Swift Boat vet backs Kerry

[Epitome22]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/23/s... /


Swift boat veteran backs Kerry on details of 1969 ambush
Group continues its challenge of nominee's honors
By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff | August 23, 2004

Supporting John F. Kerry's recollection of a Vietnam War battle that is a focal point of criticism against him by a group of veterans, a gunner on the Navy swift boat immediately behind John F. Kerry's distinctly remembers enemy fire around them during a March 1969 ambush.

Wayne D. Langhofer, now an employee at a Kansas gunpowder plant, told the Washington Post in yesterday's editions, "There was a lot of firing going on, and it came from both sides of the river."

Reflecting on the battle in the Bay Hap River, which resulted both in Kerry being awarded the Bronze Star and receiving a third Purple Heart, which allowed him to end his combat tour after just four months, Langhofer said he distinctly remembered the "clack, clack, clack" of enemy AK-47s, as well as muzzle flashes from the surrounding riverbanks. Langhofer manned a machine gun aboard PCF-43, the boat that was directly behind Kerry's.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Kerry opponents funded in part by a Texas contributor to President Bush, has argued that there was no enemy gunfire and that Kerry's injury did not warrant the Purple Heart that cleared the way for his departure from Vietnam. The group, arguing that the river attack and Kerry's subsequent war protests call into question his ability to be commander in chief, has launched an ad campaign against Kerry.
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