LIBERALS HATE AMERICA! Admiral speaks out and disputes Kerry's
account of 1st wound
August 27, 2004
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
NEW YORK -- Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. said Thursday in
his first on-the-record interview about the swift boat veterans
dispute that "I was absolutely in the skimmer" in the early morning on
Dec. 2, 1968, when Lt. (j.g.) John Kerry was involved in an incident
that led to his first Purple Heart.
"Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 [grenade launcher]," Schachte said
in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said,
"Kerry requested a Purple Heart."
Schachte, a lieutenant, said he was in command of the small boat
called a Boston whaler or skimmer, with Kerry aboard in his first
combat mission in the Vietnam War. The third crew member was an
enlisted man, whose name Schachte did not remember.
Two enlisted men who appeared at the podium with Kerry at the
Democratic National Convention in Boston have asserted that they were
alone in the small boat with Kerry, with no other officer present.
Schachte said it "was not possible" for Kerry to have gone out alone
so soon after joining the swift boat command in late November 1968.
Kerry supporters said no critics of the Democratic presidential
nominee ever were aboard a boat with him in combat. Washington lawyer
Lanny Davis has contended that Schachte was not aboard the Boston
whaler and says the statement that Schachte was aboard in Unfit for
Command undermines that critical book's credibility.
Schachte until now has refused to speak out publicly on this question
and agreed to give only two interviews. One was a television interview
with Lisa Meyers of NBC News, for broadcast Thursday night. The second
was a print interview with me, for publication today.
Schachte described the use of the skimmer operating very close to
shore as a technique that he personally designed to flush out enemy
forces so that the larger swift boats could move in. Around 3 a.m. on
Dec. 2, Schachte said, the skimmer -- code-named "Batman" -- fired a
hand-held flare. He said that after Kerry's M-16 rifle jammed, the new
officer picked up the M-79 and, "I heard a 'thunk.' There was no fire
from the enemy," he said.
Patrick Runyon and William Zaladonis are the two enlisted men who said
they were aboard the skimmer and did not know Schachte. However, two
other former officers interviewed Thursday confirmed that Schachte was
the originator of the technique and always was aboard the Boston
whaler for these missions.
Grant Hibbard, who as a lieutenant commander was Schachte's superior
officer, confirmed that Schachte always went on these skimmer missions
and said, "I don't think he [Kerry] was alone" on his first
assignment. Hibbard said he had told Kerry to "forget it" when he
asked for a Purple Heart.
Ted Peck, another swift boat commander, said, "I remember Bill
[Schachte] telling me it didn't happen" -- that is, Kerry getting an
enemy-inflicted wound. He said it would be "impossible" for Kerry to
have been in the skimmer without Schachte.
"I was astonished by Kerry's version" [in his book Tour of Duty] of
what happened Dec. 2, Schachte said Thursday. When asked to support
the Kerry critics in the swift boat controversy, Schachte said, "I
didn't want to get involved." But he said he gradually began to change
his mind when he saw his own involvement and credibility challenged,
starting with Davis on CNN's "Crossfire" on Aug. 12.
The next time he saw Kerry after the first Purple Heart incident,
Schachte said, was "about 20 years" later on the U.S. Senate subway in
the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building. "I called, 'Hey,
John.' He replied, 'Batman.' I was absolutely amazed by his memory."
He said they "talked about having lunch" but never did it.
Schachte said he never has been contacted by or talked to anybody in
the Bush-Cheney campaign or any Republican organization. He said he
has been a political independent who votes for candidates of both
parties.
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Liberals Hate America!
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