Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2004 11:53 a.m. EDT
Crew Member Questioned Kerry's Silver Star in 1996
A Swift Boat veteran who was a member of Sen. John Kerry's crew when their boat was targeted in February 1969 by an enemy rocket launcher has refuted Kerry's claim that he single-handedly saved his crew from the attack - an account that earned the top Democrat the Silver Star.
Interviewed during Kerry's 1996 Senate re-election battle, Kerry crew member Tom Bellodeau told the Boston Globe that he - not Kerry - fired the shot that brought down the enemy fighter, who had aimed a loaded rocket launcher at their boat just after Kerry beached it on the Ca Mau peninsula.
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"You know, I shot that guy," Bellodeau said, in response to an earlier Globe account that credited Kerry for his heroism.
"He jumped up, he looked right at me, I looked at him," the Kerry shipmate explained. "You could tell he was trying to decide whether to shoot or not. I expected the guy on Kerry's boat with the twin 50s to blast him, but he couldn't depress the guns far enough. We were up on the bank."
Only after the enemy soldier was wounded, said Bellodeau, did Kerry leap from the boat onto the beach and pursue him around the back of a nearby hut, where Kerry finished him off.
Bellodeau's account is particularly damaging because he was actually a member of Kerry's Swift Boat crew - the group of Vietnam veterans the Kerry campaign has repeatedly offered up to respond to criticism of his war record by other Swift Boaters who were on different boats.
Kerry's Silver Star citation credits him alone for taking down the Viet Cong soldier, making no mention whatsoever of Bellodeau.
"An enemy soldier sprang up from his position not 10 feet from Swift Boat 94 and fled," the combat award reads. "Without hesitation Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry leaped ashore, pursued the man behind a hootch and killed him, capturing a B-40 rocket launcher with a round in the chamber."
And Kerry has done nothing to incorporate Bellodeau's role in subsequent accounts of the encounter with the enemy fighter.
In a 1996 interview, Kerry makes no mention of the first shot whatsoever.
"It was either going to be him or it was going to be us. It was that simple. I don't know why it wasn't us - I mean, to this day. He had a rocket pointed right at our boat. He stood up out of a hole, and none of us saw him until he was standing in front of us, aiming a rocket right at us, and, for whatever reason, he didn't pull the trigger - he turned and ran."
When pressed for more details, the top Democrat said: "I just won't talk about all of it. I don't and can't. The things that really turned me I've never told anybody. Nobody would understand."
Editor's note:
Crew Member Questioned Kerry's Silver Star in 1996
A Swift Boat veteran who was a member of Sen. John Kerry's crew when their boat was targeted in February 1969 by an enemy rocket launcher has refuted Kerry's claim that he single-handedly saved his crew from the attack - an account that earned the top Democrat the Silver Star.
Interviewed during Kerry's 1996 Senate re-election battle, Kerry crew member Tom Bellodeau told the Boston Globe that he - not Kerry - fired the shot that brought down the enemy fighter, who had aimed a loaded rocket launcher at their boat just after Kerry beached it on the Ca Mau peninsula.
Story Continues Below
"You know, I shot that guy," Bellodeau said, in response to an earlier Globe account that credited Kerry for his heroism.
"He jumped up, he looked right at me, I looked at him," the Kerry shipmate explained. "You could tell he was trying to decide whether to shoot or not. I expected the guy on Kerry's boat with the twin 50s to blast him, but he couldn't depress the guns far enough. We were up on the bank."
Only after the enemy soldier was wounded, said Bellodeau, did Kerry leap from the boat onto the beach and pursue him around the back of a nearby hut, where Kerry finished him off.
Bellodeau's account is particularly damaging because he was actually a member of Kerry's Swift Boat crew - the group of Vietnam veterans the Kerry campaign has repeatedly offered up to respond to criticism of his war record by other Swift Boaters who were on different boats.
Kerry's Silver Star citation credits him alone for taking down the Viet Cong soldier, making no mention whatsoever of Bellodeau.
"An enemy soldier sprang up from his position not 10 feet from Swift Boat 94 and fled," the combat award reads. "Without hesitation Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry leaped ashore, pursued the man behind a hootch and killed him, capturing a B-40 rocket launcher with a round in the chamber."
And Kerry has done nothing to incorporate Bellodeau's role in subsequent accounts of the encounter with the enemy fighter.
In a 1996 interview, Kerry makes no mention of the first shot whatsoever.
"It was either going to be him or it was going to be us. It was that simple. I don't know why it wasn't us - I mean, to this day. He had a rocket pointed right at our boat. He stood up out of a hole, and none of us saw him until he was standing in front of us, aiming a rocket right at us, and, for whatever reason, he didn't pull the trigger - he turned and ran."
When pressed for more details, the top Democrat said: "I just won't talk about all of it. I don't and can't. The things that really turned me I've never told anybody. Nobody would understand."
Editor's note:
