[PhilDragoo]

Lt. Merna provides a sound professional basis in investigating the military awards given to a political figure who lobbied for the enemy in 1971 and seeks to become the commander in chief today.

[PhilDragoo]

MILITARY AWARDS: EARNED OR NOT, WAS THE CRITERIA MET?

John F. Kerry: "War Hero" or Urinal Target?

[Valin]

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

Kerry graduated from Yale University in 1966.
Like John F. Kennedy (who served on a World War II patrol boat, PT 109), Kerry sought to do the same. He enlisted in the Navy and became an officer.
After training, Kerry volunteered for Vietnam. He served a relatively uneventful six months, far removed from combat, from December 1967 to June 1968, in the electrical department aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile frigate that supported aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
His ship returned to its Long Beach, Calif., port on June 6, 1968. Five months later, Kerry went back to Vietnam, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper.
Kerry commanded his first swift boat, No. 44, from December 1968 through January 1969.
While in command of Swift Boat 44, Kerry and crew operated without prudence in a Free Fire Zone, carelessly firing at targets of opportunity racking up a number of enemy kills and some civilians. His body count included-- a woman, her baby, a 12 year-old boy, an elderly man and several South Vietnamese soldiers.
"It is one of those terrible things, and I'll never forget, ever, the sight of that child," Kerry later said about the dead baby. "But there was nothing that anybody could have done about it. It was the only instance of that happening."
Kerry said he was appalled that the Navy's ''free fire zone'' policy in Vietnam put civilians at such high risk.
Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968. He was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart.
In late January 1969, Kerry joined a five-man crew on swift boat No. 94 completing 18 missions over 48 days, almost all of them in the Mekong Delta.
Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a minor shrapnel wound in his left thigh on Feb. 20, 1969.

On February 28, 1969:
When Kerry's Patrol Craft Fast 94 received a B-40 rocket shot from shore, he hot dogged his craft beaching it in the center of the enemy position. To his surprise, 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 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 the wounded Viet Cong. Kerry returned with the B-40 rocket and launcher.
Kerry was given a Silver Star for his actions.

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.

When later asked about the severity of the wounds, Kerry said that one of them cost him about two days of service, and that the other two did not interrupt his duty. "Walking wounded," as Kerry put it.

After his third Purple Heart Kerry requested to be sent home. Navy rules, he pointed out, allowed a thrice-wounded soldier to return to the United States immediately.
Commodore Charles F. Horne, an administrative official and commander of the coastal squadron in which Kerry served, filled out a document on March 17, 1969, that said Kerry had "been thrice wounded in action while on duty incountry Vietnam. Reassignment is requested ... as a personal aide in Boston, New York, or Wash., D.C. area.

In October 1969, Kerry began to associate with anti-war protestor, Adam Walinsky, a former speech writer for Robert F. Kennedy.
On Jan. 3, 1970, Kerry requested that his superior, Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr., grant him an early discharge from the Navy so that he could run for Congress.
Kerry, a decorated veteran who seemed to be a clone of former President John F. Kennedy, right down to the military service on a patrol boat made a 1970 bid for Congress in Massachusetts' Third District.
Three-months later, when it became clear his opponent would get the Democratic Party nomination, Kerry dropped out.

[RaceBannon]

Major Bump

[Cicero]

Interesting read. Unfortunately, questioning Kerry's Silver Star is probably not a profitable enterprise. He can stand on it and the questioners will not look good.

The same difficulty arose with John McCain's behavior as a POW. Some Vietnam Vets have said that McCain's behavior while a POW was questionable. But that's the kind of charge that will never make anyone popular.

Kerry ran around behind a hut and shot a wounded man. Was that heroic? I suppose it depends on how badly he was wounded and whether he was still capable of firing his rocket launcher. Who knows?

[steplock]

All Officers in VN were automatically awarded Bronze Stars and if they did anything, the Silver Star. The higher your rank, the higher the medal. This, unfortunately, degraded the medals' worth.

The U.S.Army, in some units, passed out the Bronze Stars as they would have a Good Conduct Medal - further denegrating the award.

Silver Stars, for an enlisted, no matter which service, were EARNED - usually at the expense of your life. Higher awards definitely deserve the utmost respect.

