jcookc6

I have given this guy some slack the last couple of months, because I knew stuff like this is going to catch up with him.

Insight on the News - Politics
Issue: 4/27/04

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Purple Hearts: Three and Out
By Stephen Crump

Democratic presidential nominee in waiting Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) frequently speaks of courage, brotherhood and responsibility when he mentions his brief service in Vietnam. He took Super-8 home movies there in which he staged heroics in full-battle dress, so that later he might use them for campaign ads. Kerry has made so much of his Vietnam medals which he once pretended to throw away that critics have begun to wonder why he has been so cagey about the dubious circumstances surrounding the Purple Hearts that got him out of Vietnam after only four months of combat service. Under the rules, a serviceman had to be awarded three Purple Hearts to apply to go home. Not one or two, but three. And, say critics, there's the rub.

Kerry, who piloted Patrol Crafts Fast (PCFs) as a young Lt.(jg) in the Vietnam War, has always made much of those Purple Hearts. An award often pinned on the pillow of a combat warrior so badly wounded that he cannot sit up to receive it, the Purple Heart recognizes the sacrifices of combat when a soldier or officer has sustained a wound "from an outside force or agent" and received treatment from a medical officer. The records for such treatment "must have been made a matter of official record," according to the military definition of the award.

According to Kerry's own description in Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty, the Dec. 2, 1968, mission behind what he has claimed to be his first Purple Heart was "a half-assed action that hardly qualified as combat." Indeed. Kerry was stationed with Coastal Division 14 at Cam Ranh Bay. At that time he piloted a small foam-filled boat, known as a Boston Whaler, with two enlisted men in the darkness of early morning. The intent, apparently, was to patrol an area that was known for contraband trafficking, but it was an undocumented mission. Upon approaching the objective point, the crew noticed a sampan crossing the river. As it pulled to shore, Kerry and his little team opened fire, destroying the boat and whatever its cargo might have been.

In the confusion, Kerry claims to have received a "stinging piece of heat" in the arm, the result of a tiny piece of shrapnel. He was not incapacitated and continued with regular swiftboat-patrol duty. William Shachte, who oversaw this ad hoc mission, was quoted by the Boston Globe as saying Kerry's injury, from whatever source, "was not a serious wound at all."

But Kerry met with his immediate superior officer, Lt.Cmdr. Grant Hibbard, the next morning and requested a Purple Heart for his wound. Hibbard recalls that Kerry had a "minor scratch" on his arm and was holding in his hand what appeared to be a fragment of a U.S. M-79 grenade, the shrapnel that had caused the wound. "They didn't receive enemy fire," Hibbard tells Insight. Since this was an essential requirement for the award, the commander rejected Kerry's request. Hibbard does not remember that Kerry received medical attention of any kind and confirms that no one else on the mission suffered any injuries.

Shortly thereafter, Kerry was transferred to Coastal Division 11 at An Thoi. Apparently, Kerry petitioned to have his Purple Heart request reconsidered. Hibbard remembers getting correspondence from Kerry's new division, asking for his approval. In the hurried process of moving to a new command himself, Hibbard thinks he might have signed off on the award. If so, "it was to my chagrin," Hibbard remembers. Kerry's second commander, Lt.Cmdr. G.M. Elliott, says he has no recollection of such an event ever occurring.

There are no written records of Kerry's magical first Purple Heart on file at the Naval Historical Center in Washington, the nation's primary repository for such documentation. A Purple Heart normally is not requested but is awarded de facto for a wound inflicted by the enemy - a wound serious enough to require medical attention. The Naval Historical Center keeps all documents connected to such awards to U.S. Navy and Marine personnel. These typewritten "casualty cards" list the date, location and prognosis of the wound for which the Purple Heart is given, and they are produced by the medical facility that provides treatment for the combat wound at the hands of the enemy. There are two such cards for Kerry - for his slight wounds on Feb. 20 and March 13, 1969, but none for his December 1968 claim.

