Novak dropped a clue about Kerry's first purple heart on Crossfire.

[alcuno]

He said something about a swiftvet coming out about Kerry's first purple heart. Who was he talking about? Gardiner?

[mourningdove92]

1. Yes, I heard that.

Something about we shouldn't be too sure that someone who was on the boat with Kerry, blah, blah, blah. Then he clammed up and I changed the station.

[NWHarkness]

2. Just another attempt to muddy the water

[sallyseven]

3. Isn't that the guy Kerry wanted to have court marshalled?

[alcuno]

4. Are you serious?

It's hard to keep all the facts straight anymore.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. Novak lied as usual.

What the fuck else is new.

He said in an interview Sunday he somehow was chosen - "Let me tell you, I didn't volunteer" - to go out on the Dec. 2, 1968, mission, called a "skim op" in Navy slang.

The small, flat-bottomed boat - Runyon called it a "skimmer" - carried three men - Kerry in command, Bill Zaledonis on a machine gun and Runyon operating the outboard motor.

Once in place on the river, the three U.S. sailors paddled and drifted. Covered by the darkness, they hid to stop sampans, small vessels common in Southeast Asia. Guerillas used the sampans to smuggle weapons in the Mekong River Delta.

Runyon said Kerry was wounded after one vessel tried to avoid an inspection.

"Lt. Kerry said, 'I'm going to pop a flare, and when I do, I want that engine started,' " Runyon said. But the outboard would not crank. Meanwhile, the sampan's crew steered it to the riverbank, and people started running on the shore. Runyon said shooting broke out.

Somehow, Kerry's weapon stopped firing. Runyon thinks he ran out of ammunition. He said Kerry bent down to pick up another gun and got hit in the arm.
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/ispol/109265583079530.xml?ispol

[The Magistrate]

6. Indeed, Sir

That is probably not who the reptile Novak was refering to, of course: this is a reliable witness.

Apparently, there is some squirrel who claims he was a fourth man on that boat, associated with the smear campaign. No one else on the boat remembers him having been there, which would be par for the course with these detestable critters....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[tom22]

7. Bill Zaledonis was the other

sailor in the boat. He was standing at Kerry's side when JFK denounced the swiftboat ad before the firefighters union. THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO WITNESSES TO THE FIRST PURPLE HEART AWARD.

[KC21304]

8. No Gardner was definately not there. But O'Neill is trying to say

that someone named Schlacte ? was also in the Boston Whaler but the other two guys who were with Kerry say only 3 men were in the tiny boat. Supposedly this guy O'Neill is trying to pass off as being there is a Vice Admiral or Admiral now. But I read in one of the major stories today that this guy is not available for comment.

[featherman]

9. There is a guy who claims he was on the boat

but apparently was not. He "witnessed" Kerry wounding himself and has been blabbing it up. This is probably what the reptile Novak is referring to. Nobody else on the boat remembers him being there and I presume the mission records will confirm this. However, truth doesn't matter much in these fights and I am sure this lie will be repeated endlessly.