[PhilDragoo]

Henry Mark Holzer is also author of Aid and Comfort: Jane Fonda In North Vietnam, and has been a guest on the O'Reilly Factor.

He served in Korea in Army Intelligence in charge of Chinese order of battle following the Korean War, prior to his career in law.

The issue of Kerry's aid and comfort to the enemy is also the subject of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry.

[PhilDragoo]

Chappaquiddick Ted with Hanoi John.

[sinkspur]

You know, this is the same kind of crap that came up about John McCain's service.

I didn't serve, so I can't criticize anybody.

But, IMO, questioning a man who stoood in my stead, especially when he was awarded honors by the Armed Services, ought to be off the table.

Let's go after Kerry's political record; there's plenty of fodder there.

[LaurieB]

It somewhat bothers me when being a veteran and having medals is used toward securing political office. Seems to me the two just don't go hand-in-hand. I've read in many places that JFK wasn't quite the hero they make him out to be. I guess that would be one of the reasons I hate hearing the claims used when trying to secure a position in politics. It always seems like the heroism is blown out of proporation and when that happens it truly makes a mockery out of the veterans who really did do something major to earn their medals. Hmmmm, I looked at the picture of Kerry - has he always worn a complete wig?

[auboy]

Bump.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Phil. I knew about Kerry's anti-war protests but didin't know he was a founder of the VVAW. It would be interesting to see the citation that went with those medals or did he "throw" those away in protest too?

[Plutarch]

It appears that the photograph of Kerry sitting in the foreground of a NV flag is photoshopped. Please confirm.

[elmer fudd]

It strikes me that being a patriot is an ongoing process. You can do many heroic deeds in the service of your country and still be a traitor in the end. Benedict Arnold was a very brave soldier and a gifted general. If he had been killed before he betrayed us he would have gone down in history as a great hero.

It appears that John Kerry also was a brave soldier, but I can't help thinking that his actions after leaving the service were disgraceful and they make me doubt his commitment to America.

[Billthedrill]

Gotta go with sinkspur on this one, Phil. Kerry, and the other founders of the VVAW, were first-class jerks, but he wasn't a "fake warrior," he was there and he saw action and although from time to time you could pick up a Purple Heart from sitting on a nail, you didn't get three. A lot of guys got medals they didn't deserve. A lot more deserved them and never got them. It happens. It's done, unless Kerry himself makes an issue out of it.

Certainly his participation in that greasy little bit of "theater" is reprehensible. I'd be interested to know what he said there - if he lied and it can be proven, nail him on it. My advice is leave the rest of it alone.

[sonofatpatcher2]

Perhaps somewhere on-line there is a site that carries the citations for the Silver Stars awarded or eFing's Silver Star citation may be available through the Freedom of Information Act.

Anyone know anything about this?

[backhoe]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1062760/posts

What You Don't Know About John Kerry
NewsMax.com via FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | 1/22/04 | Chuck Noe

--more info & commentary here--

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1061806/posts

Images mirrored here
here
here
here
and
here
Find under kerrybook with images 1-5.

http://freepers.zill.net/users/dennisw_fr/fr/

 

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1062437/posts

John Kerry- some selected, informative links...
various FR links | 01-21-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

 

[Jim Noble]

It was a major strategic error to attack Dr. Demento before he wrapped up the nomination.

Leave Kerry alone.

For now.

[larryjohnson]

JOHN FONDA KERRY

[kabar]

I have always found Kerry's three purple hearts somewhat suspect. He was never hospitialized for any of them, two slight wounds in the arm and one in the thigh. As a Vietnam veteran, I know the awarding of medals was not always based strictly on the merits or the facts.

[familyofman]

To my way of thinking - if you want to discount and question the medals won & awarded to Kerry - you have to question all the medals awarded to everyone in Viet Nam & other conflicts. You can't pick & choose which medal recipients earned their medals based on their politics or actions after they left the service. To do so shows extreme disrespect for all who served, not just your current political target.

This type of nitpicking can only belittle those that want to question someone else's bavery and service.

[C-Note]

If the report about him chasing the VC by himself into the bush is correct, he is a lucky man.

Having one man run away from the enemy is an old way to ambush whoever follows him. If this report is true, he isn't the smartest guy.

Conrad

[Light Speed]

Hi Phil...**Keep pouring it on..cuz the *thin whitewash of Kerry's so called Hero military career is appearing.

Three wounds and you’re out

Here is an article from the New Yorker.....note who Kerry's friends are....how quickly he recieved 3 wounds in combat.

Engineered outcome in my view....people pulling strings in high places.

