I was in the same exact AO at the same time Kerry was ...and was in a Army platoon that used navy PBRs and Swift boats (during the rainy season) to ferry us into ambush patrol sites....we would patrol and set up night APs for three to four days...and then get extracted by boat during the rainy season and helo during the dry...
If Kerry got a Silver Star for merely hopping off the boat after his gunner prepped the area and killed and/or ran off the only VC and retrieved a launcher and a spare rocket...then something was VERY WRONG with the way the navy awarded medals to junior officers....in that unit - imo
Enlisted soldiers that recieved such high awards in our unit ...were often severely wounded or KIA as a result...regardless- actions that resulted in such high awards WERE ALWAYS directly against INTENSE enemy fire...
A couple of guys in my unit recieved silver stars and one a medal of honor...I can assure you the things they did to get such awards were way way beyond...the call of normal combat duty...
which in itself is harrowing...(even if you are just doing your job)....
Medals in Vietnam were given to those who deserved it- to those who didnt- and many guys who deserved medals didnt get them...
imo
You may very well be right about how medals were awarded in Vietnam; I wasn't there, and was all of 8 when Saigon fell.
My point is, that regardless of his stupid left-wing politics, Kerry was there, and deserves credit for that. No doubt he had political ambitions, but, unlike Clinton, he sought to preserve his "political viability" by serving his country, not hiding from the draft. If all Kerry did to get the Silver Star is what is recorded on the website, he didn't deserve that medal in my view, but he still gets a lot of credit in my book for putting himself in harm's way. Unlike Bill Clinton who hid out in Oxford, Kerry could very well have been killed or maimed for life; he wasn't sitting behind a desk in Saigon.
I also doubt that this issue will be used against Kerry if he becomes the Democrat nominee for the simple reason that, apart from Colin Powell, no one of prominence in the Bush White House came anywhere near Vietnam.