SwiftVets.com

Arty Guy · Seaman Joined: 20 Aug 2004 Posts: 190

I have seen F 102's referred to as "lawn darts". Perhaps somebody with real air force experience can comment on that.

Boundless · Seaman Apprentice Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 93

> I have seen F 102's referred to as "lawn darts".

a. That name is more generally associated with the F16.
b. The lawn dart toy may not have been on the market then.

PigBoatAndy · Former Member Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 37

Boundless · Seaman Apprentice Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 93

>> When he transferred to PCFs, they were doing coastal
>> Market Time. I suspect that whatever hazard MT
>> represented, the JFK-PT-109 connection was
>> irresistible to someone who literally saw himself as JFK-2.

> Please tell EN2 Jerry Phillips and LT Tom Bostrom that
> Market Time was not hazardous ...

I didn't say Market Time was "not hazardous".

Here's what Kerry has said about it.

About his USNR enlistment:
"I didn't really want to get involved in the war,"

About volunteering for PCFs:
"I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to
do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling
and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

Here's the rhetorical question about expectations of
going in harm's way:
If Kerry had known about SEALORD, would he still
have applied for PCFs?

F. Rottles · Seaman Recruit Joined: 12 Oct 2004 Posts: 17

To be fair, Kerry also said his second choice was to serve on a PBR (I think that was in Brinkley's book, too). I doubt that second choice could be confirmed today. PBRs were already in the rivers at that time.

I do think this subtopic -- his expectations as a candidate for a Swift Boat -- intersects directly with his Christmas in Cambodia story.

A month before Kerry arrived in Vietnam, the Swifts were beginning to probe the inland water routes. Bernique near Ha Tien. Brown in the Ca Mau peninsula. And Elliot led a small flotilla of boats up the Rach Giang Thanh (where Kerry would later insist on doing just coastal patrols), across to Chau Doc (where Kerry would later imagine himself during Christmas), and down to Rach Gia through the Sa Dec area (where Kerry was docked 24-Dec-1968). His expectations for Swift Boat duty did not match what the Swiftees were getting into.

Must have been quite an adjustment. Maybe other Swiftees here can describe their own responses to the changes at that time.

Kerry was transfered to An Thoi in early December, did routine coastal patrol, was transferred back upcoast in mid December, and then he found himself in the vicinity of Sa Dec at Christmastime. Given the aggressive new mission of the Swiftees, a rookie might well have tricked himself into feeling like he was suddenly closer to the Cambodian border than he actually was. And closer than he had expected he ever would be.

Whether or not it was the mission for which he, and others, had volunteered, orders sent him into the rivers and canals. If the Cambodian border represented the enemy's infiltration routes, the presence of the VC attempting to protect their communication and supplies lines well within Vietnam probably did bring the "border" to PCF-44 -- even if Kerry never took PCF-44 to the border itself.

Kerry appears to have appropriated the experiences of others. And embellished his own actual experiences. However, I don't get the sense that this is very common among Swift Boat Veterans. But this tendency of Kerry's seems to be replayed over and over on the nightly news. And the tie-in with the Winter Soldier stories is painfully obvious.

Maybe this is all pyschobabble and I am over-reaching, but I think there is a strong theme of self-deception that ties these subtopics together.

Consider the ambush reported by 3 PBRs on the Rach Gia Long Xuyen canal: 241550Z DEC68 CTF 116 Enemy Truce Violation. SOURCE: COMNAVFORV CTF 116 Miscellaneous Msg., Box 219.[/quote]