Book reopens Kerry's war wounds ( New Book questions Kerry's Nam injuries, etc)

sunday times via theaustralian.news.com.au ^ | 02/23/04 | sunday times vis theaustralian.news.com.au

[KQQL]

VIETNAM has been the defining issue for John Kerry. His status as a decorated war hero has helped to propel him to the front of the pack of Democrat candidates seeking to evict George W.Bush from the White House. Conservative critics believe he has been given a free ride for too long on his war record, however, and are planning a fightback.

Support for their case is expected to come from a book to be published next month by reporters from The Boston Globe in Kerry's home state of Massachusetts. The book, JF Kerry, the Complete Biography, will question the extent of his injuries in Vietnam and whether he was entitled to an early release from the war.

Vietnam, The Washington Post opined at the weekend, "is a double-edged issue" for the 60-year-old Democratic frontrunner. Kerry has not authorised the release of his war records - a strange omission, say his political foes, given the ferocity with which his supporters have demanded to see every last document of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard.

"Vietnam is such a crucial part of his background and his campaign, you would think he would want people to see them," said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, a conservative journal. "There is going to be pressure on him to release them."

Kerry, who is surrounded on the stump by the "band of brothers" who fought with him in the Mekong Delta, became a fierce public critic of the Vietnam War after he left the navy.

A faked photograph of Kerry sharing a microphone with Jane Fonda was a warning of how his opposition to the conflict would be used against him. There also has been much criticism of the way he threw away another man's medals rather than his own during a 1971 protest demonstration.

Kerry's conduct during the war, however, was until now thought to be sacrosanct. Unlike many of his generation, he volunteered for service in Vietnam. He went on to perform heroically as the skipper of a Swift boat patrolling Vietcong-infested waters, and won a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for bravery.

Kerry served only four months of a year-long tour of duty after he received three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action. The injuries were not serious; by his own account, one shrapnel wound laid him off for two days and the other two did not interrupt his duties.

Five of his friends died in action and his medals show that, at the very least, he had several brushes with death. The future senator then invoked what he insists was a "three and you're out" rule enabling a soldier with three Purple Hearts to be sent home.

He requested a transfer and was given a plum job as an admiral's aide in Brooklyn. He returned to the US a bitter opponent of the war and was released from the army early.

In response to an inquiry from The Sunday Times, Kerry's campaign staff gave the newspaper a copy of naval regulations stating that "all naval personnel" who are "wounded three times, regardless of the nature of the wound or the treatment required for each wound" may be reassigned.

A spokesman for the US Navy said, however, that such redeployment was not automatic: "It would depend a lot on the nature of the injuries."

Ted Sampley, who runs Vietnam Vets Against John Kerry, said if a soldier could be sent home for minor wounds, "there would have been a lot of people claiming scratches, getting their Purple Hearts and getting out of there".

Sampley believes that the well-connected Kerry - photographed with president John F.Kennedy as a young man - simply received favourable treatment. "How many other people were able to get out of Vietnam early and be reassigned to a cushy post?" he said.

[backhoe]

-John Kerry- some selected, informative links...--

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Surprised anybody (much less the Globe) is going to print this!

[cynicom]

I had family members that would have liked to have gotten out of that stinking jungle. All Kerry has to do is release all his records.

[nwrep]

Did I understand this article to mean the book was written by REPORTERS?

[Dog]

Kerry will regret ever mentioning Vietnam.

[FairOpinion]

Do you think this would qualify for "breaking news", so it would stay up longer -- I think it contains some important info.

Why didn't Kerry release his service records?!

[KQQL]

@

[Verginius Rufus]

The author is evidently an Australian, who may be unfamiliar with the structure of the American military. At any rate Kerry was never in the US Army.

[KQQL]

no author is a brit...I think ...

[bornintexas]

Release your war records Kerry!!! We want "answers to all those lingering questions" that will arise from this book.

Yeah right. He will never release those records, nor will you ever hear the media ask him to.

[mystery-ak]

Your family members should have kept track of every little scratch they got, and request a PH...3's the ticket out and Kerry knew it....most GI's would just put a bandaid on and forget about it.

[KQQL]

Media is chicken crap...

[FairOpinion]

[Mark]

Did I understand this article to mean the book was written by REPORTERS?

Well, probably with "technical" advice from Hillary Clinton.

[StriperSniper]

the well-connected Kerry - photographed with president John F.Kennedy as a young man -

Clinton, now him? Just wait, the new talking point for the dims is going to be that you had to have been 'touched' by their idol.

[onyx]

Excellent post!

Kerry will rue the day he made his Vietnam service his centerpiece *ping*

[July 4th]

Go Globe!

[FairOpinion]

"Ted Sampley, who runs Vietnam Vets Against John Kerry,"

I am glad he is speaking out.

Here is the link to their website:

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/

http://www.usvetdsp.com/

[Dog]

Out of the three wounds he recieved only one caused any down time.....two days.

My brother still to this day...... has a piece of shrapnel in his chest from his wounds in Vietnam.

And Kerry missed two whole days and called it quits.....%$@#!!!!!!!!

[KQQL]

Paul Galanti learned of Kerry's speech while held captive inside North Vietnam's infamous "Hanoi Hilton" internment camp. The Navy pilot had been shot down in June 1966 and spent nearly seven years as a prisoner of war.
During torture sessions, he said, his captors cited the antiwar speeches as "an example of why we should cross over to (their) side."
LA Times 02/17/04

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

The Enemy Within JOHN KERRY...
was defined long, long ago.



'JOHN KERRY = Enemy of Vietnam Vets:

http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1320



Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer / Vet-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
(IA DRANG-1965 Photos, 3 Sets)

.

