August 26, 2004 - One of the first things that you learn as a young prosecutor is that when eyewitnesses tell contradictory tales you have to look at the physical evidence to help decide which account is the accurate one. Larry Thurlow on the trailing boat of three on the left bank of the river and those who support his story claim that after PCF 3 was blasted by the remote controlled mine there was no enemy fire. He even denied that there was a second blast on the right side of the river that damaged PCF 94, injured John Kerry and blew Jim Rassmann into the river. All the men aboard PCF 94 experienced an explosion and enemy fire and the man stationed in the gunners well on Don Droz’s boat supports their account. Thurlow claims that Kerry ran upstream at high speed and only returned for Rassmann after all danger was past. Kerry’s crew says the opposite.

The Battle damage report for the March 13 action provides the physical evidence. Two starboard and one port windows in the Main Cabin were blown out. Thurlow claims that it was old damage from an ambush that took place on March 12. But that is not the only battle damage to PCF 94 that is recorded. Its radio is out. All of the remote units in the pilot house are inoperable. The AC wiring is shot and the Onan generator is no good. The after helm station steerage won’t work. The radar gear box is frozen. There is significant damage below the waterline. The propellers are curled and chipped. Significantly both engines are reduced in RPM. The boat is rated not capable of going on patrol.

The damage to the props and the engines tell us that PCF 94 could not have run away at top speed as Thurlow has it. With steering damaged even if it did answer the helm it was incapable of the kind of violent maneuvering Thurlow claims was responsible for Rassmann being tossed into the drink. With the remotes to the pilot house out the only answering helm station was blind. Radar was inoperable. Communication with the other boats in the flotilla went with the radio. There is simply no way that PCF 94 was damaged the previous day and was still on patrol on 13 March. Thurlow is lying when he makes that claim.

Thurlow says that he, in command of PCF 51 and Chenoweth, in command of PCF 23 reacted to the mine throwing PCF 3 out of the water by turning their twin 50s to the banks and laying down suppressive fire. We don’t have the SPOT reports for either of those two boats. Thurlow say he won’t release those records because they might be used to discredit him. Chenoweth hasn’t been asked. We have the PCF 94 reports because Kerry has published them. http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/SpotReports_March1969.pdf Don Droz and most of his crew were killed in an ambush a month later and he isn’t here to request the release of the PCF 43 Spot report.

One possible explanation for the bullets that Jim Rassmann saw and heard that afternoon is that it was not enemy fire hitting around him as Kerry fished him out but rather the fusillade unleashed by Thurlow and Chenoweth. That would explain nicely the difference in accounts of the incident. It would also give those two skippers a powerful reason to lie about the event. What that theory would not explain was the distinctive sound of AK 47 fire reported by everyone on Kerry’s boat and by Jim Rassmann..

We are trying to cut through the fog of a thirty year old war to find the truth. To believe the Thurlow-Chenoweth account we have to discard the physical evidence. We have to discard the testimony of everyone aboard PCF 94 and the survivor of PCF 43. We have to call Jim Rassmann a liar. We have to re-write a faith based history of the event.