Heros Don't Gloat

Drudge is news flashing again. We will see if this pans out, but it appears that Kerry "reenacted combat scenes for film while in Vietnam".

"Kerry carried a home movie camera to record his exploits for later viewing," charges a naval officer in the upcoming book UNFIT FOR COMMAND.

"Kerry would revisit ambush locations for reenacting combat scenes where he would portray the hero, catching it all on film. . .A joke circulated among Swiftees was that Kerry left Vietnam early not because he received three Purple Hearts, but because he had recorded enough film of himself to take home for his planned political campaigns."

Drudge cites the Boston Globe and the New York Times for some evidence as well.

The Boston Globe reported in 1996. . ."John was thinking Camelot when he shot that film, absolutely," says Thomas Vallely, a fellow veteran and one of Kerry's closest political advisers and friends.

NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Lt. Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson in his new book RECKLESS DISREGARD, ". . .the crew's gunner returned fire, hitting and wounding the lone gunman. Kerry directed the boat to charge the enemy position. Beaching his boat, Kerry jumped off, chased the wounded insurgent behind a thatched hutch, and killed him. Kerry and his crew returned within days, armed with a Super 8 video camera he had purchased at the post exchange at Cam Ranh Bay, and reenacted the skirmish on film."

Compare his actions to another Senator who ran for president. Bob Dole was wounded in World War II and lost the use of one of his arms:

Suddenly, while trying to assist the downed radio man, Dole was hit by Nazi machine gun fire in the upper right back and his right arm was so damaged that it was unrecognizable. Dole was immediately given morphine by an Army field medic to alleviate the pain, and his forehead was marked with an "M" in his own blood to alert medics. He was not expected to live.

Bob Dole didn't brag that he was wounded in World War II during the political campaign. His campaign may have, but I don't remember Dole himself having much to say about it. The one impression that Dole left me with is the stunned realization that he didn't have the use of his right arm, a realization that happened AFTER he lost the election. I got the sense that Senator Dole doesn't glamorize war nor his part in it.

I think of a person who goes back to the place where a person died and reenacts the killing as emotionally cold, calculating and void of human decency, at best. At worst, such a person would be a deviant. Now what kind of person uses such an incident to gain politcal advantage? Senator Kerry, isn't it enough that you got the body count? Why go back and gloat over a dead man? Perhaps it wasn't enough pub, because you later turned your back on your former mates and gained the hot media spotlight.

Senator Kerry, I know a hero, and you are not a hero.