Not sure whether this belongs here but.... in the movie Apocalypse Now

[question everything]

was the boat that the Martin Sheen character joined, a swift boat like the one commanded by Kerry?

[cindyw]

1. Yes, and his missions were like Kerry's.

Sheen was being ferried up the river to his mission. This is what they were doing for Rassmann when he was blown off the boat.

By the way, I think bringing up this movie is good. People cannot forget that medals won is is not the measure of danger. This wasn't men skiing up and down the colorado. It was just was just as dangerous as moving through the jungle on foot.

[shraby]

2. Has anyone ever watched The Sand Pebbles

with Steve McQueen? It's a different era, but the same idea with the boats. Excellent movie and shows the dangers inherent with those types of missions.

[kentuck]

3. One of my favorites...

Yes, there is a similarity.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Something to think about, qe --

[DemoTex]

5. The AMO II

The AMO II was a boat owned by the American Marine Officers Association. It was a 50-ft motor yacht built on a Swift-Boat hull. I had the pleasure of an evening cruise on the AMO II on the Potomac River a few years back as part of an ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association) fete for the pilots (Captain Robert Shornstheimer and First Officer Mimi Tomkins) of the Aloha Boeing 737 "sardine can" which lost 18-ft of its upper fuselage in flight at 24,000 ft.

A couple of years later I sat in Savannah's DeSoto Hilton during a tropical depression, on my way to the Everglades with my kayaks. I turned on the local TV to find out, to my dismay, that the AMO II had capsized in heavy seas off the coast of Savannah. One of the three crew members died. Two were rescued. I had met all three. One had told me that the upper structure of the AMO II, on the light-weight aluminum Swift Boat hull, was dangerous in open water.