Swift Boat Skipper Rood who served with Kerry: Kerry Critics Wrong!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-040821rood,1,663463,print.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Feb. 28, 1969: ON THE DONG CUNG RIVER

Anti-Kerry vets not there that day


By William B. Rood
Chicago Tribune

August 21, 2004

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 on February 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.

Many of us wanted to put it all behind us—the rivers, the ambushes, the killing. 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. 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.

more...

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004_08_15_atrios_archive.html#109309263750313130

John O'Neill, author of a highly critical account of Kerry's Vietnam service, describes the man Kerry chased as a "teenager" in a "loincloth." I have no idea how old the gunner Kerry chased that day was, but both Leeds and I recall that he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the VC usually wore.

The man Kerry chased was not the "lone" attacker at that site, as O'Neill suggests. There were others who fled. There was also firing from the tree line well behind the spider holes and at one point, from the opposite riverbank as well. It was not the work of just one attacker.

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Shame on the media for giving these people a platform. Shame on the media for allowing dishonest men to dishonor honest men who served honorably. Shame on you for pretending this was a "he said/he said" situation, ignoring official Navy records and the testimony of everyone who was actually in a position to know. Most of all, shame on all the chickenbloggers who, 30 years from now, will do the same thing to some Iraq war veteran who went home and wondered out loud who will be the last American soldier to die for a lie.

and has for 35 years resisted efforts to get him to talk about his experience, including from the Chicago Tribune itself, until now. He thinks the lies are smearing all vets. There's a picture of him now, and one as a young man in Nam, with Kerry.

Link to Trib news story:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-040821kerry,1,7582568.story?coll=chi-news-hed

John Kerry (left) and William Rood on a barracks barge with a rocket launcher and an automatic rifle seized in a raid on Feb. 28, 1969, in southern Vietnam in which swift boats charged ambush sites.

Their personal credibility will be in tatters.

And - they will personally suffer for their lies. That's what I want - I want them to suffer.

They should pay for their despicable behavior.

I don't blame Rood for not wanting to talk about his experiences, but I hope this story makes it into the mainstream.

Thank Zeus he spoke this once, but unless this gets distributed to EVERY SINGLE cable yakker in perpetuity, the swiftbots will keep going.

"... to never again talk publicly about it."

This is it. He won't be hitting Hardball.

(Kicking this forever.)

ourselves.

Time to out the scum.


Download the free poster/sign here:
http://ediablo.com/eDiabloGallery.html

And now he steps forward. He was there. And he speaks up and defends John Kerry. I'd say that is big news.

That would be great.

This administration has now pit soldier against soldier. And for what? Greed.

This is good and courageous of Rood to step
forward after so many years of resisting.

That is their M.O. They try and attack the credibility of anyone doesn't follow their script.

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, left, and William B. Rood, right, are shown in this undated photo at the Swift boat base at An Thoi shortly after the action for which Kerry was awarded the Silver Star and Rood was awarded the Bronze Star in early 1969 during his service in Vietnam. Both men are holding weapons captured in the mission. Rood, a night city editor with the Chicago Tribune, who served with Kerry during the Vietnam War as the commander of a Navy swift boat on the 1969 mission ischallenging the attacks on Kerry's account of the incident. (AP Photo/Chicago Tribune, Courtesy William B. Rood)