'V' for valor awarded with a Silver Star?

[MAJMike]

SSGT Glasscock:

What makes you think that I know nothing of a ville in Nam? I flew 117 missions over North and South Vietnam as an A6 pilot - many of those providing close air support to grunts on the ground. I also served 43 days on the ground in the field as a 1LT FAC calling in close air support. For action that occured during that time I was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart. As an aviator, I was awarded three Air Medals. I also was awarded all the unit citations and in-country awards that come with the territory - 11 in all.

SGT Car:

Explain to me how 3 fifty foot boats that were in the action now account for 254 people in the Swift Boat group - and that's after you subtract the 12 members of Senator Kerry's crew who stand beside the award citation and the AAR 100% - except for the one who is dead.

How do you explain that one of the chief critics and Swift Boat organizers who now claims that there was no enemy wasn't even on the mission?

How do you account for the maintenace reports on Lt(jg) Kerry's boat that showed numerous small arms bullet holes in the boat following the action.

How do you explain why two members of Bush's campaign staff have been forced to resign when it was discovered that they were involved in the organizatiuon and financing of the Swift Boat Veterans?

You seem to not want to address the documented facts that these men are pawns of big Texas Republican money from staunch Bush supporters.

I live in Georgia. I saw the evangelical right ring Republican's pull this same "attack" strategy on Max Cleland when he ran for reelection as Senator from Georgia in 2002. They questioned Cleland's heroism in an action that cost him both legs and an arm.

I will fight this kind of dirty, smear campaign to my last breath. I am embarrassed for thpose of you who accept the rantings of the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh as gospel. God help you!

And finally, how do you address the following from the skipper of the one other boat that was heavily engaged in the same actions (see below):

You, sir, want to believe only those things that support your Sean Hannity view of the world and discount ANY facts that don't fit into your scheme of things.

I do not support Senator Kerry's criticism of the Viet Nam war. But, as Sen. John McCain and radio personality Bill O'Reilly have pointed out, to dishonor his service and to attempt to sully and dishonor his record is both dishonorable and decietful. Those who believe this crap and espouse it to the world stain thier own honor.

---------------

See article below:

[MAJMike]

Swift boat skipper: Kerry critics wrong
Tribune editor breaks long silence on Kerry record; fought in disputed battle

By Tim Jones
Tribune national correspondent
Published August 21, 2004

The commander of a Navy swift boat who served alongside Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during the Vietnam War stepped forward Saturday to dispute attacks challenging Kerry's integrity and war record.
William Rood, an editor on the Chicago Tribune's metropolitan desk, said he broke 35 years of silence about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission that resulted in Kerry's receiving a Silver Star because recent portrayals of Kerry's actions published in the best-selling book "Unfit for Command" are wrong and smear the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry.

Rood, who commanded one of three swift boats during that 1969 mission, said Kerry came under rocket and automatic weapons fire from Viet Cong forces and that Kerry devised an aggressive attack strategy that was praised by their superiors. He called allegations that Kerry's accomplishments were "overblown" untrue.

"The critics have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there," Rood said in a 1,700-word first-person account published in Sunday's Tribune.

Rood's recollection of what happened on that day at the southern tip of South Vietnam was backed by key military documents, including his citation for a Bronze Star he earned in the battle and a glowing after-action report written by the Navy captain who commanded his and Kerry's task force, who is now a critic of the Democratic candidate.

Rood's previously untold story and the documents shed new light on a key historical event that has taken center stage in an extraordinary political and media firestorm generated by a group calling itself the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Allegations in the book, co-authored by one of the leaders of the group, accuse Kerry of being a coward who fabricated wartime events and used comrades for his "insatiable appetite for medals." The allegations have fueled a nearly two-week-long TV ad campaign against the Democratic nominee. Talk radio and cable news channels have feasted on the story.

Animosity from some veterans toward Kerry goes back more than 30 years, when Kerry returned from Vietnam to take a leadership role in the anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Anger reached a boiling point with Kerry's presidential nomination and his own highlighting of his service during the war, a centerpiece of his campaign strategy against President Bush, who spent the war stateside in the Air National Guard in Texas and Alabama.

