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Please Note: This Was Released on 27 Aug 2004. It was published in National Review Online's "The Corner" on 28 August 2004. Here is the original link: http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document200408280010.asp Here is the reproduced text: EDITOR'S NOTE:A new voice has been added to the debate over the circumstances surrounding Sen. John Kerry's first Purple Heart. William Schachte, who was a lieutenant in the Navy during Kerry's Vietnam tour — and who later rose to the rank of Rear Admiral — has released a statement describing the events of December 2-3, 1968, when Kerry received a minor shrapnel wound for which he was...

NEW YORK -- Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. said Thursday in his first on-the-record interview about the swift boat veterans dispute that "I was absolutely in the skimmer" in the early morning on Dec. 2, 1968, when Lt. (j.g.) John Kerry was involved in an incident that led to his first Purple Heart. "Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 [grenade launcher]," Schachte said in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said, "Kerry requested a Purple Heart." Schachte, also a lieutenant junior grade, said he was in command of the small boat called a Boston...

I once was impressed by John Kerry's war record, but no more. For one thing, I'm puzzled he served in Vietnam just four months. Did he fight simply to decorate his resume? By most accounts, he already was planning to be the next president from Massachusetts with the initials JFK. So why would he join a war that he opposed, unless it was to earn political credibility? Then there's his first Purple Heart, the one he earned on Dec. 2, 1968, near Cam Ranh Bay. The more you learn about it, the more you snicker. According to a report by...

<p>WASHINGTON - A former Navy doctor who says he treated Sen. John Kerry for the wound that led to his first Purple Heart in Vietnam said Tuesday that several of Kerry's crewmates told him at the time that the injury did not occur in battle. Dr. Louis Letson, a retired Alabama physician who was medical officer at the Naval Support Facility at Cam Ranh Bay, said the crew's "confided" story contradicted Kerry's own report in December 1968 that he was wounded during a river firefight between his Swift boat and Vietcong gunmen ashore.</p>

WASHINGTON — A former Navy doctor who says he treated Sen. John F. Kerry for the wound that led to his first Purple Heart in Vietnam said Monday that several of Kerry’s crewmates told him at the time that the injury did not occur in battle. Dr. Louis Letson, a retired Alabama physician who served as medical officer at the Naval Support Facility at Cam Ranh Bay, said the crew’s “confided” story contradicted Kerry’s own report in December 1968 that he was wounded during a river firefight between his Swift boat and Vietcong gunmen ashore. The doctor’s account surfaced Tuesday...

WASHINGTON — A former Navy doctor who says he treated Sen. John F. Kerry for the wound that led to his first Purple Heart in Vietnam said Tuesday that several of Kerry's crewmates told medical personnel at the time that the injury did not occur in battle.

The wound that made John Kerry eligible for the first of three Purple Hearts was not severe enough to warrant consideration, according to the physician who treated him in December 1968. Louis Letson, now a retired general practitioner in Alabama, said he has "a very clear memory of an incident which occurred while I was the Medical Officer at Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay," according to National Review Online editor and columnist Rich Lowry. Kerry's Purple Heart and the two others he won later allowed him, under Navy regulations, to request and receive leave for the United States after...

The Navy medic who treated Sen. John Kerry after he sustained his first battlefield wound in Vietnam said Tuesday that he thought that the injury had been inadvertently self-inflicted - raising new questions about why Kerry sought a Purple Heart after the incident. Contacted by National Review Online, Dr. Louis Letson recalled that Kerry insisted during treatment that he was injured by enemy fire while his swift boat was patrolling the Mekong Delta on Dec. 2, 1968. However, "some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore," the Navy doc told NRO. Instead, his...

Some critics of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry have questioned the circumstances surrounding the first of three Purple Hearts Kerry won in Vietnam. Those critics, among them some of Kerry's fellow veterans, have suggested that a wound suffered by Kerry in December 1968 may have made him technically eligible for a Purple Heart but was not severe enough to warrant serious consideration, even for a decoration that was handed out by the thousands. Whatever the case, Kerry was awarded the Purple Heart, and, along with two others he won later, it allowed him to request to leave Vietnam before his...

