These are actual Navy Records. They are not easy to decipher, and are pdf files. I've transcribed to the best of my ability. Kerry was the officer in command of PCF 94 during this incident where they picked up Rassman (boldface mine):
After Action "Spot Report" for March 1969
GR. PCF 23 JOINED AT CAI NUOC. PCFS WITH MSF EMBARKED DEPARTED CAI NUOC AT 1445H PROCEEDING DOWN BAY HAP. AT VQ 995770
MINE DETONATED UNDER PCF 3 LIFTING BOAT ABOUT 2-3 FEET OUT OF WATER. VERY HEAVY BLK SMOT(smoke?) OBSERVED AT SAME TIME BOATS RCVD HEAVY A/W AND S/A FROM BOTH BANKS. FIRECONTINUED FOSNABOUT 5000 METERS. TWO OTHER MINE EXPLOSIONS OVC RVED. ALL BOATS AND MSF RETURNED FIRE A D ATTEMPTED ASSIST PCF 3.
PCF 94 PICKED UP MSF ADVISOR WHO WENT OVERBOARD. 94 TOWED PCF 3 AS BUCKET BRIGADE CONTROLLED FLOODING. PCF 43 TOOK ALL WIA TO USCGC SPENCER DOR TREATMENT. PCF 94 AND 51 ASSISTED PCF 3. LCVP ITH D/C PARTY WAS IMMEDIATELY DISPATCHED FROM WASHTENAW COUNTY. BOAT DAMAGE SEPARATE MESSAGE.
********(description of wounded, including Kerry and others, some "medevac" and Kerry's and several others listed as "minor." Kerry's details:
DELTA: H13MAR 69, 1530H, HSONG BAY HAP, WQ010780.HWHILE SERVING AS OFFICER IN CHARGE ABOARD PCF-94 ENGAGED IN OPERATIONS IN THE ABOVE RIVER. LTJG KERRY SUFFERED SHAPNEL WOUNDS IN HIS LEFT BUTTOCKS AND CONTUSIONS ON HIS RIGHT FOREARM WHEN A MINE DETONATED CLOSE ABOARD PCF-94
ECHO: CONDITION GOOD, PROGNOSIS EXCELLENT, PRESENCE OF NOK IS NOT MEDICALLY WARRENTED
Actual pdf files at
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/SpotReports_March1969.pdf*******
John Rassman's own account of the incident not only corroborates this, but amplifies the situation at the time:
On March 13, 1969, Rassman was a 21-year-old lieutenant in Army Special Forces when he was blown overboard from a boat next to Kerry’s on the Bay Hap River. Someone on Kerry’s boat saw Rassman in the water, dodging sniper fire from both banks.
In a recollection decades later, Kerry said: “Jim was exhausted from swimming, and my right arm hurt and I couldn’t pull very hard with it. Everyone else was firing a machine gun or something. … Christ knows how, but somehow we got him on board and I didn’t get the bullet in the head I expected.”
Rassman said he clung to the bow of Kerry’s boat in an awkward position, unable to pull himself onto the deck.
“I was just incredulous to see John run out of that pilothouse and up onto the deck,” he said. “I truly did expect him to get shot. One newspaper quoted me as saying, ‘What a dummy.’ It was not dumb — it was blind courage on his part.”
Except for a letter that went unanswered in 1984, just after Kerry was elected to the U.S. Senate, Rassman made no further attempt to contact Kerry.
Then in January, while in a bookstore in Los Angeles, Rassman saw copies of “Tour of Duty,” a book by historian Douglas Brinkley about Kerry’s military and antiwar experiences. It is based largely on Kerry’s letters and journals and interviews with him and the men who served with him.
Rassman read about his rescue.
“I turned to my wife and told her the story,” he said. “She read it. Then I took the book out of her hand, closed it, put it back on the counter, took her by the hand and left the store. I was overwhelmed and choked up.”*****
My personal point of view...the swiftboatvets and the other vets who are now claiming Kerry is "unfit to command" really are as low as it gets.
Feel free to copy this to any other thread or use at will to counter the distortions.
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