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After service on a destroyer, Kerry volunteered again to be a swift boat commander. This was courageous and commendable.

It would be very courageous if Kery had know that swift boats were going to be used to patrol the rivers. However, that mission mission did not come about until after Kerry transferred to swift boats.

What did Kerry expect?

In his own word:

Boston Globe, 6/16/2003: ........"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.

Ooops.

So, now what? Well, Kerry needed a way to get out of combat as soon as possible. He racked up three Purple Hearts for injuries that cost him a combined grand total of two days in Sick Bay then used the "three Purple Hearts" excuse to ask for and get granted an early termination of his combat tour after serving only four months.

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. .........The bottom line is that Kerry could have remained but he chose to seek an early transfer.

There is no doubt that Kerry served in combat. However, he did not willingly volunteer for combat and, once in combat, Kerry sea-lawyered himself out of combat as fast as he could for minimal injuries.

By contrast, I recall my uncle coming home as a Bay of Pigs POW and then later coming home from Vietnam with bullet riddled legs and one Purple Heart and, after recovering, going back for a second combat tour, to be followed by more serious wounds and another Purple Heart and another long recovery to be followed by more combat.

Forgive me if I am not overly impressed by what Kerry did in Vietnam and thoroughly disgusted by what Kerry did after he came home from Vietnam.