, another witness, said The Blade’s series was the impetus for the investigations.
“There wouldn’t have been anything happening without the series. It’s the only reason the Army did anything,” he said.
In the midst of the newsroom celebration, Allan Block, managing director of Block Communications, Inc, The Blade’s parent company said: “I have never seen a day like this in The Blade newsroom.”
“We have a lot more coming,” John Robinson Block, his brother, replied.
“There were those who questioned this, but what you did was right. The public does always have the right to know,” Mr. Ford told them. “This is going to define The Blade and Toledo.”
How convenient for John Kerry that the second significant atrocity of the Vietnam War pops up just as Kerry’s testimony is about to come under scrutiny.
Only a Useful Fool would trust Colonel Nguyen, a functionary of a communist government with a great financial and propaganda interest in making this look as bad as possible.
Tiger Unit’s existence has not exactly been a secret. That someone finally decided to pursue it in this year is ever so convenient.
For another perspective on Tiger Force, check here
As expected, the Left and extreme Left have done their damndest to find any and all evidence of Vietnam atrocities in an attempt to validate the bogus Kerry testimony before Congress in 1971. At a time when their hero is catching justifiable heat for presenting suspect military records containing suspect dates and signatures, they focus their tunnel-vision on a 6 month period in 1967 that covered some of the action of Tiger Force, a 45 man contingent of the 101st Abn Div.
Now, for those of you who fail or choose not to concede what the vast majority of, if not all, veterans know is that atrocities do and have occurred in all conflicts of man and I would like to again state to you the obvious: WAR IS A BITCH and it brings out the worst in us all who have experienced it firsthand, and in those rare instances resulting from quirks in human nature, atrocities are committed.
Without even knowing and reporting all the facts, a used toilet paper rag of a newspaper called the Toledo Blade, garnered a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on atrocities perpetrated on “innocent Vietnamese civilians” by the Tiger Force, a unit David Hackworth is very familiar with: he was one its most famous?? members. Left-Wing websites like veteransforpeace.org, vietnam-embassy-usa.org, dissidentvoice.org, antiwar.com, hypocrites.org and many more picked up the story and, with unabashed glee and gusto, splattered it all over the net in hopes of easing the pressure on their chosen one. It won’t work…..
After visiting the above mentioned sites, one has to come away with the eerie feeling of being in a time warp. To a site, the rant is communist and the repetitive jingoism is glaring and nauseating. To the people associated with these sites, America is THE enemy and one even blatantly declared: “Europe Had The Nazis, Asia Had The Japs, Vietnam Had The Americans.” Pathetic does not even come close to describing those twits who gather thereabouts.
Ladies and Gentlemen hereabouts……keep your powder dry!!
John
IX whose is afraid to give there real name, really hasnt got a clue, the President has released hundreds of pages of his records from his time in the Guard. How much more forth coming can one man be?
He claims Kerry to be this larger than life Hero, and released his records immediately, they were not Kerrys records but someone elses.
If Kerry had a shred of humanity he would release his FBI FILES but hes much to smart for that those files would probably get John Kerry indicted for aiding and abetting the enemy, and his affiliation with the communist party. These were certainly violations of the Uniform Code of Military justice.
so much for the Hero, even his own party is having second thoughts about this bag of sh*t and there is talk of dumping him before the Nomination.
Mark
One of my sons is 14 and in high school. His teacher was singing the praises of John Kerry in his Government class, and said that there was nothing wrong with what John Kerry said about incriminating war atrocities and lies about others, that it was just talk like soldiers do some times. My son told her that it wasn’t a couple of guys in a bar, that he was under oath when he spoke to the Senate. She informed him that Kerry was doing a great thing going around doing antiwar activities after Vietnam, and that it was okay because he was honorably discharged in 1970. My son then informed her that her AP sources were not correct, and that Kerry was not discharged until years later, and was on “Standby Reserve” or “Regular Reserve” while a member of VVAW, and while meeting with the enemy in Paris, and while encouraging National Guardsman to not show up for duty (which he reminded her Kerry was now trying to create this issue about Bush out of thin air with no proof or substance), and provided info on how to make dud bombs which caused unknown lives of our soldiers-all treason since he was an officer at the time under military law and should have been prosecuted-especially sice he continues to bring it all up and so much of it is still there under oath in the Senate record. He showed her a copy of various versions of Kerry’s service records with dates, and she didn’t believe it and asked him where it came from. He told her Kerry’s web site. She didn’t know how to respond to any of his facts so she just said, “John Kerry is a great American” and left it at that. But all the other students wanted to know more about the “real Kerry” and have been checking out your website. I’ve told my son he cannot argue with his teachers and be impolite, but he can state facts in a polite way as is his right, but he needs to know his stuff. So when his teachers run their mouths with left wing liberal garbage with little or no no basis in truth, he always gives them both barrels, or comes home and digs, and goes back with the facts.
