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Much of the debate over who is telling the truth boils down to whether the two-page after-action report and other Navy records are accurate or whether they have been embellished by Kerry or someone else. In "Unfit for Command," O'Neill describes the after-action report as "Kerry's report." He contends that language in Thurlow's Bronze Star citation referring to "enemy bullets flying about him" must also have come from "Kerry's after-action report."
O'Neill has said that the initials "KJW" on the bottom of the report "identified" it as having been written by Kerry. It is unclear why this should be so, as Kerry's initials are JFK. A review of other Swift boat after-action reports at the Naval Historical Center here reveals several that include the initials "KJW" but describe incidents at which Kerry was not present. Other Swift boat veterans, including Thurlow and Chenoweth, have said they believe that Kerry wrote the March 13 report. "I didn't like to write reports," said Thurlow, who was the senior officer in the five-boat flotilla. "John would write the thing up in longhand, and it would then be typed up and sent up the line." Even if Kerry did write the March 13 after-action report, it seems unlikely that he would have been the source of the information about "enemy bullets" flying around Thurlow. The official witness to those events, according to Thurlow's medal recommendation form, was his own leading petty officer, Robert Lambert, who himself won a Bronze Star for "courage under fire" in going to Thurlow's rescue after he fell into the river. Lambert, who lives in California, declined comment. |
If all that's true, it means:
A. The charges that Kerry wrote (and falsified) his own report is absurd. I honestly don't know anyone who doesn't know their own initials, let alone someone obsessed with the fact that his initials are JFK. And given that other reports are found with the same initials that have NOTHING to do with Kerry, you can stop the whole "he did it to cover his tracks" conspiracy theory now.
B. As I mentioned before, Thurlow is now disputing the record of even his own medal, saying that (again) it's based on Kerry's lies. If, however, the source for information on "enemy bullets" in his report is not Kerry (or his report) but his own petty office, well, that seems just about open and shut to me.
In the end, this entire thing will blow over. What will be left is the fact that service in Vietnam is an open issue. And that, my friends, does not favor President "Look at me I'm on vacation!" Bush.
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