SwiftVets.com

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http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/bstock/2004/bs_0819.shtml
By Barbara Stock
August 19, 2004

Questions continue to appear faster than answers these days about John Kerry's ever-changing four months as a swift boat captain in Viet Nam.

The latest scuffle involves a cast of characters including the Reverend David Alston, Fred Short, Captain Ted Peck, and, of course, John Kerry.

David Alston stood before the crowd and recalled the many harrowing experiences he had shared with his good friend and former captain, John Kerry.

Alston kept the awed crowd in a rapt and hushed silence as he professed his undying love and devotion to his good friend. "I know him from a small boat in Vietnam where we fought and bled together serving our country. We usually patrolled the narrow waterways of the Mekong Delta, flanked on both sides by thick jungle. After combat engagements Lieutenant Kerry always took the time to calm us down, to bring us back to reality, to give us hope, to show us what we truly had within ourselves. I came to love and respect him as a man I could trust with life itself."

It sounds like a movie script. Doesn't a vision of Tom Hanks leading his band of men in search of Pvt. Ryan across France spring to mind? Eating together, sleeping together, protecting each other in battle in the steamy jungles of Viet Nam, and the brave young captain comforting his crew in hard times. Yes, David Alston managed to cram all of these experiences into the six days he actually served on John Kerry's swift boat PCF-94. Not only that, he became devoted to a man with whom he actually only saw combat a total of two times. That's right--twice.

The history of PCF-94 is interesting. The skipper prior to John Kerry was a man named Ted Peck. Captain Peck and David Alston were both injured on January 29, 1969, and airlifted out for medical care.

On January 30, 1969, John Kerry took command of PCF-94. A man named Fred Short took David Alston's place on Kerry's new boat. Fred Short clearly remembers the day he joined Kerry's crew because it was his birthday, February 18, 1969. Short remained on PCF-94 until March 4 and stated that Alston returned to the boat a "couple of days later." John Kerry left PCF-94 after receiving his third purple heart just after March 13, 1969. Those dates are part of the official record showing Alston served a total of one week, maximum, under John Kerry's command.

According to Kerry's own written reports, he had no missions from March 1 to March 10. From March 10 to the time he wrote his last report on March 13, he wrote reports for four missions. The missions of March 10 and 11 reveal no enemy contact.

March 12, 1969 brought the first combat David Alston saw with John Kerry. Fighting was reported as heavy, but there were no casualties or injuries reported.

March 13 is the now infamous day that bought John Kerry his Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart. Four boats were involved in this particular mission. PCF-3 struck a mine and was disabled. There seems to be some confusion on the part of Jim Rassman, the man Kerry pulled from the water, as to which boat he was actually on. At the convention, he stated he was on Kerry's boat but in other interviews, he claims he was on PCF-3 and was blown off when it struck the mine along with three other men. There are many conflicting reports on what happened after that mine exploded with the majority of those present saying there was no incoming enemy fire as remembered by Rassman but only outgoing cover-fire that he may have confused for enemy fire. Giving Mr. Rassman the benefit of the doubt, he had just been blown off some boat and may well have been dazed. It's odd that man who can vividly describe how John Kerry saved him cannot remember what boat he was actually on at the time.

That was John Kerry and David Alston's second and last shared combat experience.

Also interesting are the apparent foggy memories of John Kerry himself about his time with David Alston. Posted on John Kerry's official website was this description of Kerry's recollection of when Alston was wounded. Reported by the Boston Globe the following report was quickly removed after it became obvious that it was a total fabrication. "the campaign summarize[d] action that took place on Jan. 29, 1969, this way: 'While Kerry's boat and another (PCF-72) were probing a canal along the river, Kerry's boat came under heavy fire and was hit by a B-40 rocket in the cabin area. One member of Kerry's crew Forward Gunner David Alston suffered shrapnel wounds in his head....'" The campaign website also listed two other incidents that took place prior to January 29 as having occurred under Kerry's leadership."

Ted Peck was not thrilled to read about John Kerry taking credit for missions that Kerry never participated in--on a boat he didn't take command of until January 30, 1969. The Kerry website has now removed all of the military documentation it once bragged endlessly about being proud to post. John Kerry's "band of brothers" has been gagged by the boss and may only give interviews after Kerry has approved them.

Other statements made by David Alston:

"We were in a lot of firefights. You learn a lot about people. After a firefight, John would come up to me and he would put his hand on me and he'd say, 'David, are you all right?' I stand here before you only because almighty God saw our boat safely through those rivers of death and destruction, by giving us a brave, wise, and decisive leader named John Kerry."

"I can still see him now, standing in the doorway of the pilothouse, firing his M-16, shouting orders through the smoke and chaos. Even wounded, or confronting sights no man should ever have to see, he never lost his cool."

Those are powerful words from a man who served one week with John Kerry. Is it possible to discern that a man is fit to be the leader of the free world based on four missions with only two incidents of combat 35 years ago? David Alston also related, vividly, the event that led to Kerry's Silver Medal (February 28, 1969) and said he knew Kerry was a man who would "take it to Charlie" when Kerry bravely beached their boat and pursued the enemy. The problem is that Alston was not there. Alston was still in the hospital recovering from the injuries he received on January 29.

Men who served on boats around John Kerry in Viet Nam and Steve Gardner, who was under Kerry's command, say that John Kerry and his band of brothers' recollection of those days are hazy at best and often fabricated at its worst. These men have been vilified in the media and by the Kerry camp as partisans, hacks, and liars.

What the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are doing now is just an extension of what they did for their country in Viet Nam--protect the American people from enemies both foreign and domestic. Thirty-five years ago the enemy was foreign and now they are warning Americans about a man who has taken four short months and glorified his service to the point of unbelievability, absconded with other men's records, received questionable honors and medals, related on the floor of the Senate events "seared" in his memory that didn't happen, and now claims that those four months make him deserving of the presidency. If not for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Kerry might have been able to carry out this gross charade on the American people. John Kerry was barely fit for command in Viet Nam. Kerry is certainly not fit for command now.
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