SwiftVets.com

[SCHUTZHUND]

http://home.nycap.rr.com/pwcarter/the%20kerry%20page.html

Title: Kerry's Page at the U.S.S. Gridley Site
Author: Charles
Time/date: 8/30/2004 at 10:42:04 am
No. of comments: 92


At the web site for the U.S.S. Gridley, aboard which John Kerry served his
first tour of duty in Vietnam, they have a page dedicated to the
inconsistencies in Kerry’s authorized campaign biography: The Kerry Page.
(Hat tip: Greg.)

These are the comments of radarman Phil Carter:


I was an E-5 radarman on the USS GRIDLEY and was onboard from 1965 until May
of 1968. My principal role in 67 and 68 was to prepare intelligence
information to brief the rescue helo pilots and the ship’s officers. I
received a commendation from CINCPACFLT for this activity. I stood quite a
few CIC watches with Ensign Kerry where we discussed many things, including
the war. I was college educated, had traveled extensively in Europe before
the Navy and spoke French, so there was some commonality despite my being
enlisted. By that time, I was on my 3rd cruise and against the way the war
was being waged. He was not, as I recall.

I am a registered independent and have no axe to grind with him. I gave him
a reasonably large campaign contribution in the mid 1990’s and visited with
him for about 30 minutes in an alcove outside the Senate chambers in 1996
when I was in DC on business.

Ensign Kerry was a fine young officer. He came aboard as a boot Ensign on
June 8, 1967 and quickly impressed the senior officers in his chain of
command. His fitness reports were outstanding. His privileged upbringing
with experience in yachting and flying a private plane gave him a leg up on
the other Ensigns.

When I read “Tour of Duty”, I became concerned because the material on Kerry
’s time on GRIDLEY appeared in many instances to be exaggerations and in
some cases figments of an overactive imagination.

Here are my observations on the sections that bothered me:

1. Kerry never talked about his time on GRIDLEY. He says on page 74 that it
is because “nothing much of note” happened while he was onboard. He uses
words like monotony and tedious, when, despite being a boot ensign he was
given every opportunity for responsibility by Captain Slifer and Commander
Kelly (XO). He came aboard designated for Electrical Officer (80100), a
grunt position in the Engineering Department and spent four months in that
position. He was assigned duty as First Lieutenant,asCommander Kelly
recalls, because of his knowledge of seamanship and his experiences with
small boats and sailing. Besides being responsible for the decks of the
ship, the First Lieutenant is also responsible for the ship’s small boats.
He also was assigned collateral duties as Public Affairs Officer. Despite
all the responsibilities he was given, he gives the impression that serving
on GRIDLEY was somehow beneath him. He certainly had less of an opportunity
to collect “gongs” there.

2. Page 78 — “motivate 400 swabbies” — The First Lieutenant is responsible
only for the personnel of 1st Division, not the entire crew. 1st Division
had a roster of about 30 in 1968. To the extent that other divisions had
responsibility for deck space, their officers would have been responsible
for motivating them.

3. Page 87 has Kerry “shuttling sailors and provisions” between GRIDLEY and
KITTY HAWK in a small motor whaleboat out in the Gulf of Tonkin. The regular
method of travel between the two ships was via helo. That is how I went over
to the KITTY HAWK. If such an event did occur, it would have been unusual
and hardly a shuttle.

4. Later on page 87 Kerry talks about Olongapo in the Philippines. He talks
about bloated corpses floating in the river and starving women with babies
dying of malnutrition. Now Olongapo was a wild and wooly town that existed
solely for the entertainment of the US Navy, but in over three years of
calling there, I never saw a single instance of either thing happening.
Kerry uncovered this in his first visit. If this was from his letters home
then he was certainly writing for dramatic effect. Balderdash.

