Update : Alston Was There

I do not want to impugn the service record of veterans. Military records do not reflect the true nature if a military persons time in service. To question veterans recounts of there wartime experiences is, to me, beyond disgusting. There are some G.I.'s who like to embellish their record. They have every right to tell their war stories. They earned it. There are many that deserve the Medal of Honor that never received even an honorable mention. When the questions started flying about John Kerry's service record my initial reaction was this: "GET OFF HIS ASS !" Since the facts have started to come out regarding the record Kerry claimed, and the actual record, and, that he has made his time in service as the centerpiece of his campaign, Kerry's record is fair game. He can make it all go away by releasing his records like he demanded President Bush do for months. He hasn't done it and I doubt that he will. John Kerry has not responded to any of the charges specificaly or in person. In it's stead, he has initiated a media blackout. John Kerry has brought all of this onto himself.
There has been much written about this in the blogosphere and almost totally ignored by the main stream media.(MSM)
Mea Culpa Rev. Alston. You're an honorable man. When the record stated that he had been shot in the head and evacuated on the same day as Lt.Peck, the commander of PCF-94 whom Kerry replaced as skipper I thought it was safe to assume he never served with Kerry. I was wrong.
This is from the National Review Online
---Larry Everett

"Byron York
August 16, 2004, 8:42 a.m.
Kerry’s Brief Brotherhood
The truth behind a sensational rumor about Kerry’s “band of brothers.”

In the last few days, there's been a new accusation floating around the Internet about John Kerry's Vietnam record. It involves speculation that David Alston, one of the "band of brothers" who served on board Kerry's Swift Boat, did not actually serve with Kerry at all. If such a story were true, it would be sensational news, given that Alston has made extensive public statements, including a speech at the Democratic National Convention, about his time with Kerry. The only problem is, it's not true. Alston did indeed serve under Kerry.

But the attention the rumor brought to Alston and his service aboard Kerry's boat, PCF-94, has cast new light on the time the men were together. And it appears that while Alston was in fact on board PCF-94 when Kerry was in command, his total time of service under Kerry was quite brief — perhaps as little as seven days. According to records of Kerry's service posted on his campaign's website, it appears the two men were in actual combat together on two of those days.

...Alston has on at least one occasion seemed to give the impression that he was present for Kerry's Silver Star-winning actions on February 28. "I know when John Kerry told [crew member Del Sandusky] to beach that damn boat, this was a brand-new ball game," Alston told ABC's Nightline on June 22. "We wasn't running. We took it to Charlie."

[snip]

For his part, Kerry has sometimes left the impression that he was present when Alston was wounded. Paying tribute to Alston's service during a speech before a South Carolina veterans' group in May 2002, Kerry said, according to an account in The New Republic, "He [Alston] sat up in a turret above my head in the pilot house — firing twin fifty-calibers to suppress enemy fire from ambushes. We were extremely exposed — always shot at first.... On one occasion in an ambush his turret was riddled with almost one hundred bullets penetrating the aluminum skin. This gunman kept firing even though he was wounded — one bullet going through his helmet, grazing his head and another hitting his arm...."

That description sounds precisely like the incident on January 29, 1969 in which Alston was wounded. But Lt. Peck, and not Kerry, was in command of PCF-94 that day."

[snip]

"The Kerry campaign website has in the past listed Kerry as being the skipper of PCF-94 at the time of Alston's wounding. When Kerry's military records were first posted on the site, according to the Globe, "the campaign summarize[d] action that took place on Jan. 29, 1969, this way: 'While Kerry's boat and another (PCF-72) were probing a canal along the river, Kerry's boat came under heavy fire and was hit by a B-40 rocket in the cabin area. One member of Kerry's crew Forward Gunner David Alston suffered shrapnel wounds in his head....'" The campaign website also listed two other incidents that took place prior to January 29 as having occurred under Kerry's leadership.

Peck, who would later sign a letter to Kerry written by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, protested. "Those are definitely mine," he told the Globe. "There is no doubt about it." The campaign later removed the January 29 reference from the website."Read the Whole Thing