SwiftVets.com

[Paul]

"Finally John Kerry catches a break. If he play his mouth right. President Bush and his Republicans will be center stage all next week. Already one knows that a Bush supporter like Rudy Giuliani is bound to mention and thus exploit 9/11. To add to the outrage, most every Convention speaker is likely to be a Republican, and have many friends and colleagues who are Republican. Won't that be in violation of McCain-Feingold? Here's where Kerry discipline comes in. If he just disappears and says nothing to remind everyone of all the things he's said in the past, he could enjoy what amounts to a political honeymoon. Still, one issue rankles as none other. Did Lt. Kerry really have a Swift dog named VC? He told the U.S. Humane Society that indeed he did, and that the creature nearly was killed when their boat hit a mine. Yet a former crew member told Hugh Hewitt he could recall no dogs ever being part of the Swift boat world. Indeed, would any self-respecting crew have stood for naming a canine after the enemy? So here's what we left with: Kerry invented having a dog, named that imaginary pet after the Communists, risked its life in a fictitious mine explosion, and then abandoned the unfortunate creature when he rushed back to the U.S. Even Genghis Khan wouldn't have done that." --Editor's Desk, American Spectator


The mention of the story about a female puppy that Kerry supposedly found and named "Victoria Charlotte" that came out during the Democratic National Convention sounded pretty lame to me too. . . right down to the gritty details of her peeing on him inside his coat during combat. . . Geez. . . .

But it's Kerry's contribution of the phrase "like Genghis Khan" back in 1971 that is one that I especially can't stand.

Variations of this particular statement by him have found its way into the ‘mouths’ of fictitious characters in the form of 18-19-year-old soldier characters in at least a couple Vietnam novels and movies. And this particular phrase has been repeated ad nauseum elsewhere as well. I’ll be honest and admit that in my opinion then without self-discipline and supervision (which the 18 & 19 year olds who served in Vietnam were not without), then the average 18-year old male has the potential to be brutal. However, the majority of us, over all generations right back to Adam himself, when we were 18 years old were no where near clever enough to come up with something like "it's what armies do, just like Genghis Khan, man.". . .

So while this may be a cheap shot by the editor, I don't believe that it's an unfair one to have been taken and another one brought on to himself by ole self-inflicted quarter-tour Kerry himself.

I don't know, did the dog even exist? And if she did, then what happened to her when Kerry left Vietnam? The story that I saw was that he supposedly 'saved' her from becoming someone’s future supper. So, did she end up becoming a Vietnamese variation of 'Manchurian BBQ' a year or so after he left anyway perhaps? I suspect that we'll never know. Personally, except as regards to another questionable story of his, I don't really care if the dog existed or not. If she did, and if she eventually became a family meal, then Bone Appetite to whoever may have enjoyed the meal, I say.

And, personally, while I don't believe that Genghis Khan would have given a Tinker's Damn about a puppy, I personally don't give a Tinker's Damn about Genghis Khan. Where the majority of Americans of any period are concerned, then Genghis Khan is absolutely irrelevant to us, except in the vivid imaginations and fantasies of John Kerry and his fellow elites and, unfortunately, in the imaginations of too many formed by this nonsense, back in '71 through to today. . .
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Paul

[I B Squidly]

Don't forget bthe hamster he likewise saved from watery disaster.

[BuffaloJack]

I never met Kerry. I missed him by about 8 months, but there was a dog on the base called VC, it wasn't a puppy anymore, but it did resemble the dog in Kerry's photo. Kerry abandoned it. The cook on the base used to give it scraps from the messhall because it did earn its keep. It was the best snake killer we ever had. That mutt probably killed a dozen snakes a week and made the base safer for the guys. I suppose that Kerry will condemn the killing of the snakes in order to garner the favor or the animal rights people.

Hey wait a minute, Kerry is a snake.

[jwb7605]

[vickie]

Is this story true?

http://www.humaneusa.org/2004_presidential/question/jkerry_2004.pdf

Navarro:Do you have any pets that have made an impact on you personally?

