Posted on 02/03/2004 12:10:41 PM PST by Hon
[I thought it would be of interest to highlight some passages from an article in the series "A Candidate In The Making" from the Boston Globe. Given Kerry's charges about Bush's National Guard duty, I think it is appropriate that Kerry's own record should be given some similar scrutiny.]
Heroism, and growing concern about war
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff, 6/16/2003
Kerry served two tours. For a relatively uneventful six months, from December 1967 to June 1968, he served in the electrical department aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile frigate that supported aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin and was far removed from combat.
Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe.
"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."
But two weeks after he arrived in Vietnam, the swift boat mission changed -- and Kerry went from having one of the safest assignments in the escalating conflict to one of the most dangerous.
Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968, when he "semi-volunteered for, was semi-drafted" for a risky covert mission in which he essentially was supposed to "flush out" the enemy, using a little Boston Whaler named "Batman." A larger backup craft was called "Robin."
Unfortunately, Robin had engine trouble, and Batman's exit was delayed until the boats could depart in unison. The Batman crew encountered some Viet Cong, engaged in a firefight, and Kerry was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart on his first day of serious action.
"It was not a very serious wound at all," recalled William Schachte, who oversaw the mission and went on to become a rear admiral.
In any case, Kerry said he was appalled that the Navy's ''free fire zone'' policy put civilians at such high risk. So, on Jan. 22, 1969, Kerry and several dozen fellow skippers and officers traveled to Saigon to complain about the policy in an extraordinary meeting with Zumwalt and the overall commander of the war, General Creighton W. Abrams Jr. ''We were fighting the [free fire] policy very, very hard, to the point that many of the members were refusing to carry out orders on some of their missions, to the point where crews were starting to mutiny, [to] say, `I would not go back in the rivers again,''' Kerry recalled during a 1971 television appearance on the Dick Cavett Show.
But Kerry went back in the rivers. Indeed, it was after this meeting that he began his most deadly round of combat. Within days of the Saigon meeting, he joined a five-man crew on swift boat No. 94 on a series of missions in which he won the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and two of his three Purple Hearts. Starting in late January 1969, this crew completed 18 missions over an intense and dangerous 48 days, almost all of them in the dense jungles of the Mekong Delta.
The most intense action came during an extraordinary eight days of more than 10 firefights, remembered by Kerry's crew as the "days of hell."
On Feb. 20, 1969, Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a shrapnel wound in his left thigh.
A couple of weeks later, on March 13, 1969, a mine detonated near Kerry's boat, wounding Kerry in the right arm, according to the citation written by Zumwalt.
Kerry had been wounded three times and received three Purple Hearts. Asked about the severity of the wounds, Kerry said that one of them cost him about two days of service, and that the other two did not interrupt his duty. "Walking wounded," as Kerry put it. A shrapnel wound in his left arm gave Kerry pain for years. Kerry declined a request from the Globe to sign a waiver authorizing the release of military documents that are covered under the Privacy Act and that might shed more light on the extent of the treatment Kerry needed as a result of the wounds.
"There were an awful lot of Purple Hearts -- from shrapnel, some of those might have been M-40 grenades," said Elliott, Kerry's commanding officer. "The Purple Hearts were coming down in boxes. Kerry, he had three Purple Hearts. None of them took him off duty. Not to belittle it, that was more the rule than the exception."
But Kerry thought he had seen and done enough. The rules, he said, allowed a thrice-wounded soldier to return to the United States immediately. So Kerry went to talk to Commodore Charles F. Horne, an administrative official and commander of the coastal squadron in which Kerry served. Horne filled out a document on March 17, 1969, that said Kerry "has been thrice wounded in action while on duty incountry Vietnam. Reassignment is requested ... as a personal aide in Boston, New York, or Wash., D.C. area."
Horne, in a telephone interview, said the transfer request was allowed under then-existing naval instructions and was "above board and proper." Transfer was not automatic and was subject to approval by the Bureau of Naval Personnel, he said.
"I never once in any way thought my decision was wrong," Horne said. "To get three Purple Hearts and not be killed is awesome."
Kerry, asked whether he is certain a rule enabled him to leave Vietnam after three Purple Hearts, responded: "Yep. Three and you're out."
For the past several weeks, Kerry's staff said it has been unable to come up with a Navy document to explain that assertion. On Friday, however, the National Archives provided the Globe with a Navy "instruction" document that formed the basis for Kerry's request. The instruction, titled 1300.39, says that a Naval officer who requires hospitalization on two separate occasions, or who receives three wounds "regardless of the nature of the wounds," can ask a superior officer to request a reassignment. The instruction makes clear the reassignment is not automatic. It says that the reassignment "will be determined after consideration of his physical classification for duty and on an individual basis." Because Kerry's wounds were not considered serious, his reassignment appears to have been made on an individual basis.
