Larry Thurlow, one of Kerry’s leading attackers as part of the Swiftboat Veterans for Bush, has been insisting that Kerry doesn’t deserve a Bronze Stars for a firefight in 1969 because Kerry’s boat wasn’t under enemy fire. Kerry and everyone who was on Kerry’s boat remember things differently and think Thurlow is lying.<\/p>\n
If only there was some kind official military record that could prove once and for all who’s right here. Oh wait; there is<\/a>.<\/p>\n Newly obtained military records of one of Sen. John F. Kerry’s most vocal critics, who has accused the Democratic presidential candidate of lying about his wartime record to win medals, contradict his own version of events.<\/p>\n In newspaper interviews and a best-selling book, Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy Swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has strongly disputed Kerry’s claim that the Massachusetts Democrat’s boat came under fire during a mission in Viet Cong-controlled territory on March 13, 1969. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his actions that day.<\/p>\n But Thurlow’s military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to “enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire” directed at “all units” of the five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat “despite enemy bullets flying about him.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Oops. A document recommending Thurlow for the Bronze Star noted that all his actions “took place under constant enemy small arms fire which LTJG THURLOW completely ignored in providing immediate assistance” to the disabled boat and its crew. The citation states that all other units in the flotilla also came under fire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I’m also left wondering if Thurlow might face some legal troubles now. After all, his slanderous attacks against Kerry were offered in a sworn legal document.<\/p>\n Last month, Thurlow swore in an affidavit that Kerry was “not under fire” when he fished Lt. James Rassmann out of the water. He described Kerry’s Bronze Star citation, which says that all units involved came under “small arms and automatic weapons fire,” as “totally fabricated.”<\/p>\n “I never heard a shot,” Thurlow said in his affidavit, which was released by Swift Boats Veterans for Truth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s one thing to lie about a war hero, it’s another to get caught and be disgraced on the front page of the Washington Post, and it’s still another to get caught lying in a sworn affidavit. It couldn’t have happened to a more appropriate guy.<\/p>\n So that Swiftboat crew, which Bush still refuses to denounce, sure has compiled quite a team, hasn’t it? In addition to the latest discredited hack, we’ve got a doctor who claims to have treated Kerry but whose name doesn’t appear on any medical records<\/a>, an anti-Catholic bigot<\/a>, a man who’s already distanced himself from his own charges<\/a> against Kerry, and a GOP attack dog<\/a> with no credibility. Oh yeah, I almost forgot — none of these men actually served alongside Kerry<\/i>.<\/p>\n I’m sure John Kerry will graciously accept this group’s apology as soon as they’re prepared to do the honorable thing. We’re waiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Larry Thurlow, one of Kerry’s leading attackers as part of the Swiftboat Veterans for Bush, has been insisting that Kerry doesn’t deserve a Bronze Stars for a firefight in 1969 because Kerry’s boat wasn’t under enemy fire. Kerry and everyone who was on Kerry’s boat remember things differently and think Thurlow is lying. If only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nThurlow had been asked to provide his records to substantiate his claims. He’s refused. Now we know why.<\/p>\n