Kerry allows Navy release of military, medical records (Navy provided them to Boston Globe)

boston Globe ^ | June 7, 2005 | Michael Kranish

[FairOpinion]

Senator John F. Kerry, ending at least two years of refusal, has waived privacy restrictions and authorized the release of his full military and medical records.

The records, which the Navy Personnel Command provided to the Globe, are mostly a duplication of what Kerry released during his 2004 campaign for president, including numerous commendations from commanding officers who later criticized Kerry's Vietnam service.

The lack of any substantive new material about Kerry's military career in the documents raises the question of why Kerry refused for so long to waive privacy restrictions.

[llama hunter]

you mean like teachers and report cards LOL

only if you are a real bad apple or trully exceptional or the teacher just plain loves ya do they deviate

[investigateworld]

I wonder if he got VA bennies while in law school?
If he didn't, it would be obvious that he got a LDH discharge. If he did collect VA educational allowances, then ?

[MJY1288]

Kerry hasn't signed form 180 IMHO. Otherwise we would see the details by now

[llama hunter]

for example why didn't anyone pick up on the odd wording of Kerry's discharge in 1978 that was in fact posted on his own website [never mind that I found proof myself that Kerry was telling people he was "honourably" discharged in 1970 - see Harvard Crimson Tide interview of John Kerry 1970] when his own records cannot prove this

now the fact of the matter it was military legal types in the blogosphere and/or the NY Sun were the ones that picked up on the wording as being specific to discharges given under the Carter Amnesty

I suspect that the Less than honourable discharge or any discharge that wasn't honourable, there is a range, were expunged under the Carter Amnesty and the only people who may know about it are bound by confidentiality agreements not to reveal that information

someone on another thread noted that they bet if someone were enterprising that there may be other ways to find out, like reviewing the Nixon files...because surely if Kerry got the LHD because of his trips to Paris, Nixon would have either directed it or was informed of it...since Nixon so despised Kerry, but then you'd think John O Neill might have specific details or Pat Buchanan who worked in the Nixon White House at the time.....

[airedale]

There should be copies of a lot of his tasking orders chopping him from one command to another. There should be copies of orders to have him deliver weapons to the Kamer Rouge and to take the CIA officer (the one that gave him the magic hat) across the boarder. No way would those have been just verbal orders. They could be a message but any CO I know would have kept their own copy even if one didn't make it into the service record.

[Earthdweller]

"John O'Neill, the leader of the Swift Boat veterans group and coauthor of the book ''Unfit for Command," said yesterday that he would be disappointed if Kerry's files do not contain new information."

Looks like you are not the only one who has some doubts about this.

[kitkat]

BUMP

[conshack]

you mean like teachers and report cards LOL

only if you are a real bad apple or trully exceptional or the teacher just plain loves ya do they deviate


Yeppum. If you "walk on water" they use lots of glorious words to spruce it up. If you're a loser(like JF'n actually is), they use the opposite type wording to tear you down. If you're in the middle, you get the kind of phrases that Kerry got(again, he was highly overrated-the proof of this is;they actually consider him to be human).

[CyberAnt]

And .. we all know the Boston Bulb will not print anything that is unfriendly to sKerry .. or the papers have already been scrubbed.

[Mo1]

What exactly does an "undeleted" copy mean ??

[NavVet]

Unless this shows some explanation for the discharge and medal citations issued years after the fact, the record is not complete.

[NavVet]

Any one here can submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the Bureau of Personnel in Millington, TN and ask for a copy of the record.

[SR 50]

This is just another ploy by Kerry to stay in the news media weekly. If anything about this story is true, it"s an attempt to see what the reaction will be now rather than later on nearer to election time.

No one else here mentioned it so I guess I will. You don't send the SF 180 to the Department of the NAVY unless you are currently active duty. The request goes to the National Archives Center for retired military records.

Check out: www.archives.gov/research_room/obtain_copies/standard_form_180/pdf. (click on SF Form 180.)

If the Boston Globe got any records from the Navy Personnel Command they were not Kerry's Military and Medical Records Flies. The Navy simply does not maintain any records on non-active personnel.

This is another whitewash folks...

[Bahbah]

IMHO we will never see his complete record for the simple fact that if his service was so honorable, he would have signed the form already.

That, I believe, says it quite nicely.

[R. Scott]

… including numerous commendations from commanding officers …

It must be different for Officers. Some time ago I requested copies of my military records. No commendations were sent. Very few transfer orders were sent. No citations for awards were sent. What I received were mostly my 210 file, DD214s and enlistment contracts
Maybe he had some help assembling the paperwork?

[Snickersnee]

The DD 214 (Report of Separation from Active Military Service) posted on Kerry's website was issued several years after his release from active duty and apparently incorporates several changes that were made to the original. The big question: what does the original say? Specifically, what entries are in the blocks entitled "Narrative reason for separation" and "Character of service"? Anything other than "expiration of active duty obligation" in the first and "Honorable" in the second spells trouble -- and a lot of explaining.

[OXENinFLA]

Now that's JF'nK signed the SF-180 can't anyone request the ALL the files under the FOIA?

[Peach]

I would think those records would be gone over with a fine tooth comb, but I'll bet they've been "cleansed" and we won't find anything really interesting.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Well since the Boston Globe now has them, I would suggest that someone go to the Globe and get the records.

They are now public domain and I would not be suprised if the Globe is doing the coverup.

[patj]

and it doesn't explain the NY Sun story about what a Harvard Admissions Committee member said about why Kerry didn't get into Harvard Law School

This is a new one to me. What was said in this regard?