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American Spectator Review of "Unfit for Command" (OUCH!)
Via the Cracker Barrel Philosopher. Severely EFL... This is an insufficient condemnation if one of the more gruesome passages in the book turns out to be true. That is, one night in January 1969, Kerry and crew were patrolling the banks of the Cua Lon River when all hell descended. Kerry told quasi-official biographer Douglas Brinkley that many minutes of silent patrol had gone by when someone yelled, "Sampan off the port bow!": "Everybody froze and we slowed the engines quickly. But the sampan was already by us and wasn't stopping. It was past curfew and nothing was allowed in the river. I told the gunner to fire a few warning shots and in the confusion all guns opened up. We moved in on the sampan, and taking one of the battle lanterns off the bulkhead shone it on the silhouette of the craft that was now dead in the water." But the presence of eyewitnesses betrays Kerry's self-serving remake of the incident. According to gunner Steve Gardner, who "sat above Kerry on the double .50-caliber mount that night," Kerry stayed in the pilothouse during the incident. Kerry failed to spot the sampan on radar and give warning; he didn't join the crew when they heard an engine noise and saw the boat; he wasn't there when they threw the PFC lights on; he did not order them to fire warning shots; and he wasn't there when Gardner ordered the craft to stop. Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-08-15 |
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