montanaguard Seaman Recruit
Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 11
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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 11:06 pm Post subject: Congressional Record Kerry's Eulogy for a Swifty. |
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Sounds like yet another elaboration of the events.
This time Kerry's boat is lifted two feet from the water.
And get this it took place 50 yards from the Cambodian border.
Hasn't it already been noted that Kerry was never closer than 50 miles from the border?
Copied from another post which found this eulaogy in the Congressional Record.
Quote:
There was the time we were carrying special forces up a river and a mine exploded under our boat sending it 2 feet into the air. We were receiving incoming rocket and small arms fire and Tommy was returning fire with his M–60 machine gun when it literally broke apart in his hands. He was left holding the pieces unable to fire back while one of the Green Berets walked along the edge of the boat to get Tommy another M–60. As he was doing so, the boat made a high speed turn to starboard and the Green Beret kept going—straight into the river. The entire time while the boat went back to get the Green Beret, Tommy was without a machine gun or a weapon of any kind, but all the time he was hurling the greatest single string of Lowell-Chelmsford curses ever heard at the Viet Cong. He literally had swear words with tracers on them!
There was, of course, the moment in February, 1969 when he was positioned in the very bow of the boat—in the totally exposed peak tank—with more than half his body just sticking up exposed to the enemy, when 3 boats turned toward the river bank and Tommy found himself staring straight into an ambush 20 yards ahead. He never flinched as he charged the beach and routed the enemy—not just once, but twice. For Seaman Belodeau’s devotion to duty, courage under fire, and exemplary professionalism, in the highest tradition of the Navy he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V.
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. |
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