Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
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 Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:41 am Post subject: "Two veterans, two points of view" |
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BZ! Swiftee Jim Deal!
| Quote: | Two veterans, two points of view
Belen man served on Vietnam swift boat
Haley Wachdorf
News-Bulletin Staff Writer
Valencia County News-Bulletin
Belen...Vietnam veteran Jim deal doesn't mince words when talking about U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John Kerry and his account of serving in the Vietnam War.
"Everything I've seen is that the man is just not an honorable gentleman," he said. "... I wholeheartedly believe that. The man can't be trusted."
Deal, one of the original members of the advocacy group that calls itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, left college in 1965 and went into the Navy. He served in Vietnam until 1968 working on swift boats on the coasts and rivers of Vietnam. A swift boat is a 22-ton armed aluminum patrol boat. Approximately 3,500 troops served on the boats during the Vietnam War. Kerry served on a swift boat for four months during the war.
Kerry first drew the anger of some Vietnam veterans in April of 1971 when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding what he said were atrocities committed by American soldiers during the war. Kerry testified as part of a group called Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In part, Kerry's testimony relayed what he claimed were stories of soldiers who had "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads ... cut off limbs, blown up bodies," and "randomly shot at civilians."
Deal, who finished his tour of duty and graduated from college in May of 1971, said that in his time in Vietnam, he never once saw an American soldier commit such acts, and the stigma Kerry's testimony placed on Vietnam veterans made it difficult for him to find a job.
"I was graduating in May of 1971 and I was a proud veteran, so I put on my resume 'U.S. Navy, honorably discharged,' which was probably not a good thing, because he (Kerry) came out with all of this and slandered us as a group, saying we did all these terrible things we didn't do," Deal said. "This is kind of personal for me, because he pretty well destroyed my new beginning. I couldn't get a good job for probably three years."
Deal said the controversy over Vietnam and the accusations leveled against veterans like him made it simpler for some veterans not to discuss the war. But in 2004, when Kerry emerged as the Democratic nominee for President, Deal said he was outraged by the Kerry campaign's emphasis on Kerry's war record. He decided it was time to talk about Vietnam again.
As the host of an Internet chat room for swift boat veterans, Deal soon heard that retired Rear Admiral Roy Hoffman was organizing a group of veterans to refute Kerry's claims about his military service.
"I e-mailed him and I said 'I don't know for sure what you're doing, or where you're headed with it, but I want in and I want in on the ground level,'" he said. "I've been there since the beginning."
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which recently merged with a group called P.O.W.'s for Truth, ran advertisements attacking Kerry's military record, which they say was exaggerated and claiming he lied about his fellow soldiers in his testimony before the armed services committee. Deal appeared with a large group of veterans in one of the commercials, and was also a primary researcher for "Unfit for Command," a book detailing what the group claims are the holes in Kerry's military record.
Deal, who settled in Belen three years ago, said he believes that Kerry is now exploiting his military service for political gain. Based on that belief alone, Deal said he believes Kerry should not be the Commander in Chief.
"We (the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) would have probably never brought this up," he said. "We have a lot of guys having nightmares from talking about all of this, but the thing is, he's the one who made it the cornerstone of his campaign. He brought it up. He portrays himself as being a hero and a bunch of other things. ... The war in Vietnam was lost on the streets of the United States of America, and John Kerry was the field marshal. I will go to my grave believing that. If he hadn't done what he did, maybe we would have been considered a little more honorable for what we did. I'm not really thrilled with some of the things Bush has done. But this whole thing is not about politics. It's about John Kerry."
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