But his lieutenants also had to hew to the Navy's strict chain of command and "standard operating procedure." For aggressive officers like Kerry, that meant walking a fine line.
After more than a month at the helm of PCF-44, Kerry was given command of a second boat, PCF-94, out of An Thoi. On a series of sweeps in the Ca Mau, he stretched his tactics. Weary of ambushes, he began beaching his boat under fire, a risky move shunned by most officers.
In training, Swift boat officers were warned that a Navy commander never left his boat -- snipers and booby traps were a constant peril. But on Feb. 28, Kerry went on land. After transporting units of South Vietnamese soldiers for a raid on a Vietcong camp on the Rach Dong Cung canal, PCF-94 and two other Swift boats were attacked from the shore. The boats turned toward the volleys, scattering guerrillas with machine-gun fire.
Continuing downriver, the boats sailed into a rocket barrage. Kerry ordered helmsman Sandusky to wheel toward the beach. As the boat skidded on land, a teenage insurgent rose up only a few feet away, hoisting a B-40 grenade launcher.
"I could see the hairs of his mustache," said gunner Fred Short. "Why he didn't fire, who knows? I guess we scared hell out of him."
Tom Belodeau, the other gunner, got off a burst. Wounded in the leg, the youth hobbled behind a hut with his weapon. Armed with an M-16 rifle, Kerry ordered Belodeau and mate Mike Medeiros to follow, then sprinted ahead. "We were all firing, but the skipper got him," Short recalled.
None of the crewmen alive today had a clear view of the shooting. But "next thing we know, there's Kerry with the B-40 in his hand," Sandusky said.
Kerry's charge won him a Silver Star, personally awarded by Zumwalt in a Saigon ceremony. Three days after the skirmish, Kerry and his crew also received a cable from Sealords task force headquarters.
"The tactic of attack and assault thoroughly surprised the enemy in his spider-holes and proved to be immensely effective in rousting him into the open," the message read.
The cable was from Hoffmann. Four times in February and March, he cabled Kerry and his crew, praising them and other Swift boats after skirmishes. Hoffmann acknowledged the cables, saying Kerry showed "some pretty sharp thinking. He had courage. But he was loose. He went out on his own too much."
Hoffmann and several former Swift officers said Kerry's boat sometimes veered off during missions without explanation -- a criticism Kerry and his crewmen dismissed.
