(2003-05-01) — U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, will announce the end of major combat operations in Iraq from a foxhole he’ll dig himself on the mall in Washington D.C. later this afternoon.
The Kerry speech will come several hours before President George Bush is scheduled to make a similar declaration from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
Sen. Kerry will start digging his foxhole near the Vietnam Veterans memorial around 3 p.m. Eastern time. Although the Senator and his aides rarely mention it, he is a Vietnam veteran.
At about 5 p.m., the Vietnam veteran will don a kevlar vest and combat helmet with night-vision goggles, and hunker down in the foxhole to make final preparations for the speech.
Aides say the timing of the speech and the setting were determined long before the White House released details of the President’s plans.
“We didn’t know anything about Bush’s speech,” said one aide to the Senator. “We just feel it’s right that a Vietnam veteran should make this announcement. And John Kerry is a Vietnam veteran. Many people don’t realize that.”