Kerry - Pardoned by Carter in 1977?

The record is puzzling. Why would Kerry claim hero status and then refuse to allow us to see his record and allow every reader to confirm his claims? Why, even in war time, does Kerry’ service in the USNR appear to stretch from 1966 to 1978, 12 years? How does one explain the strange irregularities (multiple citations for his Silver Star) and inconsistencies in the Kerry military records that are available? Why does the 6 year (plus six month?) USNR obligation begun by Kerry in 2/66 appear to end in 1/70 again, in time of war, even though available records seem to indicate that the terminal date of his reserve obligation was 17 Feb 1972? Why are the documents that should be available, not there? The answers to all these question may be linked and surprisingly obvious. My thesis would be very easy to disprove (if it is false) by simply releasing Kerry’s entire military record.

Even if you include a lot of puffery and self-promotion, Kerry’s in-country record in late 1968 and early 1969 was exceptional and one to be admired and honored. But, for reasons we do not yet understand, in roughly late 1969, Kerry turned bad.

In late 1969, Kerry asked for an early release from “active duty”even though he had re-upped to serve on active duty until August, 1970. He said he wished to enter the democrat party primary, held in September, 1970 in Massachusetts, to be a candidate for Congress for the Third District. He was detached from active duty effective 4:00 PM, 2 January 1970 and specifically reminded the he assumed “... The status of a member of the Naval Reserve on inactive duty.”

The paper trail of available Navy records disappears for almost 8 years. In March, 1970, Kerry drops out of the Congressional primary in favor of the notorious Father Drinan, Dean of Boston College Law School (where Kerry later attended law school, 1973-1976). From early, 1970 through the Summer of 1973, Kerry takes part in activities involving war protests, meeting in Paris with Viet Cong representatives and the leadership of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. These activities, some of which may have been legal, were of very questionable patriotism for an honest citizen of the US but certainly inappropriate for a US Naval officer.

That’s pretty much fact. Now, the thesis that explains the rest of the mysteries. I believe that Kerry was court martialed in the early 70s or otherwise terminated from the USNR under conditions other than honorable. Whatever actually happened represented a stain on Kerry’s record that might not have been taken lightly even by voters in Massachusetts.

Then, on January 21,1977, Democrat President Jimmy Carter (POTUS - January 20,1977 - January 20,1981) gave a blanket pardon, in Proclamation 4483, to certain offenders as follows:

“Acting pursuant to the grant of authority in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States, do hereby grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to: (1) all persons who may have committed any offense between August 4, 1964 and March 28, 1973 in violation of the Military Selective Service Act or any rule or regulation promulgated thereunder; and (2) all persons heretofore convicted, irrespective of the date of conviction, of any offense committed between August 4, 1964 and March 28, 1973 in violation of the Military Selective Service Act, or any rule or regulation promulgated thereunder, restoring to them full political, civil and other rights.”

Thus, if my thesis is correct, Kerry’s offense must have occurred between 2 January 1970 and March 28, 1973. My thesis suggests that during 1977, Kerry made application for full pardon under the administrative procedures promulgated by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Department of Justice. He almost certainly sought and received the support of Massachusetts Senator Kennedy who had much clout in the Carter administration. Kennedy may have been responsible for suggesting that the records of such a fine young man be embellished by Citations from the Secretary of the Navy, rather than a mere admiral, and in other details not yet known.

In my hypothesis, Kerry’s request for full pardon was granted. Kerry applied for his military records to be corrected accordingly, and applied for an honorable discharge. The Secretary of the Navy wrote to Kerry on Feb 16 1978, enclosing an Honorable Discharge Certificate and stating:

“This action is taken in accordance with the approved recommendations of a board of officers convened ... to examine the official records of officers of the Naval Reserve on inactive duty and determine whether they should be retained on the rolls of the Reserve Component or separated from the naval service pursuant to Secretarial instructions promulgated in reference [c].”

The reference, “[c],”is to “BUPERSMAN 3830300.” A Google search did not provide any information regarding the text of this provision. But, this might explain why he was discharged 12 long years after enlistment.

