I did take part in free-fire zones, I did take part in harassment and interdiction fire, I did take part in search-and-destroy missions in which the houses of noncombatants were burned to the ground
and say, "Yeah, well, duh ... so what?"
I would frame the "character" issue about Kerry, as whether he would vilify the soldiers on the ground, for doing their best to survive, or recognize that most of the responsibility has be laid on the military heirarchy and particularly civilian officials who refused to conduct the war with any rationality. It's all very troubling.