Roy Hoffmann

Last updated
Roy F. Hoffmann
Nickname(s)"Latch"
Service/branch United States Navy
RankRear Admiral

Rear Admiral Roy F. "Latch" Hoffmann, U.S. Navy (retired) (1925-2022) was Chairman of the former Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, established May 4, 2004, in opposition to John Kerry's candidacy for U.S. President, and which disbanded on May 31, 2008. As a naval officer, he patrolled the Mekong Delta on swift boats during the Vietnam War. [1]

Contents

Early life

Hoffmann attended the University of Notre Dame. He was commissioned through the Naval ROTC program on June 1, 1946. [2]

Military career

In an article for Salon, Joe Conason described Hoffmann as "a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as 'the classic body-count guy' who 'wanted hooches destroyed and people killed.'" [3]


His awards included the Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Vietnam Service Medal.

Civilian career

Following his retirement from the Navy, he was a port director in Milwaukee, Wisconsin before being removed from the post. [4]

Hoffmann claimed he got involved with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth after reading Douglas Brinkley's book Tour of Duty, which, among other things, detailed Kerry's Swift Boat duty in Vietnam; he told The Washington Post , "I couldn't bear that someone was betraying us and being a dastardly liar. If I can be any more plain than that, I don't know." [5]

In 2009, the Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation ceased operations. [6]

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References

  1. Albion Monitor: Kerry in Vietnam: Archived 2005-11-11 at the Wayback Machine March 24, 2004.
  2. Foreign Affairs, United States. Congress. House (1974). The United States role in opening the Suez Canal, hearing before the Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia of ..., 93-2, May 8, 1974. Washington DC. p. 39.
  3. Salon.com: Smear Boat Veterans for Bush. May 4, 2002.
  4. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Hoffmann once rocked boat in Milwaukee. August 23, 2004.
  5. Washington Post: Unfriendly Fire. October 4, 2002.
  6. "Admiral Roy F. Hoffmann Foundation, Honoring America's Veterans. John O'Neill, T. Boone Pickens".

Further reading