Kerry's website biography:

John Kerry served two tours of duty. On his second tour, he volunteered to serve on a Swift Boat in the river deltas, one of the most dangerous assignments of the war.

The Globe article:

Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe.

"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

Doesn't quite make the same impression, does it?

Now, two items in Kerry's defense:

- If somebody was running away from me carrying a live rocket launcher, I would have shot him in the back too.

- I find it hard to judge someone for taking a legitimate reassignment loophole if one was available (the 3 wounds.) I think there are a lot of good men who would not turn that down.

Kerry's early departure meant that he was leaving behind a crew that had suffered through many bloody battles with him. Worried that crew members would be killed, he arranged for them to receive a safer assignment. When one crew member, Medeiros, tried to stay, Kerry "came and talked to me and said, `I really would like you to go. ... I'd like to know you are safe, or safer."'

If Kerry somehow managed to pull some strings (how?) to get his crew reassigned as well, it may be another reason they think well of him.

Will try to make time to read the whole series, but not soon.