Swift Boat Vet: Thurlow too distracted to notice gunfire:

[Nicholas_J]

August 27th - 11:30 am ET
Swift boat crewman says Kerry's boat came under fire in Vietnam incident that led to Bronze star

JOSEPH B. FRAZIER
Associated Press Writer
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry acknowledges the warm welcome he received from supporters at a fundraising reception Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004, in Santa Monica, Calif. He'll travel to San Francisco later Thursday evening. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)
PORTLAND, Ore. — A swift boat crewman decorated in the 1969 Vietnam incident where John Kerry won a Bronze Star says not only did they come under enemy fire but also that his own boat commander, who has challenged the official account, was too distracted to notice the gunfire.

Retired Chief Petty Officer Robert E. Lambert, of Eagle Point, Ore., got a Bronze Star for pulling his boat commander — Lt. Larry Thurlow — out of the Bay Hap River on March 13, 1969. Thurlow had jumped onto another swift boat to aid sailors wounded by a mine explosion but fell off when the out-of-control boat ran aground.

Thurlow, who has been prominent among a group of veterans challenging the Democratic presidential candidate's record, has said there was no enemy fire during the incident. Lambert, however, supports the Navy account that says all five swift boats in the task force "came under small arms and automatic weapon fire from the river banks" when the mine detonated.

"I thought we were under fire, I believed we were under fire," Lambert said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"Thurlow was far too distracted with rescue efforts to even realize he was under fire. He was concentrating on trying to save lives."

The anti-Kerry group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, has been running television ads challenging the Navy account of the boats being under fire. Kerry has condemned the ads as a Republican smear campaign.

A career military man, Lambert is no fan of Kerry's either. He doesn't like Kerry's post-Vietnam anti-war activity and doesn't plan to vote for him.

"I don't like the man himself," Lambert said, "but I think what happened happened, and he was there."

A March 1969 Navy report located by The Associated Press this week supports


http://wire.jacksonville.com/pstories/politics/20040827/2400926.shtml

[RobertSeattle]

1. If Thurlow was smart, he'd use this an excuse to extraicate himself

from this SBVT cacophany of misrepresentations.

But I don't think he's that smart.

[olddem43]

3. I don't think any of them are very smart, with the possible exception

of O'Neill. Gardner looks to be the dumbest, he looks like he hasn't been further than the nearest bar in the last 30 years.

[UTUSN]

2. Well, Duh (re: THURLOW). And Betcha

THURLOW, while getting undunked and being too busy to notice enemy gunfire, was also NOT THINKING ABOUT COLLECTING danged decorations-----------and GUESS what, betcha JK wasn't THINKING ABOUT DECORATIONS while he was doing what he was doing. Sheesh.

[elehhhhna]

4. Isn't "distracted" Navy parlance for Buzzed ?

[Nicholas_J]

5. Gee, dunno...

was too distracted to remember.

[HawkerHurricane]

10. Not nowadays...

A senior enlisted man (Like a Chief or First Class) when speaking to a senior officer about a junior officer might call the junior officer 'distracted'.
Chief to XO: "I dunno, sir, Ltjg Thurlow seems kind of, well, distracted..."

When speaking to a fellow senior enlisted, he'd say it straight...
Chief to First Class: "That Ltjg Thurlow's fucking clueless!"

[skip fox]

6. I just added to our Swift Boat resource file in DU's Editorials:

A solid overview of the Swift Boat Story including

I. Introduction and History of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (hereafter SBVT)

II. Recent Accounts of Other Swift Boat Vets and Others
--a. Vets who Were Kerry Contradicting the SBVT
--b. People with Special Information Contradicting SBVT
--c. New Vets Contradicting Kerry

III. New Charges against Kerry About his Service

IV. Changes or Qualifications in Stories of Individual SBVT

V. Points of Collusion Between Republicans and the SBVT

Broken into separate posts (for ease of jumping) and all with easy-to-use hot links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x70318

Please inform me of new stories and links as they occur and I'll up-date this on Monday or Tuesday. (Sooner if some SBVT stories break over the weekend.

[WiseMen]

7. Thurlow is a liar, like O'Neil. He could have checked with other

shipmates on facts.

[PurityOfEssence]

8. That does NOT cover him; he's still an EXTREME LIAR BY DEFINITION

When you say you know something for a fact, and then go back and say that maybe you're not so sure, you've lied. You've lied about knowing without doubt what you're saying. He doesn't get a free pass because he was "busy", regardless of what he was doing.

He needs to retract his emphatic lie and apologize.

The lie about the facts is actually fluffable as a misinterpretation or something like that, but representing something of which you're not sure as an absolute truth is a clear-cut lie by definition: he KNEW that he wasn't sure, and represented himself as if he was.

Filth. Anyone rushing to his aid should be told that they're enabling a liar.

[mbali]

9. Waiting for someone to ask Thurlow . . .

1. Was it normal procedure for crew members in the midst of a fire fight in the dark on the Mekong Delta to spend as much time observing what was going on in other boats as the Swift Boaters seemed to be doing?

2. Did you spend as much time observing what was happening in any Swift Boat other than Kerry's?

3. Could it be that you didn't hear gunfire because you were so busy gazing at Kerry from afar that you were completely oblivious to what was going on around you?

4. Does that explain how you got blown overboard and STILL didn't seem to notice any gunfire?

5. Does John Kerry STILL have that effect on you and is that why you feel that you must destroy him?