Does anybody have the details of the action for which Kerry won his silver star? There's a longstanding tradtion that when the wealthy and powerful actually get anywhere near combat, they wind up with medals much more highly ranked than their deeds deserve. LBJ got a silver star for being a passenger on a transport plane. JFK was decorated, rather than being courtmartialed for losing his ship due to stupidity.
If Kerry did something that genuinely merits a silver star, I'll apologize. But everything else about him indicates that he's a tin-plated phony.
I'm not really sure .. there is a story of how his boat was in a firefight with the enemy
He also rec'd a bronze star and three purple hearts .. but I've only been able to find stories that he was injured twice
My experience in VN supports that there were a lot of awards made that were inflated. Especially in the officer ranks. But, this was the prevailing mindset at the time. PHs were handed out like aspirin.
I think if Kerry had falsified his reports that were used to support the recommendations for his awards, someone would have come forward by now and reported the facts.
It is well established that Kerry volunteered for VN (twice, I believe) and he chose to serve in a combat unit. By all accounts he performed well. If he didn't, only the men in his unit would really know and I havn't heard of any of them criticizing his performance.
There doesn't seem to be any basis for suggesting his war record is anything other than extremely positve. His behavior after he returned is reprehensible to me, but the libs and the media love it.
Seems like his financial ties to NVA and his record in the Senate are where the dead bodies are likely to be found.
Kerry scares me, because I think the media will soon elevate him to real hero status soon.
btwdik
1) Vietnam Service; Kerry did serve two tours. The first was on a destroyer(?) off the coast and he never saw combat. During his 2nd tour, which consisted of a whole four months, is when he commanded the swift boat and received all his awards/medals.
2) Purple Hearts; Kerry was 'wounded' three times. And by his own account, none where serious and/or necessitated him missing one day of 'combat'. In fact, his last 'wound' he jokingly described it as 'a scratch'. However with it and his 'award' of a 3rd purple heart, he immediately went to his C.O. and requested to be sent home - which was granted.
3) Bronze; As recently reported he saved a US Army SF soldier who had been blown off Kerry's swift boat by turning the boat around and pulling the Green Beret out of the water - all while being under enemy fire.
4) Silver Star; While on patrol his boat received enemy fire. His crew returned fire while Kerry piloted the boat toward the fire on the shore. The VC started to run, Kerry ran the boat aground, jumped off the boat with his rifle - firing & chasing one VC into the 'jungle'. Kerry wounded the VC, the VC fell and Kerry 'finished him off'.
Now here's the sick thing. By his own admission, Kerry carried with him at ALL times while he was skipper of the boat, his own Bell & Howell 8mm movie camera to document his 'bravery'. One crewman's duty was to film Kerry every time they were in a fire-fight. Including and specifically when he ran into the jungle and killed that VC for which he received the Silver Star.
What is further 'SICK', is that to this day, Kerry replays these 'home' movies over-and-over-and-over. It was reported that every visitor to his house is required to sit and watch these movies with him. The guy is PSYCHO!
In addition, even during Kerry's college days he was described as 'an opportunist'. And his 'choice' of a Navel 'Career' was in his mind the, safest (he wasn't gonna be an Army grunt Lt, humpin a ruck) and fastest ticket to a subsequent political career.
I also recall that about a year ago a reporter found an ex-crewman who served under Kerry and he described Kerry as 'dangerous to his crew', that he was a 'glory hound' and put his ambitions over that of the safety of of crew.
In conclusion, the guy's a self-serving maggot, besides a psycho.
ps: be assured these articles and allegations will again resurface if he remains in the lead or gets the nomination.
pps: If one wants to spend a few hours doing Google® searches all this info can be found - it's out there.