New allegations surface about Kerry war wound

Manchester Union Leader ^ | May 5, 2004 | Stephen Braun

[billorites]

WASHINGTON — A former Navy doctor who says he treated Sen. John F. Kerry for the wound that led to his first Purple Heart in Vietnam said Monday that several of Kerry’s crewmates told him at the time that the injury did not occur in battle.

Dr. Louis Letson, a retired Alabama physician who served as medical officer at the Naval Support Facility at Cam Ranh Bay, said the crew’s “confided” story contradicted Kerry’s own report in December 1968 that he was wounded during a river firefight between his Swift boat and Vietcong gunmen ashore.

The doctor’s account surfaced Tuesday as part of a barrage of criticism of Kerry by former Swift gunboat officers who gathered in Washington to press the likely Democratic nominee to authorize the release of his wartime records to the public.

Kerry did not respond directly, but campaign officials angrily dismissed Letson’s account and questioned why another medical official’s signature appeared on Kerry’s own records of his treatment for the wound. The Kerry campaign also said it has already posted online a copy of all official documents Kerry received from the Navy in his military file.

Campaign spokesman Michael Meehan suggested that, “if these people have different recollections 35 years later of what they saw or signed, they ought to take it up with the U.S. Navy.”

Several of Kerry’s former Swift boat crewmates also appeared in Washington to stoutly defend the Massachusetts senator. Drew Whitlow, an Arkansas man who served as rear gunner on one of the Swift boat’s Kerry commanded, said critics “are entitled to their opinions, but I served alongside of the man. I know exactly what he was like. And I know the integrity and compassion he had.”

< SNIP >

[rj45mis]

This communist jerk set up his own injury in order to package himself as a war hero. He is despicable and America cannot allow this guy to become her President.

[anniegetyourgun]

Besides, he's an admitted war criminal.

[Bahbah]

Republicans are not portraying Kerry as a liar. He is a liar. You don't have to do anything but sit back and listen to him (if you can stand it). The latest story about piloting an Israeli jet is just one more example.

[sgtbono2002]

Mr. Kerry: -----settle this once and for all . Write the military and ask them to release your real medical records.

No: I dont mean your doctored ones, I mean the real ones.

[Glenn]

Kerry's campaign advisor had no comment.

[woofer]

Campaign spokesman Michael Meehan suggested that, “if these people have different recollections 35 years later of what they saw or signed, they ought to take it up with the U.S. Navy.”

So.... It's alright to quote a befuddled, retired NG General that uttered "I don't remember seeing a Lt. Bush at my Alabama airfield" while he is enamored by his very first interview of his entire life... But if some rational medical doctor remembers something about sKerry, then it has to be taken up with the Navy? What's wrong with this picture?

I'll tell you what's wrong. sKerry can't refute what the Doctor says, he can't even show a scar from the wound, and must throw the wet blanket of a service bureaucracy over the matter to keep the electorate in the dark about his finagling to get the heck out of 'Nam by the most expeditious manner available.

More of this stuff will just keep cropping up if the sKerry campaign refuses to answer the early ones. I say, keep up the good work, minions of sKerry. The American voting public is slowly opening their eyes and their minds to what a disgusting POS sKerry has been, is and would be if elected.

[capydick]

A former Navy doctor who says he treated Sen. John F. Kerry for the wound that led to his first Purple Heart in Vietnam said Monday that several of Kerry’s crewmates told him at the time that the injury did not occur in battle.

Man!! Once Tom, Dan, Peter and the cable outfits start reporting this today Kerry is in for it! This will just add to Kerry's negatives and, he'll have to continue to explain his war record, which will lead to him getting off message,which will continue to sew doubt about his veracity and ability to lead this country during war. Should be a good newsday for us......

[RedBloodedAmerican]

injury did not occur in battle

He likely broke a fingernail writing love letters to Ho Chi Minh.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Man!! Once Tom, Dan, Peter and the cable outfits start reporting this today Kerry is in for it!

IF they do. I rather doubt they will, myself.

[BillyCrockett]

"Man!! Once Tom, Dan, Peter and the cable outfits start reporting this today Kerry is in for it! This will just add to Kerry's negatives and, he'll have to continue to explain his war record, which will lead to him getting off message,which will continue to sew doubt about his veracity and ability to lead this country during war. Should be a good newsday for us......"

You're kidding right? Don't hold your breath.

