Posted on 09/05/2004 8:06:36 PM PDT by JCEccles
Recently the controversy over John Kerry's medals began to bubble and sound deep doom noises like Krakatoa preparing to rock the seas. We now know there are at least three separate citations in official Navy records for a single award of the Silver Star. The citations are separated in time by well over a decade, and the latest citation shows the signature of a former Secretary of the Navy who cannot remember signing it. Moreover Kerry has only agreed to release some of his official records, creating acute interest in the mysterious remainder he has kept hidden.
What is going on, anyway? We may soon know because the Navy has launched a full IG investigation into the matter. Although the Navy IG will have access to documentary sources and witnesses that are unknown to the public presently, certain rational inferences and plausible scenarios can be be drawn and drafted on the basis of clues and information that are already in the public arena--and these don't look good for the Kerry home team. [Continue]
(Excerpt) Read more at longleggedfly.blogspot.com ...
Well done.
You hypothesis explains only two issuance certs, the
first and the third. What about the second?
And what about the "V" device?
And don't forget, there are two certs for the Bronze also.
BTW..Nicely written essay..IMHO, one point that could possibly explain some of the confusion re Kerry's citations is not being raised, oddly enough, by either Kerry, or the Swifties..At the time Kerry first went in country, it was apparent to everyone that the war, if not lost, was in the final stages; that a political settlement/accomodation would soon be reached. The one thing that commanders could do for subordinates was allow them to "pad the resume" a little..a little laxity in reviewing recomendations for decorations, and an easing of the normal military custom of down grading the vast majority; i.e. a recommendation for a Silver Star, in some 75% of cases, was bumped down to the Bronze Star.
1. Are they identical to contemporaneous citations from other Swift boat members.
2. Are the fonts the same as the official IBM Selectric typewriter that was used to create the citations.
and
3. Check out similarities with other notes and letters written by J F'n K on his portable typewriter.
This shouldn't take a long.
Have you already done this? What's your verdict?
Thank you.
I don't know. My best guess is that the first citation (Zumwalt) was a down-and-dirty provisional citation put cobbled together just to get the show underway. To pump up morale in the unit, Zumwalt might have recived a verbal okay from his superiors to dummy-up a citation so Zumwalt could pin medals on the chests of the awardees in real-time. The paperwork would have been straightened out later.
What is curious is that SECNAV apparently wasn't the approval authority for the Silver Star in 1969. Current instructions make it clear that only SECNAV may approve an award of the Silver Star, and this authority cannot be delegated.
Thank you, sir.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.