Kerry Defender Rood Contradicted by Crewmate
In a development that the establishment press is treating like
bombshell news, former Swift Boat commander William B. Rood has
stepped forward to defend John Kerry against the charge that he
exaggerated his valor during the Vietnam War in descriptions of a
foiled February 1969 ambush on his boat.
But unmentioned in coverage of Rood's story so far is one salient
fact: His account is sharply contradicted by one of Kerry's own
crewmates, who complained eight years ago that Kerry took credit for
bravery he didn't deserve - in an action that earned him the Silver
Star.
In Sunday editions of the Chicago Tribune, Rood backs Kerry's claim
that he singlehandedly took out a Viet Cong attacker who planned to
ambush his Swift Boat with a grenade launcher along the Bay Hap River.
Recalling what he saw from a different Swift Boat, Rood writes:
"Kerry, followed by one member of his crew, jumped ashore and chased a
VC behind a hooch - a thatched hut - maybe 15 yards inland from the
ambush site.
"Some who were there that day recall the man being wounded as he ran.
Neither I nor Jerry Leeds, our boat's leading petty officer with whom
I've checked my recollection of all these events, recalls that, which
is no surprise. Recollections of those who go through experiences like
that frequently differ."
They sure do.
Unmentioned by Rood in his Chicago Tribune report is the account of
Tom Bellodeau, who, unlike Rood, was actually aboard Kerry's boat when
the VC in question leveled his grenade launcher at them.
"You know, I shot that guy," Bellodeau told the Boston Globe during a
1996 interview, correcting an earlier Globe report that echoed Kerry's
claim that he alone had neutralized the enemy ambusher.
"He jumped up, he looked right at me, I looked at him," Bellodeau
continued. "You could tell he was trying to decide whether to shoot or
not. I expected the guy on Kerry's boat with the twin 50s to blast
him, but he couldn't depress the guns far enough. We were up on the
bank."
Only after the enemy soldier was wounded, said Bellodeau, did Kerry
leap from the boat onto the beach and pursue him around the back of a
nearby hut, where the would-be president finished him off.
Echoing ex-Commander Rood's version, Kerry's Silver Star citation
credits him alone for taking down the Viet Cong soldier, making no
mention whatsoever of Bellodeau, who has died in the intervening
years.
"An enemy soldier sprang up from his position not 10 feet from Swift
Boat 94 and fled," the combat award reads. "Without hesitation
Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry leaped ashore, pursued the man behind
a hootch and killed him, capturing a B-40 rocket launcher with a round
in the chamber."
And even though Kerry spoke at Bellodeau's funeral, he has done
nothing to incorporate his crewmate's role in subsequent accounts of
the encounter with the enemy fighter.
In a 1996 interview, Kerry made no mention of the first shot
whatsoever.
"It was either going to be him or it was going to be us. It was that
simple. I don't know why it wasn't us - I mean, to this day. He had a
rocket pointed right at our boat. He stood up out of a hole, and none
of us saw him until he was standing in front of us, aiming a rocket
right at us, and, for whatever reason, he didn't pull the trigger - he
turned and ran."
When pressed for more details, the top Democrat said: "I just won't
talk about all of it. I don't and can't. The things that really turned
me I've never told anybody. Nobody would understand."
Within hours of the Chicago Tribune's Saturday afternoon announcement
that William Rood had decided to go public with his Kerry defense,
more than 1,500 news outlets were touting the story on their Web
sites, with the Associated Press offering no fewer than 10 updates.
None of them mentioned Kerry's crewmate Tom Bellodeau.
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Liberals Hate America!
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