Setting Kerry's Record Straight

Letters to The Washington Post:

Saturday, April 24, 2004; Page A19

I have been hearing and seeing negative stories and attacks on my friend and former PCF-44 Swift Boat commander, John Kerry, and I believe it's time to put them to rest.

I served with Kerry on his first Swift Boat, PCF-44, as his second in command, senior enlisted man and radarman 2nd class. I was on the boat with Kerry, on patrol and in firefights. Steve Hayes [op-ed, April 17] may not have known Kerry well, but I know him very well.

From the first day I met him, I knew that I had someone special whom I could trust in any situation, but especially under attack or in a firefight. Kerry always took care of his men. We needed each other to survive. We were truly brothers then, and we maintain that closeness to this day. I saw combat with Kerry, and there was not a time that he did not display courage, compassion, caring, and the best command decisions. This is why we nine crewmates support him to this day.

I trusted John Kerry with my life 35 years ago, and I wouldn't hesitate to do the same today.

-- James R. Wasser

St. Anne, Ill.

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Steve Hayes asks us not to make John Kerry's war record more than it was. Yet Hayes makes Kerry's war record much less than it was. Hayes presents the senator's service as a series of minor wounds that got him sent home early.

Somehow, his selective memory and personal bias keep him from even mentioning that Kerry also earned the Silver and Bronze stars for unusual gallantry and heroic service in combat. Such an omission is inexcusable.

-- Stephanie Dray

Owings Mills, Md.




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