"The level of danger was extremely high," says Jim Rassmann, the Army Special Forces officer who rode PCF-94 for nearly a month before Kerry saved his life during a ferocious river battle. The noisy boats "had no place to hide. People could hear them coming a half-mile away."
Imagining this story to be true, it brings up an interesting question. If, in addition to his crew there were Green Berets (and other infantry types as well?) on his boat in the month prior to March 13th, then it REALLY calls into question Kerry's decision to abandon his post on Feb 28th to go haring off after a single Vietnamese. Why didn't Rassmann (or one of his possible compatriots) do this instead?
There is another interesting nugget in this article as well. Some commenters on some of the posts on Captains Quaters Blog regarding the Alston question have wondered if it was possible that Kerry was aboard PCF 94 prior to taking command on January 30 1969. If he was, this might have offered a benign explination for some of the statements made by Alston which seem to be contradicted by all the other available facts. However, this article puts that possibility to rest:
Tedd Peck, who skippered PCF-94 before being wounded and giving way to Kerry, says he "had a dislike for the man as soon as I met him. He was not a genuine type of guy." Peck, 60, never went on a mission with Kerry;