Unfit For Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry Hardcover – August 15, 2004

With over 1200 reviews written about this book, it is obviously a hot button item, but in looking at a sampling of the reviews, the only ones that really count would seem to be people who have actually read it, which few if any, of the "one star" reviewers have actually done. Few of these people show any record of previous reviews, or the ones they have submitted are mostly with a far left wing point of view.

One might debate whether Kerry was a "hero" for one of his awards, (and it could be only one of them at the most) but no one can debate that Kerry is a self-admitted war criminal. It is obvious that Kerry was someone who knew the "three purples" and you are out policy and it pretty obvious from eye witness accounts that he did not deserve at least two of them since they were self-inflicted and did not occur under enemy fire. But to me the most important parts of the book are not the specifics of who shot (or didn't shoot) John. Most telling are the Senator's own words which have changed so many times over the years as to make him someone who could never be believed. His testimony in front of the Senate in 1971 is based upon unverified and undocumented accounts of so-called veterans, most of whom never wore a uniform. He denied still being a member of the VVAW when that group was advocating the assassination of Congressmen, and only changed his story when the FBI released their records this year. When he was given his draft notice, he asked for a deferment to be able to study French for a year, but was turned down. Rather than be drafted, he joined the US Navy Reserves, not the US Navy and was unlucky enough to be activated. (The navy reserves were the Navy equivalent of the Air National Guard that Bush is so derided for joining.) Instead of having two tours of Vietnam as he claimed, his first "tour" included 5 weeks in the Tonkin gulf, not even within sight of Vietnam on a large ship that spent most of his one year tour off the coasts of California and Australia. When Kerry volunteered for Swift Boat duty, it was the safest tour in the Navy since it was really a taxi from big ships to safe harbors. He vehemently objected to reporting for duty when the mission changed. His first purple heart was awarded mysteriously after the attending physician said he had seen worse scrapes from a rose bush and refused to recommend him for one. It is no wonder that Kerry has refused to release all of his records. Especially since Kerry was the one who fired his weapon too close to shore and his "wound" came from a tiny piece of shrapnel from his own weapon, and there was no hostile fire that night anywhere near his boat.

But the book is not just about "he said, he said" versus his fellow vets. It is a story of someone who took his own movie camera and "reenacted" fights which never occurred so that he could be, as he said himself, the "Next JFK".

It is the story of a very flawed man whose record in the Senate could be predicted by his actions in Vietnam. If you really want to put someone in office who has no moral compass, than you couldn't find anyone better than Kerry, with the possible exception of the draft dodger the Democrats nominated when Kerry said Vietnam service shouldn't be a consideration for electing someone as President. But of course the imperious senator would brook no dissent from those opposed to him, as we see in his attack on the first amendment rights of his fellow Vietnam vets who happen to disagree with him about his qualifications for service as president. As Senator Edwards requested, the American people are spending "three minutes" with Kerry's fellow vets to find out what kind of man he is. Kerry's problem is that the "conversation" isn't limited to just the five he wanted us to hear from, we are hearing it from the hundreds who served on his boat, or within 50 feet of him, and saw him in action during his short four months in Vietnam before he finished manipulating the system and ran for cover just as soon as he could. Now that those brave men who stayed for their full tour of duty (including many who could have left after they got their purple hearts) are speaking up, they are attacked by the same people who found no problem with multibillionaires funding their "527" sleaze machines against President Bush.

I was appalled at the events that took place in Vietnam that involved John Kerry. It left me wondering why Kerry is not in prison.

The information in this book is based on the recollections of veterans, including officers and enlisted men, of the SWIFT boat operations in Viet-Nam. Many of these men were decorated; some were highly decorated. The supporters of the revelations in this book include virtually all of the higher ranking officers in the chain of command above Lt. (jg) John F. Kerry. They are not political operatives; they are combat veterans. Their detractors have inflicted only superficial wounds in the many TV encounters; while the book overwhelmingly torpedoes the Kerry vessel.

As the appearances of SWIFT boat crewmen add up, it becomes increasingly clear that the opposition, in the form of their shill, and the journalist and pundit surrogates for the suddenly shy John F. Kerry, all rely on confusion, diversion, and evasion. These time tested tactics have proved successful in battle; but, only serve to obscure the story of Kerry. He and his minions have little to gain from the truth, and much to gain from distortion.

Little by little, the truth is confirmed by Kerry and his supporters. The Cambodia trip "seared in Kerry's memory," has been rewritten by our naval hero; he now admits he was "near" Cambodia, although none of his crew agree to even that. This is an essential point, as he claims it was a turning point in his anti-war conversion, and an indictment of President Richard Nixon's "illegal war." Of course, Nixon was not yet president; and liars need perfect memories.

The shrapnel Kerry had claimed as resulting from an exploding mine, qualifying him for a purple heart award (as it would have been from hostile fire) has been revealed to be, indeed, from a self-inflicted wound. This was confirmed by Kerry's enthusiastic supporter Jim Rassman, the former Green Beret who provided the emotional drama at the Democratic Convention, detailing how Kerry saved him from drowning. Since this was his third purple heart, it enabled Kerry to use an obscure provision to be re-assigned away from the war zone. But Lt. Rassman is on the record stating that the wound was caused by Kerry's own grenade, when Kerry and Rassman destroyed supplies of rice to prevent the Communist Viet Cong from access to it. And Kerry himself is quoted as causing his own wound in his official biography by Douglas Brinkley, taken from Kerry's own contemporaneous diaries.

The first purple heart request by Kerry was refused by his superior officer, Commander Grant Hibbard, as there was no report of enemy fire, and debriefings of the crew confirmed that. The medical officer who treated Kerry, Louis Letson, recalls the wound was superficial, treating it with a band-aid and bacitracin. But, the purple heart was later approved by the new commanding officer, based only on the word of Kerry. No one asserted there had been enemy fire. So, we have witnesses who clearly contradict Kerry regarding two purple hearts. If even one witness is correct, Kerry is less the hero memorialized on his own 8MM film, and is in fact a fraud. Furthermore, he won transfer from Viet-Nam fraudulently as well.

The Kerry apologists, just before attacking the president's service and insulting the SWIFT boat veterans, always falls back on "the records." The problem with reliance on the records, as a debating point, is that the records are alleged to be blatantly inaccurate. How can that which is in dispute prove a case? How indeed when ample witness evidence indicates that Kerry had the only typewriter; Kerry volunteered to write the after action reports on which awards were based; and the reports were written from the vantage point of Kerry's boat. He was the only naval officer aboard; therefore, he was the only one who could write the report. Until the disputes arose, sometimes years later, other officers were often unaware of the actual contents of the reports. Skipper Thurlow, for example, never knew he was awarded a bronze star until after he left the Navy. And Kerry knew how to game the system, by taking advantage of personnel turnover. Thus, awards turned down by his commander mysteriously were awarded after the arrival of a new commander. And, awards were rewritten with embellishment, as for example his silver Star Citation, rewritten by Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, over ten years later.

Many of the issues surrounding Kerry's service would become clear if he would authorize the release of ALL of his service and medical records. He has selectively released documents, but not, for example, the citation for his first purple heart.

Finally, it should be noted that generally, upper ranks of officers were only familiar with actions from the written reports, not actually witnessing events. They generally relied on the honesty of junior officers, each having been proclaimed by the U.S. Congress to be an "Officer and a Gentleman." On the other hand, other boat Officers in Charge had excellent views of skippers and crews in the group. And they deem Kerry "Unfit for Command."