Rassmann fisking Kerry's Rassmann story

Who is Jim Rassmann? He's the former Green Beret who's life Kerry extended by pulling him from a canal. The former Republican who thinks so highly of Kerry that he's campaigning nationwide for him.

So what does Rassman have to say about the incident that led to Kerry's Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart? (Reader's note: I've added some more cites [on 8/17/2004] that I found on Lexis-Nexis. Some do not have links because the articles are not available for free or I haven't found copies that are.)

Spot Reports for March 1969

AT VQ995770 MINE DETONATED UNDER PCF 3 LIFTING BOAT ABOUT 2-3 FT OUT OF WATER. VERY HEAVY BLACK SMOKE OBSERVED. AT SAME TIME BOATS RCVD HEAVY A/W AND S/A FROM BOTH BANKS. FIRE CONTINUED FOR ABOUT 5000 METERS. TWO OTHER MINE EXPLOSIONS OBSERVED. ALL BOATS AND MSF RETURNED FIRE AND ATTEMPTED ASSIST PCF 3. PCF 94 PICKED UP MSF ADVISOR WHO WENT OVERBOARD.

Now let's let Rassmann and Kerry tell the story.

Kerry website - After Action Reports

13 MAR 1969 Bay Hap River; Dong Cung Canal
Four swiftboats were engaged in moving Mobile Strike Force troops on the Bay Hap River and the Dong Cung Canal. Moving down the river in the afternoon following a day of heavy fighting, a mine detonated underneath PCF 3, lifting it 2-3 feet out of the water and, at the same time, a second mine detonated near PCF94, wounding Kerry and knocking an Army advisor on PCF94 into the water. Meanwhile the boats began receiving heavy fire from both sides of the river. Kerry, who had received shrapnel wounds and hurt his right arm, directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire while he pulled the Army advisor back into his boat. PCF 94 then returned to aid PCF 3 and towed the boat down the river to safety. Kerry received the Bronze Star for this action.

Kerry press release Jan 17, 2004

"I remember the day and the moment we last met: the lingering bond between us comes from the shared experience of our service," Kerry said. "I told Jim what I tell the thousands of veterans I have met in Iowa: As president, I will never--eve--forget your service." Kerry added.

For Kerry's bravery, Rassmann recommended that he be recognized, and Kerry was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V. The citation that followed the award read as follows:

"The man was receiving sniper fire from both banks. Lt. Kerry directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain, with disregard for his personal safety, he pulled the man aboard

Lt. Kerry then directed his boat to return and assist the other damaged craft and towed the boat to safety. Lt. Kerry's calmness, professionalism and great personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the US Naval Service."

Omaha World Herald - Jan 18, 2004

Rassmann took a hushed crowd of Kerry backers back to the day when he and Kerry were traveling down a river in Vietnam on separate boats.

The boats were ambushed by enemy fire. Rassmann, a Green Beret, said a blast blew him overboard. He stayed underwater to avoid being shot. "I went to the bottom, and I stayed on the bottom as long as I could."

Resurfacing for about his fifth gasp of air, Rassmann grabbed onto netting on the bow of the boat that Kerry, then a Navy lieutenant junior grade, was piloting.

Kerry, hit in the arm by gunfire, scrambled up to the bow and pulled Rassmann to safety.

"Had he not been there, there's no question in my mind I could've fallen back into the water," Rassmann said. "John could've gotten shot and killed at any time."

Boston Globe - Jan 18, 2004

Kerry tells the story - The rescue occurred on the Bay Hap River in Vietnam on March 13, 1969, when Kerry was 25 and Rassmann was 21. Several US swift boats, including the one Kerry commanded, came under fire and hit multiple mines. Kerry's boat hit a mine and he was slammed against a bulkhead and injured. Rassmann fell into the river, and for several minutes his absence was not noticed. Kerry ultimately swung the boat around and pulled Rassmann out of the water.

"John didn't have to, but he came to the front [of the boat] under fire," Rassmann said. "Had he not, there's no question in my mind that I would have fallen back in - he could have been shot at any time."

MSNBC Jan 23, 2004

"Our boat was hit by something and I was blown overboard, and whatever that was that blew me over also wounded John Kerry in the arm. The V.C.s started firing at me from both banks and I started to swim underwater towards the north bank. Every time I came up for air, I'd get more fire and this went on until I finally came up for air about the fifth time. And I noticed that the boats had come back to the rescue. John, with one arm dangling and bleeding ran up to the bow and exposed himself to some really heavy fire, and he pull me up over the lip. It's kind of miraculous that neither one of us were hit, and I credit him with helping me out of that and saying my life."