By: Pass 'Doc' Meza Vietnam Veteran Of Five Proudly Served Tours Since becoming the Democratic Party presumptive nominee likely to challenge President G. W. Bush in the forthcoming November 2004 Presidential Election, he has had problems defending his Senatorial Voting Record. Aside from that, he has had to defend his “Other Record”, the Real Record of his Liberal Leaning Left Ideology, the betrayal of the Vietnam Veterans through his portrayal of them as murders and rapists. His involvement in the Vietnam Veterans Against The War and his slanderous lies that resulted from the “Winter Soldiers Investigations” sponsored by Hanoi...

John Kerry's commanding officer was just interviewed on Fox News. According to Lt. Commander Grant Hibbard when Kerry showed up in front of him requesting a Purple Heart, Hibbard saw that he had a "scratch"(Hibbard's word) on his forearm. And because, according to Hibbard, there was no report of enemy action on Kerry's patrol that day and the "scratch" did not receive medical attention from a medical officer, Hibbard declined Kerry's request for a Purple Heart.

Medal/Wound Records Date Medal Signed By/Date Action Wound Treatment 12/2/1968 Purple Confimation: Donald A. Still, Chief Staff Officer / 2/28/1969 (stamped date) Certificate:Charles K. Duncan, Chief of Naval Personnel  / 8/10/1969 According to Kerry's own description in Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty, the Dec. 2, 1968, mission behind what he has claimed to be his first Purple Heart was "a half-assed action that hardly qualified as combat." slightly wounded on his arm,"Shrapnel in left arm above elbow. "He had a little scratch on his forearm, and he was holding a piece of shrapnel," Mr. Hibbard said. Shrapnel removed and...

Kerry Doctor Issues Summary of Military Medical Records; Navy Did Not Include Kerry Medical Records with Official Naval Records 4/23/2004 3:47:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Political Reporter Contact: Michael Meehan of John Kerry for President, 202-712-3000 WASHINGTON, April 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today the Kerry Campaign released a letter from Dr. Gerald J. Doyle, Kerry's doctor for the past 18 years, summarizing 35 pages of Kerry's personal copies of his military medical records. When the U.S. Navy sent Kerry his official Naval records, his military medical records were not included. Kerry reconstituted the military medical records from his...

<p>The military records that Sen. John Kerry posted on his Web site yesterday raise new questions about the actions he took to earn several prestigious war medals and whether he deserved them.</p> <p>The Navy awarded Mr. Kerry three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star in just four months of commanding a gunboat along rivers in Vietnam. It's an extraordinary record, say many veterans, and one that raises questions on its face.</p>

<p>The military records that Sen. John Kerry posted on his Web site yesterday raise new questions about the actions he took to earn several prestigious war medals and whether he deserved them.</p> <p>The Navy awarded Mr. Kerry three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star in just four months of commanding a gunboat along rivers in Vietnam. It's an extraordinary record, say many veterans, and one that raises questions on its face.</p>

WASHINGTON - John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign is posting his military records on the Internet as his critics question the combat injuries that earned him three Purple Hearts and an early exit from Vietnam. The first records posted Tuesday night on Kerry's campaign Web site documented the awards that have been a highlight of Kerry's biography as the Democrat seeks to oust President Bush (news - web sites) in November. During nearly five months as the commander of a Navy swiftboat in the Mekong Delta, Kerry was awarded the Bronze Star for heroic achievement, the Silver Star for...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Amid questions about his military records, John Kerry's campaign yesterday provided documentation of Vietnam War injuries that included shrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and buttocks that earned him three Purple Hearts.</p> <p>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."</p>

“I've had thorns from a rose that were worse," says Grant Hibbard, John Kerry's former commanding officer about the wound the senator received on December 2, 1968, that earned him his first Purple Heart award. Earlier this month, the Boston Globe reported that Hibbard is among the Vietnam veterans who are questioning the awards that sent John Kerry home early from Vietnam. The controversy prompted Tim Russert to ask Kerry this past Sunday whether he would release all of his military records, including medical records and his officer evaluations. Kerry assured Russert that they're already publicly available at his headquarters....

WASHINGTON - Amid questions about his military records, John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign on Tuesday provided certification of his medals from the Vietnam War, including three Purple Hearts for combat injuries. 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 the Internet 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...

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...