SwiftVets.com

[kmudd]

In the following article Kerry claims he was in charge of a $10 million boat . I guess he means the Gridley. But he was never in charge of it.

"Some police departments don't like the idea, saying that college
graduates lack street experience. Kerry, a Vietnam vet, has the answer
for that: "The Navy trusted me, as a brand new college graduate, with a
$10 million boat and put me in charge of enlisted men in Vietnam. Are
you saying I couldn't walk a beat?"

Senate Makes Crime Bill Pay


Newsday; 11/9/1993; Lars-Erik Nelson




Newsday

11-09-1993

Senate Makes Crime Bill Pay

Lars-Erik Nelson


Of all the many horrendous crimes that have caught the attention of your
political leaders, none affected them so much as the mugging that
incumbents, especially Democrats like Mayor David N. Dinkins, got on
Election Day.
"I think we should have gotten some little message out of what
happened on Tuesday," Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said. "You can turn a blind
eye to election returns if you want. But any survey that anybody takes,
No. 1 is crime."
In a frenzy - nay, a panic - of activity, the Senate responded.
An omnibus crime bill that had been originally scheduled to cost $5.9
billion suddenly doubled - and then, two days after the election,
nearly doubled again.
"Something tells me there is something cooking here," Sen. John
Kerry (D-Mass.) said as he pleaded for more spending on local police. He
didn't know the half of it. When Kerry took the Senate floor, the Senate
was prepared to spend $12 billion over five years, including funds for
60,000 new police officers. When Kerry yielded the floor 40 minutes
later, a deal had been struck to spend $22 billion - including enough
money to hire 100,000 local police.
The Senate bill also provides $3 billion to build and operate
regional prisons, $3 billion for "boot camps" and new state prisons,
$1.8 billion to deter violence against women and a number of odds and
ends. But the additional cops are the most important.
"The point is not to make more arrests," said Adam Walinsky in an
interview. The New York lawyer's Police Corps - a kind of ROTC for
cops - will be fully funded if the Senate bill becomes law. "The point
of more cops on the street is to suppress crime before it happens."
It was a point missed by a number of senators who argued that there
is no sense putting more cops on the street if there are not enough
prison cells to hold the offenders whom the police arrest.
Washington, D.C., provides ample evidence that more arrests are not
the answer: 43 percent of the city's young black males are already
involved in the criminal justice system. "What are we going to do -
lock up 60 percent of our young black men?" Walinsky asked. "These are
our fellow countrymen, not aliens from some planet. Do we really want to
give them criminal records and make them unemployable?" Walinsky's sad
smile answered his own questions.
"The biggest mistake we made was when we decided that police are
part of the criminal justice system," he continued. "That made them the
intake valve for the courts and the jails, and the courts and jails are
overwhelmed. But if you put cops on the street as part of the community,
you suppress crime and you take a big first step toward making the
community safer. A cop on the beat is quickly going to know who's
packing [a gun], who's likely to make trouble. He can intervene before
the crime takes place."
Walinsky's Police Corps, modeled on the Marine Corps Platoon Leader
program, would give college scholarships to up to 80,000 young men and
women per year in return for police training during their summer
vacations. They would be required to pay off the scholarships with four
years of work as street police after they graduate.
Some police departments don't like the idea, saying that college
graduates lack street experience. Kerry, a Vietnam vet, has the answer
for that: "The Navy trusted me, as a brand new college graduate, with a
$10 million boat and put me in charge of enlisted men in Vietnam. Are
you saying I couldn't walk a beat?"
With bipartisan support, the newly enriched crime bill cleared the
Senate by an overwhelming 94-4 vote. As senators stunned themselves with
their own generosity, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, observed, "This exceeds their wildest
expectations."
And now for reality: To become law, the House of Representatives
must go along, and the House, with its own anticrime bills, does not
like the Senate's addition of 47 new federal death sentences.
In addition, the Senate was throwing money against crime last week
faster than it could specify how the money would be spent. The White
House Office of Management and Budget, watchdog of the public purse, has
yet to be heard from.
Yet Walinsky, who has been pushing his more-cops proposals for
nearly 20 years, was optimistic. "This Senate vote was a sea change," he
said. "People have made it clear they won't stand for war in our
streets."
Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) agreed: "I'm not sure the whole $21
billion will survive, but the Police Corps will. Adam deserves a lot of
credit. He persuaded us we can solve this in a humane way, not just by
killing 'em all. As with any person who has a vision and is right, the
world eventually came around to him."
**
The Toll 3
7:55 p.m. Sunday: Franklin Diaz, 35, is found shot once on the chest on
the stairway of a building on Loring Place South in the Bronx. He died
later at St. Barnabas Hospital.

