SwiftVets.com

[Me#1You#10]

Admin note:

As this appears to be a "story in progress", I'm moving it from the main forum to the R&R forum.

Thanks,

Admin

[baldeagl]

[Mark]

If we dissent on "two tours", in Vietnam or on Swifts, given both the Gridley and Swift tours and the two separated CoastDivs and boats we just give our detractors more ammo. One may consider a four-month tour to be one even if on two boats and/or one may consider Gridley on Yankee Station and/or North/South SAR to not count but many would not agree. especially those in the media and those who weren't there. Just common sense would suggest two different Divisions could be interpreted as two tours, and, like it or not, being on ships like Gridley qualified for the VSM, Combat Pay, Income Tax exclusions, etc. Let's focus!!
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Retired USN Capt.; Market Time vicinity ChuLai 6/67-2/68; Maddox 8/64 Tonkin Gulf; NGFS I Corps 6-12/65; Saigon evac. 4/75.

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Mark, of course the "two tours in Vietnam" or "two tours in Swift boats" can't be the centerpiece, but it is a piece of this puzzle.

Every tiny piece contributes to the picture of the real John Kerry.

As I've posted elsewhere a few times, Kerry denigrates his tour aboard the Gridley by claiming it to be something that it wasn't.

There were too many sailors out there in full three-year tours with full WESTPAC's under their belts to let him get away with it. They sweated or froze their rear ends off in grueling work for long hours for six months at a time or more.

He does them all a disservice to suggest that his brief period on the Gridley in support of the 7th Fleet and his one-day in-port in Danang (in which he probably did not even leave the ship) is "a tour in Vietnam."

None of the sailors I've ever known who operated in the waters off of Southeast Asia have ever claimed their WESTPAC's to be "tours in Vietnam," which conjures up images of boots on the ground, hacking through jungles and digging and sandbagging foxholes.

It's just a tiny part of this image that Kerry has carefully constructed, and if you've seen the films of him stalking along with a machine gun and bandolier, you'll know what I mean.

Ships and sailors were an important part of that war - Kerry steals their thunder by trying to make it something it wasn't.
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[hiyall]

Uh as to why the Democrats put him out there as a candidate? ... It certainly helps being a billionaire and having 20 years in the Senate to cozy up to the top of the political machine. One can have a lot of favors to call in after 20 years at the top of the party apparatus.

[Herb]

[baldeagl]

[LubyStarling]