[Robert A Cook PE]

Check Kerry's website:

Both the Bronze Star and the Silver Star citations (look for them as .pdf format files on Kerry's website) have been signed by Secretary of the Navy John Lehman.

Except Lehman did not become SecNAV until Reagan's administration - About 15 years after Kerry left the service.

BUT - John Lehman WAS SecNAV when Kerry became a Senator.

Sound suspicious?

Sound like Kerry (as a brand-new, all-powerful Senator!) walks into Lehman's office and demands the SecNAV change his old paperwork to make Kerry's medals look better in his Senate Office Building shrine?

[Cboldt]

Some of the citations have more than one set of related paperwork, signed by different SecNav. I wouldn't put much into that, other than Kerry was anal about making sure his "hero" record remained, even if he threw medals of the fence at the White House, etc.

Even at Kerry's web-site, the various versions of the awards are posted. The awards are not identical, FWIW. In one, the word "calm" was excised, going from the early version to the late version.