Moreover, the instruction makes clear that Kerry could have asked that any reassignment be waived.
The bottom line is that Kerry could have remained but he chose to seek an early transfer. He met with Horne, who agreed to forward the request, which Horne said probably ensured final approval. The Navy could not say how many other officers or sailors got a similar early release from combat, but it was unusual for anyone to have three Purple Hearts.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Yet another person buying this Democrat smear while complaining about us even questioning some of the details of Kerry's record--based on a BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE.
Way to go!
Now, consider who was safer: Kerry - drinking coffee in air conditioned comfort for 6 months in a frigate sailing far off the coast of Vietnam for only 6 months?
Or Bush?
Notice: "During its long service life, the F-106A had the distinction of recording the lowest single-engined aircraft accident record in USAF history. Despite this, out of a total production of 340 aircraft, 112 (including 17 two-seat F-106Bs) were lost in crashes or in ground fires during the 29 year career of the Delta Dart....
See: Almost 1 in 3 similar fighters (and the F-102 was the earlier, lower powered version of the F-106!) crashed or burned its pilot alive ....
AT HOME. Not even in combat flights - just regular flying caused almost 1/3 of fighter jets to try to kill their pilots. No infantryman faced that level of causalities per man-year.
I believe that - absolutely. You know why? Because writing up guys for metals, and awarding them for minor stuff is a pain-in-the-a**, even if its genuinely necessary. Kerry was a Navy Lieutenant. I was a Navy Lieutenant. Do you know how Navy Lieutenants get medals? You write YOURSELF up, and submit it to your boss. If your boss likes you, and you have some justification, you get the prize for your "love me" wall at home.
Kerry got three Purple Hearts. Deserved? Well, if we was wounded in combat, I don't care if it was for getting a pinched finger reloading a clip, he deserved the medal.
Now, back the reason why so few had two or three Purple Heart medals. After seeing buddies get their back sides blown off, or getting outright killed, it'd be tough for most combat veterans to write up a minor shrapnel wound for a Purple Heart. Oh, you might do it the first time, especially if your drawers were still stained from freaking out during the last firefight. Hey..you deserved it. Your men deserved it. "One set of Purple Hearts to go, guys.. all 'round." After the second or third time. No way. You're not going to go to the trouble of writing up every time you got cut up on a mission for another Purple Heart. As the C.O. of the unit, you'd be embarassed if your men found out!
Unless, of course, you were in Vietnam to punch your ticket and get out. Unless, you were building a political career, in or out of the Navy. If you were a "perfumed Prince", you'd make the most out of every situation, and hopefully come back all in one piece with a chest full of pretty medals. Then..maybe, you'd go to the trouble, if you had the time.
Now, as Kerry's C.O., I'd forward every medal he wrote up, recommending approve. But I wouldn't let him off his tour early, not if he was walking, if he got the medals. You get one or the other. Now, one factor that might change that would be if he was a general pain in the butt, a political liability, the sort of guy who was a loose cannon, going off to Saigon and complaining to Generals and and Admirals and such. A lot of C.O.'s would use his transfer request to ship him to Siberia ASAP. I wouldn't, but a lot of other guys would, especially in a war zone. You don't have time for political B.S. in a war zone.
Returning on point, to the subject of Kerry's medals, this I speak from experience (post Vietnam). The main reason Kerry has a chest full of medals, and got off his tour early, was because he wanted them, or his superior desperately wanted him out of his hair.
SFS
Commander, USNR (Retired)
I know of one man that got his because he was drunk and fell into a foxfole. To this day he won't wear it.
Another friend of mine told me the most decorated man in his company was the COMPANY CLERK!!!
Every month a box of metals would arrive and there were told to 'hand them out'.
I was recomended for Silver and Bronze Stars by a nutty platoon leader. So I'd have received medals I didn't deserve if those up the chain of command had been as whacked-out as that 1LT.
Unfortunately, the ease with which too many medals were issued in Vietnam as often tends to make them that suspect, at least on first principles, at least to another Vietnam combat veteran.
Maybe I should have gotten a Purple Heart for getting a headache when an ACAV I was riding hit an anti-personel mine. Though personally, I would've been loathe to accept one for any less than something that would have at least sent me to the hospital.
Most of the guys I knew who got "real" Purple Hearts were bad off enough to be sent home after one...or they were dead.
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