Kerry question: How common is 3 purple hearts in 3 months?

[Conservomax]

I was reading about Kerry's service on this site: Vietnam Vets Against John Kerry after hearing my father, a WWII vet go on a rampage against Kerry's service record. Being from MA, I was of course, familiar with Kerry's war record and moreimportanatly, post war record, but I did not know the details. On this site it says that Kerry was wounded and awarded the PH three times in a little over 3 months. Is that common?

My father was shot, stabbed, and blown out of a landing craft during WWII, and never received any citation, I know that it was a different war. But I don't understand how Kerry could be so decorated in such a short period of time without someone pulling strings for him.

[americanbychoice]

Since we took over for the French in Viet-Nam, possibly he was a left over? Have to look at his real Birthcertificate. :-)

[Finalapproach29er]

Frank Burns received the purple Heart for getting an eggshell in his eye in a combat zone.

I hear 2 of Kerry's PH's are similar. 1 was for a shoulder wound. Maybe wrong.

[mabelkitty]

My hubby was also an enlisted Vietnam Vet, and it was pretty political in the handing out of medals and ribbons. Apparently, lots of Clark types running around with policy but no ground troop experience. Caused a lot of problems.

Hubby, too, is skeptical about Kerry's medals and such and has asked me repeatedly to search for the true events that occurred to where he got them.

[mabelkitty]

How about military service didn't matter when Clinton dodged the draft and flew to England in anti-American protests, but now they are running away from Clinton and embracing the military that they've gutted for the last 12 years.

Hypocrite is a good one.

[moodyskeptic]

One moment Kerry wants praise for protesting the war and blowing the whistle on atrocities. The next moment he wants praise for being a war hero. He lays the entire blame for Vietnam on Nixon, so that shows his grasp of politics.

This in a war the Democrats have always hated (though they created its worst features), having spit in the face of Nam soldiers for 3 decades.

So, which is it? Does the left honor soldiers or only protesters? Kerry can't have it both ways.

[finnman69]

ditto...Kerry's record is gold for the GOP.

[mabelkitty]

Wow.
My husband wasn't afforded such luxury - he managed to be there for a whole years without one instance of injury.

[leadpenny]

. . . and enlisted . . .

How did he get commissioned?

[angkor]

http://www.usvetdsp.com/jf_kerry.htm

Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968. He was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart.

Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a minor shrapnel wound in his left thigh on Feb. 20, 1969.

Kerry was given a Silver Star for an action on February 28, 1969: When Kerry's Patrol Craft Fast 94 received a B-40 rocket shot from shore, he beached his craft in the center of the enemy positions and an enemy soldier sprang up from a hole not ten feet from Patrol Craft 94 and fled. The boat's machine gunner hit and wounded the fleeing Viet Cong as he darted behind a hootch. The twin .50s gunner also fired at the Viet Cong. He said he "laid 50 rounds" into the hootch before Kerry leaped from the boat and dashed in to administer a "coup de grace" to thw wounded Viet Cong. Kerry returned with the B-40 rocket and launcher.

On March 13, 1969, a mine detonated near Kerry's boat, slighting wounding Kerry in the right arm. He was awarded his third Purple Heart.

[XRdsRev]

JOHN KERRY"S OTHER PURPLE HEART APPLICATIONS.....

LT. KERRY WAS APPROVED FOR 3 PURPLE HEARTS, HIS OTHER APPLICATIONS WERE DENIED IN THE FOLLOWING CASES.

1) eye wound from suicide Gnat attack (denied)
2) blister on foot from ill fitting beach sandals (denied)
3) paper cut received while filling out Purple Heart forms (denied)
4) really bad sunburn (denied)
5) intestinal problems from eating too many Ham & Lima Bean C-Rats (denied)
6) 2nd degree burn on lips recieved while getting one last drag off a joint (denied)
7) Seasickness (denied)
8) Contusion on leg, received while stumbling out of the officer's club in a drunken stupor (denied)
9) Bee sting on the buttocks (denied)
10) emotional distress - seperation anxiety from the Kerry family maid (denied)
11) tennis elbow (denied)
12) carpal tunnel syndrome from steering the boat (denied)

[Polybius]

If the criteria for getting a PH is that low shouldn't Al Gore get one for suffering paper cuts and carpal tunnel syndrome from using a manual typewriter during his Viet Nam service? < /satire

"I got my Purple Heart for a shell fragment to the eye during the Korean War."

[mountaineer]

by the time Kerry hit 'Nam they gave out purple hearts for scratching your face out on an op.

I've heard that. I also heard guys in Nam got the PH for injuries sustained while falling down drunk. OTOH, my late father didn't get one for his two shattered wrists and back injury aboard ship in the South Pacific, circa 1945, because the ship wasn't technically directly involved in combat.

[joesnuffy]

Kerry's awards are what we used to call "cheap hearts"...slight wounds...easily attended by a corpsman or in Kerry's case an MD at the 3rd Surgical Hospital in Dong Tam (Base camp of the 9th Inf Div the Infantry branch of the Mobile Riverine Force-Joint Army-Navy operations)

Most of the wounds of the day were shrapnel...some serious ,some minor, that basically needed to be dug out or cut out...usually these wounds would be packed with antibiotic gauze and removed and replaced until the wound was healed or a the shrapnel dug out and a few stitches and a shot of PenVK and you're on your way

Any time a man is injured on a combat op by enemy fire...and a wound tag is filled out...he merits a purple heart..Whether this is a minor shrapnel wound or a death dealing one...a Purple Heart may 'technically' still be awarded for a minor wound.

Some of my Marine Corps buddies up north related to me...that this was not necessarily the case in "The Crotch" that minor wounds did not necessarily merit a purple heart & that for them only serious wounds got the award.. They also told me that certain individuals of higher rank got them for more minor wounds while some of the lower enlisted personnel did not...

