[Vision2020] Saying What Must Be Said

[Pat Kraut]

And again I say...lets move on to Kerrys record in congress, his continual
votes against all those things he said he is now going to do as president in
his acceptance speech at the DNC convention. And not just him...the entire
congress should accept responsibility for the decimation of our military. He
is once again running on a 'total health care' for all. I have trouble
believing that anyone could buy that junk one more time. By the way, when
Kerry was running for congress the Washington Post wrote stories about his
war record being called into question.
Let talk about today...Vietnam is long gone folks.
PK
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A Veteran" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 10:44 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Saying What Must Be Said


> >From today's (August 25, 2004) Lewiston Morning Tribune as posted from
the
> Chicago Tribune -
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> COMMENTARY: WILLIAM ROOD ...
>
> Remembering the swift boats; The disputed incident in Vietnam recalled by
> officer
>
>
> Rood of the Chicago Tribune
>
> There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35
> years ago -- three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those
officers
> remain to talk about what happened on Feb. 28, 1969.
>
> One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a Silver
Star
> for what happened on that date. I am the other.
>
> For years, no one asked about those events. But now they are the focus of
> skirmishing in a presidential election with a group of swift boat veterans
and
> others contending that Kerry didn't deserve the Silver Star for what he
did on
> that day, or the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts he was awarded for
other
> actions.
>
> Many of us wanted to put it all behind us -- the rivers, the ambushes, the
> killing. Ever since that time, I have refused all requests for interviews
about
> Kerry's service -- even those from reporters at the Chicago Tribune, where
I
> work.
>
> But Kerry's critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have charged
that
> the accounts of what happened were overblown. The critics have taken pains
to
> say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but
> their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It's gotten
harder and
> harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be
> untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there.
>
> Even though Kerry's own crew members have backed him, the attacks have
> continued, and in recent days Kerry has called me and others who were with
him
> in those days, asking that we go public with our accounts.
>
> I can't pretend those calls had no effect on me, but that is not why I am
> writing this. What matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who
are
> not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did. My
intent
> is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it.
>
> I was part of the operation that led to Kerry's Silver Star. I have no
> firsthand knowledge of the events that resulted in his winning the Purple
> Hearts or the Bronze Star.
>
> But on Feb. 28, 1969, I was officer in charge of PCF-23, one of three
swift
> boats -- including Kerry's PCF-94 and Lt. j.g. Donald Droz's PCF-43 -- 
that
> carried Vietnamese regional and Popular Force troops and a Navy demolition
team
> up the Dong Cung, a narrow tributary of the Bay Hap River, to conduct a
sweep
> in the area.
>
> The approach of the noisy 50-foot aluminum boats, each driven by two huge
12-
> cylinder diesels and loaded down with six crew members, troops and gear,
was no
> secret.
>
> Ambushes were a virtual certainty, and that day was no exception.
>
> The difference was that Kerry, who had tactical command of that particular
> operation, had talked to Droz and me beforehand about not responding the
way
> the boats usually did to an ambush.
>
> We agreed that if we were not crippled by the initial volley and had a
clear
> fix on the location of the ambush, we would turn directly into it,
focusing the
> boats' twin .50-caliber machine guns on the attackers and beaching the
boats.
> We told our crews about the plan.
>
> The Viet Cong in the area had come to expect that the heavily loaded boats
> would lumber on past an ambush, firing at the entrenched attackers,
beaching
> upstream and putting troops ashore to sweep back down on the ambush site.
> Often, they were long gone by the time the troops got there.
>
> The first time we took fire -- the usual rockets and automatic weapons -- 
Kerry
> ordered a "turn 90" and the three boats roared in on the ambush. It
worked. We
> routed the ambush, killing three of the attackers. The troops, led by an
Army
> adviser, jumped off the boats and began a sweep, which killed another half
> dozen VC, wounded or captured others and found weapons, blast masks and
other
> supplies used to stage ambushes.
>
> Meanwhile, Kerry ordered our boat to head upstream with his, leaving
Droz's
> boat at the first site.
>
> It happened again, another ambush. And again, Kerry ordered the turn
maneuver,
> and again it worked. As we headed for the riverbank, I remember seeing a
loaded
> B-40 launcher pointed at the boats. It wasn't fired as two men jumped up
from
> their spider holes.
>
> We called Droz's boat up to assist us, and Kerry, followed by one member
of his
> crew, jumped ashore and chased a VC behind a hooch -- a thatched hut -- 
maybe
> 15 yards inland from the ambush site. Some who were there that day recall
the
> man being wounded as he ran. Neither I nor Jerry Leeds, our boat's leading
