The latest on the continuing saga...........
For those of you who have not been fully following the Swift Vet's story,
one of Kerry's traveling entourage (David Alston) claimed he was under
Kerry's command on a PBF and found Kerry to be a great leader. He even
gave a speech to that effect at the Democratic National Convention, where
he said the following: I know him from a small boat in Vietnam, where we
fought and bled together, serving our country. There were six of us
aboard PCF-94, a 50-foot, twin-engine craft known as a "Swift Boat." We
all came from different walks of life, but all of us-including our
skipper, John Kerry-volunteered for combat duty. And combat is what we
got.
However, one intrepid blogger now has proven that to be a lie, Alston
never served under Kerry because Alston was wounded and out of action
before Kerry took command of Alston's boat. Here is the final bit of
proof (published early this morning), I suggest you go to Captain's
Quarters to find all the previous analysis leading up to this astonishing
coup de gras (pass the word):
Alston Never Served Under Kerry
Thanks to reader Lori in Texas, I think we've just about pieced the
record together on David Alston and his supposed service under John
Kerry's command. Lori points out a sympathetic article on Dale Sandusky,
one of the few Swift boat veterans supporting Kerry and one that served
on his boat, specifically gives the timing on Kerry's command of PCF-94:
In January 1969, Sandusky's boat, PCF-94, came under attack during one
such ambush. Lt. Ted Peck, the officer in charge, and another crewman
were seriously wounded. Sandusky had to take command. The boat was
sinking and on fire, but Sandusky steered it back to safety. They counted
155 bullet holes in the boat and found a live enemy rocket in the main
cabin. It had come to rest in a sack of potatoes. For his actions,
Sandusky would receive the Bronze Star. With their officer headed home,
the crew of PCF-94 needed a leader. And Lt. j.g. John Kerry, whose crew
on PCF-44 had rotated back home, needed men to lead. "I was sure glad he
came along," Sandusky said, "because to be honest, I didn't want to take
command." From Jan. 30 to March 13, 1969, Kerry and the crew of the
PCF-94 would conduct 18 missions in the Mekong Delta river system. In
that time, Kerry would earn a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and add two
Purple Hearts to the one he received earlier.
Bingo! Yachtzee! Alston received his serious wounds in that same exact
battle that took Peck out of service. On January 29th, Alston was
medevaced out to a hospital with head wounds and no records indicate that
he ever returned to the unit. Kerry took command of PCF-94 the next day.
Alston never served a day under Kerry's command. In fact, Kerry received
a replacement, Fred Short, on 28 February as a replacement for Alston.
Now what does that tell us about Kerry and his Viet Nam narrative? 1. He
and Alston conspired to deceive people about Alston's service under
Kerry. That conspiracy was intended to give John Kerry cover against
exactly the kind of campaign he faces from the other Swiftvets. 2. The
"end of January" language on Kerry's website was intentionally vague in
order to fuzzy up the timeline and keep Alston's true status a secret.
Obviously, Sandusky remembers the dates well enough, and Kerry could
easily have gotten them from him if he wanted to be as specific as his
other dates on the timeline. 3. The DNC either were saps or actively
participated in the conspiracy in order to assist Kerry in his Viet Nam
mythology. Otherwise, why would they have allowed David Alston to speak
at the convention about his experiences serving with John Kerry on the
boat? 4. Kerry's band of brothers have some complicity in this cover-up
as well. Those who served on PCF-94 surely remember that Alston never
served under Kerry; Sandusky specifically recalls Peck being wounded and
removed from command, but he wouldn't remember that Alston left at the
same time? 5. One could argue that they served on the same boat, of
course, and I look forward to that Clintonian parsing used in Kerry's
defense. After holding Alston up as an expert on his leadership, he'll be
hard pressed to explain how that expertise came to Alston from a hospital
bed miles away from Kerry and his old PCF. If this gets out to the
mainstream media, this story kills Kerry's campaign. This isn't just a
guy embellishing his war record -- this is a deliberate and longstanding
attempt to mislead and defraud people by creating his own witnesses after
the fact. That he could have done such a clumsy job should disqualify him
for higher office on that basis alone. Posted by Captain Ed at August 14,
2004 01:25 AM
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In light of the timeline and interviews with the participants, it seems likely that Alston's time with Kerry was at most two weeks, and, if Short's recollection is correct, as little as one week. Given that, it is possible that some of Alston's public statements might have left audiences with the impression that he and Kerry were together for a longer period of time. "I know him from a small boat in Vietnam where we fought and bled together serving our country," Alston said at the Democratic convention. "We usually patrolled the narrow waterways of the Mekong Delta, flanked on both sides by thick jungle." After combat engagements, Alston said, "Lieutenant Kerry always took the time to calm us down, to bring us back to reality, to give us hope, to show us what we truly had within ourselves. I came to love and respect him as a man I could trust with life itself."
According to a report in the Boston Globe, the Kerry campaign website has in the past listed Kerry as being the skipper of PCF-94 at the time of Alston's wounding. When Kerry's military records were first posted on the site, according to the Globe, "the campaign summarize[d] action that took place on Jan. 29, 1969, this way: 'While Kerry's boat and another (PCF-72) were probing a canal along the river, Kerry's boat came under heavy fire and was hit by a B-40 rocket in the cabin area. One member of Kerry's crew Forward Gunner David Alston suffered shrapnel wounds in his head....'" The campaign website also listed two other incidents that took place prior to January 29 as having occurred under Kerry's leadership.
Peck, who would later sign a letter to Kerry written by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, protested. "Those are definitely mine," he told the Globe. "There is no doubt about it." The campaign later removed the January 29 reference from the website.
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