[Polybius]

He asked to leave VN, citing the fact that he had (already!) been awarded 3 purple hearts for wounds, the nature of which he has refused to disclose to the public.

Minor shrapnel wounds....

Boston Globe, 6/16/2003: .........Along with Kerry's unquestionable and repeated bravery, he also took an action that has received far less notice: He requested and was granted a transfer out of Vietnam six months before his combat tour was slated to end on the grounds that he had earned three Purple Hearts. None of his wounds was disabling; he said one cost him two days of service and the other two did not lead to any absence.

Not to disparage what he did for his Bronze Star and Silver Star but his Purple Hearts sound like the old MASH episode where Frank Burns put in for a Purple Heart for "shell fragment injury" after he got an egg-shell fragment in his eye while making an omlette.

[cmotormac44]

would slipping on the engineroom ladder and scraping my shin at Normandy during German shellfire get me a 'purple heart' if I applied for it?--it didn't keep me out of action for long either--sounds just like a kerry deal-