SwiftVets.com

apollo2011 · Former Member Joined: 20 May 2005 Posts: 3

I am just curious to know why the Swift Vets supported Kerry from the end of the war to 2002 and what happened in 2002 to get them to change their mind.

Admin note: Topic modified/Me#1

BuffaloJack · Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 11:47 pm Post subject:

I served in the same unit (at the swift base at Cat Lo) as Kerry although I missed his tour by a couple of months. While in Viet Nam, I and the other Swifts watched AFVN-TV and caught Kerry's anti-War anti-GI activities on the news while my buddies and I were still actively fighting the VC and NVA. Kerry was a turn coat and proclaimed my fellow Swifts (and me) as having committed war crimes and atrocities. This is something that was false. We could not answer his accusations then, but have hated him ever since. He is no better than that traitor Hanoi Jane Fonda. Our only defender then was John O'Neill. John O'Neil is a great person of high integrity. Kerry is a lying low down rat bastard, who will forever be hated by the Swifts.

We NEVER supported him before 2002 and have not supported him ever. 2002 was just the beginning of Kerry's campaign and this time we could do something about him by stopping him from ever becoming Commander in Chief.
_________________
Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

Me#1You#10 · Site Admin Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 6503

coffee · Founder Joined: 07 May 2004 Posts: 66

Me#1You#10,

Well you certainly sent me to the dictionary with your "hagiography"!! Great word that covers the situation quite well!! I had never heard that word but I'll remember it in the future if I am forced to refer to "Tour of Duty" (which I hope to never mention again).

Coffee

LewWaters · Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 5:09 am Post subject:

Appollo, to several of us non-Swift Boat Vietnam Veterans, Kerry has been relatively unknown for many years. At the time of his "testimony" and anti-Viet Nam War doings, I was either in Viet Nam or Germany, so didn't get to see news reports of him and his dealings.

We did know that someone went before Congress and lied about us, but didn't know who, since our involvement in Viet Nam ceased before I rotated back to the US in 1974. The 2004 campaign put a face on who it was that degraded all of us and kept the myths of the Viet Nam Veteran going, besides Hanoi Jane and her ilk.

Like many others, I started frequenting this forum and reading about sKerry. I searched everywhere I could for information on him and found that nothing the Swift Boat Vets said was ever refuted, other than sKerry and his minions claiming they were lies, therefore, considered debunked by the Leftstream media.

Searching eBay, I found and purchased a copy of a 1986 book with an article written by sKerry himself in which he claims he wanted nothing to do with the Viet Nam War originally. His position seems to change with the winds.

Reading his accounts of Viet Nam, I wondered just what war he was talking about. He surely wasn't describing the one I was involved in. His accounts read more like what the movies have portrayed, not what I saw and experienced.

Speaking for myself, although a handful of Viet Nam Vets may have supported sKerry over the years, most of us never really knew who he was or had forgotten over three decades. That isn't supporting him, it's just he has been an unknown outside of his home state of Massachussetts. He opened the can of worms himself and we responded, almost 80% of Viet Nam Veterans opposed to him.

We didn't oppose him simply because he was anti-war, but because he is a charlatan who used the anti-war as a stepping stone to a political career and when that failed, laid low and came back as a war hero. His lies caught up to him, thanks to men like John O'Neill and the rest of the Swift Boat Veterans and the vast majority of Viet Nam Veterans responded accordingly.
_________________
Clark County Conservative

BuffaloJack · Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 12:49 pm Post subject:

Quite honestly, although I served in the same unit as Kerry, I never met him nor ever remembered his name. He left before I got in-country. What I do remember was being in "the club" with several other guys with the TV on in the background, and one of the swifts saying, "Isn't that Lt. Kerry with those war protesters? One of the other swifts commented "Yeah, I think it is." and we all agreed that he was scum for turning against the GIs. In later months we caught clips of him and John O'Neill on the Dick Cavett show and cheered whenever Lt. O'Neill struck back at him and his false accusations of war crimes and atrocities. You can probably imagine the cheering of a bunch of fellow swifts watching two other swifts on TV locked in a moderated argument with our honor at stake.

When the 2004 election came and Kerry floated up with the sewage, the swifts were no longer in Viet Nam, but could actively come together to make sure that he didn't become president. Kerry was one of our own who has back stabbed us and turned to help the enemy. This was our opportunity to reclaim our honor and prove that the person who had called us war criminals was in fact a lying rat bastard.

John Kerry didn’t get it; the Democrats didn’t get it; and the press didn’t get it. We stood against John Kerry. It had nothing to do with electing a president. It was our opportunity to set the record straight and confront the traitor who has been one of us. No one is as reviled or hated as someone who has turned against those he once shared trust.
_________________
Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

Tom Poole · Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 1:07 am Post subject:

I agree with everything you said BuffaloJack and would add two items. First I'm a part of the larger Veteran group who came before and after Veitnam. There are more than 20 million of us, most of whom consider the Swift Boat Veterans brothers and stand with them against this "rat bastard." Secondly, you really must learn to speak right up and say what you mean. Very Happy

_________________
'58 Airedale HMR(L)-261 VMO-2

mtboone

MarineBrat · Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:59 pm Post subject:

mtboone, Tom Poole, BuffaloJack, LewWaters, coffee, Me#1You#10

You Gentlemen (and Ladies if so) are a national treasure! Thank you so much for what you have done. I have no words strong enough to express my gratefulness for your tireless work both now and in past conflicts!

Your eloquence and honesty shine through, and I am a better American for having found you all!

God Bless you, and all of your compatriots!
_________________
God Bless Our Veterans Of The USA! Thank you for your service!
If you can read, thank a teacher. If you can read in English, thank a Veteran!

Stevie · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 1:57 pm Post subject:

MarineBrat - I couldn't have said it better myself!

just love these guys!

If I had my way, they'd be statues of all of 'em in a national park!
or maybe in each of their hometowns!
_________________
Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged.

MrJapan · PO1 Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 465 Location: Chiba, Japan

apollo2011 · Former Member Joined: 20 May 2005 Posts: 3

I apologize for not coming back to this post sooner.

I believe that none of Kerry's testimony had anything to do with the current soldiers in Vietnam. Kerry despised the war, not the actual serving military members.

Also, several of them members in the organization have been found in tapes supporting Kerry prior to 2002. Unfortuneately, this has not been covered by the mainstream media.

Navy_Navy_Navy · Admin Joined: 07 May 2004 Posts: 5777

I beg your pardon and don't intend to be rude, but I am startled that after all the revelations and discussion of the last year, some people yet appear to be laboring under misperceptions and errors.

Please read the entirety of John Kerry's testimony before Congress. Please read the substance and text of the speeches he gave as a leader and spokesperson for VVAW. Then please tell me with a straight face that Kerry did not dishonor the individual. Tell me that he did not display a snide disdain for the soldier - real or pretended, he certainly convinced any number of people that our soldiers were "monsters." (HIS OWN WORD!)

If you need more substantiation that what you have already been given, I'd suspect that you're a Kerry supporter.

No problem. I'd suggest that if that is the case that you shake the dust from your shoes and depart in peace.

If you want the truth, it's here. It's been hashed and rehashed many times.

If you want to support a liar, coward, fraud and traitor, then the media has certainly done its best to support your political ideology for the last year.

The notion that the media has not covered even the minutest scrap of information that would have been helpful to John Kerry is completely risible in itself.

And what they couldn't dig up, they made up.

Have a great day!
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

LewWaters · Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:38 am Post subject:

apollo2011 · Former Member Joined: 20 May 2005 Posts: 3

(Deleted by Admin-me#1)

Like we didn't know that was coming?