John Kerry's "band of brothers"

One of the arguments that the Kerry campaign has made to impugn the credibility of the Swiftvets is that they never served on Kerry's boat. There are thirteen men listed on Kerry's website as his "band of brothers" and those men claim to be Kerry's "crewmates" and to have served with him in combat.

Let's look at the thirteen men.

Four, Jim Wasser, Drew Whitlow, Bill Zaladonis and Stephen Hatch served with Kerry when he was the Office in Charge (OinC) of PCF-44. The fifth crewmate, Steve Gardner, is a Swiftvet for truth and has spoken out against Kerry. None of these men witnessed any of the actions that led to any of Kerry's medals, except for Bill Zaladonis, who was with Kerry on the night of December 2, 1968 on the "Boston whaler".

Four, Michael Medieros, Fred Short, Gene Thorson and Del Sandusky served with Kerry when he was OinC of PCF-94. They witnessed the actions that led to his second and third purple hearts, his Silver Medal and his Bronze Medal.

One, David Alston, never served with Kerry. Alston was the gunners mate on PCF-94 when Tedd Peck was the OinC. He was seriously wounded in the head on 1/29/69 (Peck was also wounded, which is why Kerry took command of PCF-94), during a heavy engagement. Alston has given numerous interviews where he recounts the events of 2/28/69, when Kerry earned the Silver Medal. This is odd, because Alston was in the hospital at the time, recovering from a serious head wound.

One, Jim Rassmann, was an Army Green Beret not a crewmate. Rassmann is the man whose life Kerry supposedly saved on 3/13/69, earning the Bronze Medal in doing so. Rassmann was not on the PCF-94 that day. He was on PCF-3, the boat that was blown up by a mine and towed back to base by Kerry's boat. Rassmann claims that he was under heavy enemy fire, which Kerry braved to save him. There was no enemy fire. Rassmann, who by his own admission was trying to stay under water to keep from being shot, did not realize that the firing that was going on was the PCFs' gunners, firing to the shore to suppress any potential enemy fire while they effected a rescue of the men of PCF-3. Rassmann is simply mistaken. When Kerry "rescued" him, he was in no danger. Nor was Kerry, whose only "wound" was a bruise on his arm obtained when his boat sped out of the area when the mine exploded.

One, Patrick Runyon, was an engineman on PCF-47 (during which he wasn't with Kerry at any time) and PCF-71 (during which he may have spent a few days in the same area as Kerry in March, 69). The only known contact Runyon had with Kerry was on the "Boston whaler" on the night of December 2, 1968. That was the night when Kerry was injured by an M-79 grenade that he had launched too close to the boat. There was no enemy fire that night according to William Schachte, who was on the boat with Kerry, was his superior and berated him for firing too close to the boat.

Two are OinCs of other PCFs. Wade Sanders was OinC of PCF-98, stationed in Cat Lo. During that time, Kerry was OinC of PCF-44, and although I can't find any evidence that the two ever saw action together, Sanders could not have witnessed any of the incidents that led to Kerry's medals.

Skip Barker was OinC of PCF-31. He saw action with Kerry on several occasions and is certainly qualified to testify regarding Kerry's actions and leadership.

Of the thirteen, only nine ever served with Kerry, and only six served when Kerry was receiving any of his medals. One is either lying or grossly mistaken. One is mistaken about what happened. One could only have served in the same area for a few days at most plus one night on the "Boston whaler". One served with him during his "quiet" period aboard PCF-44, and one saw action with him several times while commanding another boat.

I'm still working on a timeline and documenting various facts, but the above evidence certainly weakens the charge that these men are more qualified than other Swiftvets to judge Kerry's actions under fire.

CORRECTION: I should not have said that Jim Rassman was on PCF-3 and not on PCF-94. Further research has made me question the sequence of events. I now see two possibilities. Either Rassmann was on PCF-3 and was thrown off the boat in the mine explosion or Rassmann was on PCF-94 and was thrown off when the boat accelerated after PCF-3 hit the mine. There are conflicting accounts, and I can't reconcile them at this time. However I think it's clear that he was not under fire from the enemy, and his recollection is colored by the fact that he was trying to stay under water and only coming up when he needed air, until he was rescued.