BACKGROUND
I was born in Houston, Texas, on May 4, 1940, the youngest of 3 children. Educated in the public schools of Houston, I graduated from the University of Texas Plan II program in 1962. I was a 3-year pre-law student and got my undergraduate degree following my first year in law school. I got my law degree in 1964. I was licensed in Texas in September 1964.
In October 1964, I began working for the Harris County District Attorney until May 1967, when I resigned to enter the U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. I was commissioned as an Ensign on September 15, 1967, and ordered to attend the Navy Justice School for 8 weeks, also in Newport.
I was a successful prosecutor and keen about the work. I always felt I was on the right side even when I failed to convict. The right side meant fairly presenting the facts and letting the jury decide the truth. In later years of defense practice, I could not always feel good about a win.
My political conscience was still forming, and I had no opinions whether the war was good or bad. I looked upon my service as an opportunity to learn and understand. As a newly commissioned officer, an older one at that, I knew my first responsibility was to do my job well, protect those in my charge and let the civilian leadership of the military determine through my superior officers what I was supposed to do.
One of my objectives in enlisting in the Navy was to go to Swift Boats. I had passed Navy and Air Force tests for flight training, but the five year commitment was longer than I wanted to give. As it turned out, when I put in for Swifts as an Ensign, I was told to forget about it until I became an Ltjg and was fleet qualified. Following Justice School I was assigned to a helicopter carrier, USS Princeton (LPH-5) as the ship’s legal officer. It was a non-lawyer billet and they got a 3-year experienced felony prosecutor instead. I relieved a man who was going to Swift boat school as a Ltjg—Larry Thurlow, later featured in Sen. Kerry’s book, Tour of Duty.
NAVAL SERVICE
My service on USS Princeton (LPH-5), a converted WWII Essex class attack carrier, was wonderful. We made one cruise to Vietnam lasting about 8 months. We patrolled off the DMZ and south to DaNang. We stopped in Vung Tau one time to offload some huge computers and that was as close to “in-country” as I got with one exciting exception.
My tour of duty on the Princeton was honorable, but I would never represent it as a first tour of duty in Vietnam. It would be too self-promotional and undeserved. To do that demeans the brave men who really were “in” Vietnam.
When the Princeton returned to the States, I reapplied for Swift training and was accepted. In the meantime Princeton was designated as the prime recovery ship for Apollo 10. I got to do that one as one of the 4 fleet Officers of the Deck on duty for that recovery. This was enormously rewarding.
I shipped out for Vietnam in September 1969. I landed in Cam Ranh Bay where I remained for about 3 or 4 days for processing. The Navy base was in a beautiful setting, but it was obvious that the Swift Boat patrols there were rough assignments as far as sea conditions. I did not have a sense at the time of their combat exposure, but those men were tough. I also saw in them what I came to know as “the look.” After a while you can look at a man and know he has faced the tiger, and “the look” is never anything deliberate or contrived. There’s strength in them that others don’t have.
I was assigned to Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. This division was initially responsible for coastal patrols from just north of Vung Tau to just south of the Bassac River. The preceding October saw that assignment dramatically change. Operation SEALORDS was initiated calling for the Swifts to assume river patrol responsibilities ands for the Coast Guard to take over the former Swift areas. Unlike Swifties who came to Vietnam the year before, I fully expected to work in the rivers rather than offshore. As it turned out we worked in many of the canals as well. I had very few coastal patrols—2 or 3.
WORK was defined as daytime patrols stopping and searching river traffic, looking for contraband and people with suspicious identities, as well as sometimes going in certain areas on raids, with or without troops embarked. These raids would involve two or more boats roaring into a canal complex, with or without air cover, for the purpose of destroying bunkers and engaging the enemy. Sometimes these raids resulted in firefights. Other daytime work called for Medical Civil Action patrols. These MEDCAPS would bring a Navy corpsman and medical kit to a hamlet or village where he would set up to treat the people. One could also bring a case of Ivory hotel size soap—not the lavatory size but the bigger bath size. The local women really appreciated that soap.
NIGHT WORK was considerably different: quiet night insertions of small teams of American and Vietnamese soldiers to be picked up later or two boat ambush actions. Night ambushes using two boats that sound like Greyhound buses presented their own special challenges in order not to compromise security or safety.