This hypothesis explains the inconsistencies in Kerry’s record and makes it clear why he acts like a three card Monte dealer in insisting that we watch his time in Nam very carefully and not pay attention to what happened afterward. It is exactly the position Benedict Arnold took with respect to what happened at West Point and afterward.

Proofs? Well, no. Certainly, the official USNR file on Kerry would quickly prove or disprove my thesis. Kerry refuses to sign a Standard Form 180 authorizing the Navy to release it, suggesting that Kerry has much more to lose by showing his records than by continuing to conceal material information. Kennedy? Not likely that his office would say anything that might negatively effect Kerry even though it might be in the nation’s best interest. It is, after all, Kennedy. The US Navy? It is unlikely that the Navy would, of its own volition, risk alienating a sitting US Senator and a man who might be the next CinC. Kerry’s first wife, Julia Thorne, who went to Paris with Kerry when he met with the Viet Cong, and her brother, David H. Thorne, certainly might be able to add facts but, would the old timey, ultra-left wing, liberal media even ask them?

But, there is a another possibility. Many aspects of the Presidential Pardon/Clemency process are matters of public record, in the Department of Justice. If Jimmy Carter pardoned Kerry, there should be a public record that Kerry shouldn’t be able to conceal. An applicant appears to be told in the application process:

"A record of each Certificate of Pardon will be maintained in the Office of the Pardon Attorney as an official record, together with your application form and any other documents compiled in the course of processing your request. The Pardon Attorney may disclose the contents of such files to anyone when the disclosure is required by law or the ends of justice. In particular, public record documents that may be compiled in the course of processing an application, such as the judgment order from the criminal case for which pardon is sought, trial or sentencing transcripts, court opinions, and newspaper articles, are generally made available upon request by third-parties (including representatives of the news media) pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, unless such disclosure could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of the petitioner's personal privacy. In addition, unsolicited Congressional correspondence is treated in the same manner. On the other hand, non-public documents that may be compiled in the course of processing an application, such as the application form itself, are not generally available under the Freedom of Information Act."

Publicly available information: Executive clemency statistics from the administration of President McKinley to the present; rules governing the pardon attorney and petitions for executive clemency published at 28 C.F.R. §§ 0.35-36 and § 1.1 et seq.; forms for applying for executive clemency; publication: Civil Disabilities of Convicted Felons: A State-by-State Survey (October 1996); copies of clemency warrants and proclamations for persons who have been granted executive clemency; description of clemency procedures contained in United States Attorney's Manual at § 1-2.110 et seq.; whether an individual has applied for executive clemency and action on such application."

Thus, I would urge any individual or member of the media with an interest in learning the truth about Kerry’s total military record to contact/visit the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Department of Justice and inquire whether there are any records for John Forbes Kerry. Check variations of Kerry’s name (intentional misfiling?), things like “John Kerry Forbes.” Kerry’s Social Security Number appears to be shown, unredacted, on a 17 Dec 1970 document in his file but his Military ID number is not known. Finally, don’t limit inquiries to actions under Proclamation 4483, President Carter may have taken some clemency action because key party members may have required him to. Finally, From a reading of the above, it appears that certain information should be available on a “walk in” basis and other information must be requested via FOIA application.

Samuel T. Morison, Attorney Advisor Office of the Pardon Attorney 4th Floor, 500 First Street, N.W. Department of Justice Washington, DC 20530-0001 (202) 616-6070

United States Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney 4th Floor, 500 First Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530"

Several observations: It is indeed unfortunate that a man who would be President, so distrusts the American public and his own background that he hides material information in his military records in the hope of hornswoggling the electorate, of tricking us into believing he is one thing when, in fact, he may be another. Second, the above process should have long ago been followed by the media. It is also unfortunate that most of the traditional media are far too interested in electing Kerry to bother with doing any fact finding or reporting of information that might dissuade the electorate or present the truth.

Proof? Again, no, no proof, but as long as Kerry in his arrogance, refuses to trust Americans, we have the right to make assumptions about his dishonesty, mendacity and refusal to be candid and to assume that he uses similar duplicity with respect to other matters, as well. The above represents my current best guess about why Kerry is being dishonest and what he is hiding.

You are right about kerry.

Thank you for serving your country in Vietnam. You were then and are now one of my heroes. Not all of America felt that way then or do now; I am one of them.