TN BOB…..
It sounds like your son is an independent thinker!! Being 14 and in the school systems of today can be a frustrating experience for free thinkers who arm themselves with facts instead of falling into the narrow, rigid, lockstep mindset of socialist thought.
My sons who graduated between 10 and 15 years ago were both exposed to liberal teachers bent on “converting” them to socialism were also free thinkers and are staunch conservatives to this day. On one occasion in a high school history class, my oldest son went head to head with the teacher who was bent on convincing the class that Vietnam was a failure of American imperialism. My son reminded the teacher that America’s entry into the war, along with numerous allies like Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Phillipines, and more was because of our committment to upholding the agreements of the SEATO, an organization not unlike NATO and which the teacher was unfamiliar with. My son also stated that if the military had been allowed to conduct the war instead of having it planned and executed from civilian desks in Washington, America would have left South Vietnam in democratic hands five to six years before we finally left. The teacher didn’t like being upstaged by my son and pointed to the military as being at the root of all of America’s ills and bad reputation as war mongers, at which point my son told the teacher to take back his condemnation of the military, of which his father (me) had served honorably for 24 years, or make his accusations to him outside where they could settle it. My son was very mad and regretted his challenge to the teacher and later apologized, at which time the teacher also apologized.
Some times our young people are victims of ridicule from not only their peers but also from the very people who have the most influence on their lives. Only through arming themselves with the facts obtained by their own research and experience and from listening to the experiences of the older folks around them that they become more informed and able to confront the lies of the liberals in society.
It sounds like your son is getting the facts and guidance to “fight the good fight.” More power to him…..
Thanks John, for helping inform America about the truth about John Forbes Kerry. I am a former Swift Boat LPO and very aware of the fabrications and exaggerations Kerry created for his political aspirations. My Swift Boat brothers and I are doing everything in our power to try to inform America about the treasonous activities of Kerry. I have just completed a point by point review of Kerry’s so-called war record and his violations of the 14th Amendment; Section 3 of the Constitution of the U.S. By his own testimony and statements about his actions he should have been tried as a war criminal and court martialed for negligence in the line of duty. I would appreciate it if you would give me permission to use the references to Kerry’s service dates and reserve service in the article. It will be posted on the Swift Boat Brotherhood site [a [privately owned and operated site] and I’d be happy to send you the Word edited article. I for one allow anything I write or post about Kerry to be plagerized by anyone who is contacting their local media and/or have a website opposing Kerry. I am not a Bush supporter or affiliated with either party. I am simply a Swift Boat Veteran for informing
America about the truth about Kerry. He was and is a traitor to his country, his comrades in arms and his oath as an officer of the United States. According to the 14th Amendment section 3 he is holding public office illegally and is ineligibile to hold even the local office of dog catcher.
And be wary of his henchman Wade Sanders, another former Swift Officer, who reached the office of Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy and is Kerry’s campaign leader in California. Sanders served honorably and is a decorated [full tour] Swift Boat Officer, but he has made subtle threats against Swift Boat sailors who oppose Kerry and our non-profit Association on Kerry’s behalf. Kerry knows that we who served in Swift know he is a lying opportunist who awarded himself medals and/or whined until he got them. He is unfit to be President.
Michael Turley, former BM2,Swift Boat LPO PCF 15,
Chu Lai, DaNang, Hue and Cua Viet, VN 1967-1968
Syracuse, NY
It never fails to amaze me how the misdeeds of a few are exaggerated into being representative of the whole body of Veterans. I wonder what people of this train-of-thought would think if they were lumped into the vat with all anti-American/anti-government/anti-support-for-American-troops deserters and riff raft? Trouble is they only see things from their “preferred” perspective instead of giving honest and intelligent scrutiny to the actual events. There is a broader group of ill informed and uninformed which simply believe what the media feeds them and what the socialist/communist propagandists would have them believe. As the elitists know, the ignorant will gladly bear the burden for the ruling class, so long as they are told what to believe. One major broadcasting CEO put it this way, We don’t care what they want. We tell them what they want and what to believe.
