Kerry Crumbling Continues
Recent updates to last post that about Kerry's first Purple Heart that I'm sure you will not hear from Peter Jennings:

Retired rear-admiral, William L. Schachte Jr., who is not associated with Swift Vets for Truth and has not previously commented on the issue, has decided to break his silence "when he saw his own involvement and credibility challenged, starting with [Lanny] Davis on CNN's 'Crossfire' on Aug. 12."

He says he was in command of the 3-man boat at the time, and that Kerry's story is false, and therefore his first Purple Heart was awarded under false pretenses.

Schachte, also a lieutenant junior grade, said he was in command of the small boat called a Boston whaler or skimmer, with Kerry aboard in his first combat mission in the Vietnam War. The third crew member was an enlisted man, whose name Schachte did not remember....

Schachte described the use of the skimmer operating very close to shore as a technique that he personally designed to flush enemy forces on the banks of the Mekong River so that the larger swift boats could move in. Around 3 a.m. on Dec. 2, Schachte said, the skimmer -- code-named "Batman" -- fired a hand-held flare. He said that after Kerry's M-16 rifle jammed, the new officer picked up the M-79 and, "I heard a 'thunk.' There was no fire from the enemy," he said.

However, there is still disagreement about who was aboard the boat at the time. Kerry's campaign maintains that Schachte wasn't with Kerry during this incident, and that Kerry was in command at the time:

Two enlisted men who appeared at the podium with Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in Boston have asserted that they were alone in the small boat with Kerry, with no other officer present. Schachte said it "was not possible" for Kerry to have gone out alone so soon after joining the swift boat command in late November 1968....

Patrick Runyon and William Zaladonis are the two enlisted men who said they were aboard the skimmer and did not know Schachte. However, two other former officers interviewed Thursday confirmed that Schachte was the originator of the technique and always was aboard the Boston whaler for these missions.

And more damning to Kerry's story is that John Kerry wrote in his war journal that it wasn't until nine days later that he received his first enemy fire:

Mr. Kerry has claimed that he faced his "first intense combat" that day, returned fire, and received his "first combat related injury."

A journal entry Mr. Kerry wrote Dec. 11, however, raises questions about what really happened nine days earlier.

"A cocky feeling of invincibility accompanied us up the Long Tau shipping channel because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky," wrote Mr. Kerry, according the book "Tour of Duty" by friendly biographer Douglas Brinkley.

If enemy fire was not involved in that or any other incident, according to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, no medal should be awarded.

So Kerry wrote 9 days after receiving a Purple Heart war wound that he felt "invincible"? The explanation from his campaign is pretty weak:

A Kerry campaign official, speaking on background, told The Washington Times yesterday that the "we" in the passage from Mr. Kerry's journal refers to "the crew on Kerry's first swift boat, operating as a crew" rather than Mr. Kerry himself.

"John Kerry didn't yet have his own boat or crew on December 2," according to the aide. "Other members of the crew had been in Vietnam for some time and had been shot at and Kerry knew that at the time. However, the crew had not yet been fired on while they served together on PCF 44 under Lieutenant Kerry."

Still, I doubt someone who had already received a Purple Heart would write that "we felt invincible". And did you notice the story is changing again? Did Kerry not "yet have his own boat or crew on December 2" or did Kerry lead the mission with the two aforementioned enlisted men.

This should be easy to clear up with even a cursory review of Kerry's records. Was Schachte in command or not? Was the wound from schrapnel or small arms fire? Who signed for the Purple Heart?

The records should show who is telling the truth, which must be why Kerry won't release them.

- posted by The Dutchman @ 11:32:00 AM