Did Kerry serve 2 terms in Nam?

[KelleyKramer]

I've seen this bounced around that John Kerry was in combat in Vietnam for 'only' 4 and a half months.

Didn’t Kerry serve two terms? And if he did, wouldn’t that have to be more than 4 months.

I did a google and the hits went in 500 directions, looked around on the Kerry website and couldn’t find it there either.

If anyone can point me to some sources on this it would be much appreciated.

[never_get_over_it]

1. Yes

two tours of duty - did leave after third purple heart - which was the sop then

[The Shadow]

2. Yes He Served Two Tours

His first tour was onboard a surface craft operating off the coast of Vietnam. This is considered to be in a war zone.

[KelleyKramer]

4. For how long??

How long was the first tour?

And do you have any links??

Thanks

[Warpy]

9. His first tour was a full tour

on a ship named the Gridley. After his first tour, he volunteered for a second, but in more hazardous duty. He came back to the states between tours for swift boat training.

He was rotated home after his third wound. The Navy knew all to well that the fourth would probably be a fatal one. The usual wound aboard a swift boat was from shrapnel, and that's what Kerry's wounds were from.

[Zen Democrat]

13. Like he says ... go to johnkerry.com - His entire military record is there

along with a rapid response to the Swiftboat Veterans for Bush!

[dogman]

3. First tour at sea.

Came back for action on swift boat.

[blm]

5. Kerry's FIRST tour was on a ship offshore. When he re-signed for a SECOND

tour he REQUESTED to be sent to Vietnam and swift boat duty. It was during the heaviest fighting of the war. He trained on swift boats and went into the heavy fighting for 4 1/2 months.

[Tactical Progressive]

6. Kerry served on a battleship, I believe, off the Vietnam coast

in the Navy, and requested the very dangerous river boat tour of duty.

[DieboldMustDie]

16. It was a guided missile frigate.

http://home.nycap.rr.com/pwcarter/ ;)

[markses]

7. Kerry was only in-country for 4 1/2 months

Since his first tour "in" Vietnam was out at sea. His actual time in-country is 4 1/2 months, but this was his second tour in the theater. He took the "Get me the hell outta here option" after three certified wounds. That said, he was in a high combat area. Many Vietnam Veterans who spent 16 months in Vietnam saw very little - if any - combat (unloading beer at Camh Ran Bay, for example). And many other Vietnam Veterans took the three and out option as well. Everybody knows that the VAST MAJORITY of personnel in Vietnam were counting the days until they got out, and if they had an option for early release, or even an option to get out of the field and into some staff job, they took it, and pronto. The whole notion that Kerry is somehow different from the regular guy military personnel in Vietnam is quite laughable. If given the option, I'm guessing probably 75-80% would have split after three wounds.

Just as an example, I know a guy who operated APCs in War Zone C 1967-1968. He did his year, then had his "wake-up" in Saigon before taking a plane out. During his wake-up, some officer from his unit said they needed him back for some operation or other because they were short on experienced drivers. He told them to court martial him. He wasn't going back into the field under any circumstances. They didn't push the matter, and he came home to do the rest of his service State-side.

The whole idea of "tours" is also a bit cagey. Many GIs "re-upped" after their first 12 month tour (Marine tours were 13 months, I believe), meaning they traded another 4-6 months in-country for 1 year active duty back in the States. These GIs could claim to have done 2 tours, but 2 tours does not equal 2 years. Two tours could equal 16 months, with a month break in between the first 12 and the last 4.

[djg21]

12. A Catch-22 -- literally!

Anyone who didn't do anything possible to get out of Viet Nam probably was/is crazy, and of questionable judgment.

[NMDemDist2]

8. here from the John Kerry website

John Kerry enlisted in the Navy in 1966. After completing Naval Officer Candidates School, he began his first tour of duty on the USS Gridley, a guided-missile frigate in the waters adjacent to Vietnam. In 1968, John Kerry began his second tour of duty, and volunteered to serve on a Swift Boat, one of the most dangerous assignments of the war. Swift Boats patrolled the narrow inlets and canals around the Mekong Delta "to draw fire and smoke out the enemy," according to the The Boston Globe.

June 8, 1967 Kerry reports to USS Gridley-serves in several capacities
February 9, 1968 USS Gridley departs for a Western Pacific (WESTPAC) deployment, to engage in operations in support of the Vietnam War. Ship spends time in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam, at Subic Bay in the Philippines and in Wellington, New Zealand

February 10, 1968 Kerry requests duty in Vietnam He lists his first preference for a position as an officer in charge of a Swift Boat (designated PCF for Patrol Craft Fast), his second as an officer in a patrol boat (designated PBR, for Patrol Boat River) squadron

May 27, 1968 USS Gridley sets sail for the US

June 6, 1968 Kerry arrives in Long Beach the day after Senator Robert F. Kennedy is killed in Los Angeles

June 16, 1968 Kerry promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade

July 20, 1968 Kerry leaves Gridley for specialized training at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, CA in preparation for service as commander of a Swift Boat. These unarmored, but heavily armed, fifty foot aluminum hulled patrol boats depended on speed and agility when engaging the enemy.

November 17, 1968 Upon completion of his training, Kerry reports for duty to Coastal Squadron 1, Coastal Division 14, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam.
December 1968
through January 1969 Kerry commands PCF-44

December 2, 1968 Kerry experiences first intense combat; receives first combat related injury.

