Ten Little Brothers, Standing in a Line, One Voted Bush, and Then There Were Nine.

Kerry's right -

“What can I say?” Kerry said when told that a former crewmate had unpleasant memories of him as his commanding officer. “I’ll take nine out of ten testimonies anytime.”

But although nine out of ten of his former crew may claim to respect him, that 'nine out of ten' figure probably is a good representation of the percentage of total current and former military people that really wouldn't vote for Kerry under any circumstances for any position of responsibility.

For those who haven't heard, Time has an article on one of Kerry's "Band of Brothers" who has been found after an exhaustive search by author/Kerry worshiper Douglas Brinkley.

When researching Tour of Duty some of these veterans proved extremely difficult to track down. Stephen W. Hatch, a boatswain’s mate who served under Kerry on PCF-44, proved particularly elusive. Eventually I located him in Niagra (sic) Falls, New York and he told me about his admiration for Chuck Berry guitar licks, rose tattoos and John Kerry. As my book went to press the only Swift crewmate I couldn’t locate was Gardner. A quick count in the index of Tour of Duty shows that Gardner’s name appears on a dozen different pages throughout my narrative. He also periodically appeared in Kerry’s war diaries. Still, my various inquiries to the U.S. Naval Historical Center, the Swift Boat Crew Directory and other outstanding reference outlets proved futile.

So it was with a sense of genuine relief when PCF-44’s Jim Wasser telephoned me last week with the news that Gardner had “rung him up out-of-the-blue” to discuss their shared days together in Vietnam. “It was great” Wasser told me. “You know he fought bravely in Vietnam. He is still a brother. I miss him. I would like to see him.” He then hesitated and went on. “But he has developed a strange, negative assessment of Lieutenant Kerry. It shocked me. His memory is dead wrong. He remembers things so differently.… He has some kind of weird grudge against Lieutenant Kerry.”

After spending considerable time tracking Gardner down, Brinkley dismisses him rather quickly:

After interviewing Gardner for over an hour it essentially boils down to one word: politics. A strong supporter of President George W. Bush, Gardner is sickened by the idea of Kerry as president. “Anybody but Kerry,” he says. “I know what a disaster he’d be.” So what brought Gardner out in the open? The answer turns out to be Rush Limbaugh’s talk show.

Stop there. Because no, the answer turns out to be Doug Brinkley. But perhaps the difficult question (or the question Brinkley wouldn't record the answer for) wasn't asked: knowing Kerry, why support Bush? After all, Gardner did not seek out Brinkley, in fact very much the opposite occurred. That this man may now be subject to questions of character and motivation is unfortunate.

Over the next three years Gardner served as gunner on four different Swift boats, each with a different commanding officer.

That would be one year for every month of Kerry's service - Kerry's final month in country was spent "on shore" awaiting orders.

Brinkley went to great efforts to find (and defuse) Garder, and having done so he fails to give us much information from the man, substituting speculation about him. This may be due to Brinkley's reluctance to write or Gardner's reluctance to speak. If the latter, and if Gardner should overcome that reluctance, he must now do so with an established record as "biased". A charge for which he has been dismissed without having much chance to tell his tale. Brinkley tries to make much of Gardner "almost calling" Rush Limbaugh. That impulse alone (even if not acted upon) is worthy of scorn in the eyes of many on the left. "But don't worry" Brinkley implies "we've exposed him for what he is."

Three years duty in Vietnam? He's a hero.

Nine out of ten, Senator. Guaranteed.