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Aug 22, 2004 Mr. W. Rood who is an Assistant Editor at the Chicago Tribune, has come out of seclusion about the John Kerry Viet Nam controversy by writing an article on today’s (8/21/04) C.T.. Mr. Rood was also a Swift boat commander who was on the same mission with Kerry in which Kerry won the Silver Star. Mr. Rood supports Kerry’s claims and the merits in which the medal was awarded. What Mr. Rood fails to report in his article is that Kerry was not the first to beach his boat and engage the VC who had ambushed the 3 boats involved. This was the merit of award of the Silver Star. On that day of February 28, 1969, the boats involved were carrying ARMY soldiers on a joint mission. Mr. Doug Reese, the commander of the ARMY unit and a Kerry supporter has publicly revealed that not Kerry’s boat but the boat he was in was the first to beach and confront the VC. The people responsible for killing and capturing the ambushing VC was his ARMY unit with the help of the crew of the boat he was in. This is also confirmed by Mr. Michael Medeiros a member of Kerry’s crew and one of his “Band of Brothers”. They both have declared that Kerry was the second to beach his boat but when he did there was no longer any resistance from the VC but one lone wounded VC who Kerry ended up shooting in the back. When Kerry went on pursuit of the wounded VC on foot there was no VC resistance at that time. In a convoluted way, Mr. Rood insinuates that the success of this mission was Kerry’s pre conceived plans to counter attack ambushes. However Kerry’s boat was not involved in counter attack of the VC. This was done solely by the 3rd boat and Reese’s forces on that boat. This is the boat to which Mr. Rood refers to be commanded by Lt. Droz who was KIA 6 weeks after. A possible explanation could be that in Kerry’s After-Action Report, he reported Reese’s actions as his own. That would explain why Reese got an ARMY Commendation Medal a much lower grade medal and Kerry got a Silver Star. Mr. Reese has described the incident and it does not match the description stated in the Silver Star Citation. This suggests that the NAVY brass awarded the medals based on Kerry’s exaggerated account of the incident which includes a much stronger presence of VC than there actually was. According to the SwiftVets, the incident did not warrant any medals for anyone at all. They contend that what happened that day was a very normal day to day mission. Getting ambushed was the norm for all Swift boats in every mission. There were no medals awarded for every ambush and the destruction of the enemy. According to Reese and many Swift boat commanders who have reviewed all the different accounts of this mission, there was nothing special about the mission. Mr. Rood is mistaken as to the reason the SwiftVets say that Kerry did not earn the Silver Star. The Silver Star must have been awarded to Kerry based on his own After-Action Report where he may have claimed he was the first to beach his boat and kill and capture all the VC. That is the “bone of contention” with the SwiftVets not anything else. Reese and his ARMY unit were the real heroes that day, not Kerry who was the “Johnny Come Lately” after Reese and his boys had done the job. If Mr. Rood finally decided to come out of the closet on this issue he at the very least should report ALL the facts and not omit facts which do not support Kerry’s stories. Seems that Kerry had a knack for always showing up late for action but he was always the first in line to write the After-Action Reports. One interesting fact is the revised Silver Star Citation reissued by the NAVY in the early 80s and signed by people in positions who do not nor have ever signed Citations and it was "upgraded" to a Silver Star (V). There are no grades of the Silver Star. The (V) with valor is not correct. Why was the Citation mysteriously reissued revised in the 80s to a grade that does not exist? The Kerry campaign and other Kerry supporters have been saying that 2 members of the SwiftVets organization, Adm. Hoffmann and Commander Elliott have been staunch Kerry supporters for years since Kerry has been in the Senate and now they have decided to change their stories and attack Kerry. What is not being told is that both Adm. Hoffmann and Cmdr. Elliott stopped supporting John Kerry when Kerry’s book Tour of Duty came out January 2004. These gentlemen became disgusted with the lies and distortions as told in the book. ------------ About the author Al Young: I am a disgusted former registered democrat. The last straw was the performances by Carville, Lanny Davis and Chris Matthews. I no longer can stand the rabid extreme left wing socialist media who will try to hide what is obvious just to elect Kerry. Email: abxxy@aol.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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