Why did Kerry bring a video camera with him to Vietnam?

[One Taste]

:shrug:

I've just been wondering, I didn't think this practice was mainsteam.

[SoCalDem]

1. Southeast Asia was THE place to buy cameras & electronics

EVERY soldier there took TONS of pics.. and movies too.. Families regularly sent tapes and films back and forth..

The soldier who took NO pictures of him and his buddies was the ODD one.. (Like our dear * who was invisible, except for a few staged pics)..

A guy like Kerry (rich/educated) would have certainly taken films so that his family could see what the place looked like, and what his jobs were..

[Alpharetta]

17. Yep. My dad got his cameras on leave in Hong Kong and Thailand

All the officers picked up stereos and cameras there.

And they shipped back some nice suits too.

[JSJ]

2. it was probably a super 8 film camera, not vid

[Judi Lynn]

3. A LOT of soldiers, sailors took whatever equipment they had

to record their experiences, believing it would be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I know my husband did.

My husband wasn't premeditating a political career, either. Only a complete ass would imagine Kerry was planning to make videos for self-aggrandizement.

I sat close to a service man in a bus, then a plane, who was being sent to Viet Nam, and he told his wife in a far louder than necessary voice that he wanted her to take his cameras back home, that he would get cheaper equipment there, as he didn't want his good things to get all shot up, or some such claptrap. He was going as a medic.

I doubt you're going to troll up any answers to support a view there was something strange about Kerry's having video equipment. Not a thing wrong with the Democratic candidate.

[One Taste]

7. Not looking to troll

geez, just curious

thanks for the answers

[Fuzzy LaRue]

4. It is not unusual.

My daughter took some vids with her digicam and would send me the memory cards from Iraq before she was wounded and sent home.

I took tons of pictures everywhere I went when I was in the Army also.

[VOX]

5. Not video, but 8mm or Super 8 film -- common for GIs to have them then...

A friend's brother, who did communications service with the Army, had a lot of footage of Saigon, his buddies, etc.

Watch just about any Vietnam documentary, and eventually you will see some 8mm footage shot by a GI.

Super 8 cameras were also mainstays among vacationers in the 1960s - my uncle was a camera nut, and he didn't go anywhere without his.

[Indiana_Dem]

6. My husband said everybody was taking pictures all the time

and if you were lucky you could get a movie camera.

[VolcanoJen]

8. It's terribly unusual to take photos of one's war experience.

[bowens43]

9. Yes it was mainstream.

It wasn't a video camera , it was 8mm movie camera. It was VERY popular. Thousands of soldiers in Vietnam had them.

[ima_sinnic]

10. I get SO annoyed at the dumbass freepers who say

Kerry was a "political opportunist" because he had a movie camera with him--

hello? let's pretend that, yes, he said in 1972, oh I want to run for President some day so I better take some footage now--better that than a drunken, coke-addicted party boy who had no goals in life whatsoever other than to shirk responsibility as much as possible, let Daddy pull strings for him in order to "get places" in life, and whore for the highest bidder when he did fraudulently attain a position of power (through no effort, talent or qualification of his own). The dumbasses apparently think that a vacuous, unachieving draft dodger with NO political substance is a better leader than someone who volunteered for the riskiest duty and then had the audacity to record it.

[blm]

16. Or that his future was certain in a job that had a 70% casualty rate at

the time he VOLUNTEERED for it.

[Bandit]

26. Where did you come up with that casualty rate?

I find that stat highly doubtful.

[blm]

27. I heard Doug Brinkley mention it when he was talking about Kerry.

He said at that particular time Kerry volunteered for Swift Boat duty there was that high percentage of casualties in that particular area. I figured he was including deaths and injuries. It sounded legit when he said it.

[merh]

31. Well, you should research the issue rather than doubt the poster

A new, dangerous mission

But shortly after arriving at Cam Ranh Bay in November 1968, he was assigned to Operation Sealords. The new mission sent six-man boats deep into Viet Cong territory to "show the flag" and harass enemy forces who controlled the dense, remote jungles south of Saigon.

Vice Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, the Navy's commander in Vietnam, later wrote that Sealords sailors had a 75% casualty rate.

"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."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-04-12-kerry-vietnam_x.htm

[Pax Argent]

35. Keep in mind that that was back when casualties

included wounded. Casualties = KIA is a recent phenomenom, I believe.

