No coverage of the Wm. Rood ChicagoTribune article?

[underpants]

I saw the story on CBS News last night but can't even find it on their website. Rood was one of three Swift boat captains on the mission in which Kerry won his Silver Star, Kerry and he are the only ones still alive.

As I have heard this morning reporting on the Swifties (NPR, Local NBC, TOday Show, CNN) I have said to myself AND......AND....

but no mention of this eyewitness account from that day. Rood states that he has no knowledge of the purple hearts and bronze star incidents but that the tactic of turning the boats INTO ambushes was Kerry's idea and it was pre-approved and pre-communicated with the crews. This (pardon the pun) blows the Swifties accounts (again they weren't there-Rood says) of that day out of the water.

Tribune-subscription required-this is very much worth the effort to read.

`This is what I saw that day'
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-0408220342aug22,1,2559470,print.story?coll=chi-electionsprint-hed

There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago--three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969.

One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other.

It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there.


John O'Neill, author of a highly critical account of Kerry's Vietnam service, describes the man Kerry chased as a "teenager" in a "loincloth." I have no idea how old the gunner Kerry chased that day was, but both Leeds and I recall that he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the VC usually wore.


Tribune article

Swift boat skipper: Kerry critics wrong
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-0408220343aug22,1,2916896.story?coll=chi-electionsprint-hed

The commander of a Navy swift boat who served alongside Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during the Vietnam War stepped forward Saturday to dispute attacks challenging Kerry's integrity and war record.

William Rood, an editor on the Chicago Tribune's metropolitan desk, said he broke 35 years of silence about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission that resulted in Kerry's receiving a Silver Star because recent portrayals of Kerry's actions published in the best-selling book "Unfit for Command" are wrong and smear the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry.

[Trajan]

1. Rood's article was widely covered by CNN this weekend ....

It had a effect, I believe, on damaging the credibility of the SBL's ... albiet perhaps a short lived one ....

[underpants]

3. Good I just hadn't seen it

I was watching the Olympics most of yesterday.

This isn't bit by bit type stuff this is huge chunks of the Swifties stories falling off.

[underpants]

2. Link to CBS-Big Backing For Kerry In Ad Wars

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/22/politics/main637603.shtml

(CBS/AP) A Chicago Tribune editor who served with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during the Vietnam War as the commander of a Navy swift boat on a 1969 mission is challenging the attacks on Kerry's account of the event.

William Rood, 61, said he decided to break his silence Saturday about the Feb. 28, 1969 mission because recent reports of Kerry's actions in that battle are incorrect and darken the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune's Sunday editions.

"I can't pretend those calls (from Kerry) had no effect on me, but that is not why I am writing this," Rood said. "What matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it."

[NWHarkness]

4. Detroit Free Press carried Rood's article this morning

I expect that other Knight-Ridder papers did as well.