[Fixit]

"... I served alongside of the man. I know exactly what he was like. And I know the integrity and compassion he had.”

Note, the speaker never claims that John Kerry had a lot of these things, simply that the speaker was aware of the levels, high or low, that Lt. Kerry possessed

[staytrue]

What Kerry did 30 years ago is irrelevant. However, Kerry is today, and unlikeable, flip flopping, leaderless, unremarkable, liberal senator who would not make a good president.

I hate dredging up this 30 year ago stuff. 30 years ago, a good many of us did questionable stuff.

[hgro]

It is reasonable to think that those crew members that were on Kerry's boat are complicit in his fabrications. Those pictures of Kerry and crew that keep popping up show them all with medals pinned to their shirts. What a brave crew.
The awards of all the crew that were received while Kerry was in charge should be examined since Kerry would have been the one that originated any request for medals for the crew during his long tour of three and one half months in Nam.

[Area51]

WRONG...

From day one John F'nn Kerry made Vietnam an ISSUE. HE and his minions attacked Bush's military record and tried to push his.

He decided to use his Military record as an Issue. NO one brought up the issue besides John F'nn Kerry. Vietnam Vet, Metal of Honor, and 3 purple Heart winner. In case you hadn't heard.

His new ads show him in his Military Outfit claiming his Leadership qualities. He opened the pandora's box.

Perhaps if John F'n Kerry didn't want all the critism he is getting now he shouldn't have manipulated the system then spat on his "Band of Brothers" by lieing and labeling then War Criminals, murderers and Baby Killers WHILE they were still serving in country.

While John F'nn Kerry was hoging the limelight in the War Protest back home because of his self inflicted Bactine style wounds he reccommended his own metals.

What a Guy!

[Wombat101]

- Kerry claims a combat wound, which might not exist.
- Kerry claims to have voted for the Iraq War, but then claims he was misled.
- Kerry has an SUV in his garage, but somehow it isn't his car.
- Kerry flew jet fighters over Israel.
- Kerry can remember everything he did 30 years ago, except whose medals he threw away.
- Kerry has more sides than Boston Market, but he is decisive.
- Kerry insists Vietnam vets are heroes and yet he spent his formative political years accusing them of war crimes, neatly side-stepping his own responsibility/involvement in same.

Hmmm..is it just me or does the man seem to be dissembling a bit too much?

How much fun it must be to be a democrat (small 'd' intentional) --- you can live in any world you choose, whenever you choose, and someone will still swallow your lies hook, line and sinker.

[Theo]

... sew doubt ...

That's a cool turn of a phrase. :-)

[TheBattman]

Several of Kerry’s former Swift boat crewmates also appeared in Washington to stoutly defend the Massachusetts senator. Drew Whitlow, an Arkansas man who served as rear gunner on one of the Swift boat’s Kerry commanded, said critics “are entitled to their opinions, but I served alongside of the man. I know exactly what he was like. And I know the integrity and compassion he had.”

Funny...there is also a group, some of whome served with him as well, who are doing quite the opposite - they are arguing against the "man". I also suspect that this Drew Whitlow is a Clintoon and Gore supporter.....

[Grampa Dave]

+

+

=EARLY OUT AND PATHWAY TO BE A US SENATOR!

[Stentor]

This communist jerk set up his own injury in order to package himself as a war hero.

Once he found out his boat would be in the real sh*t, 3 and out became front and center.

[Jaidyn]

From day one John F'nn Kerry made Vietnam an ISSUE. HE and his minions attacked Bush's military record and tried to push his.


From day one, do you mean this campaign cycle now, or in 1970, when he used his "war record" to benefit a political career?
Kerry created his hero status for the sole purpose of benefiting himself. He created his image from John F. Kennedy, his mentor. Unlike the other JFK, he didn't have the guts to be a real hero so made his heroics up. Kerry has been pushing his heroism his entire adult life but was mostly ignored because he was considered a nobody. I'm waiting for some more scandals to erupt. He is more like Clinton than he resembles JFK.

[syriacus]

It is reasonable to think that those crew members that were on Kerry's boat are complicit in his fabrications. Those pictures of Kerry and crew that keep popping up show them all with medals pinned to their shirts. What a brave crew.

Many retired folks love to spend their money travelling around the country.

I'd bet Kerry's former crewmates are travelling around the country in "style" and spending very little of their own money.