The Long War of John Kerry by Joe Klein

“I signed up for the Navy in 1965, the year before the Class Oration,” Kerry said now, with quiet vehemence. He repeated it, for emphasis: “I signed up for the Navy. There was very little thought of Vietnam. It seemed very far away. There was no connection between my decision to serve and the speech I made.”

But there was a connection, of sorts. Kerry had made the decision along with three close friends, classmates and fellow-members of Yale’s not so secret society, Skull and Bones: David Thorne, Richard Pershing, and Frederick Smith. All came from families with strong traditions of military and public service. Pershing was the grandson of General John Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Force in the First World War. (Richard Pershing was killed during the Tet offensive.) “Our decisions were all about our sense of duty,” Fred Smith, who went on to found Federal Express, recalls. “We were the Kennedy generation—you know, ‘Pay any price, bear any burden.’ That was the ethos.”

The week before John Kerry delivered the Class Oration, the fifteen Skull and Bones seniors went off on a final jaunt together to a fishing camp on an island in the St. Lawrence River. Fred Smith remembers spending the days idly, playing cards and drinking beer. David Thorne, however, says that there was a serious running discussion about Vietnam. “There were four of us going to war in a matter of months. That tends to concentrate the mind. This may have been the first time we really seriously began to question Vietnam. It was: ‘Hey, what the hell is going on over there? What the hell are we in for?’”

Kerry’s reaction to these discussions was intense and precipitate. He decided to rewrite the speech. His original address, which can still be found in the 1966 Yale yearbook, was “rather sophomoric,” he recalled. “I decided that I couldn’t give that speech. I couldn’t get up there and go through that claptrap. I remember there was no electricity in the cabin. I remember staying up with a candle writing my speech in the wee hours of the night, rewriting and rewriting. It reflected what I felt and what we were all thinking about. It got an incredible reception, a standing ovation.”

The Senator and I were sitting in wing chairs in his office, which is rather more elegant than those of his peers—the walls painted Chinese red with a dark lacquer glaze and covered with nineteenth-century nautical prints. There is a marble fireplace, a couch, a coffee table, the wing chairs: in sum, a room with a distinct sensibility, a reserved and private place. Kerry seemed weary. Our conversation was interrupted, from time to time, by phone calls from his supporters—most of whom seemed unhappy about his Iraq vote. At one point, he had to rush over to the Senate chamber to vote on another issue. When he returned, we began to talk about his time in Vietnam. He served as the captain of a small “swift boat,” ferrying troops up the rivers of the Mekong Delta. He was wounded three times in four months, and then sent home—the policy in Vietnam was three wounds and you’re out. He received a Bronze Star, for saving the life of a Special Forces lieutenant who had fallen overboard during a firefight, and a Silver Star. The latter, a medal awarded only for significant acts of courage, was the result of a three-boat counterattack Kerry had led against a Vietcong position on a riverbank. He had chased down, shot, and killed a man that day. The man had been carrying a B-40 rocket-propelled grenade launcher. “You want to see what one of those can do to a boat?” he asked. “A couple of weeks after I left Vietnam, a swift boat captained by my close friend Don Droz—we called him Dinky—got hit with a B-40. He was killed. I still have the photo here somewhere.”

New Yorker Archive

[Momaw Nadon]

[Salvation]

**If Kerry lied, for political purposes, about eschewing his medals, it raises the distinct possibility that he (or someone on his behalf) lied either about his receiving them or about exactly what he received them for.**

Liar, Kerry is a liar, did I tell you that Kerry lied about his medals?

[Salvation]

More pictures here:

What You Don't Know about John Kerry

[Warrior Nurse]

Here is an example of what a real war hero does: The Silver Star Medal is awarded to: Sergent James Clark, Infantry Company F, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division, United States Army. During the early morning hours of 15 June 1953, in the vicinity of Chat-Kol Korea, Company F of which Sgt. Clark was a squad leader had the mission of counterattacking and regaining control of positions overrun by the enemy in earlier action. The enemy, detecting the position of his squad, kayoed in heavy artillery and mortar fire,inflicting friendly casualties and forcing the squad to temporarily seek cover. Sgt. Clark with complete disregard for his personal safety search the area for wounded. Upon finding one man seriously wounded, he quickly administered first aid and carried him to safety. He then returned to the impact area and formed a defensive perimeter from which he directed intense and accurate fire forcing the enemy to retreat with numerous casualties. Sgt Clark's outstanding gallantry and devotion to duty reflect great credit upon himself and the military service.

My father didn't shoot any commie in the back or behind a shed like Long face did.