After receiving a Purple Heart for the March 13 scratch and bruise, Kerry sought an early pass out of combat duty, invoking the informal Navy "instruction" known as 1300.39. According to the Boston Globe, 1300.39 meant an officer could request a reassignment from his superior officer after receiving three Purple Hearts. The instruction states that, rather than being automatic, the reassignment would "be determined after consideration of his physical classification for duty and on an individual basis." Of the 138 servicemen and officers in Kerry's unit who received Purple Hearts during the time he was there, records indicate only two received more than two. These were Lt.(jg) Jim Galvin and a boatswain's mate named Stevens. When Insight reached Galvin he said all three of his Purple Hearts were the result of shrapnel or glass shards. Such minor injuries were common on PCF boats with their glass windows and thin metal hulls, and, like Kerry's, Galvin's injuries were not serious enough to take him out of combat for more than a few days.

Unlike Kerry, Galvin elected to stay with his men. Indeed, though a professional Navy officer, he never had heard of instruction 1300.39. It was not until early April of 1969, when Galvin noticed that Kerry was preparing to leave the officers' barracks at An Thoi that he learned about "three Purple Hearts and you're out." According to Galvin, it was Kerry who told him, "There's a rule that gets you out of here and I'm getting out. You ought to do the same." Galvin remembers, "He seemed to take care of everything pretty quickly," because that was the last time Galvin saw Kerry in Vietnam.

The three-times wounded Galvin stayed with his men, transferred to Cam Ranh Bay to get them a respite from the dicey Mekong Delta, and eventually left the swiftboats for destroyer school.

Insight: contacted many men who served in Coastal Division at the same time Kerry did to ask if any of them had heard of anyone leaving the combat zone by invoking three minor wounds. Of the 12 who replied, none had heard of anyone doing so but John Kerry."

Less than a month after having claimed three wounds for which he lost no more than a total of two days of duty, Kerry reported as an aide to a navy yard admiral in Brooklyn, New York, leaving his crew in Vietnam. Two years later, preparing for a congressional race in a left-wing Massachusetts district - where the seat eventually was won by the even more radical Rev. Robert Drinan - Kerry was working with Maoists and other radicals in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, saying of those he left behind who were being killed and wounded for real that they were committing crimes "on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels."

Indeed, Kerry said, he knew men who in Vietnam "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks and generally ravaged the countryside." Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, about these and other alleged war crimes, he called on the United States to pay "extensive reparations."

Stephen Crump is an associate reporter for Insight magazine.

here is the link:http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/...t-656749.shtml

tecoyah

Yeah....pretty much standard issue from politicians, with the obvious exception of Mc Cain. Still at least he went, rather than use daddy and friends to hide in the U.S.

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HarmlessRabbit

Insight magazine has some of the lousiest, most biased journalism I've ever seen. Kerry saw real action in Vietnam, and it's ridiculous and sad that anyone would claim otherwise. Here's a nice timeline you might want to check out:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/upda...02/02_400.html
Compare what Kerry was doing with what Bush was doing. Note that the Insight article leaves out the actual combat that Kerry was involved in, along with his Silver Star and Bronze Star.

His first purple heart was legitimately signed off on by his CO. His second and third were well documented and received in the heat of battle. The only controversy here is how a crappy publication like Insight can continue to delude their readers.

Tholo

Im not a huge Kerry fan, but amen HRabbit. Insight is a piece of trash, and I cannot believe anyone could take that article seriously.

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theusername

I read the article and was about to say damn this Kerry is a real creep, but then i opened up the website to see their cover, "Relics on Faith"

Their Poll: Does the release of the August 6, 2001 briefing memo to the President saying bin Laden "had designs on America" damage the President?

In the poll, 89% to 11% said No. Obviously not representative to what every day americans think as its probably closer to 50-50.

And the book "French Betrayal of America"

Very very conservative website which makes this article much less believable but it's still interesting.

mml

Frankly, there is really no backup for this story. It may be true, but my guess is that (as Harmless Rabbit points out) much of Kerry's actual experiences in the service were intentionally left out. Insight is a fairly biased site. Just a quick perusal of recent "Political Alerts" show praise for the Bush administration and Condi Rice and the following alert titles:

"Is Kerry Inept or Ignorant?"