> petty officer with whom I've checked my recollection of all these events,
> recalls that, which is no surprise. Recollections of those who go through
> experiences like that frequently differ.
>
> With our troops involved in the sweep of the first ambush site, Richard
> Lamberson, a member of my crew, and I also went ashore to search the area.
I
> was checking out the inside of the hooch when I heard gunfire nearby.
>
> Not long after that, Kerry returned, reporting that he had killed the man
he
> chased behind the hooch. He also had picked up a loaded B-40 rocket
launcher,
> which we took back to our base in An Thoi after the operation.
>
> John O'Neill, author of a highly critical account of Kerry's Vietnam
service,
> describes the man Kerry chased as a "teenager" in a "loincloth." I have no
idea
> how old the gunner Kerry chased that day was, but both Leeds and I recall
that
> he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the VC usually wore.
>
> The man Kerry chased was not the "lone" attacker at that site, as O'Neill
> suggests. There were others who fled. There was also firing from the tree
line
> well behind the spider holes and at one point, from the opposite riverbank
as
> well. It was not the work of just one attacker.
>
> Our initial reports of the day's action caused an immediate response from
our
> task force headquarters in Cam Ranh Bay.
>
> Known over radio circuits by the call sign "Latch," then-Capt. and now
retired
> Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, the task force commander, fired off a message
> congratulating the three swift boats, saying at one point that the tactic
of
> charging the ambushes was a "shining example of completely overwhelming
the
> enemy" and that it "may be the most efficacious method of dealing with
small
> numbers of ambushers."
>
> Hoffmann has become a leading critic of Kerry's and now says that what the
> boats did on that day demonstrated Kerry's inclination to be impulsive to
a
> fault.
>
> Our decision to use that tactic under the right circumstances was not
impulsive
> but was the result of discussions well beforehand and a mutual agreement
of all
> three boat officers.
>
> It was also well within the aggressive tradition that was embraced by the
late
> Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, then commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam. Months
before
> that day in February, a fellow boat officer, Michael Bernique, was
summoned to
> Saigon to explain to top Navy commanders why he had made an unauthorized
run up
> the Giang Thanh River, which runs along the Vietnam-Cambodia border.
Bernique,
> who speaks French fluently, had been told by a source in Ha Tien at the
mouth
> of the river that a VC tax collector was operating upstream.
>
> Ignoring the prohibition against it, Bernique and his crew went upstream
and
> routed the VC, pursuing and killing several.
>
> Instead of facing disciplinary action as he had expected, Bernique was
given
> the Silver Star, and Zumwalt ordered other swifts, which had largely
patrolled
> coastal waters, into the rivers.
>
> The decision sent a clear message, underscored repeatedly by Hoffmann's
> congratulatory messages, that aggressive patrolling was expected and that
well-
> timed, if unconventional, tactics like Bernique's were encouraged.
>
> What we did on Feb. 28, 1969, was well in line with the tone set by our
top
> commanders.
>
> Zumwalt made that clear when he flew down to our base at An Thoi off the
> southern tip of Vietnam to pin the Silver Star on Kerry and assorted
Bronze
> Stars and commendation medals on the rest of us.
>
> My Bronze Star citation, signed by Zumwalt, praised the charge tactic we
used
> that day, saying the VC were "caught completely off guard."
>
> There's at least one mistake in that citation. It incorrectly identifies
the
> river where the main action occurred, a reminder that such documents were
often
> done in haste and sometimes authored for their signers by staffers. It's a
> cautionary note for those trying to piece it all together. There's no
final
> authority on something that happened so long ago -- not the documents and
not
> even the strained recollections of those of us who were there.
>
> But I know that what some people are saying now is wrong. While they mean
to
> hurt Kerry, what they're saying impugns others who are not in the public
eye.
>
> Men like Larry Lee, who was on our bow with an M-60 machine gun as we
charged
> the riverbank, Kenneth Martin, who was in the .50-caliber gun tub atop our
> boat, and Benjamin Cueva, our engineman, who was at our aft gun mount
> suppressing the fire from the opposite bank.
>
> Wayne Langhoffer and the other crewmen on Droz's boat went through even
worse
> on April 12, 1969, when they saw Droz killed in a brutal ambush that left
PCF-
> 43 an abandoned pile of wreckage on the banks of the Duong Keo River. That
was
> just a few months after the birth of his only child, Tracy.
>
> The survivors of all these events are scattered across the country now.
>
> Jerry Leeds lives in a tiny Kansas town where he built and sold a
successful
> printing business. He owns a beautiful home with a lawn that sweeps to the
edge
> of a small lake, which he also owns. Every year, flights of purple martins
> return to the stately birdhouses on the tall poles in his back yard.
>
> Cueva, recently retired, has raised three daughters and is beloved by his
> neighbors for all the years he spent keeping their cars running. Lee is a
> senior computer programmer in Kentucky, and Lamberson finished a second
> military career in the Army.
>
> With the debate over that long-ago day in February, they're all living
that war
> another time.
>
>
>
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