In 1969 and 1970, I was officer in charge of a couple PCF’s in Coastal Division 13, the one right next to John Kerry’s. The officers and men that I served with were honorable and honest. About 90 percent of us were volunteers; we knew what we were doing, we knew why we were there. I can’t speak with any assuredness what went on on John Kerry’s boats or with his crews; I wasn’t there. I do know that in a whole year that I spent patrolling, I didn’t see anything like a war crime, an atrocity, anything like that. Time and again, I saw American fighting men put themselves in greater danger trying to avoid … the term our politicians coined for Vietnam, I believe, was “collateral damage.”

-- David Wallace

Or this:

My name is Joe Ponder, I live in Keystone Heights, FL. I served in Coastal Divisions 11 and 13 from July of '68 until I was wounded in a Sealords combat mission in Nov of 1968 on the Bo De River. During this time Senator Kerry was in our unit.

I'd prefer not to be here, but I feel that it is my duty to be here and stand with this association and explain why I signed this letter. My family feels I need to be here. It's my duty to be here. My daughters and my wife wanted to know ... (pause, chokes up) if I took part in the atrocities described. I do not believe the things that are described happened.

Many, many more statements from the vast majority of Kerry's fellow swiftboat crewman can be found here.

And some more particulars, for good measure:

Kerry began by referring to the Winter Soldiers Investigation in Detroit. Here, he claimed, "over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."
...
In fact, the entire Winter Soldiers Investigation was a lie. It was inspired by Mark Lane's 1970 book entitled Conversations with Americans, which claimed to recount atrocity stories by Vietnam veterans. This book was panned by James Reston Jr. and Neil Sheehan, not exactly known as supporters of the Vietnam War. Sheehan in particular demonstrated that many of Lane's "eye witnesses" either had never served in Vietnam or had not done so in the capacity they claimed.

Just a reminder ... I don't think that I could ever vote for such a man; someone that has never apologized for or disavowed such destructive, treasonous comments that were very possibly uttered in the name of career advancement. And no, "Where did all that dark hair go, Tim?" does NOT count as an apology.

I don't want this man as my President. Some might dismiss this as some blustery, right-wing talking point, but to me it's just common sense; I can't respect what the man did, and because he hasn't atoned for it, I can't respect the man.

I've also blogged about this here, here, and here.

UPDATE: Jesus people, look closely at the necklace; those aren't seashells. And the flag? It's white, see ... I honestly don't know why the Hell I bother.