The Ming Report

NOW THE TRUTH WILL OUT

August 19, 2004 - As for the first, more fundamental objection to the convention video, Thurlow says that Kerry's version of the events of March 13, 1969, is simply wrong. "His story is a total fabrication," Thurlow says. One of the Swift Boats did hit a mine that day, Thurlow says, but much of the rest of Kerry's story is inaccurate. "This thing about being under intense enemy fire is a falsehood...There was no fire off either bank [of the river]. This thing about getting Jim out of the river under a hail of bullets with these serious injuries is totally fabricated."
"We fired our weapons onto the bank to suppress any chance that there might be snipers that might try to pick off guys in the chaos," Thurlow says. "But I don't remember any fire from the banks." Thurlow also says he saw Kerry briefly toward the end of the day, and "he wasn't bleeding, and he wasn't hurt."
That version of Larry Thurlow’s story that appeared in the July 30th edition of the National Review minces no words. According to Thurlow’s recollection John Kerry was a liar whose account of the events is a total fabrication. That story led to Kerry being awarded the Bronze Star and Thurlow’s account is the centerpiece of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth argument that John Kerry’s heroism is fictitious and the medal pinned on him by Admiral Zumwalt is underserved.

The Admiral pinned medals on three PCF skippers for their actions March13, 1969. One, Lt. Don Droz, was skipper of PCF 43 and perhaps John Kerry’s closest friend in Vietnam. He was killed when PCF 43 sailed into an ambush in April 1969. One, John Kerry, became a US Senator and Democratic candidate for President 35 years later. The third works in the oil fields in Kansas, is a leading member of the Swift Boat Vets for Bush and appears in the infamous “Kerry Lied” television spot. Reached by the Washington Post after attending a Swift Vets strategy meeting in Washington he claimed that he had lost the citation for the medal he received “years ago” and refused to release his own military records because he feared that the Kerry campaign might use them to discredit his claims that Kerry lied to get the Bronze Star.

Larry Thurlow’s fear is well founded. The newspaper had already obtained the citation under the Freedom of Information Act. The records show that when Thurlow stood in line between John Kerry and Don Droz while Admiral Zumwalt pinned the medals on them he heard the citation read which praised Thurlow for having gone to the aid of the stricken boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him.". Thurlow was the senior officer on the expedition and was charged with the responsibility to prepare the units’ after action reports. When he was read the words of his citation during the interview he blamed the references to automatic weapons and small arms fire on Kerry, the most junior of the five boat skippers. Still, as he stood there with John Kerry and Don Droz and heard the citations read out, he accepted the medal without protest.

There is a funny thing about the truth, a lesson that Larry Thurlow is beginning to learn. Shakespeare wrote of that lesson years ago. The Truth will Out.