Special Forces Lt. James Rassmann

[Team Sergeant]

Why was a single Special Forces Lt. on a swiftboat in the first place?

Does anyone know this guy?

Team Sergeant

[Kyobanim]

Is that the guy that this guy rescued?

[Team Sergeant]

Yes.

How or why a Special Forces soldier requires rescue for falling into the water is beyond me.

I’d like to know how he came to be on that boat in the first place? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in some strange places as a Special Forces soldier, but I never required rescue for falling into the water.

TS

[Bravo1-3]

Team Sergeant,
I don't know where I remember hearing this information, but I seem to remember hearing that the team in question was being extracted by the boats. It's not something I am positive of by any stretch of the imagination.

The circumstances leading up to that extraction, and how he came to be in the water are also unclear. I have heard two versions of the events:

1. That during the extraction itself he either fell off, or was knocked off of the boat.
2. While in RTB mode, they came under fire and manevering threw him overboard.

#2 is probably more realistic (as opposed to more credible).

[Team Sergeant]

I’ve read a few stories concerning the Lt.

Why I find this astonishing is that all SF soldiers I know can swim like fish with LBE and weapon, you had to or you didn’t pass the Q-Course.

Did the Lt suffer incapacitating wounds? Was he the only man in the water?

Usually I hear of Special Forces soldiers rescuing others, this is a first for me.


TS

[brewmonkey]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1132586/posts

Not a site I visit but it was one of the few that had something other then he was saved by Kerry and how even though he is a Republican he will vote for him.

[Bravo1-3]

I am under the impression that Lt. Rassmann came to be in the water under enemy fire, when he fell off of the boat. The squadron / section of boats unassed the immediate AO before they realized he was no longer on board. At that time, from what I have read from several sources, the ENTIRE SECTION of boats (including Kerry’s) returned to the AO and Lt. Rassmann was pulled out of the water by Kerry’s boat.

I personally think it is more coincidental that he ended up on Kerry’s boat, rather than someone else’s in the section. I say this because everything I have read regarding the matter details at least THREE boats affecting the rescue, not just one.

I think that Kerry’s courage in this event is being over-stated as being more than is really needed in the matter. Lt. Rassman was pulled out of the water in Indian Territory, and he did end up on Kerry's boat, that much is clear. I don't believe that he was any more courageous than any other man on those boats that day.

What sickens me is the way this is being played out, as if Kerry single handedly did this by design. That much, I can state definitively based on all that I have read, and all that I have personally experienced as an NCO and combat veteran whose been in his own fair share of gunfights (on and off of my own terms) is pure horse shit.

The link that Brewmonkey posted is interesting, but it does a disservice in one regard in my opinion. The author states that he probably wasn't under fire because the current had caused Rassman to drift. Anyone who has set up an ambush on a linear obstacle that can be traversed from either direction at high speed knows that you set up on as long an axis of a kill zone as you can do effectively with the size of your force in order to chop the targets best defense (speed/mobility) to a bare minimum and kill as many of them as possible. For that reason, I don't doubt that they were under fire, as the Vietnamese weren't stupid by a damn sight.

I think if anything, the volume of fire might be overstated in the same manner that Kerry’s "courageous actions" are being overstated.

[Airbornelawyer]

Originally posted by brewmonkey
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1132586/posts

Not a site I visit but it was one of the few that had something other then he was saved by Kerry and how even though he is a Republican he will vote for him. The freeper piece says "Jim Rassmann, goes to pains to paint himself as a loyal registered republican." From a May 2004 article in The Oregonian, profiling Rassmann: "Although a registered Republican, Rassmann often crossed party lines and had never supported George W. Bush. And he was increasingly disgusted with the president as it became clear Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction."

[brownapple]

I've recently read that there were two other people pulled from the water at the same time by another boat. No decoration for that though.

[Adam White]

Originally posted by Greenhat
I've recently read that there were two other people pulled from the water at the same time by another boat. No decoration for that though.

Saw a similar thing on some news show on the little TV at the gym - guy claiming to be an Lt in charge of one of the other boats says that there was no ambush - that a mine detonated. He says no enemy ever opened fire - and implied the mine was not even command detonated.

He said he was really offended in that apparently Kerry implies in his stories that the other boats left - when in fact all available boats came to the rescue, pulling several people from the water and recovering a sick ship - apparently the one that hit the mine.

As for why the one SF officer? You guys should know this - he was clearly on a mission to go up river and terminate the command of a roque Colonel "with extreme prejudice." :D Hollywood never lies.

[CommoGeek]

Originally posted by Adam White
As for why the one SF officer? You guys should know this - he was clearly on a mission to go up river and terminate the command of a roque Colonel "with extreme prejudice." :D Hollywood never lies.

Son,

KERRY DON'T SURF!





Sorry, had to throw that out there.

[Airbornelawyer]

The incident involving LT Kerry occurred on March 13, 1969.

1LT Rassmann was XO of Detachment A-404 at Cao Lanh from November 5, 1968 to July 1, 1969. A-404 ran the Airboat Training Center for B-40, and maybe airboat operations as well.

1LT Rassmann then was Detachment Commander of A-405 from July 1, 1969 to September 9, 1969. A-405 ran LRRP/Airborne Training Center at Ha Tien.

In his recent Wall Street Journal piece, Rassmann says two things: I came to know Lt. John Kerry during the spring of 1969. He and his swift boat crew assisted in inserting our Special Forces team and our Chinese Nung soldiers into operational sites in the Cau Mau Peninsula of South Vietnam. I worked with him on many operations and saw firsthand his leadership, courage and decision-making ability under fire.and While returning from a SEA LORDS operation along the Bay Hap River, a mine detonated under another swift boat. Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river, and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John's swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath. There is one inconsistency noted elsewhere - some reports have him on PCF-3, the one that hit the mine, others on Kerry's boat.

Assuming this SEALORDS operation to which he refers the same as the IV Corps Mike Force insertions, he may have legitimately been there, though others have hinted he wasn't on a mission but just along for the ride. My understanding is that Mike Force insertions were done by PBRs, not the larger PCFs, but I suppose PCFs also did insertions from time to time.

There is nothing in Rassmann's account to indicate he's lying to cover Kerry (or himself), but there is enough to say his own recollections are hardly probative. He was in or under water for much of the events described. As others have noted, he may simply have mistook the suppressive fire the Swifts laid down on the bank for fire coming from the bank, so he really is not in a position to contradict other Swifties' statements that there was no enemy fire. His "I was left all alone" statements may be what he believes, but the fact is (a) there were sailors in the water too being rescued and (b) all of the sources, even Kerry, confirm that the Swifts stayed on the scene to pull the crewmen to safety (the discrepancy is over whether Kerry's boat left and returned, with some Swifties hinting darkly that Kerry bugged out).