Posted on 09/29/2004 11:13:03 PM PDT by The Old Hoosier
This business about Kerry not receiving an honorable discharge until 2000 is simply untrue. The real story of Kerry's discharge is interesting enough, we don't need to be making things up.
Kerry actually received his honorable discharge in February 1978, not 30 years after his service ended, as so many threads here on FR have alleged. Here is the document:
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Honorable_Discharge_From_Reserve.pdf
Here is the full timeline, which Kerry was given by the Navy years later:
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Request_For_History_of_Service.pdf
Note that that's quite a long time as an inactive standby reservist--six years. Kerry left active duty in 1970. He left the naval reserves in July 1972 to become an inactive standby reservist. This notice of his upcoming change in status was sent to him in March 1972:
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Transfer_To_Standby_Reserve.pdf
Yet as one FReeper notes regarding the above document, "John Kerry's letter of transfer to the Standby Reserves is conspicuously missing a page. The first page posted on his campaign website has a final line that ends in a colon. After the colon was supposed to follow a list of Kerry's obligations while in the Standby Reserves. What were those obligations, and did Kerry fulfill them?"
As a naval reservist between 70 and 72, Kerry would have had certain obligations--keeping the govt notified on his whereabouts, and drilling, for example. Someone should ask the question of whether Kerry properly notified the Navy when he travelled to Paris in 1971 (see note at the end) and met with the communists. He would have been required to do so as a standby reservist.
Presumably, he also would have been required to drill. Was he drilling during the same period when he was out giving speeches that compared Ho Chi Minh to George Washington? Or even better, did he skip drills to do events with Jane Fonda? Did he skip drills to do Dewey Canyon and Valley Forge and the protest on the mall, and other such anti-war events?
Maybe Kerry did not fulfill those obligations, and that's why his discharge came so much later. Could Kerry have gotten a less-than-honorable discharge (perhaps general) at some point later than 1972 and earlier than 1978, then got it smoothed over later on? No one will be able to know this unless Kerry releases his full record to the press, without filtering it through his campaign.
The Washington Post noted on August 22 that, contrary to his claims, Kerry has not released his records:
"Although Kerry campaign officials insist that they have published Kerry's full military records on their Web site (with the exception of medical records shown briefly to reporters earlier this year), they have not permitted independent access to his original Navy records. A Freedom of Information Act request by The Post for Kerry's records produced six pages of information. A spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command, Mike McClellan, said he was not authorized to release the full file, which consists of at least a hundred pages."
Forget about "aid and comfort to the enemy"--that notion is too vague and could be hard to prove. By simply *meeting* with Madam Binh and the North Vietnamese in Paris, Kerry was inviting a death sentence under the UCMJ, which states: "Any person who...without proper authority, knowingly harbors or protects or gives intelligence to, or communicates or corresponds with or holds any intercourse with the enemy, either directly or indirectly; shall suffer death or such other punishment as a court-martial or military commission may direct."
It's as simple as that. Kerry could literally have been taken in front of a firing squad for just taking his trip to Paris--and open-and-shut case since he's condemned by his own sworn statements before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Is the statute of limitations expired? If not, could someone perform a citizens' arrest for that crime, or does it have to be a MP?
Good question. I don't know.
Can I pull the triger?-
Watch your comments, friend, unless you want a visit from the secret service.
I believe I read he was an inactive reservist...and it made a difference in whether he could be charged...
Hoosier, if he would just sign the form, we could drop this.
But, he won't. He is hiding more than something.
Then why was there a corrected DD Form 215 made on March 12, 2001 on John Forbes Kerry? See PDF link below.
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/DD-215_Correction.pdf
Well I notice the discharge
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Honorable_Discharge_From_Reserve.pdf
from 1978 is unsigned. Is that usual? [Also that document is right and left justified. We are dealing with Dims here, so I would not be so quick to take a document at face value. Are other discharges from around that date similarly produced? Or does it look of new production?]
If one got an upgrade to their discharge is a new one issued dated the same date as the original or is a new one with a new date issued?
Mr. Kerry getting a less than honorable discharge would make a lot of since. It would answer the question, why he was not prosecuted by the Navy. He did have a lot of medals. Rather than prosecute someone with a lot of medals, they might have chosen to give him a less than honorable discharge as punishment?
With antiwar role, high visibility:
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061703.shtml
So, why was that 2000 (I thought 2001) Honorable Discharge request made by Kerry? If he already had an HD from the 1970s, why would he put in a request in 2000/2001?
It says it's because his service medal is supposed to have four bronze stars. I don't understand the significance myself.
Notice the date is not written in military format and each line is right/left justified which military typewriters in
those days could not perform, it takes a computor, so my feeling is that this "memo" is a forgery.
My father in law was a WWII vetran who was wounded in action and returned to the US after a long hospital stay. Although he was released from duty he didn't actually get his honorable discharge papers until Clinton was president.
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