What?????

Drudge is reporting that Kerry will now say he was in Cambodia in January, not December. Apparently Kerry's memory of the Christmas eve excursion that was "seared - seared" in his memory wasn't quite as seared as he thought. Or perhaps it was the fact that the Swiftvets have placed him in Sa Dec that evening, fifty miles and a three and one half hour boat trip from the Cambodian border.

This should be interesting. I'm presently working on a timeline of Kerry's service in Coast Squadron One, and there are some definite discrepancies between what Kerry's website reports and what I've been able to confirm.

Not mentioned much in the national media is the fact that Kerry has actually stated that he was in Cambodia on more than one occasion. In fact he calls it "routine". This, of course, is directly contradicted by his entire chain of command who insist that he would have been court martialed for such an action, but that either hasn't been understood by the Kerry team yet or they've decided to simply stand firm in the face of the Swiftvets' opposition.

Steve Gilliard posted a transcript of a Wolf Blitzer interview with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke in which Holbrooke describes the mission of Coastal Squadron One and the Studies and Observations Group, as well as other units in the area at the time, and posits that Kerry may well have been in Cambodia several times in support of the SOG.

While this is plausible, it directly contradicts the testimony of all of Kerry's superior officers who insist that he would have been court martialed for crossing into Cambodia as well as the fact that the Navy had an LST and several PBRs stationed at the border to stop exactly that sort of incursion.

Furthermore, while I can find evidence that SOG teams may have been in Cambodia as early as 1964 and had permission to enter Cambodia in 1967, their normal insertion method was by air using the Green Hornets, not using Swift boats whose role was to interdict NVA supply routes in the rivers and canals of Vietnam.

A more likely scenario is that Kerry would have crossed into Cambodia inserting SEAL teams, but even that would directly contradict what all Kerry's commanding officers have said. Frankly, I'll take their word over Kerry's, because my research so far has shown Kerry to be reckless in combat situations with a tendency to fire at the slightest hint of danger and a penchant for bragadoccio about his achievements (e.g., claiming he received a shrapnel wound from a mine explosion when he got it earlier in the day from a grenade that he threw.)

UPDATE: Instapundit has this to say about the Christmas - oh wait, I mean - January in Cambodia - oh, and February too, BTW - story. He rightly points out that this conveniently avoids the problem of the three crewmates who don't recall a Cambodian excursion, two of whom are supporting Kerry now.

And when will the major media pick up on this story? It's not going away, you know. So the longer you ignore it, the worse it makes your bias look. Hello?? Anyone home at CBS, NBC, ABC, NY Times, WaPo????

UPDATE II: While reading a compelling Vietnam story written by one of John Kerry's crewmates, I read something that I think negates the possibility that PCFs were used for covert ops. PCFs had 2 GM 12 cylinder diesel engines.

"The one thing I learned even way back in training is that you don't sneak through the jungle with two General Motors 12V71 Diesel engines. Its sounded like a damn greyhound buss coming through there."

I think that makes it highly unlikely that PCFs would have been used to insert SEAL teams in covert operations in Cambodia. There's simply no way you could "sneak" into Cambodia on something that sounds like a Greyhound bus coming down the canal or river.