SwiftVets.com

[Denis]

The debate just finished, and Kerry made two statements that bear on the topics on these boards.

After Bush discussed the pressure and burden of sending soldiers in harm's way, Kerry stated that he knew what it was like to lose men under his command.

Is that true, that Kerry lost any members of his crew while in Vietnam?

Second, Kerry also said, sympathizing with soldiers on duty now, that he knows what it was like to defend his country.

Does that means that Kerry now thinks the Vietnam War was a defence of the US, and not merely an imperialistic war of aggression?

If he was then defending America, how was it then wrong to do so?

Denis

[Michmaddave]

Ahh the inconsistency of the left is coming home. He has no consistency, just memory fragments that he hopes to snag in order to make more people familiar with him instead of Bush. Demonizing Bush is the goal. He can't do it, and failed to do it tonight, and Kerry will have to lash out more next time to get his message out, which is exactly what he needs to hide. He will deanscream until his face is blue, and his voice is horse, but he will just continue to mobilize those who disagree with him most. To Kerry, this war is unnecessary, but he will win it, he does not say how, but it will be better than Bush. He can do better but it is a secret. He backed our country out of a war before in 1972, but he won't do it again, and he voted for middle class tax increases before but he won't do it again, and he is for social programs as they are, even though they are insolvent, but he does want national health care, which will decrease health care quality here, but it will be regulated like the DNV, and it will be better..... and he won't cut the military this time. but........
I hope you all see a pattern here...
Delusions, all delusions.
These people are sick, and if they win I hope they learn the hard way how their good intentions backfire....
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To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.
---Alexander Hamilton
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

[Theresa Alwood]

I sat down and asked my father-in-law as we were getting ready to watch the debates what year he joined the Navy. He simply said 59. I said so you were in Viet Nam. He said no I was on a supermarine...but I would like to know how John Kerry got 3 purple hearts in 4 months and got to go home. Then he said he is a traitor along with Jane Fonda!

That is how Vietnam vets feel in a nutshell....but this does just not affect only the Viet Nam vets, I served 79-83 with an honorable discharge and I MYSELF am disgusted by who and what JOhn Kerry is. I will fight and fight and fight until this election is over to bring John Kerry down!
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Born to raise a little hell!

[1stgpsf]

I don't know if he lost any men in combat, but I thought I heard him claim that he knew what it was like to lose men in combat during the debate. The posts on Kerry's web site should give the answer to the combat loss question. If he injected another lie in to his campaign, I believe those who served with him will "out" him.
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SF was the best years of my life.

[Denis]

Yes, Kerry did say he lost men under his command in the debate, and the reason I am asking if this is true is because it doesn't appear in TofD, Unfit for Command, or Kerry's site, and I've never heard him claim that before.

Anybody seen anything to confirm this one? Just want to be sure whether this is another self-aggrandizing Kerry lie, or not.

Denis

[BuffaloJack]

There were only a few hundred swiftees in the Vietnam Theater of Operations, 55 Swiftees died in combat, but I never heard of any of our fallen brothers getting killed while serving with Hanoi John. Need input from the other swiftees who served at Cat Lo and An Thoi at the same time as Kerry.

There is one other situation to consider. When Kerry finished off the VC teenager, given John's compassion for the commies, he may have counted this boy as his dying comrade.

[Denis]

[Bob Chamberlain]

I have spent considerable effort reading after action reports and such. Kerry never lost a man. He never even had anyone seriously hurt. Which is pretty amazing, considering the number of times his boat received intense enemy automatic weapons and small arms fire from an enemy maybe 100 feet away - with a wide open field of fire. The VC and NVA I encountered must have had better weapons instructors.

In all fairness though, Kerry did not actually state that he had lost any of his own men - at least that is the way I heard it. And a few of his friends were killed - Don Droz and Richard Pershing for instance - so I figure he has plenty of "wiggle room" in case he ever gets called on his statement.
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Bob

Useful anti-Kerry campaign material at:
http://www.betrayed-vietnam-vet.info

[Dimsdale]

[Denis]

Here's the quotes from the transcript:

[Navymomx2]

I have to agree with Bob C over the issue. I heard Kerry make the statement of losing men, I got the impression the way he worded it was you could take it 2 ways, 1:men he was in charge of or worked directly with or 2: men who were personal friends. Knowing what I have read in UFC, read on here and researched out, I took it as the 2nd option.
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Proud 2 Star Blue Star Navy Mom

Honor, Courage and Committment
something John F. Kerry doesn't have

[Bob Chamberlain]

Yeah, Denis, you're right - especially when the two sentences are put up right next to each other, as they were in the debate. But I still think his phrasing is vague enough to allow him to wiggle out by saying he meant his friends who had died - and not that he had actually commanded someone to hs death. I guess what I am saying is that there really isn't anything there that we can truly NAIL him with.
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Bob

Useful anti-Kerry campaign material at:
http://www.betrayed-vietnam-vet.info

[Rdtf]

well, did any of his friends die there?

[poseidon]

[jalexson]