Many know of ads

A poll released Friday by the National Annenberg Election Survey reported that more than half the country has heard about or seen TV ads attacking Kerry's war record, a remarkable impact for ads that have appeared in only a handful of states.

Kerry strongly disputes the allegations. Last week he called on the White House to denounce the TV ads and accused Bush of relying on the Vietnam veterans "to do his dirty work." On Thursday, Kerry challenged Bush to a debate on their respective war records. Democrats point to unresolved questions about whether Bush in fact served all the time he was credited with serving in Alabama.

The Bush campaign has denied any association with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth but so far has refused to condemn the book and the group's TV ads. A report in Friday's New York Times disclosed connections between the anti-Kerry vets and the Bush family, Bush's chief political aide Karl Rove and several high-ranking Texas Republicans. Some of the recent accounts from veterans critical of Kerry have been contradicted by their own earlier statements, the Times reported.

Rood's account also sharply contradicts the version currently put forth by the anti-Kerry veterans. Rood, 61, wrote that Kerry had personally contacted him and other crew members in recent days asking that they go public with their accounts of what happened on that day.

Rood said that, ever since the war, he had "wanted to put it all behind us—the rivers, the ambushes, the killing. … I have refused all requests for interviews about Kerry's service—even those from reporters at the Chicago Tribune."

"I can't pretend those calls [from Kerry] had no effect on me, but that is not why I am writing this," Rood said. "What matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it."

Rood declined requests from a Tribune reporter to be interviewed for this article. Rood wrote that he could testify only to the February 1969 mission and not to any of the other battlefield decorations challenged by Kerry's critics—a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts—because Rood was not an eyewitness to those engagements.

Ambush scenario

In February 1969, Rood was a lieutenant junior grade commanding PCF-23, one of the three 50-foot aluminum swift boats that carried troops up the Dong Cung, a tributary of the Bay Hap River. Kerry commanded another boat, PCF-94 and Lt. j.g. Donald Droz, who was killed in action six weeks later, commanded PCF-43. Ambushes from Viet Cong fighters were common because the noise from boats, powered by twin diesel engines, practically invited gunfire. Ambushes, Rood said, "were a virtual certainty."
Before this day's mission, though, Kerry, the tactical commander of the mission, discussed with Rood and Droz a change in response to the anticipated ambushes: If possible, turn into the fire once it is identified and attack the ambushers, Rood recalled Kerry saying. The boats followed that new tactic with great success, Rood said, and the mission was highly praised.
In the book "Unfit for Command," Kerry's critics maintained otherwise. The book's authors, John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi, wrote that Kerry's attack on the Viet Cong ambush displayed "stupidity, not courage." The book was published by Regnery, a conservative publisher that has brought into print many books critical of Democratic politicians and policies.

"The only explanation for what Kerry did is the same justification that characterizes his entire short Vietnam adventure: the pursuit of medals and ribbons," wrote Corsi and O'Neill. Later in the war, O'Neill commanded the same Swift boat Kerry had led. O'Neill is now a leader of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

In the book, O'Neill and Corsi said Kerry chased down a "young Viet Cong in a loincloth … clutching a grenade launcher which may or may not have been loaded."

Rood recalled the fleeing Viet Cong was "a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the VC usually wore." There were other attackers as well, he said, and his boat and Kerry's boat took significant fire.

After the attack, the task force commanding officer, then-Capt. Roy Hoffmann, sent a message of congratulations to the three swift boats, saying their charge of the ambushers was a "shining example of completely overwhelming the enemy" and that it "may be the most efficacious [method] of dealing with small numbers of ambushers," Rood said.

In the official after-action message, obtained by the Tribune, Hoffmann wrote that the tactics developed and executed by Kerry, Rood and Droz were "immensely effictive [sic]" and that "this operation did unreparable [sic] damage to the enemy in this area."