San Francisco Chronicle Feb 8, 2004

Rassmann's river patrol of Swift boats had been blown out of the water in a barrage of fire from Viet Cong AK-47s and rocket launchers. He had come up for air, taking sniper fire from both banks, sure "my ticket was punched.''

Then miraculously, sailing back through a hail of artillery, was Kerry. Wounded himself, the young Navy lieutenant braved bullets to pull Rassmann aboard.

St. Petersburg Times - Feb 8, 2004

On March 13, 1969, Jim Rassmann, a U.S. Army Green Beret, was traveling in a group of Swifts down the Bay Hap River when one, the PCF-3, struck a mine and was immediately raked by gunfire from the shore. Everyone aboard was injured.

As Kerry's boat headed toward the damaged vessel, a second mine exploded nearby, throwing him against a bulkhead and injuring his arm. The explosion also tossed Rassmann out of a third vessel, the PCF-35. In the confusion and heavy gunfire from both sides of the battle, Rassmann began drifting down the river, where snipers saw him and tried to pick him off.

As Kerry sailed his vessel up to the PCF-3 to give help, someone noticed Rassmann, by this time a couple of hundred yards away, ducking bullets, and shouted man overboard. With enemy fire still coming from both sides of the river, Kerry and his crew raced to help.

"He came up to the bow of the boat and exposed himself to fierce fire," Rassmann said in an interview last week from his home in Florence, Ore. "With a wounded arm, he managed to pull me aboard. That is a quality of character that engenders a lot of loyalty."

NY Times - Feb 22, 2004

It was in the second of these that he rescued Jim Rassmann, a member of his crew, when his P.C.F.-94 came under a hail of small-arms fire at the same moment that another P.C.F. traveling alongside Kerry's boat struck a mine. Kerry was injured in the arm by another mine (he has three Purple Hearts), but ''Christ knows how,'' Kerry recalls to Brinkley, ''somehow we managed to get him on board. . . . I didn't get the bullet in the head that I expected, and we managed to clear the ambush zone.''

LA TImes - Mar 13, 2004

On that day, they traveled on a convoy of five patrol boats led by the 25-year-old Kerry, a Navy lieutenant -- and they were on the run, being chased down the Bay Hap River by enemy soldiers firing guns and rockets.

The group had already lost one soldier that day. As they sped down the river, one boat was blown out of the water, and then another. An explosion wounded Kerry in the arm and threw Rassmann into the river. Rassmann dove to the bottom to avoid being run over by the other boats. When he surfaced, he saw the convoy had gone ahead.

Viet Cong snipers fired at him, and Rassmann submerged over and over to avoid being hit. The bullets came from both banks, and Rassmann had nowhere to go. He began thinking his time had come, but the fifth time he came up, he saw the convoy had turned around. Kerry had ordered the boats back to pick up the man overboard.

Kerry's boat, under heavy fire, sidled up to the struggling soldier. Rassmann tried to scramble up a cargo net at the bow but was too exhausted to make it all the way. He clung to the net as bullets whizzed past.

"Next thing I knew, John came out in the middle of all this," Rassmann says. "I couldn't believe it. He was going to get killed. He ran to the edge, reached over with his good arm [Kerry had been wounded in his right arm] and pulled me over the lip."

Kerry news release Apr 13, 2004

Rassmann also dismisses the idea of a cautious Kerry. He says he is alive today because of Kerry's courage during a vicious battle in March 1969. The special forces soldier had been blown off PCF-94 by a mine that also injured Kerry's right arm. Swimming in the river while being strafed from both banks, Rassmann was convinced he was about to die before Kerry's boat returned. As the soldier struggled to climb scramble nets draped over the boat's bow, Kerry reached down with his uninjured arm and pulled him on board.

"He was frankly nuts coming up to the bow and exposing himself" to the barrage of bullets and mortars, Rassmann says.

Boston Globe - Apr 28, 2004

"Rassmann was bobbing up and down every 30 seconds," Sandusky says. The Viet Cong "would shoot at him and he would go back down and swim under water." Kerry, who had taken shrapnel in his left buttock and was suffering from a bruised right arm, directed Sandusky to steer the craft back to Rassmann, who grabbed a cargo net hanging from the bow.

"Rassmann couldn't pull himelf up - he was too heavy, loaded with water and the flak vest - so Kerry lay down on the deck and pulled him up," Sandusky says. "This is in the middle of a firefight. . . . He saved Rassmann's life."

Sunday Oregonian - May 2, 2004

On March 13, Kerry's boat and four others carried Rassmann and a detachment of his soldiers to a canal drop-off point off the Bay Hap River. The situation quickly turned ugly.

