SwiftVets.com

[Reg]

"Beldar" has a very interesting Blog that has a lot of Swift Boat Analysis.
His recent post on Kerry's heartfelt 1997 eulogy to his PCF-94 shipmate, Tom Belodeau, is particularly interesting. Here's the link:

http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2004/08/why_kerrys_belo.html

I posted a comment there which I thought some might like to see here. It explores the issue of why Kerry (to say nothing of Brinkley in "TofD") at times is modest when talking about his top secret, special operation/CIA mission, 5 miles deep, Cambodian border crossing.
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This eulogy does deserve more attention. Here's something at least I had previously overlooked. Let's review the eulogy:

Kerry begins by acknowledging Belodeau's family and, "...and to his brothers from Vietnam— particularly Del Sandusky from Illinois and Gene Thorsen from Iowa—his crewman on PCF 94..."

Ok, nothing surprising here. Nice that Sandusky and Thorsen join Kerry to say a final good-bye.

Kerry then goes on to recount Belodeau's Vietnam highlights. After talking about a pre-PCF94 heroic mission, Kerry talks about how they personally got along. Kerry then turns to PCF-94's combat highlights. Kerry recounts the 13 March incident and then the "silver star" Feb mission.

Again, nothing surprising here. Kerry is obviously proud to have served with Belodeau and wants to describe to the audience the significance and the courage in Belodeau's Vietnam service and sacrifice.

And then Kerry turns to Belodeau's third and final PCF-94 mission highlight. I quote in full:

"I cannot adequately convey or describe to you the measure of this man at war—standing in his peak tank in the bow, screaming up a river in the dead of night, no moon, 50 yards from Cambodia literally bouncing off the river bank, waiting for a mine to go off or a rocket to explode—and always steady, always dependable, always there for the rest of the crew."

Now on the surface there is nothing unusual in this statement. Again, it shows Belodeau and PCF-94 in a positive light operating in a dangerous environment i.e. "50 yards from Cambodia...". All in all a typical eulogy. When one dies the highlights of ones life hopefully are recounted by ones friends.

But there is something strange in this last statement.Kerry's campaign says Kerry and his PCF,"...on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group operating out of Ha Tien." And in the past Kerry has recounted additional details such as being 5 miles deep in Cambodian, running arms to anti-communist Cambodian forces, and running CIA operatives into Cambodia to search for enemy enclaves.

Why did Kerry downplay the courage of his PCF and Belodeau in particular? They were not just "50 yards from Cambodia..." they were deep into Cambodian terroritory on a special top-secret mission.

Why doesn't Kerry tell the rest of this undeniably interesting tale? Why downplay Belodeau's courage and bravery especially in front of his fellow crewmates Del Sandusky and Gene Thorsen sitting right there in the church?

Why would someone do such a thing?

[MikeGranby]

One might also ask why someone on a secret mission -- and one that if compromised would highly embarass the USA -- would be "screaming up a river".