1) Vietnam Service; Kerry did serve two tours. The first was on a destroyer(?) off the coast and he never saw combat. During his 2nd tour, which consisted of a whole four months, is when he commanded the swift boat and received all his awards/medals.
2) Purple Hearts; Kerry was 'wounded' three times. And by his own account, none where serious and/or necessitated him missing one day of 'combat'. In fact, his last 'wound' he jokingly described it as 'a scratch'. However with it and his 'award' of a 3rd purple heart, he immediately went to his C.O. and requested to be sent home - which was granted.
3) Bronze; As recently reported he saved a US Army SF soldier who had been blown off Kerry's swift boat by turning the boat around and pulling the Green Beret out of the water - all while being under enemy fire.
4) Silver Star; While on patrol his boat received enemy fire. His crew returned fire while Kerry piloted the boat toward the fire on the shore. The VC started to run, Kerry ran the boat aground, jumped off the boat with his rifle - firing & chasing one VC into the 'jungle'. Kerry wounded the VC, the VC fell and Kerry 'finished him off'.
Now here's the sick thing. By his own admission, Kerry carried with him at ALL times while he was skipper of the boat, his own Bell & Howell 8mm movie camera to document his 'bravery'. One crewman's duty was to film Kerry every time they were in a fire-fight. Including and specifically when he ran into the jungle and killed that VC for which he received the Silver Star.
What is further 'SICK', is that to this day, Kerry replays these 'home' movies over-and-over-and-over. It was reported that every visitor to his house is required to sit and watch these movies with him. The guy is PSYCHO!
In addition, even during Kerry's college days he was described as 'an opportunist'. And his 'choice' of a Navel 'Career' was in his mind the, safest (he wasn't gonna be an Army grunt Lt, humpin a ruck) and fastest ticket to a subsequent political career.
I also recall that about a year ago a reporter found an ex-crewman who served under Kerry and he described Kerry as 'dangerous to his crew', that he was a 'glory hound' and put his ambitions over that of the safety of of crew.
In conclusion, the guy's a self-serving maggot, besides a psycho.
ps: be assured these articles and allegations will again resurface if he remains in the lead or gets the nomination.
pps: If one wants to spend a few hours doing Google® searches all this info can be found - it's out there.
Hadn't heard about this aspect of his tour. But, how does one get the major media to spin this properly.
You know the argument they will use... "it doesn't rise to the level of (insert word)"
Kerry may have selected the Navy as a safer alternative... that doesn't matter. He volunteered and a tour on a naval destroyer counts. Period. We can't afford to waste our energy arguing about one's position on the pecking order ladder based on the service and unit one may have served in. This same argument can be used to skewer the President and I expect the media will soon start with it.
Please understand, I would never vote for this pig, but none of what has surfaced so far represents compelling evidence.