A 44 year old women who claims to be one of the few survivors of the raid on the village of Thanh Phong in 1969 - spoke out this week about what she remembered some 32 years ago.  The women, Bui Thi Luom says she was wounded by the SEAL team that was lead by Senator Bob Kerrey. She was only 12 years old at the time of the attack on her village. She said that seven Americans with guns stormed into her village and rounded up all the women and children. She said that she watched helplessly as they opened fire, despite her grandmother's pleading for mercy.

She was the only survivor out of 16 people in her hut . There were 5  women and 11 children in her hut.

She told her account of what happened to journalists this past weekend. Mean while, in New York, five members of Kerrey's old SEAL team joined the former Senator in denying that they wantonly killed Vietnamese civilians. Kerrey and the men stated that there is no truth to any of these allegations being made that hey gunned down civilians, or killed them with their knifes - as has been claimed by a former member of the SEAL team and by two Vietnamese women who survived the raid.

The lone voice against Kerrey and the Team is former SEAL team  (known as the Delta Team) member Gerhard Klann. he is still sticking to his story in more interviews that civilians were herded into a group and killed.  

The other witness was a 62 year old women named Lanh. She stated that she hid in a banana grove as the men killed an elderly couple and three grandchildren. She claims to have run to her house and stuffed her children's mouths with cloth to keep them quiet.  

VETERAN REACTION 
I have been getting comments from a few veterans about this issue. Most have taken the stance that they fully believe Bob Kerrey and that should be the end of the whole issue. I understand how they feel, however there is  another group that makes me feel very uncomfortable. They state that they believe that this type of thing did and could happen in Nam, because you could never tell the good guys from the bad guys over there. It was just a part of the process of that kind of war and could not be prevented.

Both groups are missing the mark, as far as I am concerned. If in fact, Bob Kerrey and his team did what they are accused of - then there must be an accounting made. Someone needs to be responsible  - and even though I am a fellow Vietnam Veteran - I cannot condone this  - if it is true. If it is not true, I think we need to investigate and clear these men of these charges. In any case, we cannot leave this issue unsettled and unexplored. What happened and why is important. We do need to know what happened and why. I can understand an accident in combat - like the reaction of firing back into a village that they were being fired upon from - but herding up people and killing them is no accident and goes beyond the rules of any war, or any civilization that prides itself as being God fearing nation.

I do not have any clue as to what happened. I do know that Bob and his men received Bronze Stars for having killed 21 VC that day. It seems that all the dead were listed as VC, even the small children. if nothing else, this award is a cruel accounting for what happened. It cheapens all our awards. There was a cover-up that day in 1969 - I just wonder when and if we will ever get a full accounting of what the truth was.  

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