December 6, 1968 Kerry moved to Coastal Division 11 at An Thoi on Phu Quoc Island

December 13, 1968 Kerry moved to Coastal Division 13, Cam Ranh Bay

December 24, 1968 Kerry involved in combat during the Christmas Eve truce of 1968. The truce was three minutes old when mortar fire exploded around Lieutenant Kerry and his five-man crew. Reacting swiftly, John Kerry and his crew silenced the machine gun nest.
January 22, 1969 Kerry and other Swift boat commanders travel to Saigon for meeting with Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, Commander Naval Forces Vietnam (COMNAVFORV), and Gen. Creighton Abrams, Commander United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam (COMUSMACV)

Late January, 1969 Kerry joined his 5 man crew on PCF-94

Late January through
Early March, 1969 Starting in late January 1969, this crew completed 18 missions over an intense and dangerous 48 days, almost all of them in the dense jungles of the Mekong Delta. Kerry's crew included engineman Eugene Thorson, later an Iowa cement mason; David Alston, then the crew's only African-American and today a minister in South Carolina; petty officer Del Sandusky of Illinois; rear gunner and quartermaster Michael Medeiros of California; and the late Tom Belodeau, who joined the crew fresh out of Chelmsford High School in Massachusetts. Others rotated in and out of the crew. The most intense action came during an extraordinary eight days of more than 10 firefights, remembered by Kerry's crew as the "days of hell."

February 20, 1969 Kerry and crew involved in combat; Kerry receives second combat injury – Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a shrapnel wound in his left thigh.

February 28, 1969 For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving with Coastal Division ELEVEN engaged in armed conflict with Viet Cong insurgents in An Xuyen Province, Republic of Vietnam, on 28 February 1969. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry was serving as Officer in Charge of Patrol Craft Fast 94 and Officer in Tactical Command of a three-boat mission. As the force approached the target area on the narrow Dong Cung River, all units came under intense automatic weapons and small arms fire from an entrenched enemy force less than fifty-feet away. Unhesitatingly, Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry ordered his boat to attack as all units opened fire and beached directly in front of the enemy ambushers. The daring and courageous tactic surprised the enemy and succeeded in routing a score of enemy soldiers. The PCF gunners captured many enemy weapons in the battle that followed. On a request from U.S. Army advisors ashore, Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry ordered PCFs 94 and 23 further up river to suppress enemy sniper fire. After proceeding approximately eight hundred yards, the boats again were taken under fire from a heavily foliated area and B-40 rocket exploded close aboard PCF-94; with utter disregard for his own safety and the enemy rockets, he again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only ten feet from the VC rocket position, and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy. Upon sweeping the area an immediate search uncovered an enemy rest and supply area which was destroyed. The extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire were responsible for the highly successful mission. His actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

March 13, 1969 For heroic achievement while serving with Coastal Division ELEVEN engaged in armed conflict with Viet Cong communist aggressors in An Xuyen Province, Republic of Vietnam, on 13 March 1969. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry was serving as Officer in Charge of Patrol Craft Fast 94, one of five boats conducting a SEA Lords operation in the Bay Hap River. While exiting the river, a mine detonated under another Inshore Patrol Craft and almost simultaneously, another mine detonated wounding Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry in the right arm. In addition, all units began receiving small arms and automatic weapons fire from the river banks. When Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry discovered he had a man overboard, he returned upriver to assist. The man in the water was receiving sniper fire from both banks. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain and with disregard for his safety, he pulled the man aboard. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry then directed his boat to return and assist the other damaged boat to safety. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry’s calmness, professionalism and great personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry is authorized to wear the Combat “V”.

March 17, 1969 The policy of Coastal Squadron One, the swift boat command, was to send home any individual who is wounded three times in action. After sustaining his third wound from enemy action in Vietnam, Kerry was granted relief under this policy.

http://www.johnkerry.com/about/john_kerry/service_timeline.html

[KelleyKramer]

10. Thanks!!

That’s exactly what I was looking for. And its very interesting, he was right in the middle of the hornets nest for much of the time on the swift boat.
Reading through that I cant help but be reminded of the movie Apocalypse Now.

And Kerry VOLUNTEERED for that assignment.

[markses]

11. Not only did Kerry volunteer, but he did so at the worst moment of the war

Kerry's request for duty in Vietnam is dated FEBRUARY 10, 1968 - that is, at the height of the Tet Offensive. At that point, it looked like everything was going to hell - street fighting had been going on all over South Vietnam for the last week and a half, and the battle of Hue was at its murderous worst (although it would continue to get worse). It was generally thought that there would be some kind of large-scale attack on the Marine base at Khe Sanh, which had by then been jacked up to 5,000 Marines, all of whom were under steady artillery fire. Large scale street fighitng continued to go on in Saigon proper and environs (Cholon, Gia Dinh) through May, but in early February, it looked just awful. The uprising of the NLF in the Mekong Delta was also at its full height, though it would steadily decrease due to NLF losses during Tet.

To sign a request for service for Vietnam on February 10, 1968, you had to be pretty damn committed. Nobody knew how the clusterfuck would cash out then, but it certainly didn't look good.

[KelleyKramer]

15. That’s a damn good point

I knew the Tet offensive was in 68 but wasn’t sure the month.

And everyone agrees that was when the whole thing blew up. So basically in summary, Kerry served a year on a ship, and then when the shit hit the fan Kerry re-upped and requested to be sent into the middle of it.

Wow, I have even more respect for him now.

[Zen Democrat]

14. He had completed a tour in theatre on a ship and REQUESTED a

swift boat command in-country. He didn't have to do the additional time in a high combat zone.

All of this is going to blow up in those Swift Liars faces.

And .... all those veterans who received Purple Hearts in the same manner Kerry received his aren't going to like their medals being questioned either.