SwiftVets.com

[gee williger]

David Corn, noted Bush hating author, digs up Robert Eugene Lamberts bronze star records, and finds that they too (like Kerry and Thurlow's) claim evidence of incoming enemy fire.

"Three Navy men won Bronze Stars for their actions that day: Kerry, Thurlow, and radarman first class Robert Eugene Lambert, a petty officer in the boat captained by Thurlow. The citation for Lambert's Bronze Star--previously undisclosed but obtained today under the Freedom of Information Act from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis--repeats the description of the incident included in the citation for Thurlow's Bronze Star: "all units came under small arms and automatic weapons fire from the river banks.

Lambert, a career Navy man who served on active duty from 1957 to 1978, could not be located.

"For meritorious achievement while serving with Coastal Division ELEVEN engaged in armed conflict against Viet Cong communist aggressors in An Xuyen Province, Republic of Vietnam on 13 March 1969. Inshore Patrol Craft [PCF] 51, with Petty Officer Lambert serving as Leading Petty Officer, was conducting a SEA LORDS operation in the Bay Hap river with four other boats. The boats were exiting the river when a mine detonated under another Inshore Patrol Craft, inflicting heavy damage to the boat and wounding the entire crew. At the same time, all units came under small arms and automatic weapons fire from the river banks. Inshore Patrol Craft 51 immediately proceeded to aid the damaged Inshore Patrol Craft, where the Officer-in-Charge [Larry Thurlow] leaped aboard to render assistance. Petty Officer LAMBERT assumed command of Inshore Patrol Craft 51 and directed accurate suppressing fire at the enemy. While administering first aid to the crew of the damaged Inshore Patrol Craft, Inshore Patrol Craft 51's Officer-in-Charge was knocked overboard. Petty Officer LAMBERT, without hesitation, directed Inshore Patrol Craft 51 alongside his Officer-in-Charge, where, from an exposed position and with complete disregard for his personal safety, he pulled him aboard. Petty Officer LAMBERT then returned his Officer-in-Charge to the aid of the damaged Inshore Patrol Craft and remained in command of Inshore Patrol Craft 51 until all units cleared the river. Petty Officer LAMBERT's coolness, professionalism and courage under fire significantly contributed to the rescue of his Officer-in-Charge and the damaged Inshore Patrol Craft and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=1692

It would be nice to get Lambert's recollection of events, since he was the only other bronze star winner that day, besides Kerry and Thurlow.

[hanna]

This has very interesting wording. Introducing the text of the citation, the intro claims "evidence of enemy fire", however there is NOTHING in that citation that indicates that there WAS enemy fire.

[Jette]

If all citations were written based on the After Action report by Kerry, then all would say basically the same thing. Notice that wording in Kerry's citation for bronze star has some embellishment added in the one signed by John Lehman, compared to the one signed by E. Zumwalt.

[nakona]

[MarcB]

I am not up on Military wording but could the Mine be counted as Enemy Fire? I know that "Self Inflicted" means that you did something stupid, and hurt yourself. So in my mind (as small as it is) I could see the Mine coming under the brood umbrella of "enemy fire" in the mind of the person that wrote the after-action report.

I am always confused

Marc
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"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last."

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[igor]

hi hanna,

I PM'ed you with some info.

[producehawk]

I thought about the mine thing being enemy fire. Problem is both rasman and kerry say the fire was coming from the banks, In kerry's case 3000 meters of hostile fire (lie). From rassmans view i could understand him thinking there was enemy fire from the bank, exspecially if Kerry told him there was

[mr_mechanical]

[MarcB]

[mr_mechanical]

The MSM will probably use these Kerry fitness reports as visual props to attack the credibility of Elliot and others. They are already using the 1996 video support clips to effect.

We need to stress that there was an honor system and reports were taken on face value -- Kerry's own action reports were the basis of all of his glowing evaluations and medals.

How can we expose this in a simple and clear way to counter the Elliott "video/photo graphic" bytes that are sure to some in the days to come?

[tvaughan]

There's no way to counter the Elliot videos really. It's the visual that counts. It gives those who don't want to believe a reason not to believe.

Elliot was there to defend Kerry from charges of a war crime in relation to his Silver Star. They were charges from someone who is not there (I personally have not heard any of the Swift Vets charging him of anything like that or even inappropriate behavior that day. They just don't think killing a lone boy, albeit armed, is Silver Star material)

You can explain this stuff all you want, but it is the visual that counts. You will see it over and over and over again. (National Review has a really great article on that topic)

The pressure has to remain. The Dems managed to get the initiative yesterday with The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy thing. If we can expose that for the absurd notion that it is and get back on message on Monday I think we'll be okay.

But if the MSM deciedes that the collusion angle is there story and they're sticking to it... we're in trouble. We can't spend our time defending a baseless charge.
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[SwiftPrayerWarrior]

http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Silver_Star.pdf

This is getting real confusing.......

[kate]

SwiftPrayerWarrior
certainly can be confusing
first of 3 versions of the silver --the zumwalt version
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/jkerry/jksilverstar.pdf

in the resources section there are some discusssions about the Bronze & Silvers
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