After Action Report Sheds Light on "Cambodia Adventure"?
In looking over the After-Action report, I think it may shed some light on Kerry's "Cambodia Adventure" if my interpretation is correct...
In several places within the After Action report, it appears that there is location designation "VQ 98483X (where X varies depending on location)." If I am correct in assuming that these are location designations and don't mean something else, then it is very specific as to where these Swift Boats were - to a relatively high degree of precision.
Using the excerpt posted at Captain's Quarters as a reference, note that the initial action takes place at "VQ 984831" then the boat returns to "VQ 984830." Two boats later recon up to "VQ 985835."
If the Swift Boats were operating with such a high degree of location precision as this report seems to imply, then Kerry had to have known - with almost no room for ambiguity - whether or not he was in Cambodia...
To date, we have been led to believe that these were kind of free-flowing operations, lines were fuzzy, it was easy to not know precisely where you were, etc. However, the level of detail in this After Action report seems to directly contradict that. The locations cited are very specific with every movement precisely detailed.
It seems to me that if my assumption is correct (and I'm sure someone with more knowledge in this area than I will correct me if I'm not), then Kerry's current explanation of being "near Cambodia" is even further called into question.
Based on what I see, Kerry would have known exactly where he was and the ambiguity as to location that we have been led by the Kerry campaign to believe existed, in fact, did not...
We already know that he wasn't in Cambodia on Christmas, 1968. However, if the above analysis is correct then even the flimsy cover the campaign has provided thus far for his repeated lies about Cambodia just fell apart completely...
UPDATE: Commenter Mark points me to this site which explains the grid coordinate system which nails location to within 100 meters (328 feet for the rest of us).
UPDATE: I love the blogosphere. Commenter Alan Brain pointed me to the comments on FreeRepublic where I found a link to the most detailed maps of Vietnam I've seen. They clarify just how far Sa Dec (where Kerry actually was on Christmas, 1968) is from Cambodia...
To see it for yourself: go here...
The red line visible in the top map quadrants is the border with Cambodia...
Now click on the lower-right quadrant....
Scroll the map all the way over to the right and you can finally locate Sa Dec on the map...
Yep...that's what John Kerry calls "near Cambodia"...
What the map makes clear is that "near Cambodia" could just as accurately be called "near the South China Sea."
In several places within the After Action report, it appears that there is location designation "VQ 98483X (where X varies depending on location)." If I am correct in assuming that these are location designations and don't mean something else, then it is very specific as to where these Swift Boats were - to a relatively high degree of precision.
Using the excerpt posted at Captain's Quarters as a reference, note that the initial action takes place at "VQ 984831" then the boat returns to "VQ 984830." Two boats later recon up to "VQ 985835."
If the Swift Boats were operating with such a high degree of location precision as this report seems to imply, then Kerry had to have known - with almost no room for ambiguity - whether or not he was in Cambodia...
To date, we have been led to believe that these were kind of free-flowing operations, lines were fuzzy, it was easy to not know precisely where you were, etc. However, the level of detail in this After Action report seems to directly contradict that. The locations cited are very specific with every movement precisely detailed.
It seems to me that if my assumption is correct (and I'm sure someone with more knowledge in this area than I will correct me if I'm not), then Kerry's current explanation of being "near Cambodia" is even further called into question.
Based on what I see, Kerry would have known exactly where he was and the ambiguity as to location that we have been led by the Kerry campaign to believe existed, in fact, did not...
We already know that he wasn't in Cambodia on Christmas, 1968. However, if the above analysis is correct then even the flimsy cover the campaign has provided thus far for his repeated lies about Cambodia just fell apart completely...
UPDATE: Commenter Mark points me to this site which explains the grid coordinate system which nails location to within 100 meters (328 feet for the rest of us).
UPDATE: I love the blogosphere. Commenter Alan Brain pointed me to the comments on FreeRepublic where I found a link to the most detailed maps of Vietnam I've seen. They clarify just how far Sa Dec (where Kerry actually was on Christmas, 1968) is from Cambodia...
To see it for yourself: go here...
The red line visible in the top map quadrants is the border with Cambodia...
Now click on the lower-right quadrant....
Scroll the map all the way over to the right and you can finally locate Sa Dec on the map...
Yep...that's what John Kerry calls "near Cambodia"...
What the map makes clear is that "near Cambodia" could just as accurately be called "near the South China Sea."
posted by Jim | 1:16 AM
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