Kerry campaign provides military records

AP | 4/20/04 | NEDRA PICKLER

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid questions about his military records, John Kerry's campaign on Tuesday provided documentation of Vietnam War injuries that included shrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and buttocks that earned him three Purple Hearts.

Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said the campaign was in the process of compiling the rest of Kerry's naval record and planned to begin posting it on Kerry's Web site by day's end. Kerry said all his military records are available to the public during an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Meehan said the Massachusetts senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee requested a copy of his record from the Navy last month and received roughly 150 pages last week.

Conservatives, talk radio and some newspapers editorials have questioned whether Kerry was deserving of the three Purple Hearts, fueling questions about his Navy service from 1966 to 1970 and the seriousness of his injuries.

He served two tours of duty, four months on the USS Gridley frigate off Vietnam's shore and nearly five months as a swiftboat commander in the Mekong Delta. He volunteered for the second tour and earned all his medals during the second stint.

Meehan gave The Associated Press 13 pages that included documentation for the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. The Boston Globe obtained some of the records last year for an extensive series on Kerry.

The documents also included declassified reports that briefly explain the injuries that led to Kerry's Purple Heart awards. They show Kerry had shrapnel wounds in his left thigh after his boat came under intense fire on Feb. 20, 1969, and he suffered shrapnel wounds in his left buttock and contusions on his right forearm when a mine detonated close to his boat on March 13, 1969.

The campaign could not locate a similar report for Kerry's original Purple Heart. As evidence that Kerry was wounded, Meehan showed The Associated Press a "Sick Call Treatment Record" from Kerry's personal files that included a brief written note dated Dec. 3, 1968, and stamped from the naval support facility at Cam Ranh Bay.

"Shrapnel in left arm above elbow. Shrapnel removed and appl bacitracin dressing. Ret to Duty," it said. The note is followed by a signature that appears to say "JCCarreon" and some illegible letters that Meehan said probably designate the medical official's rank.

Meehan said the campaign would allow a reporter to see the record at the campaign's headquarters, but not take a copy. He said it would not be made available to the public because Kerry considers it a private medical record.

Documentation for the second two injuries show that Kerry was deemed to be in good condition and returned to active duty after treatment. The documentation does not describe the severity of the injuries. A third Purple Heart meant Kerry could be reassigned out of Vietnam, and a document dated March 17, 1969, said Kerry requested duty as a personal aid in Boston, New York or the Washington, D.C., area.

Meehan said although Kerry could have asked to stay in Vietnam, it was the Navy's decision to request that he be reassigned. Kerry left the country in early April 1969.

Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager, accused Kerry's campaign of waffling on the release of his military records, saying the campaign's position on Tuesday to release the records in "due diligence" is contrary to Kerry's comments on "Meet the Press" that the records would be made public immediately.

"Senator Kerry's record of nondisclosure and his flip-flop on this issue should concern voters," Mehlman said.

Meehan responded, "Senator Kerry's record on the military is one we are running on, not running from. We are happy to compare Senator Kerry's record of service to anybody in the Bush campaign who has or has not served."

Bush was in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, but did not serve in combat. Bush released hundreds of pages of his Vietnam-era military records in February to counter Democrats' suggestions that he shirked his duty in the Texas Air National Guard.

The White House said the documents comprise his entire military record. The records did not provide evidence that Bush was in Alabama during a period when Democrats have questioned whether he reported for service.

Kerry on Friday questioned Republicans who avoided the war and now criticize him on national security, but he didn't mention Bush.

"I fought under that flag and I saw that flag draped over the coffins of friends," Kerry said. "I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid the chance to serve when they had the chance."

The Purple Heart is awarded to soldiers who are wounded or killed by enemy forces. The Silver Star is awarded for gallantry in action, and the Bronze Star is for heroic achievement.

Kerry received the Bronze Star for his actions after being wounded by the mine, which led to the third Purple Heart. According to his citation, one of Kerry's boatmates was thrown overboard and Kerry pulled him to safety with "his arm bleeding and in pain and with disregard for his personal safety." Kerry and the man, retired Los Angeles police officer Jim Rassmann, had an emotional public reunion in January, two days before Kerry would win the Iowa caucuses.

___

On the Net:

http://www.johnkerry.com

Facsimiles of Kerry's Purple Heart citations are available at:

http://wid.ap.org/documents/kerry/purplehearts.pdf

Facsimiles of Kerry's bronze and silver star citations are available at:

http://wid.ap.org/documents/kerry/stars.pdf

Facsimiles of reports describing Kerry's wounds are available at:

http://wid.ap.org/documents/kerry/actionreports.pdf

[Dr Snide]

he joined the Navy to avoid combat. It worked for one tour but then whoops, the Navy found something a little closer to the action for him which prompted three purple hearts in four months. So are the evaluations by his superior officers going to be included? I love how the headline insinutes all his file is to be released when the text indictates that his people are combing through it. I want dental records like GWB had to produce.

[watchin]

We need to get these out of pdf format, and onto the web in all their splendor. I'm at home with a dialup connection and without the necessary software.

Surely FR will lead the way on this. There are only nine pages in this complete release of kerry's military record - but even then they're embarrassing.

[dennisw]

Incomplete and contradictory.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Senator Boo Boo's Purple Heart.

[lonestar]

If I got the dates right, he got two in a three week period!

I want to see his scars!

