The Roanoke Times Send This Story To A Friend. Tommy Denton Editorial Page Editor Recent revelations about a commando squad led by former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey in early 1969 ripped like a fingernail scraping a scab from a wound apparently destined never to heal. Innocent Vietnamese died, either by horrible happenstance or atrocity. The facts are unknown, probably unknowable.
War can be that way.
The mission was to kidnap a Viet Cong leader, preferably undetected. None of the SEALs, most certainly not Kerrey, denies that innocents died. For more than three decades, all seven men have endured the torment of their respective memories and related nightmares. Kerrey has said that he lives not only with the guilt of that night but also with its shame. Only two of the seven commandos had experience as SEALs in Vietnam.