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| May 03, 2004 |
Kerry 'Unfit to be
Commander-in-Chief,' Say Former Military Colleagues
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By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
May 03, 2004
(2nd Add: Includes additional details about Sen. John Kerry's ad
campaign.)
(CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of former commanders and military
colleagues of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry are set to declare
in a signed letter that he is "unfit to be commander-in-chief."
They will do so at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday.
"What is going to happen on Tuesday is an event that is really
historical in dimension," John O'Neill, a Vietnam veteran who served
in the Navy as a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) boat commander, told CNSNews.com.
The event, which is expected to draw about 25 of the letter-signers, is
being organized by a newly formed group called Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth.
"We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every
commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter that
says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief," O'Neill said.
O'Neill, currently a Houston, Texas, based attorney, is no stranger to
Kerry. O'Neill served in the same naval unit as Kerry and commanded
Kerry's swift boat after Kerry returned to the United States. Kerry's
command of the PCF boat lasted four months and ended shortly after he
received his third Purple Heart. According to naval regulations at the
time, any sailor who received three Purple Hearts could request a transfer
out of the combat zone.
Kerry and O'Neill engaged in a nationally televised debate in 1971 on The
Dick Cavett Show over Kerry's allegations that many Vietnam soldiers had
routinely engaged in atrocities such as raping and cutting off ears and
heads of Vietnamese soldiers and citizens. Kerry was the then spokesman
for the anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
"We are going to be presenting a letter that deals with Kerry's
unfitness to be commander and chief that has been signed by hundreds of
swift boat sailors, including most of those who served with Kerry,"
O'Neill explained.
"The ranks of the people signing [the letter] range from admiral down
to seaman, and they run across the entire spectrum of politics,
specialties, and political feelings about the Vietnam War," he added.
Among those scheduled to attend the event at the National Press Club and
declare Kerry unfit for the role of commander-in-chief are retired Naval
Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann, who was the commander of the Navy Coastal
Surveillance Force, which included the swift boats on which Kerry served.
Also scheduled to be present at the event is Kerry's former commanding
officer, Lt. Commander Grant Hibbard. Hibbard recently questioned whether
Kerry deserved the first of his three Purple Hearts that he received in
Vietnam. Hibbard doubted both the severity of the wound and whether it
resulted from enemy fire.
"I've had thorns from a rose that were worse" than Kerry's wound
for which he received a Purple Heart, Hibbard told the Boston Globe
in April.
Organizers are confident that Tuesday's event and the letter with hundreds
of signatures will educate people about Kerry.
"It is one of the largest outpourings of concern about him being
commander-in-chief that anybody could have in a presidential campaign and
it is by the people who know him best," O'Neill said.
'Unfit Commander-in-Chief'
Swift Boat Veterans For Truth maintains that Kerry's fellow Vietnam
veterans are almost uniform in their disdain for his military service and
anti-war protests.
"Not only a majority of the people who served with him feel that way,
but a vast and overwhelming majority," O'Neill said. He added that
more than "ninety percent of the people contacted by Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth responded to the request to sign their name, with only
12 declining to sign.
"Comrades who actually served with him, almost all of them, are
opposed to him, and believe he would be an unfit commander in chief and
intend to bring the truth of his actual record to the attention of the
American people," O'Neill said.
O'Neill hopes the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth can reveal to the American
people what he sees as Kerry's flawed character.
"In the military, loyalty between commanders and the troops serving
them is a two-way street. We have here a guy (Kerry) that with all of us
in the field [in Vietnam] -- actually fighting the North Vietnamese --
came home and then falsely accused all of us of war crimes at a time when
the people in uniform couldn't even respond," O'Neill said.
"And he did that knowing that was a lie," he added.
'Real John Kerry'
B. G. Burkett, author of the book Stolen Valor and a military
researcher, believes that Tuesday's event will not be dismissed easily by
Kerry's campaign as a "partisan" attack.
"There are probably just as many Democrats amongst sailors who sailed
swift boats as there are Republicans. What Kerry fails to realize is this
has nothing to do with politics -- this has to with Vietnam Veterans who
served, who have a beef with John Kerry's service, both during and after
the war," Burkett told CNSNews.com.
"The American people do not know John Kerry and hopefully the swift
boat crews and other Vietnam veterans will make sure that the American
public knows the real John Kerry," he added.
Jim Loftus of Kerry's press office referred questions about Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth's event on Tuesday to spokesman David Wade. Wade did
not return CNSNews.com's requests for comment.
Kerry has launched an ad campaign touting his service in Vietnam in an
effort to counter the criticism ahead of Tuesday's press conference.
The $25 million ads show photographs of a young Kerry as a Navy lieutenant
on the Swift boat he commanded in Vietnam's Mekong Delta as well as photos
of him in fatigues holding a rifle.
Beginning Tuesday, the ads will run in 17 battleground states, as well as
Colorado and Louisiana, which President Bush won in 2000.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), speaking on Fox News Monday, defended Kerry and
blasted the president for using "$60 million worth of negative
advertising" to try to tear down Kerry. Levin called Kerry's latest
ad, "a very strong, a very positive ad."
"This is a positive statement about strength of service of Senator
Kerry, and I think the public is going to welcome it," said Levin.
The Michigan Democrat called Kerry "very likeable," adding that
"he'll come through as who he is, which is a very thoughtful, very
sincere and a…person with a great deal of integrity and a great deal of
sincerity."
See Related Articles:
Kerry
in 1971: 'Our Democracy is a Farce'
Kerry
Still Backpedaling on Presence at 1971 Anti-War Meetings (03/24/2004)
Kerry
Lying About Anti-War Past, Supporter Alleges (03/18/2004)
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