Kerry Camp Offers Some Military Records

Yahoo! News ^ | 4/20/04 | Nedra Pickler - AP

[O Neill]

he is given command of Swift boat No. 44...

"BOAT 44...Where ARE you??????"

[kabar]

I agree with you. This guy used the system to bug out. He manipulated the rules to initiate a request for an early out and leave his shipmates behind.

I did my full 12 months and frankly I never heard of the 3 PH rule nor did I ever know someone who used it. I wonder how many naval officers ever left early using this regulation. Something just isn't right.

I don't want to find fault with someone who served and did put themselves in the line of fire, however, Kerry manipulated the system in a dishonorable way. My biggest complaint about Kerry is his antiwar activities and associations (VVAW, Fonda, Ramsey Clark) after he returned. The fact that he now trumpets his Vietnam service and demeans those who didn't serve show what a weasel and hypocrite he really is.

[Eva]

contusions on his right forearm when a mine detonated close to his boat on March 13, 1969.

Kerry received his third purple heart for bruises on his forearm. Bruises from shrapnel? The campaign could not locate a similar report for Kerry's original Purple Heart

Contusion - An injury in which the skin is not broken; a bruise.

[O Neill]

He is also awarded a Bronze Star for pulling a crew member, who had fallen overboard, back on the boat amidst a firefight.

This is the part where Ted Kennedy just swoons with admiration...a water rescue!! Huzzahh! Huzzahh!!

[mabelkitty]

Call him the first Feminist who is running for President.

[Polybius]

As evidence that Kerry was wounded, Meehan showed The Associated Press a "Sick Call Treatment Record" from Kerry's personal files that included a medic's written note dated Dec. 9, 1968. ......

"Shrapnel in left arm above elbow. Shrapnel removed and appl bacitracin dressing. Ret to Duty."

The regulations in effect during Vietnam specifically stated that Purple Heart were awarded for:

"A wound which necessitates treatment by a medical officer and which is received in action with an enemy......"

By the regulations in effect at the time of Kerry's Vietnam service, a Purple Hearts was not authorized for a Bacitracin and Band-Aid wound that was treated without a single stitch by a Corpsman at Sick Call.

That particular Purple Heart was therefore awarded in violation of the Purple Heart regulations in effect at the time.

It really would not matter all that much except that Kerry used that Purple Heart and two others whose details I have not yet researched to get out of combat after only 4 months.

THAT IS THE SMOKING GUN, FREEPERS........

KERRY'S FIRST PURPLE HEART DOES NOT MEET THE "necessitates treatment by a medical officer" REQUIREMENT SET FORTH BY REGULATION AT THE TIME OF KERRY'S VIETNAM SERVICE.

KERRY USED THAT PURPLE HEART OBTAINED IN VIOLATION OF THE PURPLE HEART CRITERIA SET FORTH BY REGULATIONS TO CUT SHORT HIS COMBAT TOUR OF DUTY.

[mabelkitty]

Notice how he asked for reassignment to Washington D.C.?
That kinda goes with the whole scheme that he was there to collect brass and push his agenda.

Yeah, there will be many vets who will be pissed about his climbing for medals. Do you know if the 3 PH and you're out was well-known among the vets? I'd be curious to know that.

He is toast. Hillary has contributed to it, and she has been actively running since last week.

[Cicero]

Releasing selective records through campaign HQ means absolutely nothing. I want to see kerry instruct the Navy to release ALL of his records. And I want to see the Navy do it, not Kerry.

[mabelkitty]

My husband requested, and got, all of his records, and even requested, and received citations for his unit that he was unaware of.

Say what you will about the government, but the records department for military personnel is awesome.

[mabelkitty]

He was probably punched by one of the guys in the swift boat.

[DustyMoment]

I have no problem with it - my point was that Kerry, a United States Senator, doesn't seem to be able to get the same service out of the records department that your husband did. See anything wrong with that picture?

[lake5732]

'He is toast. Hillary has contributed to it, and she has been actively running since last week.'