"Well done," Hoffmann concluded in his message.

Change of story

But more than three decades later, Hoffmann, now a retired rear admiral, has changed his story. Today he is one of Kerry's most vocal critics, saying the attacks against the ambushers 35 years ago call into question Kerry's judgment and show his tendency to be impulsive.
Rood challenges that criticism, recalling that the direction for the actions they took on the river that day came from the highest ranks of the Navy command in Vietnam.

"What we did on Feb. 28, 1969, was well in line with the tone set by our top commanders," Rood said.

Asked for his response to Rood's account, O'Neill argued that the former swift boat skipper's version of events is not substantially different from what appeared in his book. The account of the Feb. 28 attack draws heavily on reporting from The Boston Globe, O'Neill said.

He said the congratulatory note from Hoffmann was based on the belief that Kerry was under heavy fire from the Viet Cong. But O'Neill claimed that "didn't happen." Had Hoffmann known the true circumstances of events that day, O'Neill said, he would not have issued the congratulatory note. Attempts to reach Hoffmann for comment were unsuccessful.

In his eyewitness account, Rood describes coming under rocket and automatic weapons fire from Viet Cong on the riverbank during two separate ambushes of his boat and Kerry's boat.

Praise for the mission led by Kerry came from Navy commanders who far outranked Hoffmann. Rood won a Bronze Star for his actions on that day. The Bronze Star citation from the late Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, then commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam, singled out the tactic used by the boats and said the Viet Cong were "caught completely off guard."

Longtime debate

The war about the war between O'Neill and Kerry has raged for more than three decades. O'Neill, who became a lawyer in Houston after returning from Vietnam, was recruited by the Nixon administration in 1971 to serve as a political counterweight to Kerry, who by then had left the military and was a vocal critic of the war.

The two debated the war on the Dick Cavett television show in 1971, with O'Neill accusing Kerry of the "attempted murder of the reputations of 21/2 million" Vietnam veterans.

Rood acknowledged in his first-person account that there could always be errors in recollection, especially with the passage of more than three decades. His Bronze Star citation, he said, misidentifies the river where the main action occurred.

That mistake, he said, is a "cautionary note for those trying to piece it all together. There's no final authority on something that happened so long ago—not the documents and not even the strained recollections of those of us who were there.

"But I know that what some people are saying now is wrong," Rood wrote. "While they mean to hurt Kerry, what they're saying impugns others who are not in the public eye."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[MAJMike]

Swift Boat Vets Leader Caught in Another Lie
By ELIZABETH WOLFE
Aug 25, 2004, 22:39

The chief critic of John Kerry's military record told President Nixon in 1971 that he had been in Cambodia in a swift boat during the Vietnam War - a claim at odds with his recent statements that he was not.

"I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border," said John E. O'Neill in a conversation that was taped by the former president's secret recording system. The tape is stored at the National Archives in College Park, Md.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, O'Neill did not dispute what he said to Nixon, but insisted he was never actually in Cambodia.

"I think I made it very clear that I was on the border, which is exactly where I was for three months. I was about 100 yards from Cambodia," O'Neill said in clarifying the June 16, 1971, conversation with Nixon.

Chad Clanton, a spokesman for the Democratic presidential candidate, said the tape "is just the latest in a long line of lies and false statements from a group trying to smear John Kerry's military service. Again, they're being proven liars with their own words. It's time for President Bush to stand up and specifically condemn this smear."

O'Neill served in Vietnam from 1969-70 and says in a recent book that he took command of Kerry's swift boat after the future Massachusetts senator returned home from the war.

O'Neill has emerged as a leading figure in the attacks on Kerry's war record. He is co-author of "Unfit for Command," which accuses Kerry of lying about his record, and is a member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has aired two television commercials harshly critical of Kerry.

In the book, O'Neill wrote that Kerry's accounts of having been in Cambodia on Christmas Eve of 1968 "are complete lies."

"... Kerry was never ordered into Cambodia by anyone and would have been court-martialed had he gone there," he wrote. O'Neill wrote that the Navy positioned its own craft along the border area to make sure no American vessels strayed across the border from Vietnam.