Kerry: I have always had pets in my life and there are a few that I remember very fondly. When I was serving on a swiftboat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called VC. We all took care of him, and he stayed with us and loved riding on the swiftboat deck. I think he provided all of us with a link to home and a few moments of peace and tranquility during a dangerous time. One day as our swiftboat was heading up a river, a mine exploded hard under our boat. After picking ourselves up, we discovered VC was MIA. Several minutes of frantic search followed after which we thought we'd lost him. We were relieved when another boat called asking if we were missing a dog. It turns out VC was catapulted from the deck of our boat and landed confused, but unhurt, on the deck of another boat in our patrol. I also fondly remember a parakeet in college, Dodi Faustus. Dodi was a smart bird who learned a few words of French and Italian, but not smart enough to avoid having to be rescued from a tree once. My daughters and I had a Golden Retriever named Winston. Today, Teresa and I have a German Shepherd named Cym and a yellow parakeet.

http://www.humaneusa.org/2004_presidential/question/jkerry_2004.pdf

Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 5:17 pm Post subject:

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http://hughhewitt.com/#postid832

I also caught up with Steve Gardner on today's program, a Swift Boat vet who served from November, 1968 to January 23, 1969 on Kerry's Swift Boat 44. I asked him about Kerry's tale of "VC --combat dog:"

HH: "Steve, was there a dog named VC on your boat?"

SG: ""Buddy, to the best of my knowledge (laughing), I never saw any dog at any time on the 44 boat."

HH: "Is it possible that it was on the other boat."

SG: "Oh, a distinct possibility (laughing)."

HH: "In the time that you were on the swift boats --totally-- did any of the swift boats have a dog?"

SG: "Never saw one, ever."

HH: "Would it have been a good idea to have a dog on the swift boats?"

SG: "Not likely."

HH: "Why not?"

SG: "Because there was just too much action going on. We had hot brass rolling around there any time we were in a firefight. He would have got beat up."

HH: "Is this the first time you have ever heard of the dog story?"

SG: "It sure is."

Look. It is possible that Kerry had a dog named VC after Gardner left Kerry's command. And it is possible that VC the combat dog got blown off the boat when the boat hit a mine --even though there's no reference to the mine that would fit the occasion. And just because many of my listeners have e-mailed me to note that there was a dog on Martin Sheen's boat in Apocalypse Now doesn't mean that Kerry "borrowed" the dog from the movie.

But that so many people have concluded just that does underscore John Kerry's massive credibility problem --a problem that grows larger and larger every day he doesn't meet the press. Jon Stewart asked him last night if he'd ever been in Cambodia. Kerry lamely played it for a laugh by not answering --by not saying anything at all. Who is advising him? Has Bush-Cheney got plants in the Kerry organization?


http://hughhewitt.com/#postid830
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Vote early. Vote often. The Democrate way...

[Paul]

"there was a dog on the base called VC"

To be honest, this doesn't surprise me in the least. The editorial desk writer seemed to have trouble imagining it, but I have no trouble at all believing that sailors might name the dog "VC." Hey, we're Americans. We nickname bald men "curly" and 380 pound fat girls "twiggy" or somesuch. . .

But I am concerned by some things that I see here.

The "Victoria Charlotte" (which I did think was quite lame) is what I saw from the explanation produced at the DNC. According to that 'heart warming' story, the dog was inside his coat during combat and SHE peed on him. If the quote above is accurate, then the story has changed from the one I saw about it from the DNC convention, or that story itself had been changed and was only a new revision.

Geez, nothing from Senator Kerry is clear and without question, no matter how utterly trivial or inconsequential, no?

SO, now the great question is ACTUALLY, where was the dog during combat and precisely what sex was the dog really??? LOL

PS. Given the popularity of untrainable and obnoxious monkeys from PI and such, then I don't especially have trouble believing a dog being onboard the boat either, even in spite of the above pragmatic observations and reasoning. . . Hey, just like the obnoxious and worthless monkeys, if the dog dies, then just get another or do without. . .
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Paul

[Paul]

Don't forget bthe hamster he likewise saved from watery disaster.

Geez, . . . The Hamster. I had already forgotten about the hamster.

Personally, I like dogs. Hamsters. . . hey, it's a tail-less rat.

I'd have hit have hit the flush lever, told the daughter it was a hamster's version of "burial at sea," and all a part of life. . . Just think Walt Disney and Bambee alone moaning out "mama, mama" in the woods scene . . . A good father doesn't let such educational opportunities for his child pass by, so frivolously unheeded. What Walt could do well, Dad should be able to do better.
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Paul

[jmckay8497]

Maybe, just maybe it wasn't the dog who peed, and he was telling another small tale.
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Air Force Vet
Service in Thailand and Viet Nam
1968 and 1969

[Paul]

"Maybe, just maybe it wasn't the dog who peed, and he was telling another small tale." {jmckay8497}

LOL Very good!

This may be right. Maybe he (as in Kerry) peed on her and then had the gall to lie and blame it on her!
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Paul

[jalexson]