Re: OT (yeah, right!):Wm Rood's account

Whew!! the river names and info sure brings back lots of bad memories.
I was part of the riverine patrol group for 3 years and we sure
cruised the same turf.


jo4hn <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> For those of you who may be interested, the following is the text of
Mr.
> Rood's account of events. Missing are the photographs which may be
> found at www.latimes.com (requires a free sign-up).
>
> FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNT
> Officer Recalls Boat Mission With Kerry
>
> By William B. Rood, Chicago Tribune
>
> There were three Swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more
than
> 35 years ago — three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those
> officers remain to talk about what happened on Feb. 28, 1969.
>
> One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a
> Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other.
>
> For years, no one asked about those events. But now they are the
focus
> of skirmishing in a presidential election with a group of Swift boat
> veterans and others contending that Kerry didn't deserve the Silver
Star
> for what he did on that day, or the Bronze Star and three Purple
Hearts
> he was awarded for other actions.
>
> Many of us wanted to put it all behind us — the rivers, the
ambushes,
> the killing. Ever since that time, I have refused all requests for
> interviews about Kerry's service — even those from reporters at the
> Chicago Tribune, where I work.
>
> But Kerry's critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have
> charged that the accounts of what happened were overblown. The
critics
> have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the
merit
> of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt
on
> all of us. It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were
there
> to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they
come
> from people who were not there.
>
> Even though Kerry's own crew members have backed him, the attacks
have
> continued, and in recent days Kerry has called me and others who
were
> with him in those days, asking that we go public with our accounts.
>
> I can't pretend those calls had no effect on me, but that is not why
I
> am writing this. What matters most to me is that this is hurting
crewmen
> who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what
they
> did. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk
> publicly about it.
>
> I was part of the operation that led to Kerry's Silver Star. I have
no
> firsthand knowledge of the events that resulted in his winning the
> Purple Hearts or the Bronze Star.
>
> But on Feb. 28, 1969, I was officer in charge of PCF-23, one of
three
> Swift boats — including Kerry's PCF-94 and Lt. j.g. Donald Droz's
PCF-43
> — that carried Vietnamese Regional and Popular Force troops and a
Navy
> demolition team up the Dong Cung, a narrow tributary of the Bay Hap
> River, to conduct a sweep in the area.
>
> The approach of the noisy 50-foot aluminum boats, each driven by two
> huge 12-cylinder diesels and loaded down with six crew members,
troops
> and gear, was no secret.
>
> Ambushes were a virtual certainty, and that day was no exception.
>
> The difference was that Kerry, who had tactical command of that
> particular operation, had talked to Droz and me beforehand about not
> responding the way the boats usually did to an ambush.
>
> We agreed that if we were not crippled by the initial volley and had
a
> clear fix on the location of the ambush, we would turn directly into
it,
> focusing the boats' twin .50-caliber machine guns on the attackers
and
> beaching the boats. We told our crews about the plan.
>
> The Viet Cong in the area had come to expect that the heavily loaded
> boats would lumber on past an ambush, firing at the entrenched
> attackers, beaching upstream and putting troops ashore to sweep back
> down on the ambush site. Often, they were long gone by the time the
> troops got there.
>
> The first time we took fire — the usual rockets and automatic
weapons —
> Kerry ordered a "turn 90" and the three boats roared in on the
ambush.
> It worked. We routed the ambush, killing three of the attackers. The
> troops, led by an Army advisor, jumped off the boats and began a
sweep,
> which killed another half-dozen VC, wounded or captured others and
found
> weapons, blast masks and other supplies used to stage ambushes.
>
> Meanwhile, Kerry ordered our boat to head upstream with his, leaving
> Droz's boat at the first site.
>
> It happened again, another ambush. And again, Kerry ordered the turn
> maneuver, and again it worked. As we headed for the riverbank, I
> remember seeing a loaded B-40 launcher pointed at the boats. It
wasn't
> fired as two men jumped up from their spider holes.
>
> We called Droz's boat up to assist us, and Kerry, followed by one
member
> of his crew, jumped ashore and chased a VC behind a hooch — a
thatched
> hut — maybe 15 yards inland from the ambush site. Some who were
there
> that day recall the man being wounded as he ran. Neither I nor Jerry
> Leeds, our boat's leading petty officer with whom I've checked my
> recollection of all these events, recalls that, which is no
surprise.
> Recollections of those who go through experiences like that
frequently
> differ.
>
> With our troops involved in the sweep of the first ambush site,
Richard
> Lamberson, a member of my crew, and I also went ashore to search the
> area. I was checking out the inside of the hooch when I heard
gunfire
> nearby.
>
> Not long after that, Kerry returned, reporting that he had killed
the
> man he chased behind the hooch. He also had picked up a loaded B-40
> rocket launcher, which we took back to our base in An Thoi after the
> operation.
