Olivers <***@LOSETHIScalpha.com> wrote in message news:<***@216.196.97.132>...
. We've heard from Kerry's crew
Post by Olivers(some). Where have the others been....the guys at OCS, the JOs in GRIDLEY,
the JOs and Chiefs in the Riverines?
First, there have been statements made that Kerry didn't have any
training between OCS and reporting to the Gridley.
John Kerry's Vietnam Service Record:
February 18, 1966 – Kerry formally enlists in the U.S. Navy
August 22, 1966 – Kerry reports for Naval Officer Candidate School at
the U.S. Naval Training Center in Newport, Rhode Island
December 16, 1966 – Kerry receives commission as an Ensign
January 3, 1967 – Kerry reports for duty at the Naval Schools Command
at Treasure Island (CA)-Takes 10 week Officer Damage Control Course
March 22, 1967 – Reports to U.S. Fleet Anti-Air Warfare Training
Center (CA). Receives training as a Combat Information Center Watch
Officer.
June 8, 1967 – Kerry reports to USS Gridley-serves in several
capacities
February 9, 1968 – USS Gridley departs for a Western Pacific (WESTPAC)
deployment, to engage in operations in support of the Vietnam War.
Ship spends time in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam, at Subic Bay
in the Philippines and in Wellington, New Zealand
February 10, 1968 – Kerry requests duty in Vietnam He lists his first
preference for a position as an officer in charge of a Swift Boat
(designated PCF for Patrol Craft Fast), his second as an officer in a
patrol boat (designated PBR, for Patrol Boat River) squadron
May 27, 1968 – USS Gridley sets sail for the US
June 6, 1968 – Kerry arrives in Long Beach the day after Senator
Robert F. Kennedy is killed in Los Angeles
June 16, 1968 – Kerry promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade
July 20, 1968 – Kerry leaves Gridley for specialized training at the
Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, CA in preparation for service as
commander of a Swift Boat. These unarmored, but heavily armed, fifty
foot aluminum hulled patrol boats depended on speed and agility when
engaging the enemy.
November 17, 1968 – Upon completion of his training, Kerry reports for
duty to Coastal Squadron 1, Coastal Division 14, Cam Ranh Bay, South
Vietnam.
December 1968 through January 1969 – Kerry commands PCF-44
December 2, 1968 – Kerry experiences first intense combat; receives
first combat related injury.
December 6, 1968 – Kerry moved to Coastal Division 11 at An Thoi on
Phu Quoc Island
December 13, 1968 – Kerry moved to Coastal Division 13, Cam Ranh Bay
December 24, 1968 – Kerry involved in combat during the Christmas Eve
truce of 1968. The truce was three minutes old when mortar fire
exploded around Lieutenant Kerry and his five-man crew. Reacting
swiftly, John Kerry and his crew silenced the machine gun nest
January 22, 1969 – Kerry and other Swift boat commanders travel to
Saigon for meeting with Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, Commander Naval Forces
Vietnam (COMNAVFORV), and Gen. Creighton Abrams, Commander United
States Military Assistance Command Vietnam (COMUSMACV)
Late January, 1969 – Kerry joined his 5 man crew on PCF-94
Late January through Early March, 1969 – Starting in late January
1969, this crew completed 18 missions over an intense and dangerous 48
days, almost all of them in the dense jungles of the Mekong Delta.
Kerry's crew included engineman Eugene Thorson, later an Iowa cement
mason; David Alston, then the crew's only African-American and today a
minister in South Carolina; petty officer Del Sandusky of Illinois;
rear gunner and quartermaster Michael Medeiros of California; and the
late Tom Belodeau, who joined the crew fresh out of Chelmsford High
School in Massachusetts. Others rotated in and out of the crew. The
most intense action came during an extraordinary eight days of more
than 10 firefights, remembered by Kerry's crew as the "days of hell."
February 20, 1969 – Kerry and crew involved in combat; Kerry receives
second combat injury – Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after
sustaining a shrapnel wound in his left thigh.
February 28, 1969 – For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in
action while serving with Coastal Division ELEVEN engaged in armed
conflict with Viet Cong insurgents in An Xuyen Province, Republic of
Vietnam, on 28 February 1969. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry was
serving as Officer in Charge of Patrol Craft Fast 94 and Officer in
Tactical Command of a three-boat mission. As the force approached the
target area on the narrow Dong Cung River, all units came under
intense automatic weapons and small arms fire from an entrenched enemy
force less than fifty-feet away. Unhesitatingly, Lieutenant (junior
grade) Kerry ordered his boat to attack as all units opened fire and
beached directly in front of the enemy ambushers. The daring and
courageous tactic surprised the enemy and succeeded in routing a score
of enemy soldiers. The PCF gunners captured many enemy weapons in the
battle that followed. On a request from U.S. Army advisors ashore,
Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry ordered PCFs 94 and 23 further up
river to suppress enemy sniper fire. After proceeding approximately
eight hundred yards, the boats again were taken under fire from a
heavily foliated area and B-40 rocket exploded close aboard PCF-94;
with utter disregard for his own safety and the enemy rockets, he
again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only ten feet
from the VC rocket position, and personally led a landing party ashore
in pursuit of the enemy. Upon sweeping the area an immediate search
uncovered an enemy rest and supply area which was destroyed. The
extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lieutenant (junior grade)
Kerry in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense
fire were responsible for the highly successful mission. His actions
were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval
Service.