"Kerry's Anitwar Group Full of Communists"

"Kerry Not in Communion with Church"

"Bad Memory" (Where Kerry is criticized for not remembering being at a meeting in 1971 which many others don't remember him being at either)

and just for good measure they had:

"Party Disloyalist: McCain Bashes Bush and Republicans"

I guest I'll have to take this editorial with a grain of salt.

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Bill O'Rights

Ummm...yeah. Might I suggest the whole bag of salt.

I'm sorry, the man won 3 Purple Hearts, the Silver Star and the Bronze Star, with the Combat "V". He gets my respect. My vote...well, we'll see. But, he definately gets my respect.

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Amaras

I am sorry, but this is merely another example of the heavily Conservatively biased media in existence today. I know this term was coined towards the "liberals", however, I am increasingly finding this administration to be "hoist on their own petard".

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Stompy

What does it matter if someone serves in the military or not? Just because you went through boot camp and served 2 or 3 years doing whatever easy task was given doesn't mean you have more/less experience in being commander in chief than someone with absolutely zero military experience.

It's not like the President is at the front lines doing infantry work. He just calls the shots and lets the Generals handle the dirty details.

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djtestudo

Well, in this specific case the problem comes from whether Kerry is lying about his past, which brings up questions of his overall integrity.

In general, however, I tend to agree.

As for the article, as much as I'd want to believe it , the source doesn't seem too valid.

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HarmlessRabbit

Here's why:

matthew330

you mean as oppossed to motherjones.com?

Anyway - couldn't this matter be solved if John Kerry would make his military service record public,which from my understanding he's been asked a number of times....

Man, does it seem like we're going in circles here?

HarmlessRabbit

What's hidden?
- First purple heart: signed off on by his CO, it isn't kerry's fault that his CO bitches about it later.
- Second purple heart: earned in battle
- Third purple heart: earned in battle
- Silver star: earned in battle
- Bronze star: earned in battle

Is there something more that you're looking for? The Insight article is a huge distortion of the truth. You don't need Kerry's military record to see that.

Are you disputing my assertion, or are you just changing the subject? Do you think the Insight article is accurate?

jcookc6

Well we will never know, that is unless he releases his service records. The thing is we people in Massachusetts know what he's all about, and all the bad things said about him are usually true.

Kadath

Feel free to speak for your whole state. I was up there this weekend, and spoke with about 30 people from the state, some relatives, some friends, some strangers. I heard very little negative commentary about Kerry.
As for the stuff about the military, if you want to say the injuries he received in combat were not that severe, fine. Show me your three Purple Hearts. Then I'd like to see your Bronze and Silver stars.

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HarmlessRabbit

NEVER KNOW WHAT?

He has three legitimate purple hearts, a silver star, and a bronze star. Are you saying that the article posted above is the truth? I say it's a terribly distorted piece of yellow journalism.

What are you hoping to find in his personal military records?

pan6467

This is a joke right? The GOP have nothing better to do than to try to smear a war hero's record.

Come on GOP tell us how you will run things and jumpstart the economy, end the war and save all our souls and America. Show me some hard work, show me why we should vote GOP.

Or will you just sit back and take the easy way and tell us why we shouldn't vote for Kerry?

I have an open mind believe it or not. I can change it and vote GOP. Hell, I love Ohio Sen. George Voinivich, Dewine is a puss but....

I know the Dems are doing it also, so you have to take the low road with them. After all they did want Bush's medical records and proof he served his time in the Guard.

See and I speak from watching my friends and the heart here when I say this. Articles like this and those from the Left and commentators like Hannity, Limbaugh and O'reilly or Moore, Franken and whomever (with their party's approval).... they only cater to those that already have their minds made up. They don't work to change minds so they spew hate and filth and hope something sticks and stinks badly enough to raise a little heat.

In the process though, unfortunately, they alienate alot of voters and people who might have voted because noone talks about how they truly want to help fix things. When all you give is pessimism all you will ever get back is negativism. We need politicians and a political party that is optimistic, has a plan, says we may have to swallow a few bad pills to fix things but then we'll be ok and when others are negative about them, they just say "join us and give us better ideas and help or sit there and complain and do nothing."

