SwiftVets.com

one more captins mast · LCDR Joined: 10 Aug 2004 Posts: 438 Location: Texas

Kerry says they went 3,000 meters of "ak/47, b-40, ect, ect.

Yet they do not call in reaction forces, no helo support, no art. no

call at all, no comm from the 5 swiftboats but , one call for a

lst, to come tow the one that hit a mine, so Kerry, and Sandduskey

etal, are real hero's they were willing to take on 200/ 300 vc

their spoters, their support and do it all alone. Wow. what bs.

if sanduskey thinks he can live with that more power to him
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the strange mr aj

Spiess · Lieutenant Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 246

You know Im a little tired of this Burgulary of valor. I listened to Kerry in the first debate and about puked when he tried to use his 4 months in nam to win points on Bush. Yet he and his supporters tell us to shut up when questioned..

I was not in Nam I was in the Gulf An I am her to say I question Kerry's Patriotism!

DougReese · Former Member Joined: 22 May 2004 Posts: 396

redhawk34 · Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 4:38 pm Post subject:

"A fair fight is the result of poor mission planning."

Doug, I'll concede the lack of Arty, although in the 199th, we would have carried in 4.2" mortars. We planned for this sort of thing, and a battery of four-deuce can kick ass.
We also set up air support to be on-call, both rotary and fixed-wing. I don't believe that air support was ever requested in this action. Huns are pretty fast, and could have been there in minutes.
I note that you do not address the 3000 meter ambush. I've been ambushed a few times, and that seems a long ambush to me, like about ten times longer than I can believe. No damage reported to any boat. Our Charlies could shoot better, I guess. I don't know where the 300 VC figure came from, but one per ten meters of ambush is believable, IF THERE WAS A 3000 METER AMBUSH IN THE FIRST PLACE. Color me dubious.
Occams razor suggests to me that the boats received a few rounds of desultory fire which was subsequently embellished on paper. (I wouldn't venture to speculate as to who might do such a thing.)
BTW, as a complete aside, in my last ambush (they sank my ass), COL A.W. Malone (5/12 INF) had Arty on the ambush in seconds, Huns and Cobras in minutes. When he called to thank a battery of 155s for some real sweet shooting, the response was;"Courtesy of your Mississippi National Guard." He also knew the Hun flight lead, and two of his pilots were ANG.
Redhawk34