5. The trip to Danang — GRIDLEY went into Danang for briefings before going
to Northern SAR. This section is so full of hyperbole that the urge to
giggle is almost uncontrollable. “The panic and pressure onboard GRIDLEY,
strapping on a .45, wondering if I would have to use it, B-52’s howling
overhead”. A B-52 over Danang would have been so high that only contrails
would have been visible, cloud cover permitting. David Simons confirmed my
recollection that during our brief stay in Danang Harbor, the sky was
overcast to the point of being ominous.

More seriously, no one can remember John Kerry going ashore. I was part of
the shore party that went to Monkey Mountain. We were taken in a screened in
truck (to protect against grenades being tossed in) and made to unload our
.45’s. The driver said that he did not want us newbies to shoot anyone by
accident.

Neither Commander Kelly nor LCDR Rueckert (Kerry’s immediate boss) can
recall approving a trip ashore for Ensign Kerry. The author uses remarks of
David Simons IC2 as a lead in to the Danang section. I spoke to David and he
has no personal knowledge of Kerry going ashore at all. He did talk to a
researcher and made some generic remarks about Danang but had never
discussed Danang with Kerry. He recalls arguing with the researcher because
he tried to put the words “cowboy” in his mouth, which ended up in the book.

There is no mystery about the “gruesome site of a pile of dead VC.” We saw
no sign of anything like this. However, our escort to Monkey Mountain did
tell us how the VC bodies were stacked up on the LZ’s after the TET
Offensive, which had been several months before. Ensign Kerry would have
been told this story by members of the shore party.


"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Understanding is not
enough; we must do. Knowing and understanding in action make
for honor. And honor is the heart of wisdom." --Johann von Goethe

[SCHUTZHUND]

I forgot to mention that I got this off the "Little Green Footballs" site

[pwcarter]

My points are not as important as the Swifties but it does show a trend towards exaggeration and fantasy, Here is some more that lgf left out,

6. In command – Again with the hyperbole. Kerry makes much about being “in charge” of the ship after the Captain and XO. The OOD is in charge of the operation of the ship during his four hour watch but hardly in charge of the ship. Kerry qualified almost immediately as OOD(P), in port OOD but that is a given. For much of his time onboard he would have been Junior Officer of the Deck when underway. Although his fitness report as of 22 March says "he is qualified as OOD(I) now" (Independent steaming – with no ships or land anywhere near) , only OOD(P) is listed under duties. His Fitness Report from July 1968 lists two months as OOD(I) which would mean he qualified after leaving the war zone.

Some of these points may be perceived as picky, but they seem to show a deliberate effort in his writings of the time to build a mystique for a future political career showing him as a great leader, father confessor to the ship and astute analyst of political and military happenings.

That is not to say that Kerry was not a good officer. He was and to my recollection was well liked. Did he stalk the passageways showing his future presidential timber? Absolutely not. A reporter from the Chicago Tribune actually asked me that. When I told him that he was just another goofy Ensign, he was horrified and did not use that quote.

He sounds like Master and Commander instead of a goofy boot Ensign. Boot Ensign's are lower than whale ****, and that's at the bottom of the sea. (it is amazing how those old sayings come back to you!)

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

[Son Of The Godfather]

Either the Senator is living in an episode of The Twilight Zone, where only he remembers seeing and doing these things (but nobody else does), or he is one of the biggest liars we've ever seen.

I don't see Rod Serling anywhere.

SOTG

Submitted for your approval.
_________________
"Which candidate would enemies of the United States prefer to see in the White House?"

[Snipe]

Ha! There was a Twilight Zone episode with a Navy theme once.
There was a scene on the bridge (USS Morton I believe) and there
was a sign behind the helmsman: "A collision at sea can spoil your
whole day". I think that Mr. Kerry's ship has found multiple rocks
to collide with.
_________________
Tin Can Sailor

[Nick Mlinar]

Thanks I'll pass that on too.

PWCarter,
You stand and serve our country again. This war Kerry is all too happy to turn into another Vietnam. Your actions are so important to stopping it. You're on my reluctant hero list