(CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of former commanders and military colleagues of presumptive Democratic
nominee John Kerry are set to declare in a signed letter that he is "unfit to be
commander-in-chief." They will do so at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday.
"What is going to happen on Tuesday is an event that is really historical in dimension," John
O'Neill, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy as a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) boat commander, told
CNSNews.com . The event, which is expected to draw about 25 of the letter-signers, is being
organized by a newly formed group called Swift Boat Veterans for <http://www.swiftvets.com/> Truth.
"We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every commanding officer he ever had in
Vietnam. They all signed a letter that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief," O'Neill said.
O'Neill, currently a Houston, Texas, based attorney, is no stranger to Kerry. O'Neill served in the
same naval unit as Kerry and commanded Kerry's swift boat after Kerry returned to the United
States. Kerry's command of the PCF boat lasted four months and ended shortly after he received his
third Purple Heart. According to naval regulations at the time, any sailor who received three
Purple Hearts could request a transfer out of the combat zone.
Kerry and O'Neill engaged in a nationally televised debate in 1971 on The Dick Cavett Show over
Kerry's allegations that many Vietnam soldiers had routinely engaged in atrocities such as raping
and cutting off ears and heads of Vietnamese soldiers and citizens. Kerry was the then spokesman
for the anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
"We are going to be presenting a letter that deals with Kerry's unfitness to be commander and chief
that has been signed by hundreds of swift boat sailors, including most of those who served with
Kerry," O'Neill explained.
"The ranks of the people signing [the letter] range from admiral down to seaman, and they run
across the entire spectrum of politics, specialties, and political feelings about the Vietnam War,"
he added.
Among those scheduled to attend the event at the National Press Club and declare Kerry unfit for
the role of commander-in-chief are retired Naval Rear Admiral Roy Hoffman, who was the commander of
the Navy Coastal Surveillance Force, which included the swift boats on which Kerry served.
Also scheduled to be present at the event is Kerry's former commanding officer, Lt. Commander Grant
Hibbard. Hibbard recently questioned whether Kerry deserved the first of his three Purple Hearts
that he received in Vietnam. Hibbard doubted both the severity of the wound and whether it resulted
from enemy fire.
"I've had thorns from a rose that were worse" than Kerry's wound for which he received a Purple
Heart, Hibbard told the Boston Globe in April.
Organizers are confident that Tuesday's event and the letter with hundreds of signatures will
educate people about Kerry.
"It is one of the largest outpourings of concern about him being commander-in-chief that anybody
could have in a presidential campaign and it is by the people who know him best," O'Neill said.
'Unfit Commander-in-Chief'
Swift Boat Veterans For Truth maintains that Kerry's fellow Vietnam veterans are almost uniform in
their disdain for his military service and anti-war protests.
"Not only a majority of the people who served with him feel that way, but a vast and overwhelming
majority," O'Neill said. He added that more than "ninety percent of the people contacted by Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth responded to the request to sign their name, with only 12 declining to
sign.
"Comrades who actually served with him, almost all of them, are opposed to him, and believe he
would be an unfit commander in chief and intend to bring the truth of his actual record to the
attention of the American people," O'Neill said.
O'Neill hopes the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth can reveal to the American people what he sees as
Kerry's flawed character.
"In the military, loyalty between commanders and the troops serving them is a two-way street. We
have here a guy (Kerry) that with all of us in the field [in Vietnam] -- actually fighting the
North Vietnamese-came home and then falsely accused all of us of war crimes at a time when the
people in uniform couldn't even respond," O'Neill said.
"And he did that knowing that was a lie," he added.
'Real John Kerry'
B. G. Burkett, author of the book Stolen Valor and a military researcher, believes that Tuesday's
event will not be dismissed easily by Kerry's campaign as a "partisan" attack.
"There are probably just as many Democrats amongst sailors who sailed swift boats as there are
Republicans. What Kerry fails to realize is this has nothing to do with politics-this has to with
Vietnam Veterans who served, who have a beef with John Kerry's service, both during and after the
war," Burkett told CNSNews.com.
"The American people do not know John Kerry and hopefully the swift boat crews and other Vietnam
veterans will make sure that the American public knows the real John Kerry," he added.
Jim Loftus of Kerry's press office referred questions about Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's event
on Tuesday to spokesman David Wade. Wade did not return CNSNews.com's requests for comment.