I firmly believe a vast majority would take the bitter if they knew the sweet was coming and would last longer, and as long as the party and the people working the changes did so with positive and informative atmosphere.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Rekna

I hope kerry picks mcain to be his running mate so I can see people bash mcains service record. "When he was a prisoner of war all he did was sit back on a lazy boy and drink champagne"

pan6467

Lol.... you forgot country club Saturdays and Sundays and wicked party wednesdays.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

djtestudo

There's a difference. Nobody questions McCain's record, because of how public he has been about it and how much it has been verified.

Kerry doesn't have that luxury because most people didn't know he served until last year. Also, he has refused to release his records, which President Bush did do after the Democrats demanded it.

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Lebell

That would indeed be interesting, considering Kerry is a Democrat and McCain is a Republican.

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HarmlessRabbit

not as strange as you might think. People have been theorizing about this for weeks:

http://washingtontimes.com/national/...3910-8075r.htm

mccain is about as solid a traditional republican as I can imagine, though, so it would be awfully strange. Too bad. I like McCain. If he was on the ticket, he would have my vote.

Bill O'Rights

The Party of Principle



Agreed. To this day, I wish that McCain had won the Republican nomination in 2000. I, too, have heard it bantered around that he may be a possible Kerry running mate. I'm not sure how that would work, but it would certainly set a precedent. I don't know of any other Presidential ticket that has breached party lines. In my opinion, a Kerry/McCain ticket would spell much time in Crawford, writting memoirs, for GW.

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onetime2

I voted for McCain in the primaries and would have definitely preferred him to Bush. He will not be a Kerry running mate, however, and, if he did go that route, Kerry would still not get my vote.

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Rekna

Sorry about derailing this thread, but I think the kerry/mcain ticket would be a true chance break the bipartisanship that has become so strong lately. Though I have a feeling if mcain accepted that position the republican party would have a big split down the middle. And probably the democrat too. For once it would be nice to leave the partisanship behind and actually talk about politics.

Sparhawk

The last time was Lincoln/Johnson, '64 (heh, 1864)

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onetime2

No chance the partisanship (I suspect you meant partisanship and not bipartisanship) would decline. I suspect it would increase. The VP plays the second fiddle. McCain's agendas would not be pushed by Kerry and his supporters and McCain will be left out in the cold by both the Republicans and Democrats.

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Tholo

well, i think he'll pick McCain if he really wants to win. Gosh I heart McCain.

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Rekna

i agree it will never happen but it would be nice.

HarmlessRabbit

Hey, no problem on the derailment, it's more interesting than the original topic.

Having two vietnam vets as president and vice president would certainly inject some reality into the military. McCain for prez and Kerry for VP would be much better though, too bad we can't make that one happen.

I heard that McCain has a new book coming out about courage, I'm looking forward to reading it.

irateplatypus

is that so? in what way do you think the military is out of touch with reality?

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queedo

Kerry is as much of a war hero as Al Gore was!

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Karm

Did anyone think twice about him leaving his boat to hunt down an NVA?
His patrol boat must have beached to accomplish this. I was in the navy and all. I wasn't a patrol boat crew member. Therefore I cannot accurately recite any of their rules of combat.
A simple question 1st. Why would you take a fast mobile craft,thats works effectively on water, and park it at the enemies doorstep in a combat zone? Now the flash's in the bush have a non-moving target. If they kill the crew. They can easily take the boat and do some serious damage.
I beleive he should have been courtmartialed for that unwise decision. Not awarded a medal for hunting down and killing a wounded man in cold blood. I assume he finished the job with a pistol. I also assume the NVA was wounded or he would have escaped the tall goofy yankee jumping off of his boat.

onetime2

Depending on the location of the sniper(s) and when they opened up on the boat, they may have been in more danger trying to get out of range than they'd be in heading towards the enemy. While his strategy in this instance wasn't the norm, it was obviously effective.

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jcookc6

FrKerry faces questions over Purple Heart
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff, 4/14/2004

WASHINGTON -- John F. Kerry's tour of duty in Vietnam, distinguished by Silver and Bronze stars and the close-range killing of an enemy fighter, is highlighted in his campaign ads and cheered on the trail. Even the campaign of President Bush, who did not see combat, hasn't tried to make an issue of his opponent's service record.