One of Rassmann's soldiers was gruesomely killed when he reached for a booby-trapped cloth bag lying next to a tree. The detachment came under fire and, after a series of engagements, the U.S.-led forces retreated back along the canal.

Once they reached the Bay Hap, things seemed calmer. Rassmann rode on PCF-94 near the driver, Del Sandusky. He remembers eating chocolate chip cookies.

An explosion rocked the swift boat to their left, and gunfire erupted from both banks. Another mine exploded near PCF-94, sending Kerry into a bulkhead, smashing his right arm.

Rassmann was flung into the river.

Fearing he would be sliced by a boat propeller, Rassmann dove to the river bottom. By the time he surfaced for air, the boats were out of sight. Alone, he became the target of enemy fire.

Rassmann kept diving. He said it wasn't until he broke the surface for the fifth or sixth time that he saw Kerry returning for him. When PCF-94 moved close, Rassmann grabbed a cargo net on the bow and hung on.

"John came up to the bow," Rassmann recalled, "and I thought he was going to get killed because he was so exposed."

With his good arm, Kerry hauled Rassmann over the bow, and the two scrambled for cover. Sandusky, the driver, remembered being thanked by Rassmann with gallows humor: "You dumb S.O.B., you almost ran me over."

Kerry press release Jul 10, 2004

"Rassmann was 21 at the time, a Special Forces lieutenant in charge of a company of American and Chinese fighters. On that day, they traveled on a convoy of five patrol boats led by the 25-year-old Kerry, a Navy lieutenant -- and they were on the run, being chased down the Bay Hap River by enemy soldiers firing guns and rockets. The group had already lost one soldier that day. As they sped down the river, one boat was blown out of the water, and then another. An explosion wounded Kerry in the arm and threw Rassmann into the river. Rassmann dove to the bottom to avoid being run over by the other boats. When he surfaced, he saw the convoy had gone ahead. Viet Cong snipers fired at him, and Rassmann submerged over and over to avoid being hit. The bullets came from both banks, and Rassmann had nowhere to go. He began thinking his time had come, but the fifth time he came up, he saw the convoy had turned around. Kerry had ordered the boats back to pick up the man overboard. Kerry's boat, under heavy fire, sidled up to the struggling soldier. Rassmann tried to scramble up a cargo net at the bow but was too exhausted to make it all the way. He clung to the net as bullets whizzed past. 'Next thing I knew, John came out in the middle of all this,' Rassmann says. 'I couldn't believe it. He was going to get killed. He ran to the edge, reached over with his good arm [Kerry had been wounded in his right arm] and pulled me over the lip.'

Australian Magazine - Jul 10, 2004

March 13, 1969 - an operation involving several Swifts goes to hell. A mine destroys one boat; others, including Kerry's, take fire from the bank. Lieutenant Jim Rassmann is thrown from his boat and forgotten as the Swifts head full-throttle out of trouble. Rassmann is under fire from both banks when someone sees him and shouts: "Man overboard!" Kerry looks back, sees the bullets spraying the water around the struggling commando. "We turned around with the engines screaming against each other - the one full-astern, the other full forward - and then charged the several hundred yards back into the ambush where Jim was trying to find some cover," he tells historian Doug Brinkley for a recent book on his war years, Tour of Duty. Wounded in one arm, Kerry struggles to drag Rassmann from the water. "Christ knows how, but somehow we managed to get him on board and I didn't get a bullet in the head that I expected, and we managed to clear the ambush zone."

SignOn SanDiego Jul 21, 2004

As Kerry directed his boat to shield a damaged swift boat, another explosion rocked his boat, throwing him into a bulkhead and smashing his right arm.

Another blast knocked Army Green Beret Lt. James Rassmann from one of the other boats. Amid continued enemy fire, Kerry raced his boat back to reach the soldier and, despite an injured arm, ran from the cover of the pilothouse to pull the Green Beret aboard.

Reno Gazette-Journal Jul 22, 2004

Rassmann, a first lieutenant in the Army special forces, was eating a chocolate chip cookie on Kerry's patrol boat as it pulled back from a fire fight when a nearby boat hit a mine. During the ensuing combat, Kerry's boat was rocked by another explosion, which injured Kerry and tossed Rassmann into the water.

Worried that retreating boats would run him over, Rassmann said he swam to the bottom of the river and waited for the fleet to pass. When he surfaced, the boats were gone and the enemy was shooting at him from the riverbanks.

Rassmann said he started a swim for the north bank. But within minutes -- a period of time that felt like "six or seven years" -- he saw a boat returning for him.