In an interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week" O'Neill said: "Our boats didn't go north of, only slightly north of Sedek," which he said was about 50 miles from the Cambodian border.

Kerry's campaign has acknowledged that he may not have been in Cambodia on Christmas Eve of 1968, as he has previously stated. The campaign says Kerry does recall being on patrol along the Cambodia-Vietnam border on that date, although it's unclear if he crossed into Cambodia.

Referring to the tape of the Oval Office meeting with Nixon, O'Neill criticized Kerry for making claims, including in the Senate, that he was in Cambodia.

"I've never represented on the floor of the Senate, or told people 50 times like John Kerry did that I was in Cambodia. That never happened. And I don't think he was ever there either," O'Neill said.

The snippet of taped conversation surfaced after more than a week of controversy surrounding claims that Kerry lied about his actions in a war in which he won five military medals. The Democrat and his allies have vigorously attacked such claims as a smear, laboring to undermine the charges as well as cast doubt on the men who are making them.

For his part, Kerry accused the swift boat group of being a "front group" that was doing Bush's dirty work.

The Bush campaign denies any involvement with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

[MAJMike]

Swift Boat Vets Leader Adds More Lies to His Resume
By WILLIAM D. McTAVISH

Aug 19, 2004, 08:00

John E. O'Neill, leader of the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and co-author of the book, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans*Speak Out*Against John Kerry,*lied once again on national television about his partisan political activity on behalf of the Republican party.

O'Neill, appearing on Tuesday's Fox News with Brit Hume, claimed that half of $15,000 in contributions to Republicans listed in Federal Election Commission records actually were made by a law partner with a "similar name."

"My law partner has almost the same name, Edward J. O'Neill," claims O'Neill, who practices law in Houston.* In an earlier interview with newspaper reporters, O'Neill claimed the contributions were made by his firm, not him, but federal law prohibits corporate contributions to federal candidates and he changed the story before appearing on Fox.

Asked by Fox News correspondent Brit Hume to explain nearly $15,000 in donations to Republicans,*O'Neill said, "about half of them were mine. Those are actually funds, as nearly as I can tell, that were given my -- by some -- my law partner who has almost the same name, Edward J. O'Neill. I simply didn't give them. I would have been happy to give them. I just didn't."

But Federal Election Commission Records clearly identify "John E. O'Neill" as the individual contributor of $14.650 to candidates -- all Republicans -- since 1990. FEC Records also list contributions by Edward J. O'Neill but they are different from the contributions listed for John E. O'Neill.

Edward J. O'Neill donated $1,000 to then-Texas Governor George W. Bush's campaign in 1999, $250 to former Democratic presidential candidate General Wesley K. Clark's primary campaign in 2003, and other contributions to both Democrats and Republicans.

"I've given more to Democrats than Republicans," John O'Neill claimed on Fox but FEC records do not show a single contribution from John E. O'Neill to any*Democratic candidates.*When pressed, he said he gave to Democrats "at the local level" and Republicans "at the national level."

However,*a search of records with the Texas Ethics Commission, keeper of contribution records, finds no contributions listed for John E. O'Neill. Houston City Council Records show a $10,000 contribution to at large council candidate Ronald Green, a Democrat.

"I'm not a Republican or a Democrat," O'Neill told Hume, but he was first recruited into politics by President Richard M. Nixon's chief counsel, Charles Colson, and set up with a veterans front group to challenge then anti-war activist John Kerry's activities.

"We found a vet named John O'Neill and formed a group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. We had O'Neill meet the President, and we did everything we could do to boost his group," Colson told reporter Joe Klein in a January 5 interview published in The New Yorker magazine.

O'Neill later clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, a Nixon appointee, and worked in Republican politics in Harris County, Texas. His political activities for the GOP got him on the short list for a federal judge appointment under former President George H.W. Bush, according to Texas Lawyer magazine and Harris County voter registration records show he votes in GOP primaries.