But as the presidential campaign heats up, some Vietnam veterans are using the Internet and talk radio to question the Democratic candidate's military record. They complain that Kerry's three Purple Hearts were for minor wounds and that he left Vietnam more than six months ahead of schedule under regulations permitting thrice-wounded soldiers to depart early.

A review by the Globe of Kerry's war record in preparation for a forthcoming book, "John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography," found that the young Navy officer acted heroically under fire, in one case saving the life of an Army lieutenant. But the examination also found that Kerry's commanding officer at the time questioned Kerry's first Purple Heart, which he earned for a wound received just two weeks after arriving in Vietnam.

"He had a little scratch on his forearm, and he was holding a piece of shrapnel," recalled Kerry's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Grant Hibbard. "People in the office were saying, `I don't think we got any fire,' and there is a guy holding a little piece of shrapnel in his palm." Hibbard said he couldn't be certain whether Kerry actually came under fire on Dec. 2, 1968, the date in questionand that is why he said he asked Kerry questions about the matter.

But Kerry persisted and, to his own "chagrin," Hibbard said, he dropped the matter. "I do remember some questions, some correspondence about it," Hibbard said. "I finally said, `OK, if that's what happened . . . do whatever you want.' After that, I don't know what happened. Obviously, he got it, I don't know how."

Kerry declined to talk to the Globe about the issue during the preparation of the Kerry biography. But his press secretary, Michael Meehan, noted that the Navy concluded that Kerry deserved the Purple Heart.

During the Vietnam War, Purple Hearts were often granted for minor wounds. "There were an awful lot of Purple Hearts--from shrapnel, some of those might have been M-40 grenades," said George Elliott, who served as a commanding officer to Kerry during another point in his five-month combat tour in Vietnam. (Kerry earlier served a noncombat tour.) "The Purple Hearts were coming down in boxes." Under Navy regulations, an enlistee or officer wounded three times was permitted to leave Vietnam early, as Kerry did. He received all three purple hearts for relatively minor injuries -- two did not cost him a day of service and one took him out for a day or two.

The incident that led to Kerry's first Purple Heart was risky, and covert. He and his crew left the safe confines of the huge US base at Cam Ranh Bay, climbing aboard a "skimmer" boat -- a craft similar to a Boston Whaler -- to travel upriver in search of Viet Cong guerrillas. At a beach that was known as a crossing area for enemy contraband traffic, Kerry's crew spotted some people running from a sampan, a flat-bottomed boat, to a nearby shoreline, according to two men serving alongside Kerry that night, William Zaladonis and Patrick Runyon. When the Vietnamese refused to obey a call to stop, Kerry authorized firing to begin.

"I assume they fired back," Zaladonis recalled in an interview. But neither he nor Runyon saw the source of the shrapnel that lodged in Kerry's arm. '`We came across the bay onto the beach and I got [hit] in the arm, got shrapnel in the arm," Kerry told the Globe in a 2003 interview. Kerry has also said he didn't know where the shrapnel came from.

Back at the base, Kerry told Hibbard he qualified for a Purple Heart, according to Hibbard. Thirty-six years later, Hibbard, reached at his retirement home in Florida, said he can still recall Kerry's wound, and that it resembled a scrape from a fingernail. "I've had thorns from a rose that were worse," said Hibbard, a registered Republican who said he was undecided on the 2004 presidential race.

The Globe asked Kerry's campaign whether the Massachusetts senator is certain he was under enemy fire and whether he recalled that a superior officer raised questions about the matter. The campaign did not respond directly to those questions. Instead, Meehan said in a prepared statement that Kerry "received the shrapnel wound early in the course of that combat engagement. " Meehan also provided a copy of a medical report showing treatment for a wound on Dec. 3, 1968. The Purple Heart regulation in effect at that time said that a wound must "require treatment by a medical officer."

Nearly three months later, a document was sent to Kerry informing him that he would receive a Purple Heart "for injuries received on 2 December 1968." The Naval Historical Center, which could not locate a copy of the original card for the incident, nonetheless confirmed that Kerry did receive the Purple Heart.

Kerry went on to earn another two Purple Hearts and he led more than two dozen missions in which he often faced enemy fire. He won the Silver Star for an action in which he killed an enemy soldier who carried a loaded rocket launcher that could have destroyed Kerry's six-man patrol boat, and he won a Bronze Star for rescuing an Army lieutenant who was thrown overboard and under fire.

