SwiftVets.com

[FlyLow]

By Jeremy Reynalds
Talon News
August 10, 2004

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2004/august/0810_swift_boat_vetsp.shtml

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (Talon News) -- A controversial ad produced by a Vietnam veterans group accusing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry of lying about his Vietnam War record and betraying his fellow veterans by later turning against the conflict has provoked an uproar.

Democrats in general and the Kerry campaign in particular are saying the ad, which is produced by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (web site), is "unfair." As reported by Talon News, lawyers for the Democratic National Committee and the Kerry campaign sent a letter to station managers across the country advising them that their stations could be held "responsible for the false and libelous charges" made in the ads.

Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain has weighed in, telling the Associated Press (AP) in a recent interview that the ad "reopens all the old wounds of the Vietnam War."

"I deplore this kind of politics," McCain added. "I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable."

In a recent interview with Talon News, Weymouth Symmes, Treasurer and Steering Committee Member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, talked about the ad controversy and the group's motivation.

According to Symmes, the impetus for the now famous group probably arose as a direct result of the book "Tour of Duty" by the "historian" Douglas Brinkley.

Symmes said, "In the book, our commanding officer in Vietnam, Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann ret., was unjustly portrayed as a cordite sniffing, body-count loving figure. In fact, he is a revered figure by those he commanded. He started contacting many of us individually in early spring of this year, and our steering committee was formed in early April of this year."

According to Symmes, "John Kerry is utterly lacking in the character required to be commander-in-chief of this great nation. He served only four months and 12 days in Vietnam, when a normal tour of duty was 12 months. He left using an obscure Navy rule, and is the only officer I am aware of that left early.

Symmes says that Kerry didn't fulfill his obligation and then came home and "betrayed the people he served with, and those in uniform, by lying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about 'war atrocities' committed by American forces in Vietnam."

Symmes said, "All of us in Swift Veterans for Truth can attest that we never saw, participated in, or were aware of any atrocities committed in our area of operations during our twelve month tours of duty. With those vicious comments about his fellow servicemen, how can he lead a War on Terror where our current brave men and women are in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq?"

Symmes said that Kerry's record "is one of crass political opportunism."

"From Massachusetts, he joined the radical 'Vietnam Veterans Against the War' after his return from his short time in Vietnam," Symmes explains. "Due to his anti-war record he was defeated in his first run for Congress in 1972. He reemerged as a 'war hero' in 1984 and won a U.S. Senate seat."

Symmes said he got involved with the group as a result of Admiral Hoffmann's call and an invitation to attend the initial Dallas meeting "to decide what to do about Kerry."

"Ultimately, though, I became involved because it was the right thing to do, Symmes said. "None of us have anything to gain by our involvement, and due to the vilification coming, much to lose, but we are committed to getting the truth out about John Kerry."

Symmes addressed one of McCain's complaints about the ad that no one featured in it served on the boat Kerry commanded. He said while McCain is correct in his charge, the point is "irrelevant."

"This was not an aircraft carrier," Symmes said. "These boats only carried a crew of six people: four enlisted, one Vietnamese, and one Officer in Charge. However, the people in the ad were either Kerry's superiors above him in the chain of command in Vietnam, were on the same operations with him, or were on other boats in close proximity with him. Commanding a crew of five is hardly sufficient grounds to be commander-in-chief."

Symmes also commented about one of the veterans on board the boat that day, Jim Rassmann, who said Kerry saved his life. Symmes recalled how Rassmann said he was pulled out of the water by Kerry.

"This is a routine event, not an act of heroism," he told Talon News. "People were blown off the boats frequently, or dumped overboard as the boats made sharp turns under fire. Where is the heroism -- was Kerry supposed to just leave him in the water? I am sure Mr. Rassmann is appreciative, but pulling him out of the water hardly creates a hero."

Symmes said, "John Kerry did not deserve at least two of his Purple Hearts, and his military awards are questionable. He has refused to release his military records, which indicates he is lying about his service. We have called on him to sign Standard Form 180, which is a full disclosure of his entire military records, including medical. We are standing on the truth of our assertions -- John Kerry should do no less."

Symmes, who joined the Navy in 1966, has a distinguished record of service to his country.

In his biography on the group's web site, he writes, "I enlisted with no dreams of glory; rather enlistment seemed the most honorable course open to me. I could go to Canada, return to another college and avoid the draft as long as I could, or I could go because it was a lawful request by my country to do so. I chose the latter course."

According to Symmes' online autobiography, he was in Swift training from October 1968 through January 1969.

Commenting on his service in Vietnam, Symmes wrote, "We served honorably, [but] we came home to vicious rhetoric by the radical anti-war left. Many were spit on by their fellow Americans, and some threw their medals away because they believed America had turned their backs on them. Although the radical anti-war left was a minority, they received a disproportionate amount of media attention."

Symmes wrote, "We never participated in, observed, or knew of what Mr. Kerry called "atrocities" committed by Americans in our area of operations. His comments were a lie, and I believe he knew it."

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