Reconstructing One Day on a Swift Boat (Wow)

[oldhat]

http://www.bakersfield.com/columnist/local/price/story/4918722p-4975095c.html

login: bakersfieldisreally
pass: oklahoma

Now the right had seized upon the Vietnam War, too -- specifically the role, in uniform and out, of Sen. John Kerry. And to Means, it seemed just as wrong.

Means, a 55-year-old investigator for several Bakersfield law firms, was particularly annoyed by the words of one retired admiral. Roy F. "Latch" Hoffman, one of the co-founders of the pro-George W. Bush group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, had publicly criticized Kerry, a former Swift boat commander, for having brought back stories about alleged war crimes by U.S. forces -- often carried out, Kerry said in 1971, "with the full awareness of officers at all levels."

Seemed to him, Means said, his own Swift boat crew had come close to committing a war crime themselves one day. A senior officer, hitching a ride up the coast aboard their Swift boat, had ordered the crew to fire on a small group of unarmed Vietnamese fishermen working their nets in unrestricted waters, Means said. The boat's commanding officer had refused to comply.

Was that the way the boat's commander remembered the incident too, all these years later? Means had to know.
So he got on the Internet and hunted down Thomas W.L. "Tad" McCall, the retired Navy captain who'd commanded Means' boat, PCF 88, as a newly minted ensign. Means called him.

Not only did McCall remember the day in question, and that confrontation off the coast of South Vietnam, he remembered the name of the officer who had given the command to shoot: "Latch" Hoffman himself, then a Navy captain in charge of the entire Swift boat task force in Vietnam.

The next morning Means told me the whole story. Then I called McCall myself.

McCall, now 60, remembers March 14, 1969, because it was his 25th birthday. He'd only been running a Swift boat for a few weeks, having arrived in Vietnam in January 1969, the same month as Means.

********

Posted at Atrios, too.

[johnfunk]

1. Kerry "Swiftvet" accuser ordered war atrocity

... now THAT'S a far better title for the article

[kodi]

21. there is no statute of limitations on war crimes.

.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Hope Means and McCall would be willing to give some tv interviews

This would be excellent, wouldn't it? People telling the truth are far more believable.

[wryter2000]

3. Wow

That's awesome. Thanks.

You might not want to give out your logon information, though. Registration is free, or people can check the story on Atrios.

[LTR]

8. Looks like a Bug-me-not login

I have provided those on occasion.

http://www.bugmenot.com/

[henslee]

12. bugmenot is bitchin'.

[0007]

18. What am I doing wrong? Can't get it to work!

[Rose Siding]

4. The wind up, the pitch, STEEEEE-rike

Now we're playing hardball.

[KC21304]

5. Kerry tells Brinkley in Tour of Duty all about Hoffman's reputation

of running up the body count. Hoffman read this in the book and that is why he got in touch with O'Neill to start up Swiftvets against Kerry. I read the book back in March and as soon as I saw Hoffman's name on the ad I knew why he did it.

And to show you what hypocrits some of these guys are, some of them, like Thurlow and Elliot told Brinkley the same thing about Hoffman, but now they are on Hoffman's side. They didn't like some of the things Kerry said about them in the book either.

[Eloriel]

6. OMG -

This pisses me off to the max. Unbelievable. The bastard, the fucking bastard.

[TahitiNut]

7. (Vuja De) "having arrived in Vietnam in January 1969"

As another who "arrived in Vietnam in January 1969" on a Continental MACV flight from Travis via Honolulu and the Philippines into Bien Hoa, arriving at about 6am, all this focus on the same year I was there sure does bring back ... memories. March was a VERY bad month in South Vietnam, especially in the Mekong Delta region and west of Saigon. The NVA and VC launched a Tet'69 offensive that lasted several weeks - but isn't talked about as much since it wasn't a "surprise" like '68. After the assault on our southern perimeter in late February, we spent quite a few nights in sandbag bunkers waiting out harassing rocket attacks. That's when I switched to night shift (6pm-6am) because of the project I was working on... and found myself often having to scramble into flak jacket and steel pot and go play 'warrior' -- a little like a strange adrenalin break for a desk jockey like me.

[Octafish]

9. Gee. No wonder he doesn't like Kerry.

Kerry remembers and tells the Truth.

The Truth spells danger to traitors, like this "admiral."

[Old and In the Way]

11. Exactly Octafish.....a recurring theme of people who don't want

their past uncovered. It all makes sense now why Hoffman hates Kerry.

Maybe this will finally sink their boat. Hoffman was the "name" that made this hit group credible. Hopefully now people will understand his motivation for signing on with the liars.

[hang a left]

10. kick n/t

[yardwork]

13. This needs to get on TV and talk shows

kick

[agincourt]

14. Little off topic,

But I sat in B&N today thumbing through the shitboat screed. They got the flipping picture of Kerry sitting a couple rows behind Jane Fonda in it. I had to chuckle. The book is troll rantings, I can't believe this country still falls for this crap.

[MagickMuffin]

15. My thoughts

on this subject has always been that perhaps the people who were committing the atrocities don't see it that way. I think they enjoyed what they were doing just as Charles Graner, who was responsible for the torture at Abu Ghraib.

Charles Graner said "The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the Corrections Officer says, 'I love to make a grown man piss on himself."

I think most of these types of people enjoy committing these kinds of crimes.

Think of how many times the repubs implied that Abu Ghraib torture was just college pranks. Just blowing off steam.....

[Voltaire99]

20. Oh, those were just a few bad eggs!

You know, the few bad eggs who killed three million Vietnamese.

In any event, there's plenty of good writing touching on the subject of atrocity-as-sport, which is as old as war itself and knows no national boundaries. Check out "The Face of Battle" by John Keegan, "The Great War and Modern Memory" by Paul Fussel, or "Dispatches" by Michael Herr, to name but a few texts.

Notably in Vietnam most Americans were unhappy conscripts, yanked out of their lives by LBJ and Nixon and sent to commit slaughter. But what needs to be asked is: who would voluntarily "report" for such "duty"?

[neonplaque]

16. This should be on the frontpage of USA Today, WAPost, NYTimes

kick

[fishface]

17. The Bush kneepadding 'lib' media won't touch this..

not sexy enough when you can smear a presidential candidate instead.

[Octafish]

19. With sufficient pressure, they'll have to.

Otherwise Corporate McPravda will lose ALL credibility with the masses. Besides, there are signs a couple of nutworks have sniffed out the dirty rat the Bushes are and have started to tell the story. Let's see who puts the nation ahead of advertisers.

EDiT: tippo