SwiftVets.com

[next generation]

This was apparently reported in a Brit Hume show segment last night. I didn't see it, but looked up the entry in the Congressional Record from 1/28/98. The URL I posted previously doesn't seem to be working, so here is the relevant paragraph.

The context is as follows: on November 10, 1997, Kerry had delivered a eulogy at the funeral of a man named Thomas M. Belodeau, who was a crewman on PCF 94. On January 28, 1998, Kerry requested to have the text of the eulogy printed in the Congressional Record for that day. I believe this is a somewhat common practice for members of Congress to permanently memorialize a constituent.

In the paragraph quoted below, Kerry appears to be referring to the events of the third purple heart and Bronze Star (I think) episode. It seems unlikely that there was more than one instance of a mine being detonated and a Green Beret going overboard. The important thing to note is that Kerry says the mine exploded under HIS boat!!

"There was the time we were carrying special forces up a
river and a mine exploded under our boat sending it 2 feet
into the air. We were receiving incoming rocket and small
arms fire and Tommy was returning fire with his M-60 machine
gun when it literally broke apart in his hands. He was left
holding the pieces unable to fire back while one of the Green
Berets walked along the edge of the boat to get Tommy another
M-60. As he was doing so, the boat made a high speed turn to
starboard and the Green Beret kept going--straight into the
river. The entire time while the boat went back to get the
Green Beret, Tommy was without a machine gun or a weapon of
any kind, but all the time he was hurling the greatest single
string of Lowell-Chelmsford curses ever heard at the Viet
Cong. He literally had swear words with tracers on them!"

This demonstrates that Kerry has never had much regard for the truth in telling this story. Obviously the mine did not explode under PCF 94, but it sure made for a more exciting story that way!

[Beldar]

I've got links to the Congressional Record website, plus links to .pdf files of the actual pages, in both of my blog posts about the Belodeau Eulogy. The newer (and better) post, which includes a .jpg screencap of the relevant language from the .pdf file, is here:

http://www.beldar.org/beldarblog/2004/08/why_kerrys_belo.html

I'm glad to hear that someone in the mainstream media has finally noticed it, and would appreciate it if anyone who comes across a transcript of Hume's discussion would email me with a link (beldar*at*beldar.org). Thanks!

[FreeFall]

Michael Savage had something on his show last week or so on Tom Belodeau. He said Belodeau gave an interview to the Boston Globe which pretty much reinforced the Swift Vets version of what happened that day. I could not find the article online, I don't know if anybody has found it yet.

I think Savage said the Belodeau/Globe interview took place in 1996 so this predates the Rood interview recently.