March 13, 1969 – For heroic achievement while serving with Coastal
Division ELEVEN engaged in armed conflict with Viet Cong communist
aggressors in An Xuyen Province, Republic of Vietnam, on 13 March
1969. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry was serving as Officer in Charge
of Patrol Craft Fast 94, one of five boats conducting a SEA Lords
operation in the Bay Hap River. While exiting the river, a mine
detonated under another Inshore Patrol Craft and almost
simultaneously, another mine detonated wounding Lieutenant (junior
grade) Kerry in the right arm. In addition, all units began receiving
small arms and automatic weapons fire from the river banks. When
Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry discovered he had a man overboard, he
returned upriver to assist. The man in the water was receiving sniper
fire from both banks. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry directed his
gunners to provide suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on
the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain and with disregard for his
safety, he pulled the man aboard. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry then
directed his boat to return and assist the other damaged boat to
safety. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry's calmness, professionalism
and great personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest
traditions of the United States Naval Service. Lieutenant (junior
grade) Kerry is authorized to wear the Combat "V".
March 17, 1969 – The policy of Coastal Squadron One, the swift boat
command, was to send home any individual who is wounded three times in
action. After sustaining his third wound from enemy action n Vietnam,
Kerry was granted relief under this policy.
Early April, 1969 – Kerry departs Vietnam
April 11, 1969 – Kerry reports for duty at the Military Sea
Transportation Service, U.S. Atlantic Fleet in Brooklyn, NY.
January 1, 1970 – Kerry promoted to (full) Lieutenant
January 3, 1970 – Kerry requests discharge
March 1, 1970 – Kerry's date of separation from Active Duty
April 29, 1970 – Kerry listed as Registrant who has completed service
[Source: Boston Globe, "John Kerry, the Making of a Candidate",
6/15/03-6/21/03; Tour of Duty by Douglas Brinkley, Published by
William Morrow 2003; Selective Service System, National Headquarter]
Dad warns Kerry on flying
Kerry initially thought about enlisting as a pilot. But his father,
Richard Kerry - a test pilot who served in the Army Air Corps - warned
him that if he flew in combat, he might lose his love of flying. So
Kerry, who sought in so many ways to emulate John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
took to the water, just as his idol served on a World War II patrol
boat, the 109.
Gridley shipmate signs in "You had to be a bit of a cowboy to want a
Swift," said David Simons, a Gridley crewmate quoted in Brinkley's
book. "It meant that you were willing to get shot up all the time."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/elections/sns-2004election-kerryprofile,0,53345.story?coll=bal-election-storyutil
In interviews and e-mails, six Gridley shipmates recall Kerry as
unpretentious and unafraid of engine grease, rain or rough seas. He
issued loudspeaker commands in what his captain called "a great radio
voice." The boatswains mates nicknamed him "The Beatle" because of his
bangs.
Kerry confided to his Gridley roommate, then-Lt. James R. Onorato,
that one day he hoped to lead the nation. "He said his primary goal
was to be a senator and then go for the big shot, the presidency,"
Onorato said. "He wanted to be top dog."
Standing midnight watch over the moonlit waves, Kerry debated the war
with radioman Philip W. Carter -- who says he was then a "jaded"
sailor midway through his third tour. "We had different attitudes,"
Carter says today. "He was an eager-beaver young officer."Kerry's
superiors rated him one of the gunboat's most effective officers. In
1968, following the example of his hero, President Kennedy, he
volunteered to skipper one of the 50-foot-long Navy "SWIFT boats" then
patrolling the Vietnam coast.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36917-2004Mar6?language=printer
on communicating with his em second.
"Kerry, then 25, captained a patrol boat on the Mekong Delta. One day,
after taking fire from the Vietcong and after the boat's windows had
been blown out by a rocket, Kerry spotted a guerrilla along the shore
aiming a B-40 rocket launcher at his boat. Navy training prescribed an
immediate retreat. But in a rush of adrenaline, Kerry made a snap
decision. Impulsively, he beached the boat, jumped off and shot the
guerrilla.
It makes a great story. Except that's not quite how it happened.
"It was completely planned," said Del Sandusky, Kerry's
second-in-command. "He had a number of different scenarios. This was
all in his head."
From the day Kerry boarded, Sandusky, a veteran helmsman, noticed
something different about his commander.
"Most of the boat officers, they figured they knew what they needed to
know. John was not like that. He was not above asking questions,"
Sandusky said. "He pumped me for information. He asked me about ambush
sites, what to look for on the river."
The two men sat at the stern in their jungle greens, swatting
mosquitoes and breathing diesel fumes, as Sandusky shared the Mekong's
secrets. Two or three times a day, snipers shot at the boat. They
couldn't see the gunmen in the brush.
"I could hear a clak-clak, and I knew it was an AK-47. I began to
distinguish which weapon I was dealing with," Kerry said in an
interview. "I was very frustrated. I began to think about how we could
win."
Sandusky: "We'd talk about contingencies. He never said he was going
to beach the boat. He just . . . asked questions."
http://kerry2004.meetup.com/members/604
Viet Nam Vet; Went through Officer Candidate School with John
receiving our commissions together in Dec '66. Bay Area res. for over
30 yrs working in logistics in Silicon Valley. ex-reg. Republican
totally disenchanted with current administration....