<CENTER>A Reality Check on the Case for Kerry vs. the SwiftVets
</CENTER>Claim: This is simply a he-said, she-said story, with Kerry on one side and other observers on the other.
Fact: Many of the inconsistencies between accounts come from John Kerry himself. He has now given three conflicting accounts involving the Bay Hap River incident of March 13, 1969, when a mine exploded under one of five swift boats patrolling the river. It was this incident in which Kerry was awarded a Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart.
§ In eulogizing a crewmate (recorded in the Congressional Record), Kerry reported that it was his boat that struck an underwater mine and Jim Rassmann, the special operations soldier he fished out of the water, later fell off the boat when the boat turned.
§ Kerry no longer stands by this version and now agrees that it was the PC 3 boat, skippered by Dick Pees, that was badly damaged by an underwater mine.
§ In the version he presented during the Democrat National Convention, Kerry stated: "No man left behind," suggesting to the American people that he alone stayed on the river to rescue Mr. Rassmann while the other swift boats fled the scene. § Later, when forced to acknowledge the eyewitness testimony of fellow swift boat veterans, Kerry said that his boat actually did leave the scene, only to return later to retrieve Jim Rassmann from the water. Kerry acknowledged he was simply returning to where all the other boats stayed.
fuckin high comedy right there.