>
> John O'Neill, author of a highly critical account of Kerry's Vietnam
> service, describes the man Kerry chased as a "teenager in a
loincloth."
> I have no idea how old the gunner Kerry chased that day was, but
both
> Leeds and I recall that he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of
garb
> the VC usually wore.
>
> The man Kerry chased was not the "lone" attacker at that site, as
> O'Neill suggests. There were others who fled. There was also firing
from
> the tree line well behind the spider holes and at one point, from
the
> opposite riverbank as well. It was not the work of just one
attacker.
>
> Our initial reports of the day's action caused an immediate response
> from our task force headquarters in Cam Ranh Bay.
>
> Known over radio circuits by the call sign "Latch," then-Capt. and
now
> retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, the task force commander, fired off
a
> message congratulating the three Swift boats, saying at one point
that
> the tactic of charging the ambushes was a "shining example of
completely
> overwhelming the enemy" and that it "may be the most efficacious
method
> of dealing with small numbers of ambushers."
>
> Hoffmann has become a leading critic of Kerry's and now says that
what
> the boats did on that day demonstrated Kerry's inclination to be
> impulsive to a fault.
>
> Our decision to use that tactic under the right circumstances was
not
> impulsive but was the result of discussions well beforehand and a
mutual
> agreement of all three boat officers.
>
> It was also well within the aggressive tradition that was embraced
by
> the late Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, then commander of U.S. Naval Forces,
> Vietnam. Months before that day in February, a fellow boat officer,
> Michael Bernique, was summoned to Saigon to explain to top Navy
> commanders why he had made an unauthorized run up the Giang Thanh
River,
> which runs along the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Bernique, who speaks
> French fluently, had been told by a source in Ha Tien at the mouth
of
> the river that a VC tax collector was operating upstream.
>
> Ignoring the prohibition against it, Bernique and his crew went
upstream
> and routed the VC, pursuing and killing several.
>
> Instead of facing disciplinary action as he had expected, Bernique
was
> given the Silver Star, and Zumwalt ordered other Swifts, which had
> largely patrolled coastal waters, into the rivers.
>
> The decision sent a clear message, underscored repeatedly by
Hoffmann's
> congratulatory messages, that aggressive patrolling was expected and
> that well-timed, if unconventional, tactics like Bernique's were
encouraged.
>
> What we did on Feb. 28, 1969, was well in line with the tone set by
our
> top commanders.
>
> Zumwalt made that clear when he flew down to our base at An Thoi off
the
> southern tip of Vietnam to pin the Silver Star on Kerry and assorted
> Bronze Stars and commendation medals on the rest of us.
>
> My Bronze Star citation, signed by Zumwalt, praised the charge
tactic we
> used that day, saying the VC were "caught completely off guard."
>
> There's at least one mistake in that citation. The name of the river
> where the main action occurred is wrong, a reminder that such
documents
> were often done in haste, authored for their signers by staffers.
It's a
> cautionary note for those trying to piece it all together. There's
no
> final authority on something that happened so long ago — not the
> documents and not even the strained recollections of those of us who
> were there.
>
> But I know that what some people are saying now is wrong. While they
> mean to hurt Kerry, what they're saying impugns others who are not
in
> the public eye.
>
> Men like Larry Lee, who was on our bow with an M-60 machine gun as
we
> charged the riverbank; Kenneth Martin, who was in the .50-caliber
gun
> tub atop our boat; and Benjamin Cueva, our engineman, who was at our
aft
> gun mount suppressing the fire from the opposite bank.
>
> Wayne Langhoffer and the other crewmen on Droz's boat went through
even
> worse on April 12, 1969, when they saw Droz killed in a brutal
ambush
> that left PCF-43 an abandoned pile of wreckage on the banks of the
Duong
> Keo River. That was just a few months after the birth of his only
child,
> Tracy.
>
> The survivors of all these events are scattered across the country
now.
>
> Jerry Leeds lives in a tiny Kansas town where he built and sold a
> successful printing business. He owns a beautiful home with a lawn
that
> sweeps to the edge of a small lake, which he also owns. Every year,
> flights of purple martins return to the stately birdhouses on the
tall
> poles in his backyard.
>
> Cueva, recently retired, has raised three daughters and is beloved
by
> his neighbors for all the years he spent keeping their cars running.
Lee
> is a senior computer programmer in Kentucky, and Lamberson finished
a
> second military career in the Army.
>
> With the debate over that long-ago day in February, they're all
living
> that war another time.
>
> *
>
> William Rood is night city editor at the Chicago Tribune;
previously, he
> was a reporter and an editor at the Los Angeles Times. Both
publications
> are owned by Tribune Co.
>
>
> mahalo,
> jo4hn