It may be that the boilerplate langauge for the Silver Star citation had more extensive revision thatn the boilerplate language for the Bronze. That still makes the difference administrative in nature.
As for needing to come up with all sorts of reasons, well, there you go. I think most of the posters on this thread are reading way too much into what POSSIBLY (I don't know for sure) has a very simple administrative explanation. Kerry asked for replacement citations, btween the original and the request, the boilerplate language changed, and the new-improved SOP issues auto-pen signed citation letters, instead of incurring the cost of making an accurate reproduction of the original.
Finally, I agree. We won't know until we have the SOP in the Lehman-signed timeframe, and perhaps the request letters from Kerry, for the replacements.
I believe the posters are raising legitimate questions. I understand your desire to be cautious because we don't have all the facts, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you have to think it is a duck, especially with Kerry's history on his medals. You may think the other posters are reading too much into it, but you are doing the same thing only on the opposite side. You are playing the devil's advocate saying that there must be a reasonable explanation for all of this. The burden of proof is on you as well.
"...btween the original and the request, the boilerplate language changed...."
So then can we look at someone else's Silver Star citation issued at or around this time and see if this is, in fact, just boilerplate?
If there was a simple administrative explanation for "all this", it would have been released already.