[Florida_Geek]

11. Cheap cameras....... the top of the line Nikon was only $250.....

:)

[mopaul]

12. all soldiers do it, even bush sr., was filmed after his 'heroic' rescue

there was a movie camera conveniently rolling when bush sr. crawled out of the water on deck after abandoning two other crew members. this was spun by his senator father into heroism. i've seen the footage, so maybe g.h.w. bush was an opportunist soldier?

[merh]

34. Don't forget that the shrub had all of those cameras

on board the ship when he landed on deck and emerged from the jet for his "mission accomplished" photo op. Come to think of it, the poor guys on that vessel were kept at sea for a week or so while they prepared for the photo op and got the legistics right, prior to his landing and speech. You know, they had to make sure the vessel was in the right position and the podium was set up so that the sun didn't screw up the staged delivery of that ataboys speech!

[Pepperbelly]

13. I doubt that he brought it but bought it instead.

Service people in Asia buy all kinds of cameras, electronics, etc. It's the place to get quality cheap.

:eyes:

[markus]

14. It sure was convenient for George the I

to be rescued by a sub which happened to have a cameraman on board, given how cramped WWII submarines were.

Glad there was nothing staged there.

[RapidCreek]

15. Why don't you think it was "mainstream"?

Who do you think took all the pictures and footage of Vietnam? Embedded Fox reporters?

I had a still camera in the service....so did about 75% of the rest of the sailors I knew. What the hell is so peculiar about that?

RC

[Cheswick2.0]

18. why did every body else?

:shrug:

[Flammable Materials]

19. Hells yeah, my dad brought back the best gear from his tour.

We had the swankiest stereo system in the neighborhood.

[kayell]

20. My father took tons of pics and film when he was stationed in Germany

in the 50s. People in a new and different place like to take pics. Like Asia in the 60s, Germany earlier was a great place to buy cameras. Do you think it is strange that soldiers are taking pics on their camera phones in Iraq? Exactly how primitive do you think the 60s were?

[Vickers]

21. Iwo Jima? Abu Ghraib?

GIs love taking pictures, and they love having their picture taken, no matter the situation.

Georgie doesn't have any photos from Alabama because HE NEVER SHOWED UP.

Veteran Vickers

[libertad]

22. My dad used to bring back cameras and stuff from Asia all the time

when he was in the Navy (including during Viet Nam conflict).

[OneTwentyoNine]

23. Not mainstream? Hell,my dad had a small BW camera in WWII....nt

[auburngrad82]

24. I've got the cameras my dad brought home from Nam

There's no shortage of photos from Vietnam. Nice cameras were incredibly cheap in Asia.

[Octafish]

25. If you were going to a place where you might get killed...

... you'd probably want to take a picture.

FYFI -- Here's a comparo of the two candidates for President of the United States. The top one shows John Kerry volunteering for duty in Vietnam. The bottom one shows how George W Bush, after his daddy got him in the Texas ANG, officially requested to stay the fuck out of Vietnam. Here's a picture:



SOURCE: www.AwOLbush.com

[One Taste]

28. geez i didn't realize I'd be called a freeper for asking a question

^^

[SeekingTruth]

29. Don't let it bother you...

for some reason there are a lot of thin skinned people around here....

[merh]

30. A more important question is why would soldiers today

take photos and videos of their TORTURE and abuse of innocent Iraqi citizens. And while you are asking the questions about the cameras, find out why innocent Iraqis were imprisoned in the first place.

If videos really concern you ask why the media fails to cover the atrocities in Iraq. I remember watching the news during Vietnam and seeing footage of the battles and the body bags and the sadness that was that war. Maybe that is why I hate war, those images are with me today. Maybe that is why folks don't care about this war, they don't have footage being piped into their homes via television every night the way we had it during the Vietnam war.

Get your priorities straight. Ask the right questions, those that really matter today.

[crimson333]

32. Just like the soldiers in Iraq

taking picture's when Bush was there...soldiers all have camera's. My dad has lots of pictures from Vietnam

[marlakay]

33. Husband in Nam war said camera equip cheap there

also to this day they have always been ahead of us in japan and the soldiers could buy things from there tax free and send it home even new cars and motorcycles.