Veterans Who Served with Kerry Demand
He Not Use Their Image In Campaign Photo
I notice that the leftist media is silent on this. A far cry from the
blitz about Bush using a couple of 9-11 shots. Not to mention the
contempt veterans seem to have for Kerry has not been pushed like the
lefts attacks on Bush's service.
Ex-colleagues say adoption by campaign 'a total fraud'
A group of more than 220 veterans who served in Sen. John Kerry's
swift-boat unit in Vietnam are calling on the presumptive Democratic
presidential candidate to stop unauthorized use of their images in
national campaign advertising.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has declared the Massachusetts
senator "unfit to be commander in chief," says 11 of the 20 officers
in one photo Kerry uses have signed a letter condemning him.
Most of the veterans in this 1969 photo don't want John Kerry to use
it in his presidential campaign.
The photo, which includes Kerry, was taken on the island of An Thoi
Jan. 22, 1969.
"Of the remaining eight officers in the photo, two are deceased and
four don't want any involvement," the veterans said in a statement.
Only two of the 20 are believed to support Kerry.
One veteran in the photo, William Shumadine, said, "His use of a
photograph with his 19 comrades with knowledge that 11 of them condemn
him and six who cannot or do not want to be involved is a complete
misrepresentation to the public and a total fraud."
The swift-boat group says it has no political affiliation and insists
its sole purpose is to "bring the truth about John Kerry's service to
the American public."
Among its members is virtually the entire chain of command to which
Kerry reported and a large majority of peers who served during his
four-month stay in Vietnam.
The group says it has received more than 2 million hits on its
website.
"John Kerry will find that the truth is hard to contain," said the
group's chairman, Admiral Roy Hoffman. "It's been evident in the
overwhelming support we have received over the last two weeks. We're
grateful to the veterans and Americans who are rallying behind us."
At the group's May 4 press conference, Hoffman, who headed Kerry's
Coastal Division 11, said Kerry was seen by colleagues as a
self-serving, "loose cannon" who came only to launch a political
career.
Hoffman said Kerry "arrived in country with a strong anti-Vietnam War
bias and a self-serving determination to build a foundation for his
political future."
"He was aggressive, but vain and prone to impulsive judgment, often
with disregard to specific tactical assignments," Hoffman said. "He
was a loose cannon."
A swift boat officer who served with Kerry, Thomas Wright, says he was
one of three colleagues who told the future senator to leave Vietnam
because of misbehavior and a poor attitude.
Wright says the bad behavior got to the point where he no longer
wanted Kerry in his boat group. So, at Wright's request, his
divisional commander assigned Kerry to another group.
Then Wright and like-minded boat officers took matters into their own
hands, according to John B. Dwyer, a Vietnam veteran and military
historian writing in the online magazine American Thinker.
"When he got his third Purple Heart, three of us told him to leave,"
Wright said, according to Dwyer. "We knew how the system worked and we
didn't want him in Coastal Division 11.
"Kerry didn't manipulate the system," he continued, "we did."
Swift Boat Vets Accuse Kerry of Vietnam
Photo Fraud
Eleven out of a group of 19 Vietnam Swift
Boat veterans pictured in Sen. John Kerry's presidential
campaign literature demanded on Monday that he stop
misrepresenting them as supporters.
"Many of us don't want to be included in that picture
because we have a rather unsavory feeling about this fellow,"
Kerry boatmate Bob Elder told nationally syndicated radio host
Linda Chavez.
Citing the top Democrat's anti-war activities after he
returned from Vietnam, Elder told Chavez, "We regard the fact
that he rallied the American public against his fellow
comrades in arms as basically a betrayal of all of us."
Swift Boat veteran Bill Shumadine, who's also pictured in
the campaign literature, told the Liberty Broadcasting host
that he didn't want to be associated with Kerry in any way,
calling his conduct after the war "very offensive."
"Having my picture there it appears that I somehow support
his cause," Shumadine explained, adding, "It's not something
that I'm proud to be associated with."
Elder, Shumadine and nine others have banded together in a
group they call "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," which
includes more than 220 Vietnam veterans who served in Kerry's
unit.
Of the remaining eight veterans pictured in the photograph,
"one is deceased and four do not wish to be involved in any
manner; only two of the 20 are believed to support Kerry," the
group said in a Monday press release.
"His use of a photograph with his 19 comrades with
knowledge that 11 of them condemn him ... is a complete
misrepresentation to the public and a total fraud," Shumadine
added.
Elder told Chavez that the group of 11 included not only
Kerry's boat mates but also two of his superior officers, who
joined in condemning the Democratic presidential candidate.
He noted also that at a press conference Friday in
Washington, the group was joined by Jim Zumwalt, son of the
late Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, former chief of naval operations
during the Vietnam War.
"Even Jim Zumwalt, on his father's behalf, joined us in
condemning the activities of John, saying they do not make
this man a fit candidate for commander in chief," Elder told
Chavez.
In an open letter to Kerry included with the press release,
the group said: "We did not give permission for you to use a
photo including our image, nor do we support you. ... We join
our fellow Swiftees who believe that someone who heaped scorn
and lies on his own unit for his personal political gain is
not fit to be Commander in Chief."
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