APPOINTMENTS (CONT)

Only 101 names on the letter match names of officers or enlisted men on the rolls of Kerry's units in Vietnam when he was there, from November 1968 through March 1969.

Van Odell, an enlisted man in Kerry's unit and a member of the group, said Swift Boat Veterans for Truth never claimed to be exclusively made up of veterans who served with Kerry. Finding such vets is difficult because Kerry was only in Vietnam for about four months, Odell said.

"It's hard to be there when he was," Odell said. "He was in and out so fast."

Before volunteering for Swift boat duty on Vietnam's rivers, Kerry served about five months on a Navy frigate offshore in the Gulf of Tonkin.

At least 30 men on the list, including one who appears in an anti-Kerry ad, served in Kerry's former Swift boat unit a year after Kerry left Vietnam, the records show.

Shelton White appears in the group's first ad, which claims it is quoting those who served with Kerry. In the ad, White says "John Kerry betrayed the men and women he served with in Vietnam." Navy records show White served in Kerry's former unit, Coastal Division 11, from November 1969 to March 1970 - a full year after Kerry left.

Odell said White was referring to Kerry's anti-war activities after Kerry returned to the United States

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