[mrtysmm]

"This will just add to Kerry's negatives "

In light of the mess about the Iraqi prisoners...the more negatives about Kerry, the better. Bush is taking a beating for those stupid GIs and the media will play this up for as long as they can. But in the meantime, Kerry's message, whatever that is, is not getting out.

[Arrowhead1952]

John F'ing Kerry for president in 04????
I don't think so.

[mrtysmm]

"I hate dredging up this 30 year ago stuff."

I agree...but...remember it has been Kerry since the beginning who has been bringing up the Viet Nam war. He has to take the good with the bad. His attempt at rewriting 'his' history has become almost comical.

[mrtysmm]

"The awards of all the crew that were received while Kerry was in charge should be examined "

I may sound a bit cyncial, but I'd also like to examine their bank accounts and recent activity in them.

[mrtysmm]

"I'm waiting for some more scandals to erupt"

Whatever happened to his 'girlfriend?'

[capydick]

You're kidding right? Don't hold your breath.

IF they do. I rather doubt they will, myself.

I forgot my html tags : </sarcasm off>

I think we all know that there is no chance in hell that any of the news readers will cover this today.

[Jaidyn]

Whatever happened to his 'girlfriend?'

I think she was the "minor" one. I read somewhere there is a blonde on his staff who just graduated from college. He was supposed to be 'very friendly' with her. I forgot her name, but will check it out later today. He's another Bill Clinton, only without a personality.

[roylene]

I disagree. What Kerry did 30 years ago was disgrace this country by accusing our solders of war crimes that led them to being spat on, called baby killers and the like. He turned this country into a 'war zone' with his lies and distortions. He cause prisoners to be tortured and brutalized while they had to listen to his words of commendation. He is in a word a 'pig. (Sorry to insult pigs.)I had friends who died, and who were wounded in VietNam. I had friends who had to listen to Kerry and his ilk when they got home about what Kerry said to that senate committee. Kerry is a disgrace to this county and does not deserve to be senator let alone president.

[calcowgirl]

There are many new tidbits in this article. Here is my summary (not verbatim):

Letson account (from email and two phone interviews with LA Times):

Kerry appeared in the medical tent at Cam Ranh Bay on Dec. 3, 1968, with a slight wound “covered with a Band-Aid.”

“There wasn’t much blood to it,”... “It looked like a splinter.”...“small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry’s arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 centimeter” ... did “not look like a round from a rifle,” ... Letson “simply removed the piece of metal” with forceps.

Wound was “pretty rare. I don’t remember treating any other shrapnel wounds at Cam Ranh Bay.”

Letson said Carreon, who signed the medical report was a lower-ranked “hospitalman,” ... “present at the time and he, in fact, made the entry into Lt. Kerry’s medical record which has only recently been made available to the public.”

Letson, now 63, was a Navy lieutenant as well as a medical officer at the time.

Kerry told Letson that his crew “had been engaged in a firefight, receiving small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this enemy action.”

Several members of Kerry’s crew told a different story: “They did not receive any fire from shore,” ... “but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore. The crewmen thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.”

The crew’s account “seemed to fit the injury which I treated.”

He explained that the crew was “just talking to my guys. It was just casual discussion. Up until that point, I didn’t have any suspicions about it, but after I heard that, the circumstances sounded a little unusual. That’s why I remembered it all this time.”

“I didn’t even know he got a Purple Heart for it until years later,”

Other LA Times Comments:

Kerry has said he was wounded by a piece of shrapnel as he and his crew engaged Vietcong fleeing on a beach from their flat-bottomed “sampan” boats.

Kerry has said he was uncertain where the shrapnel came from.

U.S. military’s regulations require that an injury must be received during “action against an enemy of the United States.” for issuance of a Purple Heart

[rj45mis]

"What Kerry did 30 years ago is irrelevant."

I respectfully disagree. Character issues are never irrelevant. We would be foolish to ignore the implications of what he did at that time.

"a good many of us did questionable stuff."

True, but we're not trying to become POTUS.

[calcowgirl]

This was also posted earlier as published in the LA Times

For more comments see: Crew Contradicted Kerry Over Battle, Doctor Alleges

[BillyCrockett]

...that this is nothing more than a college hazing incident gone bad.

"Does college hazing include getting sodomized with chemlights and broomsticks these days?"

Nah... those are the college parties.