Three Purple Hearts and Early Discharge for John Kerry, The Walking wounded

Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968. He was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart. In late January 1969, Kerry joined a five-man crew on swift boat No. 94 completing 18 missions over 48 days, almost all of them in the Mekong Delta. Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a minor shrapnel wound in his left thigh on Feb. 20, 1969. Kerry was given a Silver Star for an action on February 28, 1969: When Kerry's Patrol Craft Fast 94 received a B-40 rocket shot from shore, he hot dogged his craft beaching it in the center of the enemy position. To his surprise, an enemy soldier sprang up from a hole not ten feet from Patrol Craft 94 and fled. The boat's machine gunner hit and wounded the fleeing Viet Cong as he darted behind a hootch. The twin .50s gunner fired at the Viet Cong. He said he "laid 50 rounds" into the hootch before Kerry leaped from the boat and dashed in to administer a "coup de grace" to the wounded Viet Cong. Kerry returned with the B-40 rocket and launcher.. Kerry and crew stand together in An Thoi, Vietnam, on February 28, 1969, after presentation of Kerry's Silver Star. He also received a Purple Heart for a minor wound. From left: Del Sandusky, John Kerry, Gene Thorson, Thomas Belodeau. Kneeling from left, Mike Medeiros, Fred Short. On March 13, 1969, a mine detonated near Kerry's boat, slighting wounding Kerry in the right arm. He was awarded his third Purple Heart. PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) 94 crew in March 1969, from left, Gene Thorson, David Alston, Thomas Belodeau, Del Sandusky, and John Kerry. When later 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. "Walking wounded," as Kerry put it.

After his third Purple Heart Kerry requested to be sent home. Navy rules, he pointed out, allowed a thrice-wounded soldier to return to the United States immediately. Commodore Charles F. Horne, an administrative official and commander of the coastal squadron in which Kerry served, filled out a document on March 17, 1969, that said Kerry had "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."

The Washington Times
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
December 6, 2002

John Kerry's war record

As Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, considers a bid for the White House, Americans should know a few things about him that he might prefer go unmentioned? and I don't mean his $75 haircuts. When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They remembered Mr. Kerry as the antiwar activist who testified before Congress during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his ragged band of radicals mocking the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, which depicts the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag. Retired Gen. George S. Patton III charged that Mr. Kerry's actions as an antiwar activist had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," as had the actions of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda. Also, Mr. Kerry lied when he threw what he claimed were his war medals over the White House fence; he later admitted they weren't his. Now they are displayed on his office wall.

Long after he changed sides in congressional hearings, Mr. Kerry lobbied for renewed trade relations with Hanoi. At the same time, his cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam? an odd coincidence. As noted in the Inside Politics column of Nov. 14 (Nation), historian Douglas Brinkley is writing Mr. Kerry's biography. Hopefully, he'll include the senator's latest ignominious feat: preventing the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate, claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died.

The State Department ranked Vietnam among the 10 regimes worldwide least tolerant of religious freedom. Recently, 354 churches of the Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority, were forcibly disbanded, and by mid-October, more than 50 Christian pastors and elders had been arrested in Dak Lak province alone. On Oct. 29, the secret police executed three Montagnards by lethal injection simply for protesting religious repression. The communists are conducting a pogrom against the Montagnards, forcing Christians to drink a mixture of goat's blood and alcohol and renounce Christianity. Thousands have been killed or imprisoned or have just "disappeared." The Montagnards lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for the United States, and without them, there might be thousands more American names on that somber black granite wall at the Vietnam memorial.

As Mr. Kerry contemplates a run for the presidency, people must remember that he has fought harder for Hanoi as an antiwar activist and a senator than he did against the Vietnamese communists while serving in the Navy in Vietnam.

MICHAEL BENGE
Foreign Service officer and former Vietnam
POW (1968 to 1973)
Washington

The "Thrice Wounded" rule applied the entire Dept of Navy including the USMC.

The main reasoning (true!) was if you survived getting hit 3 times - the odds of surviving another were extremely thin!

I got out of VN after 11 months on the 3 PH rule. I walked out - but it did take a couple of years to fully recover from all the "minor wounds". None were any that I would "brag" about.

So - I cannot fault Kerry from getting the hell out of that ungrateful country for trying to do the impossible for a home that hated your guts just because you were in the military.

Thank you DNC - johnson - clinton - and the rest of you commie cowards - especially jimmy carter for granting clememncy to the future (then) coward-in-chief.

Kerry still deserves derision for turning socialist/communist - he was NOT against the war - it was HIS side that was causing it.

US Senator John Kerry Should know far better. However, obviously the squeeze for coming out ahead of the pack once again baited Kerry to take the Low Road. And low low it is.

There is no rhymne or reason why Kerry should attack the United States President' service to his country, but that is exactly what he has been doing lately. If there is any rational base to America, surely Kerry will pay dearly. But that is yet to be seen.

Nevertheless, Governor Marc Racicot, Chairman of the Bush Cheney '04 Campaign, is doing his part to set the record straight as well as expose Kerry's underhanded attacks to a reasonable society.

On Tuesday, Raciot told media that " senator Kerry is supporting a slanderous attack on the President by refusing to repudiate comments by Democratic National Commitee Chairman Terry McAuliffe who on Sunday accused the President of being AWOL and said that his service in the National Guard did not qualify as service in the military or service to his country."

It was then Kerry warned that the United States military authorities must come forth with their own answers to questions regarding Mr. Bush' military record. Kerry has said that the military should " answer questions" concering Mr. Bush's honorable discharge.

Kerry has gone on record as continuing this smear campaign against the President. Racicot refers to Kerry's antics as " an outrage...despicable."

In defending mr. Bush, Racicot stated to the press that " President Bush served honorably in the National Guard. He was honorably discharged. To suggest, as Senator Kerry has, that the military should "answer Questions' about President Bush's honorable discharge is an outrage"

According to the Drudge report, Racicot went on to state that " Peter jennings was a deserter " a reckless charge, not supported by the facts, and the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania has said that the charges are unfounded."

Kerry , instead of never touching such an issue with soiled hands, has forged ahead, Obviously not caring about facts while throwing to the winds what such besmirching will cost his campaign, Kerry even stated to the media, regarding Bush's military service, that " I don't even know what the facts are."

Racicot said that "by embracing this line of attack, Sen. Kerry has made clear that he will accept and promote character assassination, innuendo and falsehood even when he doesn't have all the facts."

As Drudge Report concludes " a man seeking the presidency has an obligation to get the facts straight before he sends his surrogates out to slander the Commander in Chief"
Written by J grant swank

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