i've been thinking about posts from swolf and karzak looking for an explanation on why, if true, the swift boats had no bullet holes.
i'm not sure, but i've read that the boats were a basic aluminum design. yeah, that would be pretty easy to penetrate. but then i started thinking that the topside area, the bridge and gun implacements would have to be somewhat armored, wouldn't they?
that would be the whole point of armor. non-explosive ordinance would not penetrate the armor, providing protection to the crew in combat.
a report wouldn't necessarily detail dings or chipping of non-penetrating rounds.
and another thing. i kept wondering, if they were getting sniped at, wouldn't they start to pepper the area with the 30 calibers? at least in response. to supress the enemy fire? keep 'em too busy ducking to get much off at you?
swolf points out that v.c. always moved in groups. sounds right to me. he mentioned groups as small as 5. perhaps several times that number.
so lets say that there was a band on each bank of 15 each. i would think maybe 10 more likely since their mo would have been stealth oriented. hit and run. but we'll say total 30.
5 boats x 6 crewman each =30. even if the numbers were equal, navy would be better trained and equipped with larger caliber machine guns and m16s.
my point is this; how come nobody considered that maybe the crewman were laying it down during the rescue? i mean, you're in the middle of a river in hostile vietnam, one boat has already been blown up. wouldn't anybody in his right mind have his eyes open and shoot first ask questions later?
i don't know if it ordinance useage gets detailed on the action report for a swift boat or not, but it might be interesting to see the ammo req preceeding this patrol and the one immediately following it.
Report: Texas oilmen are major donors to Swift Boat group
Posted on Fri, Sep. 10, 2004
Report shows Texas oilmen are major donors to Swift Boat group
By Meg Laughlin and Tom Infield
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Texas oilmen, led by takeover specialist T. Boone Pickens, helped fuel the anti-Kerry advertising campaign of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a report filed Friday shows.
Pickens contributed $500,000 to the group, the report said. A second oilman from Dallas, Albert Huddleston, contributed $100,000.
The group, whose controversial attacks on the war record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry have attracted national attention, claims it has raised $6.7 million, but it portrays itself as a grass-roots effort thriving on small contributions.
"The average contribution to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is $65," Weymouth Symmes, the group's treasurer, said earlier this week.
The report filed with the Federal Elections Commission on Friday detailed 683 contributions totaling just over $1.9 million, none of them less than $100. Federal law requires organizations such as the veterans group to show how they've paid for advertising within 24 hours of the ads' airing on television.
The group reported that it spent more than $700,000 to buy time for an anti-Kerry commercial now running on national cable television and paid for it with the contributions listed.
Pickens, 75, the founder of Mesa Petroleum, the largest independent oil and gas producer in the United States, made the largest contribution. A major Republican donor, he's previously supported both Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush.
Huddleston, 51, also is a major Republican donor. The chief executive of Hyperion Resources Inc., an oil and gas company, he raised at least $100,000 for Bush's 2000 campaign. He's also a heavy donor to Republican candidates in Texas, giving $704,500 in 2002, according to the nonpartisan group Follow the Money, which monitors Texas political contributions. Follow the Money reported that Huddleston also gave $68,000 to Texas Democrats that same year.
Mike Russell, who works for the Washington-area public relations firm Creative Response Concepts, which represents the Swift boat group, declined Friday to discuss how Pickens or Huddleston had come to donate to the anti-Kerry effort.
"I'm not going to comment on any of our major donors," Russell said. "We're just not going to say anything other than we appreciate the support of major donors and minor donors. We appreciation donations of all kinds."
Russell said Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had received donations from 53,000 people, most of whom had contributed through the group's Web site. On Thursday alone, he said, 2,681 people had given $82,405.
"Like any organization, we have major donors and small contributors. I think the important thing is we have taken in a huge amount of grass-roots support."
A fuller accounting of the group's contributions is due in October.
Good. It's always good to see people being allowed to support their political goals. I guess the idea of Facism in America is dead.
McGentrix wrote:Good. It's always good to see people being allowed to support their political goals.
I'm all for it, as long as it is transparent -- so that we know how much weight to give which messages.
It certainly is no beauty contest. But it is a popularity contest with a bit of roulette thrown in to keep things interesting.
So far I'm amused as long as they don't bring in a revolver and make it Russian Roulette.
Some seem to be pushing for it; just as they did in 1964 and moreso in 1968.