Yup. And maybe this is a reason why the Bush Campaign decided to cut back on TV ads. Why waste the money when Kerry is about to implode? Better to sit back and see what shakes out, particularly now that Hillary's starting to get huge media face time.

[Kahuna]

BINGO!

[O Neill]

..."Sick Call Treatment Record" from Kerry's personal files that included a medic's written note dated Dec. 9, 1968...

The dates are a little off, too. I had him arriving in Vietnam Nov 17, 1968...first 'wound' received on Dec. 2, 1968 (his 16th day of duty). Now, he doesn't show up for Sick Call until his 23rd day of duty...

Of course, if you were rollin' down the river for several days...but INTENT on getting PH credit for your shrapnel scratch, SOME medics would probably have been accommodating, I suppose....

[NormsRevenge]

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) decided to post on the Internet military records on his service in the Vietnam war after questions were raised about one of the medals he was awarded.(AFP/Getty Images/Stephen Chernin)

[NormsRevenge]

One entry found for contusion.


Main Entry: con·tu·sion
Pronunciation: k&n-'tü-zh&n, -'tyü-
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English conteschown, from Middle French contusion, from Latin contusion-, contusio, from contundere to pound, bruise, from com- + tundere to beat; akin to Gothic stautan to strike, Sanskrit tudati he pushes
: injury to tissue usually without laceration : BRUISE 1a
- con·tuse /-'tüz, -'tyüz/ transitive verb

[O Neill]

...contusions on his right forearm when a mine detonated close to his boat on March 13, 1969.

Actually, rather than a 'mine', that might have been Huckleberry Nguyen skipping rocks across the river from the lush banks of the mighty Mekong...

[Howlin]

The incident that led to Kerry's first Purple Heart was risky, and covert. He and his crew left the safe confines of the huge US base at Cam Ranh Bay, climbing aboard a "skimmer" boat -- a craft similar to a Boston Whaler -- to travel upriver in search of Viet Cong guerrillas. At a beach that was known as a crossing area for enemy contraband traffic, Kerry's crew spotted some people running from a sampan, a flat-bottomed boat, to a nearby shoreline, according to two men serving alongside Kerry that night, William Zaladonis and Patrick Runyon. When the Vietnamese refused to obey a call to stop, Kerry authorized firing to begin.

"I assume they fired back," Zaladonis recalled in an interview. But neither he nor Runyon saw the source of the shrapnel that lodged in Kerry's arm. '`We came across the bay onto the beach and I got [hit] in the arm, got shrapnel in the arm," Kerry told the Globe in a 2003 interview. Kerry has also said he didn't know where the shrapnel came from.

Back at the base, Kerry told Hibbard he qualified for a Purple Heart, according to Hibbard. Thirty-six years later, Hibbard, reached at his retirement home in Florida, said he can still recall Kerry's wound, and that it resembled a scrape from a fingernail. "I've had thorns from a rose that were worse," said Hibbard, a registered Republican who said he was undecided on the 2004 presidential race.

The Globe asked Kerry's campaign whether the Massachusetts senator is certain he was under enemy fire and whether he recalled that a superior officer raised questions about the matter. The campaign did not respond directly to those questions. Instead, Meehan said in a prepared statement that Kerry "received the shrapnel wound early in the course of that combat engagement. " Meehan also provided a copy of a medical report showing treatment for a wound on Dec. 3, 1968. The Purple Heart regulation in effect at that time said that a wound must "require treatment by a medical officer."

Nearly three months later, a document was sent to Kerry informing him that he would receive a Purple Heart "for injuries received on 2 December 1968." The Naval Historical Center, which could not locate a copy of the original card for the incident, nonetheless confirmed that Kerry did receive the Purple Heart.

[michaelt]

Fat Man at Bench: It was a bullet, wasn't it?
Forrest Gump: A bullet?
Fat Man at Bench: That jumped up and bit you.
Forrest Gump: Oh, yes sir. Bit me right in the buttocks. They said it was a million dollar wound, but the army must keep that money 'cause I still haven't seen a nickel of that million dollars.

[Howlin]

Zumwalt thought Kerry was NUTS and said so!