When the boat, captained by Kerry, passed over him, Rassmann grabbed a net hooked to the bow and climbed onto the side of the boat. But he couldn’t manage to get over the railing and into the boat.

"This fire is continuing and I expected I was the perfect target," he said. "Next thing I know, John comes running out of the pilot house and up toward me up on the bow. And I didn't get shot. I mean, it was a miracle neither one of us got shot. And he got down on his hands and knees and pulled me over and we got up."

Statesman Journal Jul 23, 2004

On March 13, 1969, Rassman was a 21-year-old lieutenant in Army Special Forces when he was blown overboard from a boat next to Kerry's on the Bay Hap River. Someone on Kerry's boat saw Rassman in the water, dodging sniper fire from both banks.

In a recollection decades later, Kerry said: "Jim was exhausted from swimming, and my right arm hurt and I couldn't pull very hard with it. Everyone else was firing a machine gun or something. ...Christ knows how, but somehow we got him on board and I didn't get the bullet in the head I expected."

Rassman said he clung to the bow of Kerry's boat in an awkward position, unable to pull himself onto the deck.

"I was just incredulous to see John run out of that pilothouse and up onto the deck," he said. "I truly did expect him to get shot. One newspaper quoted me as saying, 'What a dummy.' It was not dumb -- it was blind courage on his part."

Arizona Tribune Jul 24, 2004

Rassman was a Green Beret in Vietnam when the river boat he was riding hit a mine in the Hap River and came under heavy enemy fire from the banks. A short distance ahead, then-Navy Lt. Kerry was in command of a Swift Boat also under attack. Kerry, wounded in the arm, ordered his boat to turn around. He directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire, then moved into an exposed position on the bow to pull Rassman out of the water.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Jul 25, 2004

Jim Rassmann, a Green Beret, was among those being ferried in a Swift boat behind Kerry's vessel on the Bay Hap River when the flotilla ran into a submerged mine and, Kerry and others have said, enemy fire. Rassmann ended up in the water and Kerry suffered an arm injury when tossed about violently on deck.

Amid the confusion of the fleeing boats, Kerry raced his boat several hundred yards back up the river and pulled Rassmann to safety with his wounded arm.

Gardner, on hand then, too, disputes the extent of Kerry's heroism that day. He and Larry Thurlow, who commanded the last of several Swift boats in the flotilla, said they recalled no gunfire from shore after the mine was struck.

National Review Jul 30, 2004

In particular, the film portrayed an incident in which Kerry, in command of a Swift Boat, rescued Army Green Beret Jim Rassman during a fight on a river in South Vietnam. The film graphically illustrated the incident, in which a group of Swift Boats, including Kerry's, came under attack on March 13, 1969. The film recounted the often-told story of how a wounded Kerry pulled Rassman out of the water while under enemy fire.

Wall Street Journal Aug 10, 2004

While returning from a SEA LORDS operation along the Bay Hap River, a mine detonated under another swift boat. Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river, and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John's swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath.

When I surfaced, all the swift boats had left, and I was alone taking fire from both banks. To avoid the incoming fire, I repeatedly swam under water as long as I could hold my breath, attempting to make it to the north bank of the river. I thought I would die right there. The odds were against me avoiding the incoming fire and, even if I made it out of the river, I thought I'd be captured and executed. Kerry must have seen me in the water and directed his driver, Del Sandusky, to turn the boat around. Kerry's boat ran up to me in the water, bow on, and I was able to climb up a cargo net to the lip of the deck. But, because I was nearly upside down, I couldn't make it over the edge of the deck. This left me hanging out in the open, a perfect target. John, already wounded by the explosion that threw me off his boat, came out onto the bow, exposing himself to the fire directed at us from the jungle, and pulled me aboard.

For his actions that day, I recommended John for the Silver Star, our country's third highest award for bravery under fire. I learned only this past January that the Navy awarded John the Bronze Star with Combat V for his valor. The citation for this award, signed by the Commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam, Vice Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, read, "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." To this day I am grateful to John Kerry for saving my life. And to this day I still believe that he deserved the Silver Star for his courage.

Denver Post Aug 15, 2004

Rassmann remembers clearly what caused him to nominate John Kerry for a medal that turned into a Bronze Star more than three decades ago.

The Swift boat he and Kerry were on went to help another that had been ambushed. An explosion knocked Rassmann into the water. When Kerry realized Rassmann was missing, he brought his craft back. Rassmann grabbed some netting strung over the bow and struggled to climb aboard while under fire from both banks of the narrow river.

"Suddenly, John runs out of the pilot house," Rassman said. "He had this look on his face. He knew he was going to get hit. He ... dropped to his hands and knees and reached down and grabbed me and pulled me up to the deck."