Quote:
Why Was Kerry Awarded the Silver Star?
In 1996 Senator Kerry was outraged by a column questioning the circumstances of his killing of the lone enemy soldier who had pointed a rocket launcher at his boat. Writer David Warsh for a Boston newspaper, noted that such a "coup de grace" would have been considered a war crime if the soldier had already been wounded. What followed was truly revealing.
Senator Kerry arranged a news conference at the Courageous Sailing Center in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Those who attended on Kerry's behalf was very interesting. They were none other then retired Admiral Zumwalt himself, who commanded U.S. naval forces in Vietnam; Capt. George Elliott, Kerry's CO at the time; retired Cmdr. Adrian Longsdale, who commanded shoreline operations at the time; Tom Belodeau, one of Kerry's gunners who had fired at the enemy soldier and knocked him down with his M-60. Participating by phone from San Francisco was Michael Medeiros, who was the rear gunner on Kerry's boat.
Amazing how willing and quickly they came together to defend Kerry that day - but I don't believe in reality they were not there to defend Kerry per se, but to protect a 30 year old secret and themselves. Kerry's superior officer's did not follow Navy protocol in awarding him the Silver Star, and they clearly not have been making accurate statements of the allege events that lead to the awarding of the medal ever since.
It all may well have remained a secret, known only to them, if it was not for some comments by Admiral Zumwalt recorded by Associated Press writer Glen Johnson:
Mr. Zumwalt also said he wanted to recommend Sen. Kerry for an even higher medal, the Navy Cross, but approval would have taken too long. Instead, he personally approved a Silver Star and sped along the award to improve morale at a time his sailors were taking heavy casualties.
Zumwalt's comments about wanting to award the Navy Cross to Kerry makes absolutely no sense because Kerry's allege actions no-where meets the the standards for such an award. Why did he suggest this? Because I think he wanted to remove doubts that Kerry may not have deserved the Silver Star, which would had drawn attention to why the medal was even awarded in the first place - clearly something Zumwalt would not want to draw attention to since, in affect, he awarded the Silver Star to Kerry for chasing down a lone fleeing wounded VC - killing him behind a hooch - all the while disregarding every standing order he was operating under and placing his four man crew in a position that could easily have lead them to being killed.
The most telling of all is Admiral Zumwalt's suggestion that he was motivated to award Senator Kerry as a means to "improve morale." This I think is an honest appraisal of the entire Kerry Silver Star episode - Kerry was not awarded for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action" on February 28, 1969, but given the Silver Star by Admiral Zumwalt in attempts of improving moral (Kerry became his Rambo poster-boy.)
I think maybe Kerry helped his case in the eye's of his commanding officer, George Elliot and Admiral Zumwalt by returning to base with a tall tall of how he had come face to face with an enemy soldier who held the life of him and his crew in his hands while pointing a B-40 at their boat at point blank range - Lt.(jg) Kerry jumps off the boat and runs him down and kills him single handily.
It's a great story, but unfortunately most likely a false story. The VC did not have a loaded B-40 because it was already discharged when he fired at Kerry swift boat and missed. There is another fact that leads me to believe that perhaps this incident was not as dramatic as Senator Kerry and his crew wants us to believe.
Reporter Charles Sennott once wrote that Senator Kerry was so "focused on his future ambitions," that not long after the fight, he bought a Super-8 movie camera, returned to the scene, and reenacted the skirmish on film. During their interview, Kerry played the tape for Sennott. Apparently Senator Kerry had strong reason to believe that he and his crew would not be entering an angry hornets nest of hostile Viet Cong soldiers on their return visit to the scene to film an reenactment with an 8mm camera were he had killed the VC soldier behind a hooch.
Can we prove any of the above? I think we can because in that same 2001 interview with CNN's Jonathan Karl there was this exchange:
KARL: And you still have the rocket launcher?
KERRY: I do have the rocket, yes, I do have the rocket. One of the SEALs disarmed it for me, and I brought it home.
Ask Senator Kerry to immediately produce the B-40 launcher he says he has at home before the media, and perhaps asked to explain how he was able to get such an prohibited item through military customs in Vietnam. The Military was very strict with inspections and with what you could return home with.
