By Howard Wilkinson
Enquirer staff writer

Nearly 30 years have passed since the last helicopters full of Americans and South Vietnamese refugees rose from the top of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, signaling the end of a brutal and bitter decade of war that cost the lives of 58,000 Americans.

Yet today, the Vietnam War reverberates through the 2004 presidential campaign, a contest between two candidates whose histories during the Vietnam era are vastly different. This occurs despite the fact that the youngest voters (18-30), who make up about one-third of the voting population, know little of that war other than what they have read in history classes.

CANDIDATES' SERVICE

The military records of both presidential contenders during the years the United States was at war in Vietnam have become issues in this year's campaign: John Kerry Kerry enlisted in the U.S. Navy in February 1966. Two years later, as an ensign, he requested assignment to Vietnam as a swift-boat officer. Swift boats were fast patrol craft, armed with high-caliber machine guns, which patrolled rivers and streams for the purpose of locating and flushing out the enemy. From December 1968 through March 1969, Kerry commanded two different swift boats and was wounded three times, earning him three Purple Hearts. The policy of swift boat command at the time was to send home those wounded three times. Kerry shipped out of Vietnam in early April 1969. After leaving the Navy in 1970, Kerry became a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a highly visible anti-war group. Kerry was the public face of the group, speaking at anti-war rallies around the country and testifying before Congress. George W. Bush With a recommendation from Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, Bush was given a coveted spot in the Texas Air National Guard in May 1968. He was given an automatic commission as a second lieutenant and spent 13 months at flight school in Georgia to learn to be a fighter pilot. In June 1970, Bush began what was to have been a four-year assignment with the 11th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. But in May 1972, he was given permission to move to Alabama to work on a U.S. Senate campaign, provided he do equivalent training with a unit in Alabama. Military records do not show him doing any service in Alabama until October of that year. Bush transferred out of the unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School. Here's how and where to register to vote The deadline to register to vote in Ohio is Oct. 4. Here's how to register: • Fill out a brief form, giving your intent to register, your name, birth date, citizenship status, age, current address and signature. • Once you register to vote and vote in at least one general election in four years and - if you so choose - in a primary or special election, you never have to register again. Keep your registration updated for changes, such as a move or a name change. • You may register at any approved registration site in Ohio, but you must vote in the county and precinct in which you reside. • You must be 18 years old on or before the day of the general election. • You can register at the following locations: • The office of the Secretary of State of Ohio, or the Secretary of State Client Services Center, 30 East Broad St., Columbus, Ohio. • The local board of elections office in your county. • Any Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles office or BMV registrar. • Any public or vocational school. • Public libraries. • Your county treasurer's office. Contact your county board of elections for information: Butler County: Web site or phone 887-3700 Clermont County: Web site or phone 732-7275 Hamilton County: Web site or phone 632-7000 Warren County: Web site or phone 925-1358

To many of the more than 8 million living veterans of that war, the fact that Vietnam is still being argued about in a presidential campaign is nothing short of astounding.

"I can't figure it out," said Tim Culbertson of Sycamore Township, who earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam as a soldier in the 101st Airborne Division. "Why are we still talking about this? John Kerry did what he did. George Bush did what he did. What does this have to do with what this country faces today?"

Nonetheless, Kerry's service as a Navy swift-boat captain in Vietnam and Bush's experience as a fighter pilot in the Air National Guard continue to be debated, loudly and angrily.

It is an issue that strikes a chord not only with the millions of Americans who served in uniform during the Vietnam era, but the millions of others who lived through it.

For the baby-boom generation, Vietnam was the defining issue of their young lives.

"Whether you were a person who wore the uniform and went into combat, or you were a person who opposed the war as a matter of conscience, Vietnam is not something our generation will forget," said John P. Williams Jr. of Newport, a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War.

"It will be talked about as long as we are around to talk about it."

Democrats have made a point throughout the campaign - particularly at the party's convention in Boston - of pointing out that while Kerry voluntarily went to Vietnam, Bush went into the Air National Guard at a time when guardsmen and reservists had virtually no chance of being sent into combat.

Kerry's Vietnam service - and his loud and very public protests against the war after he returned home - surfaced as a campaign issue in June. That's when a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, funded by some Bush political allies in Texas, launched a series of television ads in key states claiming that Kerry exaggerated the incidents that earned him three Purple Hearts, the award given to those wounded in battle.

The ads were followed by the publishing of Unfit for Command, a book that further disputed Kerry's war claims and accused him of betraying his fellow warriors by returning from Vietnam and heading Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Even though many of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's claims have been refuted by the Kerry campaign and national news media outlets, there is little doubt that the mere raising of questions about Kerry's service has hurt his campaign.

Thomas Blakely of Colerain Township was a petty officer onboard swift boat PCF 98 in 1968-69. He was wounded in action and still carries two shrapnel fragments that weren't removed by medics. He was on more than 150 combat patrols on the waterways of Vietnam.

Looking back at the records of his service, he believes his boat accompanied Kerry's swift boat on at least four missions in 1969.

Blakely has read Unfit for Command and historian Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty, a more sympathetic portrayal of Kerry's service as a swift-boat skipper. He sees no merit in the claims by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

"As I've looked at the records of missions that I've had access to, I've seen more information that supports John Kerry's claims than doesn't," Blakely said. "This whole thing is an embarrassment not just to Kerry, but to all of us who served on swift boats, and there's somewhere between 1,800 to 2,000 of us still around."

The claims of the anti-Kerry veterans, Blakely said, probably have more to do with what Kerry did when he returned from Vietnam than what he did or didn't do in the war.

"There are a lot of Vietnam veterans who will never get over the fact that he came back and spoke out against the war," Blakely said. "They just won't let it go."

But Williams, the former Marine, said that if damage was done to Kerry, he asked for it.

"John Kerry opened the door to this at his convention," said Williams, former president of the Greater Cincinnati Area Chamber of Commerce.

"He wrapped himself in the flag, did the salute and the 'reporting for duty' thing. What did he expect? That he would not have his record examined?"

Kerry's 1973 congressional testimony, in which he condemned U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia and spoke of Americans committing atrocities in Vietnam, "was inappropriate, which is about as nice a way as I can put," Williams said. "Of course, that rankles a lot of Vietnam veterans."

Earl and Sonja Corell are married, but have differing political views. She's a John F. Kerry fan, and he's a George W. Bush supporter. (Enquirer photo/MICHAEL E. KEATING)

Earl Corell, a Vietnam veteran from Anderson Township, was the driving force in the 1980s behind construction of a Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Cincinnati's Eden Park. He agrees with Williams.

"John Kerry should have chosen Jane Fonda as his running mate," Corell said. "He disgraced the veteran with what he did."

Sonja Corell, Earl's wife, is a Kerry supporter. She does not believe that military service more than 30 years ago is what the election should be about.

"I'm more interested in jobs, and how we keep them in America," said Sonja Corell. "That seems to me to be more relevant than who did what when."

But Sonja Corell understands why Vietnam veterans on both sides of the presidential race are so passionate about the service records of the two candidates.

She is married to a Vietnam veteran; 37 years ago she was engaged to be married to Duke Schmeese, a young soldier straight out of Colerain High School, who was killed in action in Vietnam.

"These Vietnam veterans are the only ones in the history of our country who came home from a war we lost," Sonja Corell said.

"A lot of them have a little chip on their shoulders. And maybe they earned it."

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E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com