SwiftVets.com

[Reg]

[quote="rbshirley"]

[rbshirley]

[The bandit]

[thorrell]

I've been reading some transcripts of various Kerry/Rassman statements about the Mar 13 episode and something occured to me. All the conversations stop after Rassman gets out of the water.

But that shouldn't have been the end of it... So I have some questions for the Kerry group.

When did the Hostile Fire stop? And why? Was the enemy killed or did they flee?

If it took an hour and a half to make the PCF-3 "Seaworthy" and rigged to be towed, what took place during that time? Did anyone go ashore to check for lingering snipers? To check for wounded enemies? To get a body count?

For the people here my question is.. assuming that Kerry's story is true? What would have happened? Should any thing appear in the official records to reflect that? And if so, are they there?

Thanks,
Todd

[RETIREDTOP]

Wheres Kerrys Silver Star recommendation? I saw the recommendation for the bronze star on his website, it only has (1) eyewitness.

There should be a copy of this silver star recommendation being its his highest award. Lets see who the eyewitness's are in Block 25, (should be 2 people I would think, being such a distinguished award)

Citations are pretty, but lets get the official recommendation.

"Essayons"

[RiflemanDD730]

The duration of the salvage operation of PCF-3 seems important. I sent the following e-mail to Brit Hume, Wolf Blitzer, and Joe Scarborough.

Re: John Kerry Vietnam War Record
March 13, 1969 action, Operation Sea Lord, Jim Rassman rescue
PCF-3 damaged by mine
Duration of salvage operation around PCF-3

Possible key issue

How long were the boats in a salvage operation (90 minutes as some report)? Were these 5 boats under enemy fire during that time? If not, why did the VC run away and leave 5 easy targets?

It seems that the length of time these 5 boats were together with one damaged and all seemingly vulnerable during the salvage of PCF-3 is important to the discussion concerning enemy fire. If these boats were all in one restricted location for an extended period in a 75 yard wide channel and no one was injured by bullets and there were no bullet holes in any of the boats the contention that there was no enemy fire seems to be supported. Jim Rassman could easily have mistaken initial suppressing fire from the boats as enemy fire and the other versions claiming no enemy fire could be correct.

If you agree that this is an important fact bearing on the truth of an important issue, please verify the duration and determine what the participants were doing during the duration of the salvage. This might be a good question for Jim Rassman



UPDATE: Since I posted the above I found the following info:

Critics Fail to Disprove Kerry's Version of Vietnam War Episode

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 22, 2004; Page A

"A report on "battle damage" to Thurlow's boat mentions "three 30 cal bullet holes about super structure." According to Thurlow, at least one of the bullet holes was the result of action the previous day, when he ran into another Vietcong ambush."

This paragraph indicates that bullet holes were found contrary to what I posted above. Thurlow accounts for one in the article. The other two could be evidence that there was hostile fire. Does anyone have more info?



UPDATE 2: I sent the info on the duration of the salvage operation to Michael Dobbs of the Washington Post with this sentence in the preamble:

"I think the duration of the salvage operation is important as a long duration begs the question of how a long a salvage operation could be conducted under intense enemy fire."