[Paladin2]

He's still a gold-digging gigolo.

He is married to an older woman.

[river rat]

I don't think I've ever seen a more obviously choreographed "quick tour" in Vietnam..

He appears to have been very anxious to get his "hero" status documented and to get his patrician ass out of there as quickly as possible and initiate his political career, to follow in Kennedy's footsteps...

If folks can't see through this unaccomplished clymer as a fraud, there is no hope for America.

But then, MANY of us KNEW Clinton was a fraud BEFORE he became president......so I guess LOTS Americans are fools.
(particularly the women voters, who swooned over Clinton and now Kerry)

Semper Fi

[Howlin]

A review by the Globe of Kerry's war record in preparation for a forthcoming book, "John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography," found that the young Navy officer acted heroically under fire, in one case saving the life of an Army lieutenant. But the examination also found that Kerry's commanding officer at the time questioned Kerry's first Purple Heart, which he earned for a wound received just two weeks after arriving in Vietnam.

"He had a little scratch on his forearm, and he was holding a piece of shrapnel," recalled Kerry's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Grant Hibbard. "People in the office were saying, `I don't think we got any fire,' and there is a guy holding a little piece of shrapnel in his palm." Hibbard said he couldn't be certain whether Kerry actually came under fire on Dec. 2, 1968, the date in questionand that is why he said he asked Kerry questions about the matter.

But Kerry persisted and, to his own "chagrin," Hibbard said, he dropped the matter. "I do remember some questions, some correspondence about it," Hibbard said. "I finally said, `OK, if that's what happened . . . do whatever you want.' After that, I don't know what happened. Obviously, he got it, I don't know how."

Kerry declined to talk to the Globe about the issue during the preparation of the Kerry biography. But his press secretary, Michael Meehan, noted that the Navy concluded that Kerry deserved the Purple Heart.

During the Vietnam War, Purple Hearts were often granted for minor wounds. "There were an awful lot of Purple Hearts--from shrapnel, some of those might have been M-40 grenades," said George Elliott, who served as a commanding officer to Kerry during another point in his five-month combat tour in Vietnam. (Kerry earlier served a noncombat tour.) "The Purple Hearts were coming down in boxes." Under Navy regulations, an enlistee or officer wounded three times was permitted to leave Vietnam early, as Kerry did. He received all three purple hearts for relatively minor injuries -- two did not cost him a day of service and one took him out for a day or two.

[BibChr]

I want to see his scars!

If I heard right that some were shrapnel in the buttocks, I'm thinking.... nnnno.

Dan

[NotchJohnson]

So to sum up how Viet Nam and Kerry went . . .

1) Kerry did not want to go, tried to study abroad and got turned down.
2) Knew he was going to be drafted.
3) Put himself in a favorable position since he had to go to Viet Nam. He could have been a jar head.
4) He knew it was 3 and out. He was in a jungle and he got a scape and that was his ticket home as a hero.
5) Someone had to replace Kerry.
6) He goes home and incriminates all of the soldies he was with.
7) Becomes an anti war activist who "has been in combat."
8) Now the Kerry HQ only releases what they want to.

[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.

[mabelkitty]

He was reassigned in March of 1969.
Interesting.

[Redcoat LI]

Basically he recieved the Frank Burns Purple Heart award?

Shell Fragment

[Howlin]

?? What are you thinking?

[Michael.SF.]

I cannot understand the mind of someone who would go to the Corpsman for something that only required a topical disinfectant

I cannot fault him for that. He was bandaged up, routine stuff. Why not go to a corpsmen for it?

However, a Purple Heart? Paleeze.

How many of you combat veterans, applied and received a PH for wounds, which did not require stitches and was signed off as a "Returned to duty"?

[what's up]

My, my...no mention of how long he spent in hospital?

Kerry's disintegrating fast here. Too bad...I would have liked seeing him last till November. I prefer not to see the Witch as the nominee.

[mabelkitty]

I want to know if he received special treatment due to a letter written by a Senator Fulbright or anybody with the last name of Kennedy.

[familyofman]

In all the carping about the records of JK and whether or not he 'earned' his medals - has anyone thought that this whole line of questioning will re-open a very detailed review of GWB's records. Is this really a good strategy, or a game of 'gotcha'? I was under the impression that service during this time was beyond questioning - just as long as it was service.
Go back over 30 years and pulling apart one man's record, in my opinion puts into question the service rendered by all. If JK did not 'deserve' his medals from Vietnam, I think all medals awarded there come into questions - is that some place we want to go? I really don't think it is.
I'm sure there are many who will dwell on these issues - but you are re-opening a huge can of worms & will have no leg to stand on when others question the service record of GWB. Dengrating the service & medals of one - brings into question the service & medals of all. If the system was so awful that medals were awarded to one when they were not earned, taints all the medals awarded. I really don't want to start down the road of selective honor for service given.

[The Bronze Titan]

-"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."

As opposed to a real 'scrape' like this one...

Caption: During a firefight April 6, Sgt. Kenneth Conde Jr., infantrymen with Mobile Assault Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, was shot in the left shoulder. Even after being hit, Conde, of Orlando, Fla., was able to kill an enemy combatant. The 22-year-old was shot right above his "Ryde or Die" tattoo on his back. (USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

[NotchJohnson]

And I thought the people who said Hitlary would come in and save the day were crazy or paranoid.