The Navy/Army/AF Cross and higher HAD to be earned.

Just my personal experience in the USMC from Jan 69 - Mar 81


Awards given out by rank:

2nd Lt = Bronze Star
1st Lt = Bronze or Silver
Captain = Silver
Major/Lt Col = Silver + Legion Merit, etc
Col + = Whatever they wanted almost

[Jackson Brown]

bookmarked

[kimosabe31]

Great thread Dragoo

[JCG]

When Marine Sgt. Maj. John H. Quick received his MOH, Cerasini provides this account of an unusual eyewitness:

As of a year ago you could view Sgt. Maj. Quick's MOH along with his other medals in the small museum at Union Station, St. Louis, Missouri. Presumably, they are still on display there. John Henry Quick is buried in St. Louis

           Sgt. Maj. John Henry Quick

 

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://12thman.us/media/jihad.rm (Requires RealPlayer)

Who is Steve Emerson?

[PhiKapMom]

All --

Please read what Phil has posted about Kerry's medals!

PKM

[PhiKapMom]

All --

Please read what Phil has posted about Kerry's medals!

PKM

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[Jeff Gordon]

In general...

V = S/(R^2) where:

V = validity of award
S = Seniority of award
R = Rank of person recieving the award.

[My Dog Likes Me]

The Bronze Star Medal has long been considered a "commendation medal" while serving in a combat zone. Vietnam, the Gulf, Iraq... Lots of troops get them, of all ranks.

Now, the BSM with "V" (for valor) device is a different animal. This rewards a single act of heroism. Like turning around your swift boat under enemy fire and fishing an injured Green Beret out of the water.

[R. Scott]

It was my experience that there are several levels of courage when awards are made, they are determined by rank, social and political position and assigned duty. An action that would result in a Bronze Star for Valor for an infantry private might result in a Silver Star for a Captain or a Finance Clerk.
This was explained to me one time when I received a peacetime award of the Army Commendation medal for leading a fire fighting team in saving an Army vessel and its crew and passengers. My skipper (who brought our boat along side) received a higher award, my crew - who were as close to the flames as I - received “atta boy” letters.
My skipper was not expected to enter the danger area, therefore the higher award.
My privates were expected to risk their lives, therefore they did nothing special.

[middie]

Hey, wait a garl-darn minute here. I dislike medal inflation and wannabes as much as anyone. They do a disservice to themselves, their familes, but most of all to those of our colleagues whose valor and dedication actually earned them the device. All of that anger has been well expressed here and I endorse the sentiment at underlies it.

But to insert what is patently obvious ideological hatred of the Senator who appears to be the front-runner for the Demo's nomination is wrong, just plain, ordinary wrong. The description of his wounds as "slight," "minor," etc. belies the real purpose of the post.

I have no idea of how many on this site have had the good luck being the object of an enemy's aim or computer radar firing solution. It's impossible to know whether any one of these Kerry military record critics has been confronted with the fear and agonizing stress of the smell and fear that accompanies a fire-fight. Whoever they are or whatever may be their experience, they were not present when Lt. Kerry commanded his Riverine Force boat and came under hostile fire.

It strikes me as the height of pretentitiousness and arrogance to now evaluate the relative value of the acts that were the foundation of his recogniton by officers higher up his chain of command. I suggest that it would be fair to describe the challenges to Kerry's military awards are really a type of whinning by those who recognize that the president's service, while certainly lawful and chacterized by discharge as Honorable, was just as certainly chosen as a method to avoid the increased likelihood of service in a hostile environment that taking an active Air Force commission would have warranted.

We take offense at challenges to the president's National Guard service or, whether he actually did anything meaningful after receiving his wings. Yet, we delight in casting a combat veteran's combat related awards in an aura of doubt as a measure of his unworthiness to ascend to the higher public office he seeks. How amazingly disingenuous!!

I admit to total ignorance when it comes to political planning and advocacy. But it's clear to me that raising this issue to catigate Senator Kerry is not only a losing effort standing alone, it puts the president's own questionable Vietnam era conduct into play, and my fellow FR friends is a certain loser.