For any American citizen reading this, thanks for sticking with me thus far. What I want to get across is that this activity, whether it was day or night, was authorized by higher-ups and cleared by local authorities. We had to provide extensive reports afterwards. All of the actions that I participated in were covered by clear, understandable and progressive rules of engagement. We all used common sense restraint. I can tell you that this was the rule for every officer I served with. Trigger-happy hotdogs would have been shunned. This was a group of disciplined, professional men. The officer-in-command (the O-in-C) would be very clear with his expectations.
I served on the boats from early October 1969 until maybe March 1970. While I commanded PCF 59, we did our duty, had our share of raids and successful night ambushes. Each ambush where shots were fired killed ARMED enemy and resulted in captured equipment and documents. In all of that I remain proud that not once was one of my men injured or wounded in action while working under my command. The goal was that they not get Purple Hearts. If the O-in-C was ambiguous in his command personality, then dumb things might happen.
Why do I tell you this? Sen. Kerry details in his book a nighttime incident where he says his gunner opened up on a sampan and killed a child. Sen. Kerry says he only wanted the gunner to fire across the bow. If this is true, it’s an example of ambiguous commands. No weapon should be fired without the shooter clearly understanding what’s required under these specific circumstances.
I left the boats I think in March and was sent up to squadron in Cam Ranh Bay as an Operational Readiness Inspections Officer. Normally that duty involved testing new crews coming in country to see if they were ready for the job. By the time I went up, the job had changed to testing Vietnamese officers and crew for readiness to take over our Swifts.
I went to Cam Ranh Bay for six or so weeks and then the Squadron moved offices down to Cat Lo. While at squadron on two or three occasions I was designated as the operations officer for POW rescue missions in the Delta performed by Swift Boats supporting Seals and other special operations teams. Sad to say these resulted in what I came to call “warm rice and burning cigarettes” rescues.
I participated in one major action as a squadron officer. I was one of three officer/advisors for 15 Vietnamese Swifts going into Cambodia in May 1970, just after my 30th birthday. Between March and August I made frequent trips around the Delta and elsewhere. The last big trip was taking our new Squadron Executive Officer around and showing him where we operated and how to travel informally and efficiently. This mostly involved bumming rides and finding safe places to sleep and almost never accepting official statements that “you can’t get there from here.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
All this is a predicate for more personal experiences. I want anyone reading this to know how dedicated and honorable those who served in Vietnam were, and how damaging and willfully destructive were Mr. Kerry’s irresponsible characterizations in 1971.
1. My first night ambush in the Long Tuan (south side of the Co Chien) resulted in us throwing down on a man and woman paddling their sampan past our position. No shots fired, no injuries to anyone. They were going into a bad area to get their children out. The next day local forces accompanied by an American Navy officer went in with them and brought the children out safely.
2. My first combat action happened on November 11, 1969, during a raid in the Tan Phu Special zone, a prohibited area i.e. only bad guys in there. We went in to mortar bunkers. This was a 3-boat action. I was tail end both directions. On the way out the lead boat got hit by two RPG B-40’s, blowing one man, a Vietnamese sailor into the water, disabling the port engine and severing the fuel line to the other engine. That engine had enough fuel to get out of the canal and into the Co Chien River, beaching on a sand bar. The second boat maneuvered to pick up the man in the water and the third boat placed itself between the man and the hostile shoreline. These two boats laid down suppressing fire while the retrieval was carried out. They then withdrew to the river to attend to the damaged boat. Three casualties, but not life threatening. The third boat coordinated an air strike brought in on the ambush site. Four months later the boat officers were given Bronze Stars, down graded from Silver Star command recommendations. Crewmembers were also decorated.[1]
3. During one daytime patrol on the north bank of the Co Chien, I came upon an old man paddling strenuously upriver against a falling tide. In other words he was fighting the tide and the current and getting almost nowhere. Inside his sampan was a woman, I think his granddaughter. She was suffering from some sort of abdominal pain that I believed was appendicitis. I later found out that I was right. We took the woman on board and put her in one of our stretchers. I told the old man (thru my Vietnamese trainee) that I would take her upriver to the Bac Si in Ben Tre. Bac Si= Doctor. We took off and I radioed ahead to the District Advisor requesting medical attention at the dock in Ben Tre. When we arrived the tide was out and the dock surface was above our pilothouse. With engines running but not engaged, I ordered the boat lightly tended to the dock pilings. One of my crew and I lifted the woman onto my main cabin and then up on the dock. There a military ambulance backed up to transfer her to their stretcher. As we set the woman down, a swarm of old ladies rushed to her side providing comfort. My man and I then jumped down to the boat and got out of there. What made this a fast maneuver was that someone was sniping away at us from the other side of the river from the time we first came alongside until we started moving back to the Co Chien. We could not determine where the firing was coming from and there was civilian housing over there. Shooting back would have injured innocents. Flecks of cement were being knocked off the pilings near the heads of my crewmen tending the forward and aft lines. They just hunkered down presenting less of a target to the sniper. When I took the after steering wheel and brought the boat away from the dock, I noticed that a round had creased the wheel in its inside at its amidships position. In other words that sniper was plinking at me just when I came down off the dock. My crew exercised admirable fire discipline because they clearly understood our dilemma.
