Kerry 'Unfit to be Commander-in-Chief,' Say Former Military Colleagues
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
May 03, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of former commanders and military colleagues
of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry are set to declare in a
signed letter that he is "unfit to be commander-in-chief." They will
do so at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday.

"What is going to happen on Tuesday is an event that is really
historical in dimension," John O'Neill, a Vietnam veteran who served
in the Navy as a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) boat commander, told
CNSNews.com. The event, which is expected to draw about 25 of the
letter-signers, is being organized by a newly formed group called
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

"We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every
commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter
that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief," O'Neill said.

O'Neill, currently a Houston, Texas, based attorney, is no stranger to
Kerry. O'Neill served in the same naval unit as Kerry and commanded
Kerry's swift boat after Kerry returned to the United States. Kerry's
command of the PCF boat lasted four months and ended shortly after he
received his third Purple Heart. According to naval regulations at the
time, any sailor who received three Purple Hearts could request a
transfer out of the combat zone.

Kerry and O'Neill engaged in a nationally televised debate in 1971 on
The Dick Cavett Show over Kerry's allegations that many Vietnam
soldiers had routinely engaged in atrocities such as raping and
cutting off ears and heads of Vietnamese soldiers and citizens. Kerry
was the then spokesman for the anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against
the War.

"We are going to be presenting a letter that deals with Kerry's
unfitness to be commander and chief that has been signed by hundreds
of swift boat sailors, including most of those who served with Kerry,"
O'Neill explained.

"The ranks of the people signing [the letter] range from admiral down
to seaman, and they run across the entire spectrum of politics,
specialties, and political feelings about the Vietnam War," he added.

Among those scheduled to attend the event at the National Press Club
and declare Kerry unfit for the role of commander-in-chief are retired
Naval Rear Admiral Roy Hoffman, who was the commander of the Navy
Coastal Surveillance Force, which included the swift boats on which
Kerry served.

Also scheduled to be present at the event is Kerry's former commanding
officer, Lt. Commander Grant Hibbard. Hibbard recently questioned
whether Kerry deserved the first of his three Purple Hearts that he
received in Vietnam. Hibbard doubted both the severity of the wound
and whether it resulted from enemy fire.

"I've had thorns from a rose that were worse" than Kerry's wound for
which he received a Purple Heart, Hibbard told the Boston Globe in
April.

Organizers are confident that Tuesday's event and the letter with
hundreds of signatures will educate people about Kerry.

"It is one of the largest outpourings of concern about him being
commander-in-chief that anybody could have in a presidential campaign
and it is by the people who know him best," O'Neill said.

'Unfit Commander-in-Chief'

Swift Boat Veterans For Truth maintains that Kerry's fellow Vietnam
veterans are almost uniform in their disdain for his military service
and anti-war protests.

"Not only a majority of the people who served with him feel that way,
but a vast and overwhelming majority," O'Neill said. He added that
more than "ninety percent of the people contacted by Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth responded to the request to sign their name, with
only 12 declining to sign.

"Comrades who actually served with him, almost all of them, are
opposed to him, and believe he would be an unfit commander in chief
and intend to bring the truth of his actual record to the attention of
the American people," O'Neill said.

O'Neill hopes the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth can reveal to the
American people what he sees as Kerry's flawed character.

"In the military, loyalty between commanders and the troops serving
them is a two-way street. We have here a guy (Kerry) that with all of
us in the field [in Vietnam] -- actually fighting the North Vietnamese
-- came home and then falsely accused all of us of war crimes at a
time when the people in uniform couldn't even respond," O'Neill said.

"And he did that knowing that was a lie," he added.

'Real John Kerry'

B. G. Burkett, author of the book Stolen Valor and a military
researcher, believes that Tuesday's event will not be dismissed easily
by Kerry's campaign as a "partisan" attack.

"There are probably just as many Democrats amongst sailors who sailed
swift boats as there are Republicans. What Kerry fails to realize is
this has nothing to do with politics -- this has to with Vietnam
Veterans who served, who have a beef with John Kerry's service, both
during and after the war," Burkett told CNSNews.com.

"The American people do not know John Kerry and hopefully the swift
boat crews and other Vietnam veterans will make sure that the American
public knows the real John Kerry," he added.

Jim Loftus of Kerry's press office referred questions about Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth's event on Tuesday to spokesman David Wade. Wade
did not return CNSNews.com's requests for comment.

Scott in Florida