2:45 a.m. yesterday: John Slater, 46, is shot several times in the head
in a car in front of 224 Beach 31st St. in Far Rockaway, Queens. He's
pronounced dead at the scene.

2:10 p.m. yesterday: Livery cab driver Mahmoud Addelrehiem, 45, is found
shot twice in the back of the head in a car parked on Loral Avenue in
the 120th Precinct on Staten Island.



Copyright 1993, Newsday Inc.

[mtboone]

That is probably what a Swift cost all decked out.
_________________
Terry Boone PCF 90
Qui Nhon 68-69

[kmudd]

Maybe these days it would ? But back then would it have cost that much ?

[Theresa Alwood]

Maybe he "embelleshed" his yacht... . We know how good Kerry is about telling partial truths to have a ring of truth to it.

Honestly...November can not get here soon enough! I just want Kerry to go down and down hard and want this whole election to be over and President Bush serving a 2nd term..and John Kerry still being questioned about what he did after he returned from Viet Nam.
_________________
Born to raise a little hell!

[Mark]

I served on Gridley but don't remember her cost (but she carried 80 SM-1ER missiles at a cost of about $100K each so that's $8M right there).
The Aegis CG-47 class which replaced the Gridleys cost about a billion each.
Kerry was an inconsequential Junior Officer on Gridley.
_________________
Retired USN Capt.; Market Time vicinity ChuLai 6/67-2/68; Maddox 8/64 Tonkin Gulf; NGFS I Corps 6-12/65; Saigon evac. 4/75.

[air_vet]

I'll bet Bush's F102 cost more than Kerry's SwiftBoat.

[Stevie]

kERRY AS a street cop? Oh, lordy, lordy.... I say - give him a chance....

put him out there.... in the front line! I doubt he lasts 2 hours!
_________________
Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged.

[llano]

I've already seen Kerry in Car 54 Where Are You.
_________________
Home in Lubbock Texas, home of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University. A place visited frequently by Navy Chief.

[Wing Wiper]

In 1972, if I remember correctly, an F-4E Phantom II cost $2.4M. Over 25% of that was the radar/fire control system. I'm betting a half million for a Swift boat, tops.

[I B Squidly]

Aboard my DDG we were getting a new COM O, Division Officer. The Senior Chief's comment was, " If you think I'm going to let an Ensign run a $2 million a year operation your nuts!"

[BrianC]

More proof that Johnny-boy is a legend in his own mind.

But hey - what do I know? I only spent 10 years in our Navy, and all that time I was sure they were called SHIPS.

I served on a boat - 2 of them, in fact... they were also known as submarines.

It's pretty tough to debate the fact that the "F" in John F. Kerry stands for:

Flake.
Fake.
Flatulence.

Take your pick.

[Dimsdale]

I am starting to like John "Flim-flam" Kerry.

It is reminiscent of the "flip flop" moniker, yet the flim-flam part conveys the snake oil salesman character he has.
_________________
Everytime he had a choice, Kerry chose to side with communists rather than the United States.

[Mooncusser]

How could you possibly believe that John Kerry could be in charge of anything less.

Heros do not mess around with anything less than ten million. Especially when it comes to wives.
_________________
MACV '64...65
Thu Thua, Long An

I actually won the election before I lost it.

"It is a good day to fight! It is a good day to die! Strong hearts, brave hearts to the front! Weak hearts and cowards to the rear!" (Crazy Horse)

[BuffaloJack]

I was having a hard time believing that our Swiftboats could possibly be worth $10 Million, but then I remembered that a toilet seat cost $3000 and a hammer cost about $500 and everything now makes sense.

[Wing Wiper]

1/4 of our Target Intercept Computer cost $150,000, so the hammer and toilet seat were probably built by the same guys (Westinghouse).