Every major media owner, CEO, producer and broadcaster is a graduate of the Council on Forgein Relations, the American version of the Power Brokers and their elitist lackeys’ globalist [socialist] training center.
I would suggest that those who are unaware of the nature of their government, international banking, international industrial and international corperate and the UN objectives do the research themselves before accepting whatever is fed to them.
Michael Turley, BM2, PCF [Swift Boat] 15, Chu Lai, Da Nang, Cua Viet, Hue 1967-’68
John:
the comments from Ben, obviously not his real name, another gutless liberal in part as follows:
“He says Bush and yourself are wrongheaded and irrational. Calling him names does not make his fundamental critique of Bush “policy” go away. Iraq undermined the war on terrorism, by diverting resources from Afghanistan where the bad guys were when we knew where they were. Is rationality subversion? Intelligent strategy, treason? Do you really expect people to take you seriously when you claim not to have heard this argument? Why would this confession of ignorance be a point of pride? ”
It seems strange coming from a ‘well-educated-pompos-arrogant-self-serving-hate-america first Liberal that they insist that by the invasion of Iraq somehow took the emphasis off Afghanistan ? The whole trouble with the leftist crowd is they dont know history, I suppose thats jingoistic to know something about your own country that may put it in a good light”, fighting a war on two fronts is not something Dondal Rumsfeld dreamed up all by himself.
They tend to forget that during the second world war this country was fighting on 3 to 4 fronts almost simultaneously, Just for their edification, there was the war in the Pacific, on the ground ,in the Air and on the Sea, there was the Island hopping campaign, there was the fight in the BMI theater, then of course there was that fight in Europe, Africa, and the soft under-belly of Italy.
Since when can not this country fight on two fronts this is lefty-commie propaganda.
He says that Kerry had the right to protest, yes he did, but what this uninformed liberal doesnt understand is that for a Naval reserve officer there are consequences, such as a General Court Marshall.
Protesting is what this country is all about, However, when it comes to lying about your country, aiding the enemy in time of war, meeting with the enemy to negotiate a settlement this is treasonous. All this John Forbes Botox Kerry did.
His association wiht Hanoi Jane Fonda, is another, she is and was at the time an avowed communist, when John Kerry associated with her it is the same thing that he too went to North VietNam and sat in the seat of a triple-A battery wearing an NVA helmet.
This has nothing to do with his service, which the Deficrats can not figure out it has to do with Subversion of ones own country and trying by overt means to disrupt and confound policies that the government has put forward, it also has to do with revolution and the violent overthrow of the government of this country, ie the Kansas city plot to assinate certain Senators who supported the war effort…. this is the left sole desire
John Kerry and ED “I wish I hadnt made a turn on that bridge” Kennedy, and the rest of the willing sheep of the Progressive left-leaning(all inclusive) Democrat party.
To believe that all Kerry did was protest the war,does indeed give credance that the Easter Bunny is real. This is where the lef is coming from. There main goal is to subvert the United States and turn it into a global policeman where the troops of this country would be under the auspices of the UN, where the sovreignty of the United States would no longer exist.
The people of this country are a lot smarter than Kerry, jennings or any other Anti-american will give them credit for and for this reason John Botox will implode under the guise of being such a phoney war hero.
Mark
John…..this article is a little dated but brings up additional valid points.
Veterans and the Kerry Controversy
February 21, 2004
by Thomas D. Segel
It seems the spin-doctors have gone to work early in the John F. Kerry campaign. As he makes his run to be the Democrat nominee in the race for the presidency, there is great trumpeting of his combat service in Vietnam, along with the medals he was awarded for that service. In true political fashion the spin machine wants to proclaim him a distinguished hero, while at the same time cautioning all who happen to raise an eyebrow that nobody should question Kerry’s service or valor.
I would argue that anyone who experienced shots fired in anger has the right to ask questions about any other person who makes similar claims. John Kerry and company have opened some ugly wounds and brought back to the surface sad memories of a painful war. They should be prepared to field and reply to any and all questions about the candidate’s actions in that long ago Vietnam.
To be objective, it must be pointed out Kerry did serve off the coast of Vietnam aboard the USS Gridley for six months between December 1967 and June 1968. He