Had Kerry been a Marine Lt...at least at Con Tien -It's doubtful that he would have been awarded any Purple Hearts at all....However down in the Delta if he went into 3rd Surg with frag wounds he most likely would have been awarded a Purple Heart for each wound ...

Three in one month?...down in the Mekong Delta...the land of command det booby traps..possible but not likely....as the odds are that in three woundings at least one was most likely to be extremely damaging or fatal.. Kerry was on the boats and not a grunt humping the boonies...My guess is (and I could be wrong) Kerry knew the drill on how to make sure the paper work was turned in for a Purple Heart and he new that this would be an asset to him after his service was over so he pushed for the paper work to be turned in...in order to get them...

There were unscrupulous individuals who teamed up and put each other in for medals neither earned..and got away with it....thats the trouble with medals...

Some earned them and got them...Some did not earn them and got them....and many brave men who merited them did not get them...

thats my opinion

[Natural Law]

We had a mess sargeant at Can Tho, RVN, who was awarded a Purple Heart and never saw actual "combat". He had a mishap one morning cooking breakfast and reported to sick call. After having his left eye irrigated he returned to duty in time for lunch.

About six weeks later he was ordered to report to an award ceremony where the Purple Heart was awarded. The Purple Heart was issued as part of an automatic review of clinic reports and his had stated "Shell Fragments in left eye". The Army didn't care that they were egg shell fragments.

Now you know....the rest of the story.

[OldFriend]

When you of the elite you get those honors from the brass.

[OldFriend]

Don't believe that is accurate, that Kerry dropped out of school. He offered some type of alternative service which was denied so he went thru officer training.

[OldFriend]

Sorry, there are no accounts that he gave a great accounting of himself in Viet Nam. At one point he said he was guilty of killing old people, babies, and raping and mutiliating. Of course, as is his wont,he retracted all that but there is nothing to indicate he was great!

[FR_addict]

This still does not make him fit nor competent to be president but he does deserve our respect for his service and duty to country.

According to the link in the first post, he aligned himself with the VVAW group that Jane Fonda helped to financed.

By throwing his medals away and closely aligning himself with Jane Fonda, I think he disrespected his own service to this country and that of other veterans, so he does not deserve my respect.

[OldSmaj]

If you went to sick call with a "wound" you were put in for a purple heart.

Really?

Well, I'm still picking shrapnel out of my ass from a Chicom grenade, but I didn't get a PH.

Neither did I get a PH for the splinters from a richocheted AK round that went through my elbow.

Nor did I get get a PH for the cut on my ankle from the punji I stepped on.

Nor did I get a PH for the paper cut I got from the witness statement I was forced to sign for the citation for a POS LT that was put in for a Silver Star.

I did get a CIB, though.

And I got it during a period of time when the requirement for award of it was that one had to be in actual ground combat with the enemy for at least 90 days.

All the other crap is crap. Fruit salad. Saigon Commando decorations.

For the largest part of my career, the only decorations I wore on my uniform was my CIB and my Expert Rifle and Pistol badges.

Those who earned their PH's know that they earned them. And nothing can cheapen that for them, even though Kerry's constant bleating about his cheapens his own.

I once had a soldier appear before me with an Army Commendation Medal with a "V" device. Practically unheard of. But I assure you, that soldier was prouder of that than the Yalies, the ring-knockers and the Joe College ticket-punchers can ever be with their faux Silver Stars.

And reading the citation for his award brought tears to my eyes. That soldier should have been awarded a SS on the spot. Instead, he got an ARCOM with a "V", while the POS O-3 (That wasn't even on the ground, but was directing from the air) got a SS. The O-3 should have gotten a kick in the ass for getting his unit into the stupid situatiuon that he did.

There was absolutely no fairness or consistency in the award of medals and decorations during VN. I personally know of persons that got awards for totally screwing up an operation, but, by God, their "heart" was in the right place, after all.

And the process was cheapened more after cessation of hostilities. I know of a Soldiers Medal awarded to a soldier that went into an overflowing low-water crossing and rescued a yapping cheewawa.

Yeah, he risked his life, but for a cheewawa? The cheewawa was ugly as hell, but the Soldiers Medal recipient was photogenic and made some damn good copy, particularly during a time of poor retention and low morale, brought about by the Carter ding-a-lings. I had MP's that were refused letters of commendation for entering burning buildings and bringing out babies, for entering hostage situations and inserting themselves between the perp and the hostages. Hell, we all should of gotten Bronze Stars, just for being able to function effectively with the crap equipment they were giving us during those times.

Kerry dishonors all those that ever legitimately received any award, from the PH, to the ARCOM, to the MOH. He did so by his posturing, his faked throwing of "his" medals over the White House fence, and his constant, never-ending, day after day, repeated mantra about his VN Veteran status.

Fer cryin' out loud, there are many, many VN Vets around. Big deal. It was a job. We got paid for it. We did our job for the most part.

And we came home and did our jobs and lived our lives. We didn't sit around and whine about the "unfairness" of it all. We didn't appear before congressional committees and testify untruthfully to "atrocities" and we didn't label our fellow comrades-in-arms as "baby-killers", warmongers, etc. Nor did we sympathize with a quasi-commie bunch of rabble-rousing pieces of crap that had nothing better to do but back-stab every good and honorable man they served with.

To hell with Kerry. He can take his SS and his PH and stick them all up his..., whatever. He doesn't impress me one damn bit, because the only reason he does anything or says anything is for a vote.

And that is despicable.

And at the other end of the spectrum is a POS like Wesley Clark.

But that's a whole 'nother rant.