One reason that Kerry has long divided Vietnam veterans is because of the way he led a group called Vietnam Veterans Against the War after he returned to the United States. While in Vietnam, Kerry began to question the policy of "free-fire zones," which permitted sailors to open fire on rivers where Vietnamese were violating nighttime curfews. He said in a 1971 appearance on "Meet the Press": "There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed, in that I took part in shootings in free-fire zones."

Thirty-three years later, that statement still rankles some veterans, apparently including those who have formed a group called Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, which has a website devoted to what it calls Kerry's association with the "radical pro-communist" antiwar movement.

The statements of that group have been circulated widely over the Internet and picked up on conservative radio talk shows.

But some historians said Kerry is being unfairly criticized over his antiwar effort, which is best remembered for his Senate testimony in which he asked why soldiers should be asked to die for a mistake. "Thirty-three years later, his testimony has really proved to be prescient," said historian Stanley Karnow, author of "Vietnam: A History." "The war was a mistake. Nobody knew better that the war was a mistake than the poor grunts out there fighting it."

Indeed, some of Kerry's crewmates who were aghast that Kerry had led them into battle and then came home to protest the war now say Kerry was ahead of his time in seeing the mistaken policy. Crewmate James Wasser, who originally felt "betrayed" by Kerry's antiwar leadership, said, "Knowing what I know now, I would have totally agreed with him."

Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com
om Today's Boston Glob the most liberal broadsheet in the USA
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/..._purple_heart/
So this gives you a perspective from a left leaning paper and the original article from a right wing alternative press source. But the facts of the matter are the same. Yes, John Kerry did go to Nam, but he found a way to get out quick. What ever you can say about him, the man is not stupid, and will do whatever he can for his own personal gain.

HarmlessRabbit

Yep, it clears it up all right. He has three legitimate purple hearts, a bronze star, and a silver star.

Wow, what a weasel. Going after a viet cong with a loaded RPG just so he could get out of Vietnam quickly. I can't believe this didn't become a controversy earlier! (/sarcasm)

It must be really embarassing to much of the conservative right that talk show hosts and a few isolated vietnam vets are trying to make a big deal out of Kerry's war record. Personally, I hope they succeed in making war records a big deal in the election campaign, since I think Kerry can defend himself very well in that regard versus pampered national guard pilot Bush.

So, please, by all means, make this an election issue. Be my guest.

Bill O'Rights

Heehee. The man's got a point, Y'all.

I don't see the logic in forcing an issue, when one obviously isn't there, when your own position is on some extremely unsteady ground...at best. I don't get it.

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onetime2

Sometimes stories have their own legs, no matter what those in power may want. Maybe there's a concerted effort to get these stories running and maybe there's not.

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Karm

So he beached his boat to attack a solitary soldier with an rpg? HUH? Didn't charlie travel in packs? As in; likely to be more than 1 RPG in the area. It's stupity, not courage to put your crew in danger due to the nature of the attack. Closing distance on a sniper is sound doctrine. Esp with the 50 cal's and such available on the boat. The sniper rifle range is obviously beyond that of a 50 cal. Close the range by driving in closer and attacking on foot is also reasonable.
Correct me if I am wrong. The guns mounted on the boat have a much greater range than an RPG? Why would you manuveur yourself anywhere near a weapon that can do serious damage to the vessel entrusted to you?
Maybe I should look further into the incident. As far as I can tell from the facts presented so far. He made a serious error in judgement.

pan6467

All of you, John Kerry detractors, are absolutely right John Kerry some 35 + years ago wanted out of Vietnam so badly that he made sure he got injured 3 times.

Just for good measure knowing he was going to run for president he did all he could to make the injuries look "good" so that he would get the Silver and Bronze stars also.

It's all been a conspiracy these last 35+ years so he could get to the White House on the coattails of being a war hero. A well thought out, planned conspiracy, set forth by the Kennedy and Heinz families, who knew a few years in advance of Chappaquidick Teddy would never make president and how the Bush family would be in power.

It's all been planned..... you're onto us now though.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"