> I've heard Kerry say he served TWO tours of duty.

That can only be literally true if Kerry was a tourist.
He put in only one full "tour", and that was not "in"
Vietnam.

A short tour was one full year. He only served for
4 months in Vietnam on PCFs.

His time on the USS Gridley might have been a full
year, but it was only ever briefly off the coast of VN.

Now if Kerry is refering to his service to North Vietnam,
then yes, he probably gave them a full year of anti-war
service.
___________
"Tour of Duty"
The fictions begin with the title.

Did reserve status gain JF'K any pay? Medical benefits? College help? Cheap PX purchases like cigs or medicine?

Why wait as an inactive officer, if he would have had to re-up in '72 for 6 more years to a Navy he loathed?

Kerry's family had money back then but wasn't super-wealthy, IIRC.

It is also common for lefties to receive financial assistance from the very government that they want to topple, and from the very adults that they see as "the source of all problems".

Witness the DU'ers in NYC last week. They need more welfare benefits since the price of dope is higher in NYC.

This is sKerry BS nuance. The USS Gridley was briefly off the coast of VN. So using sKerry's twisted nuance, USS Gridley's brief encounter with VN is "tour 1" and his time with swifties is "tour 2."

However, using this twisted logic, anyone who went on a SpecOp or served any temporary duty in VN could claim they served more than one tour in VN. Heck, if sKerry twists this enough, since he was assigned to 3 different swift boats, he can also claim that he served 4 tours in VN!

Regarding Kerry's "two" tours. The first was on the USS Gridley, of which only five weeks was spent anywhere near Vietnam, on aircraft gaurd duty. The remainder was spent off the west coast of the US and in a transit from there to Australia and back.

His second tour, on the Swifts, was four months, of which the first full month was spent at Cam Ranh Bay, in the safety and comfort of a former French resort while he went through training.

As to his "volunteering" for combat, that's a distortion as well. He first applied for a student deferrment to study in, of all places, Paris. He was refused. So, he volunteered for the Navy, with less prospects for combat duty in-country. After his year on the Gridley, he volunteered for the swift boats. However, at that time, the Swifts were coastal patrol craft that hardly ever saw combat. Right after he joined, they were ordered into the rivers, the dangerous duty with which they made their mark on naval history. Kerry is reported to have complained bitterly at the change.

I don't see where Kerry violated any part of the "Selective Service" act, as Carter's plan was an amnesty program offered to draft dodgers that illegally ran to Canada and other places to avoid the draft.

Kerry violated much more serious laws when he met secretly with the North Vietnamese while he was still on active reserve duty status. He should be hung or shot for treason to the United States.

I believe he did do many bad things, not only unbecoming an officer, but in fact aiding and abetting the enemy.

But, as regards:

He might have gone for the pardon to prevent this from occurring

I do not believe he could have gotten any kind of pardon under Carter's pardon. Those pardons were for violations of the Army Selective Service Act...Kerry's crimes had nothing to do with that.

But if he was an informer he could tell everyone now and get the Swifties off of his case. He could tell them he did it for them. He wouldn't even have to go public and alienate his base he could go to them in private and if he showed them proof, I think they'd let it go.

The Purple Hearts and the medals are just annoyances to them but the anti-war activity hurt them.

Very intriguing thesis, Tacis. This week, Mr. Kerry, speaking to the Boston Globe, said "If you wind up being less than what you're pretending to be, there is a major confrontation with value, self-esteem and your sense of how others view you." Do I see some major incoming confrontation and declining self-esteem on his part?

Kerry signed up for a six-year obligation in 1966. He should've been discharged in 1972.
It seems as if he was discharged in 1978.

Why the additional six years?

Based only on what's seen here, it looks like he signed up for another six years. Probably in the Active Reserve, which he promptly ignored. He came from a prominent blueblood family. He may not have a desertion behind him (as they accuse W of having), but he may have had to get his service record "touched up" for those missing years, which is why they're off-limits to us.

It also means he was still a commissioned officer while he was hob-nobbing with the North Vietnamese.

.
We're going to find out because from what I read the Pentagon is going to investigate.

That'll take years . . .

Check out the John F. Kerry Timeline. Email it to your friends.
.

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