Text 1383, 63 rader
Skriven 2004-08-22 09:32:54 av Gary Moore (1:396/45.0)
Ärende: Navy Commander Speaks Out
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`On Feb. 28, 1969, I was officer in charge of PCF-23'

   August 22, 2004

   Excerpts from an account by William B. Rood of the Chicago Tribune of
   his service with John F. Kerry in Vietnam in 1969.


   There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more
   than 35 years ago -- three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of
   those officers remain to talk about what happened Feb. 28, 1969.

   One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a
   Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other.

   For years, no one asked about those events. But now they are the
   focus of skirmishing in a presidential election with a group of
   swift-boat veterans and others contending that Kerry didn't deserve
   the Silver Star for what he did on that day, or the Bronze Star and
   three Purple Hearts he was awarded for other actions.

   Ever since that time, I have refused all requests for interviews
   about Kerry's service, even those from reporters at the Chicago
   Tribune, where I work. But Kerry's critics, armed with stories I know
   to be untrue, have charged that the accounts of what happened were
   overblown.

   Even though Kerry's own crew members have backed him, the attacks
   have continued, and in recent days Kerry has called me and others who
   were with him in those days, asking that we go public with our
   accounts.

   I can't pretend those calls had no effect on me, but that is not why
   I am writing this. 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.

   I was part of the operation that led to Kerry's Silver Star. On Feb.
   28, 1969, I was officer in charge of PCF-23, one of three swift boats
   -- including Kerry's PCF-94 and Lieutenant Junior Grade Donald Droz's
   PCF-43 -- that carried Vietnamese regional and Popular Force troops
   and a Navy demolition team up the Dong Cung, a narrow tributary of
   the Bay Hap River, to conduct a sweep in the area.

   The approach of the noisy 50-foot aluminum boats -- each driven by
   two huge 12-cylinder diesels and loaded down with six crew members,
   troops, and gear -- was no secret. Ambushes were a virtual certainty,
   and that day was no exception.

   The difference was that Kerry, who had tactical command of that
   particular operation, had talked to Droz and me beforehand about not
   responding the way the boats usually did to an ambush.

   We agreed that if we were not crippled by the initial volley and had
   a clear fix on the location of the ambush, we would turn directly
   into it, focusing the boats' twin .50-caliber machine guns on the
   attackers and beaching the boats. We told our crews about the plan.

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