[Hon]

"Support for their case is expected to come from a book to be published next month by reporters from The Boston Globe in Kerry's home state of Massachusetts. The book, JF Kerry, the Complete Biography, will question the extent of his injuries in Vietnam and whether he was entitled to an early release from the war."

As I've mentioned several times, the Boston Globe asked Kerry for a waiver so that they could see the records of his medical treatment for his three wounds.

Kerry REFUSED.

[SAMWolf]

Book reopens Kerry's war wounds

Here, put some salt on it.

[thesummerwind]

and the other two did not interrupt his duties.

How does anyone rightfully call these "wounds"?

Kerry is a fraud, a pretender, but will the media allow the citizens to know it?

[Hon]

"Kerry had been wounded three times and received three Purple Hearts. Asked about the severity of the wounds, Kerry said that one of them cost him about two days of service, and that the other two did not interrupt his duty. "Walking wounded," as Kerry put it. A shrapnel wound in his left arm gave Kerry pain for years. Kerry declined a request from the Globe to sign a waiver authorizing the release of military documents that are covered under the Privacy Act and that might shed more light on the extent of the treatment Kerry needed as a result of the wounds."

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml

[Poincare]

He returned to the US a bitter opponent of the war and was released from the army early.

Not so. According to other accounts he did not turn against the war until several months after he returned--a calculated political decision.

[Dante3]

Kerry keeps on lying.

[mystery-ak]

What does your brother say about Kerry?

[Capt. Tom]

Surprised anybody (much less the Globe) is going to print this!

It was the Globe that exposed his Irish heritage hoax. - Tom

The Globe pieced together Kerry's genealogy through Ellis Island immigration records, other documents in Chicago and records from the former Austrian Empire. The paper hired Felix Gundacker, director of the Institute for Historical Family Research in Vienna, to examine and translate the German-language records.

Kerry's grandfather, who emigrated to the United States in 1905, was born in an Austrian town once known as Bennisch, which today is called Horni Benesov in the Czech Republic. Gundacker found birth records noting the 1873 birth of a Fritz Kohn and another record noting Kohn changed his name to Frederick Kerry on March 17, 1902. The Globe quoted Gundacker as "1,000 percent certain" that Kerry/Kohn was born to a Jewish family because the church records were on a page listing Jewish families.

[SAMWolf]

He requested a transfer and was given a plum job as an admiral's aide in Brooklyn. He returned to the US a bitter opponent of the war and was released from the army early.

That's not a bad trick, considering he was in the Navy. Or is Kerry now claiming he was in the Army so he can write himself some Army commendations?

[KQQL]

Kerry served 4 months in NAm only...... I didn't know that

[pabianice]

Kerry has not authorised the release of his war records - a strange omission, say his political foes, given the ferocity with which his supporters have demanded to see every last document of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard.

It takes time to scrub and rewrite your records.

[Dog]

Research Kerrys speech to his class before he went to Nam.....he was a foe of the war before he went....he only did it to help his political career.

[Hon]

"by his own account, one shrapnel wound laid him off for two days and the other two did not interrupt his duties."

"There were an awful lot of Purple Hearts -- from shrapnel, some of those might have been M-40 grenades," said Elliott, Kerry's commanding officer. "The Purple Hearts were coming down in boxes. Kerry, he had three Purple Hearts. None of them took him off duty."

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml

[Dog]

Who was the Admiral Kerry worked for?

[cynicom]

Brother in law, was on the River, same boats as Kerry. Two COMPLETE tours. Two MAJOR wounds. Scars from here to there, still carries around metal in his body. Course he was an enlisted person, thus slim chance of being a HERO. Plus he was not an intimate of the Kennedy family.

After returning stateside, with 12 years service, a grateful Navy told him they did not want him anymore. Only personal intervention by Zumwalt allowed him the 8 years he needed to retire.

[Dog]

He didn't like Clinton ....and he doesn't like Kerry.

[Dante3]

No wonder Kerry does not want the records of his "injuries" revealed. What a fake.

[Destro]

Kerry served only four months of a year-long tour of duty after he received three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action.

I already cought this article in a lie or half truth. Kerry served 2 tours of duty in Vietnam. The second one was for 4 months. This article makes it sound he served only one tour of duty for 4 months.

Why are we cheering articles that fudge the truth in this manner?

We will not win over anyone if we keep launching dumb bombs rather then smart munitions.

[KQQL]

In April 1969, having engineered an early transfer out of the conflict because of his three minor wounds, John Kerry left his crew behind and returned home to a sweet assignment as an aide to Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr.


http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/page2.html

[SAMWolf]

Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr.

[Destro]

cynicom, Kerry served 2 tours as well. A full tour and four months into the next. This article is incorrect.

[Hon]

"Who was the Admiral Kerry worked for?"

Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr.

[Destro]

As faked as the four month tour of duty smear. Kerry served 2 tours of duty did he not?

[Hon]

"A full tour and four months into the next. This article is incorrect."

This seems to be a pattern with you, posting misinformation.

Kerry did not ever serve a full tour in Vietnam. His first tour was also short of the usual 12 months.

"December: Kerry begins his first tour of duty, serving on the guided-missile frigate USS Gridley.

June 6: Kerry's first tour ends as the Gridley returns home."

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/timeline.htm

[StriperSniper]

a lie or half truth. Kerry served 2 tours of duty in Vietnam. The second one was for 4 months.

Good catch, I knew something didn't sound quite right.

That aside for a moment, there wouldn't be such confusions if Sen. Ketchup would just release his records like GWB did. ;-)