Thanks for bringing this up. I gotta say, first of all, this alone makes me question the motives of any statements made by Thurlow:
> He speculated that Kerry could have been the source of at least some ofI also found it interesting Lt. Cmdr. George M. Elliott was mentioned in the story as a Swift Boat Vet supporter...
> the language used in the citation.> In a telephone interview Tuesday evening after he attended a Swift Boat
> Veterans strategy session in an Arlington hotel, Thurlow said he lost his
> Bronze Star citation more than 20 years ago. He said he was unwilling to
> authorize release of his military records because he feared attempts
> by the Kerry campaign to discredit him and other anti-Kerry veterans.
> The Bronze Star recommendations for both Kerry and Thurlow were signed... without stating what any of his conflicting statements were (though it was mentioned, at least, that he made them). You see, Elliott was a Kerry supporter in a 1996 Senate race... He fully supported Kerry's actions in Vietnam. Elliott's one-year old statements are here:
> by Lt. Cmdr. George M. Elliott, who received reports on the incident from his
> base in the Gulf of Thailand. Elliott is a supporter of Swift Boat Veterans for
> Truth and has questioned Kerry's actions in Vietnam. But he has refused
> repeated requests for an interview after issuing conflicting statements to the
> Boston Globe about whether Kerry deserved a Silver Star. He was
> unreachable last night.
(Kranish, Michael. "John F. Kerry: Candidate in the Making - Part 2: Heroism, and Growing Concern About War. Boston Globe, June 16, 2003) .... In part:
When Kerry returned to his base, his commanding officer, George Elliott, raised an issue with Kerry: the fine line between whether the action merited a medal or a court-martial.
"When [Kerry] came back from the well-publicized action where he beached his boat in middle of ambush and chased a VC around a hootch and ended his life, when [Kerry] came back and I heard his debrief, I said, 'John, I don't know whether you should be court-martialed or given a medal, court-martialed for leaving your ship, your post,'" Elliott recalled in an interview.
"But I ended up writing it up for a Silver Star, which is well deserved, and I have no regrets or second thoughts at all about that," Elliott said. A Silver Star, which the Navy said is its fifth-highest medal, commends distinctive gallantry in action.
Asked why he had raised the issue of a court-martial, Elliott said he did so "half tongue-in-cheek, because there was never any question I wanted him to realize I didn't want him to leave his boat unattended. That was in context of big-ship Navy - my background. A C.O. [commanding officer] never leaves his ship in battle or anything else. I realize this, first of all, it was pretty courageous to turn into an ambush even though you usually find no more than two or three people there. On the other hand, on an operation some time later, down on the very tip of the peninsula, we had lost one boat and several men in a big operation, and they were hit by a lot more than two or three people."
Elliott stressed that he never questioned Kerry's decision to kill the Viet Cong, and he appeared in Boston at Kerry's side during the 1996 Senate race to back up that aspect of Kerry's action.
"I don't think they were exactly ready to court-martial him," said Wade Sanders, who commanded a swift boat that sometimes accompanied Kerry's vessel, and who later became deputy assistant secretary of the Navy. "I can only say from the certainty borne of experience that there must have been some rumbling about, 'What are we going to do with this guy, he turned his boat,' and I can hear the words, 'He endangered his crew.' But from our position, the tactic to take is whatever action is best designed to eliminate the enemy threat, which is what he did."
Indeed, the Silver Star citation makes clear that Kerry's performance on that day was both extraordinary and risky. "With utter disregard for his own safety and the enemy rockets," the citation says, Kerry "again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only 10 feet from the Viet Cong rocket position and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy . . . The extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lt. Kerry in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire were responsible for the highly successful mission."Best, All!
Tod <-- finally relaxing a moment