In 1996 Senator Kerry was outraged by a column questioning the circumstances of his killing of the lone enemy soldier who had pointed a rocket launcher at his boat. Writer David Warsh for a Boston newspaper, noted that such a "coup de grace" would have been considered a war crime if the soldier had already been wounded. What followed was truly revealing.
Senator Kerry arranged a news conference at the Courageous Sailing Center in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Those who attended on Kerry's behalf was very interesting. They were none other then retired Admiral Zumwalt himself, who commanded U.S. naval forces in Vietnam; Capt. George Elliott, Kerry's CO at the time; retired Cmdr. Adrian Longsdale, who commanded shoreline operations at the time; Tom Belodeau, one of Kerry's gunners who had fired at the enemy soldier and knocked him down with his M-60. Participating by phone from San Francisco was Michael Medeiros, who was the rear gunner on Kerry's boat.
Amazing how willing and quickly they came together to defend Kerry that day - but I don't believe in reality they were not there to defend Kerry per se, but to protect a 30 year old secret and themselves. Kerry's superior officer's did not follow Navy protocol in awarding him the Silver Star, and they clearly not have been making accurate statements of the allege events that lead to the awarding of the medal ever since.
It all may well have remained a secret, known only to them, if it was not for some comments by Admiral Zumwalt recorded by Associated Press writer Glen Johnson:
Mr. Zumwalt also said he wanted to recommend Sen. Kerry for an even higher medal, the Navy Cross, but approval would have taken too long. Instead, he personally approved a Silver Star and sped along the award to improve morale at a time his sailors were taking heavy casualties.
Zumwalt's comments about wanting to award the Navy Cross to Kerry makes absolutely no sense because Kerry's allege actions no-where meets the the standards for such an award. Why did he suggest this? Because I think he wanted to remove doubts that Kerry may not have deserved the Silver Star, which would had drawn attention to why the medal was even awarded in the first place - clearly something Zumwalt would not want to draw attention to since, in affect, he awarded the Silver Star to Kerry for chasing down a lone fleeing wounded VC - killing him behind a hooch - all the while disregarding every standing order he was operating under and placing his four man crew in a position that could easily have lead them to being killed.
The most telling of all is Admiral Zumwalt's suggestion that he was motivated to award Senator Kerry as a means to "improve morale." This I think is an honest appraisal of the entire Kerry Silver Star episode - Kerry was not awarded for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action" on February 28, 1969, but given the Silver Star by Admiral Zumwalt in attempts of improving moral (Kerry became his Rambo poster-boy.)
I think maybe Kerry helped his case in the eye's of his commanding officer, George Elliot and Admiral Zumwalt by returning to base with a tall tall of how he had come face to face with an enemy soldier who held the life of him and his crew in his hands while pointing a B-40 at their boat at point blank range - Lt.(jg) Kerry jumps off the boat and runs him down and kills him single handily.
It's a great story, but unfortunately most likely a false story. The VC did not have a loaded B-40 because it was already discharged when he fired at Kerry swift boat and missed. There is another fact that leads me to believe that perhaps this incident was not as dramatic as Senator Kerry and his crew wants us to believe.
Reporter Charles Sennott once wrote that Senator Kerry was so "focused on his future ambitions," that not long after the fight, he bought a Super-8 movie camera, returned to the scene, and reenacted the skirmish on film. During their interview, Kerry played the tape for Sennott. Apparently Senator Kerry had strong reason to believe that he and his crew would not be entering an angry hornets nest of hostile Viet Cong soldiers on their return visit to the scene to film an reenactment with an 8mm camera were he had killed the VC soldier behind a hooch.
Can we prove any of the above? I think we can because in that same 2001 interview with CNN's Jonathan Karl there was this exchange:
KARL: And you still have the rocket launcher?
KERRY: I do have the rocket, yes, I do have the rocket. One of the SEALs disarmed it for me, and I brought it home.
Ask Senator Kerry to immediately produce the B-40 launcher he says he has at home before the media, and perhaps asked to explain how he was able to get such an prohibited item through military customs in Vietnam. The Military was very strict with inspections and with what you could return home with.
Here is the entire thread
Where Credit is due
Edited, Sun Jun 6 14:07:51 2004 by Stok
Edited, Sun Jun 6 14:06:43 2004 by Stok