4. On at least three or four occasions I got a medic to give me instructions on basic maladies and treatment of the villagers. He set me up with a decent medical kit. Often hygiene issues caused these conditions. So, ointments and instructions about boiling water and using the Ivory soap were common. I worked on boils and minor infections. Simple things like aspirin could be very effective.
5. Daytime board and search operations often involved searching large water taxis that might have anywhere from 15 to 50 passengers, including children. My routine was to survey the women and children for medical issues and to try to treat them at the back of the taxi. Boils and scabies. I would do this while my men (US and Vietnamese) conducted the search of the taxi and brought me the operator’s papers. I always carried soap to give to the ladies. I developed a friendship with one of these delightful old gals because she realized we were trying to help their condition. At the same time I felt it was important to be respectful and compassionate in a Vietnamese way for all of these women and their children. The taxi operators were never happy because we interrupted their business. Still I would address their displeasure in a respectful way and apologized for any inconvenience. This particular woman became my ally and on more than one occasion she climbed on the roof of the taxi and rushed forward to “order” the operator to stop for us. In the course of this the other ladies exercised their authority over the drivers. These women were tough and wonderful. The taxi operators might have respected our firepower, but they surely didn’t want these ladies on their case.
6. One morning on patrol I came on another old man chugging along in his sampan. We pulled over to check his identity papers. This guy was born in 1888 or 1889, so he was in his 80’s. He had few teeth. He had on a pair of old shorts, no shirt. All he had in the boat was a partial pack of terrible Vietnamese cigarettes, a little bag containing two or three balls of cooked rice and a half bottle of local rice wine. His legs were like strands of cable and his stomach was a washboard. He was cheerful and patient with us. For all I know this old man could have been the baddest VC leader in the Delta, but he had seen it all. This man had been serving up his identity card to foreigners of all sorts, French, Japanese, Americans and North Vietnamese. We showed him a high degree of respect. I went below and got him two cans of American beer[2], a couple of packs of American cigarettes and some canned food. We apologized for inconveniencing him, but told him it was our pleasure to visit with him.
Again, why am I telling you, the reader these highly personal, never before shared experiences? Sen. Kerry described soldiers in Vietnam as indiscriminate killers looking out for themselves. This year, you’ll get a chance to hear from many “Swiftees,” and you’ll see his allegations were willfully wrong. He now characterizes himself as an ‘angry young man,’ but we don’t believe any anger justifies lying and character assassination.
During my service almost every Swift boat had Vietnamese trainees. Mr. Kerry charged that we didn’t understand the Vietnamese, but in my experience, when you showed respect, they responded accordingly.
On only one occasion did I have a member of my crew behave in other than a respectful manner to my trainees. He was condescending and rude to them and used pejorative language. I corrected him on the spot in no uncertain terms. He had been transferred into the division from some non-Swift unit. At the conclusion of the patrol, I got rid of him. We didn’t need him and my trainees deserved better.
What’s the significance of this? Again, Mr. Kerry told the American people and the press that soldiers in Vietnam were racist and abused or ridiculed our Vietnamese colleagues. I only saw that once, and I got rid of that guy fast.
Prior to the Cambodian invasion in May 1970, the advisory team, including our squadron commander and his Vietnamese counterpart, and the O-in-Cs of 8 American Swifts that were to lead the 15 Vietnamese boats into Cambodia, met on board a support vessel anchored downriver from the Cambodian border. Mind you these are scruffy boat officers and some of us ex-scruffies. The purpose of the meeting was to get an Admiral’s briefing. I am sure he put his life on the line and paid his dues earlier in his career. He spoke all of the words admirals are supposed to speak and we all listened attentively knowing that the substance was to come from his staff, and it did. I had attended admiral’s briefings in the past. The IMPORTANT stuff came later.
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[1] A month later I night inserted a team and picked them up the next night. They had killed some VC and returned with documents, including citations to the VC who had shot the lead boat.
[2] Of course, the beer was prohibited.
