The left grabbed the truth of the Swift Boat Veterans and the good they did for America by derailing John Kerry’s Presidential bid and made it a dirty word(s).

Q&O sets them straight.

“It has become an article of truth to many on the left that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were a pack of liars. They believe that this group of former Vietnam Swift Boat vets were enticed by Republican operatives to sell themselves out to sink the presidential aspirations of John Kerry. And they further believe that the only reason it worked was because Kerry was slow to respond.

I hate to buck the left’s conventional wisdom, but I don’t buy that at all.

A couple of points. John Kerry made both Vietnam and his service there the major backdrop of his campaign. Not the SBVT, but Kerry. And after shunning his “band of brothers” in the ’70s and calling them killers, murderers, torturers and the like, Kerry suddenly rediscovered them when it was politically expedient to do so.

This, as you might guess, rankled some of his peers from that era, especially when he started making claims about his service that just didn’t add up. And I spent an enormous amount of time combing through their claims, reasearching them and writing about them…..

For instance. I found out that Kerry’s account of what happened when he dumped the SF officer in the water and then went back and “rescued” him differed markedly from that of the other Swift Boat commanders and the official record. I examined that in detail to reach the conclusion that Kerry’s account was almost entirely a fabrication. A single mine went off, there was no fire from the banks, and the boats stayed on station for over 45 minutes rescuing the crew of the 3 boat and getting that boat in tow.

I found out that it seems probable that two of Kerry’s Purple Hearts were from self-inflicted wounds, neither wound inflicted during hostile action (and the requirement for a PH is very specific about such wounds and their circumstances).

I found no evidence of Kerry’s supposed trip to Cambodia. None. In fact, it became pretty clear it never happened when you read not only the statements of crew members, but Kerry’s own journal entries themselves. And any military man would point out that a) you’d never choose the most junior Swift Boat skipper when more senior and experienced skippers were available, and b) you’d most likely not want a loud and noisy Swift Boat anyway when you had two boat teams available through SEAL units stationed in the area whose job it was to make clandestine insertions by water.

I actually supported his claim of the Silver Star as I understood it was given to the person heading an operation as an impact award. I also pointed out that while I could support that award, his tactics were abominable and he could just as easily have gotten his whole crew killed with them.

I also closely examined his fitness reports, or at least the ones he released. I’ve written hundreds of them over my career (we call the efficiency reports) and served on promotion boards which review them for promotion). I found Kerry’s claims that they put him among the best of officers to be wildly exaggerated. He was at best a mediocre officer.

I, among others, also discovered that when Mr. Kerry applied for Swift Boats in Vietnam, he applied knowing they were running coastal patrols … about as dangerous as going to work on the freeway each morning, or perhaps less.

When he arrived the mission had been changed to riverine patrols, something he was not at all enamored with and worked diligently to get out of. And, of course, you know that story.”

Yes we know the truth indeed.