SWIFT boats patrolled safe coasts? I'M SICK OF THIS SHIT! VN vets..help!

[LoZoccolo]

So I'm having a conversation in a chat room with this guy I know who is strangely Republican...strangely because I have no idea why...actually I shouldn't say that, because I think it's probably just arrogance. But then again, if he was showing off, he would have jumped ship by now because it's pretty embarassing to be standing by Bush* lately. Anyways, he comes up with this thing that just blew my mind because it's like, where does he get this? This is a college-educated guy who's skeptical about a lot of things, and yet I think he gets shit like this from Sean Hannity still. If he really wants to be an arrogant Republican fist-fucker bastard, he should realize that that stuff is for the rabble and not for him.

I changed my name in the below conversation because life is not without it's hazards, man.

<LoZoccolo> The thing is, I can't believe we're talking about whether or not someone's wounds 30 years ago were that bad or not when he volunteered for a job with a 75% casualty rate, when the other guy was missing for a year, specifically declined to serve in Vietnam, didn't show up for a physical when they started drug testing etc.
<Asten> yeah, kerry vol'd for swift boats, which usually patrolled the safe coasts
<Asten> but when he got in, they went to the rivers
<Asten> then he got 3 hearts and an out pretty quickly
<Asten> hrmmm

This is bullshit on the surface for at least three reasons:
OK if you wanted to avoid danger, you wouldn't sign up and volunteer at all!
Secondly, why would SWIFT boats be used to patrol "safe coasts"? Why would you patrol safe coasts at all?
Thirdly, is any coast safe when you're sitting out in the open in the water?

Are there any Viet Nam vets who know for a fact that this "safe coasts" thing is bullshit?

[xray s]

1. pity the fools...

...who have to constantly lie to retain their illusion of sanity. Their folly is plain for all to see.

[maine_raptor]

2. being in a unit

that averaged 75% casualty rate does not sound too safe to me

[fearnobush]

3. Well Freepers Like the fact that Bush skipped his med exam

so that he could do more Coke. He really was not AWOL. He was a Deserter. I know a lot Vets who really hate him for that.

[iwantmycountryback]

4. I guess they think Bush

requesting not to go to Vietnam was much more admirable. The Swift Boats were incredibly dangerous. We're talking about a guy who volunteered to serve and wanted to go to Vietnam and a guy who used his daddy's name to deliberately avoid it. It just makes no sense.

[LoZoccolo]

6. Oh that picture's great.

I just posted it into that chat room! I think Asten's gone though.

[iwantmycountryback]

9. Thanks

Thought it was pretty damn funny myself.

[A_Possum]

5. Actually...

I think he's right. From what I can tell from reading TOUR OF DUTY (Brinkley, not smearvets), at the time Kerry volunteered for the Swift boats, they didn't go up into the rivers. They were patrolling to intercept weapons shipments in the delta.

But he spent several months back in San Diego, training in the Swift boat stuff, and when he got back, Operation Sealords had begun, in which the Navy was trying to "show the flag" in the rivers and canals where everyone knew there were a lot of V.C. and it was difficult for land-based forces to reach.

However, whether or not he knew what he was getting into, once he was into it, he acted courageously and did what he was ordered to do.

[bluestateguy]

7. I'd rather talk about the current fucked up war we are in

rather than the fucked up war from 35 years ago. But if these old white men are still bitter about their LOSING efforts in Vietnam then by all means I welcome them to go back to Indochina and try again. They can even take Baby Bush with them to be their commander in chief.

[swag]

8. "Safe coasts" is a silly awkward lie on the part of someone

who is a silly awkward liar.

This is one of many articles worth a look.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1093533441218280.xml

West Michigan veteran recounts life on a swift boat
Thursday, August 26, 2004
By Ted Roelofs
The Grand Rapids Press

. . .

"We were lucky. We came under fire a lot," said VanderMolen, who retired earlier this year after 36 years in a variety of jobs with Consumers Energy.

Still, VanderMolen said his assignment along the coast could have been worse.

VanderMolen said most men considered the Mekong Delta the most dangerous place to take a Swift boat.

"They didn't live too long down there. He (Kerry) was really in the thick of it."

. . .

[Feanorcurufinwe]

10. Check this out

Although you are wasting your time, it is like trying to convince someone that the sun is bright.

This website is an apolitical Swift Boat veterans site. This link gives the areas they patrolled, including the Cua Dai river, the Cua Viet river, the Bassac River, the Soi Rap River, Ham Luong River, the Co Chein River... I may have missed some. They also did a lot of coastal patrols, whether that's safe or not is a pretty ridiculous criticism.

[HawkerHurricane]

11. If Kerry wanted safe, he would have stayed aboard USS Gridley

How many casualties in blue water surface warfare? How many in brown water coastal patrols? Big difference.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. Actually at that point he was scheduled to go back to the US