Once more into the breach, dear friends
This is for all of you without 20+ years of Naval experience
(and that includes J. Kerry) There is only one type of ship
in the US arsenal that routinely operates without an escort.
That type of ship, my friends and potential enemies, is
Submarines. Swift boats are run in groups as few as 2 to
as many the squadron (like airplanes) has available. Those
of you who watched Apocalypse Now; that was a movie,
I.E. fiction. The Navy does not send single lightly armed
and armored vessels up river by themselves. Or at least
not without close air support available as a back up.

Commanders of a vessel DO NOT shoot the weapons on
a mission. He might want to, if the sailor who would have
manned the weapons were dead. But his first duty would
be to commanding the ship and completing the mission.

Commanders of a vessel DO NOT have another sailor
abandon his post to film the commander's exploits under
fire. There are only a maximum of 5 people on a Swift
boat, all of them have a battle station to man. None of them
are extraneous to the vessel's mission and only a fool
would think they were.

The last two statements are also part of the OCS training
that J. Kerry received but must have forgotten or most
likely actually followed. But I am pretty sure re-enacting
battles, in the same area the battle took place, is not in the
OCS training J. Kerry had either. Which speaks volumes
to his ability to make reasonable decisions in the field.

lesson finished.

- posted by Mike @ 8:18 PM