FEC records compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics show O'Neill's political contributions go only to Republicans and include:

* 2004: $2,000 to Duane Sand (ND)
*

1999: $1,000 to Peter Staub Wareing (TX)
*

1998: $250 to Rudy Izzard (TX)
*

1996: $1,000 to Brent Perry (TX)
*

1994: $2,500 to Texas Republican Congressional Committee
*

1993: $2,500 to Texas Republican Congressional Committee
*

1992: $1,000 to Texas Republican Congressional Committee
*

1992: $1,000 George H.W. Bush
*

1992: $1,000 to Clark Kent Ervin (TX)
*

1991: $1,000 to Clark Kent Ervin (TX)
*

1990: $400 to Hugh Dunham Shine (TX)
*

1990: $1,000 to A Tribute To Ronald Reagan

[CAR]

Major,
Thanks for the articles. Some good points but some are truly irrelevant. I will concede to you that we may never know the REAL truth of what happened, however my anger comes from the hypocracy of the Kerry camp against the Vets. Kerry is not answering the charges he is simply trying to find a "blemish" in their story and exploiting it.

Let me set a few things straight:
1) I know that 250 Vets were not on that boat. And if your argument is that just because they were not on the boat the don't know what happened? (would you prefer the 60 swifties from his unit?) In your experience did you not fly with other aircraft on missions. Could those other men not give an account of what happend on your CAS run? Sure the picture from the cockpit would be a little different but the summation would be the same.

2) As for O'neil being on the missions? I don't think I have ever heard or read, where O'neil said he was on the mission. Can he not be the spokesmen for the others who have signed affidavits to which he is accounting? Kerry testified to Congress to accounts he now claims were "of others who told him". Same concept- different issue.

3) I heard Bush's lawyers statements as to why he resigned. As for being honest, I'm sure there were some things left out. He didn't do anything the other lawyers for the left haven't done and he did not violate ANY laws. I wish neither Campaign had ANY connection to a 527 group. I have my suspicion that Bush probably heard of what was coming but I don't think Bush authorized it. Now would it be equally dramatized if the Left Lawyers for Kerry resigned for their "connection " to the 527's, some of which are promoting unruley behavior in NY now. HMM?

4) O'Neil a republican? No way! Was that not plainly obvious. I guess just cause he's a REP he's a liar? Who knows if their was a "typo" on his name, who cares! Is it relevant? By your own article he gave to a democrat and because it wasn't at a National level it wasn't good enough? I guess when George Soros gives MILLIONS it's OK, he's wanting to back a candidate. BUt if O'Neil gives 15 thousand over 14 years- Hell he's a Bush loving liar. Who cares!

As for Max- I tried to read up on what I could and please correct me if I'm wrong cause I don't live in Ga or remember the race there too much. Max was using his Nam record as a "hero in action". Now I say this lightly because I still honor him serving and truly don't want to offend his record. Did he not pick up a grenade in a non combat situation that another soldier dropped?
Best I was able to find, Cleland came out with "it's Buh behind this again". Again no real connection just the acusations.

Lastly: Just for the record: I never listen to Rush and seldomly watch or listen to Hannity. Too many one sided arguments. I do however give more weight to comments made by the likes of Ollie North, John McCain, Bob Dole, and Tommy Franks.

[OLE SARG]

CAR - "Good points".

kerry's own accounts of Vietnam leave a lot to be desired. His memory and his medal citations all differ so much (AND HE WROTE THEM). His do-nothing record in the Senate SPEAKS VOLUMES about him - twenty years of getting paid by tax payers for not doing a damn thing. I have said it before and I'll say it again, if it weren't for his family and his wealth, he would have served full tours in Vietnam and he wouldn't be where he is now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It sounds to me like MajMike is the brainwashed pawn here.

As a note, accounting for the bullet holes in his boat, getting "wounded" from shooting his own grenade round speaks volumes on his marksmanship training.

I think what is "seared" in kerry's memory is his own "CONSCIENCE".

SEMPER FI