Some of the Smear Boat Vets claim there was no fire from the enemy during the episode that earned Senator Kerry his Bronze Star. Official military records, however, raise no such question.
The senior sailor on Kerry's boat that day reports that there was a "hellacious firefight." "I don't know how these guys can stretch the truth like this," says Del Sandusky. Sandusky's account is backed by the Green Beret Kerry rescued from the river that day. James Rassmann said in a statement that the critics' story was "a pure fabrication. . . . I was in the middle of the firefight."
