Posted on 02/22/2004 1:35:58 PM PST by KQQL
VIETNAM has been the defining issue for John Kerry. His status as a decorated war hero has helped to propel him to the front of the pack of Democrat candidates seeking to evict George W.Bush from the White House. Conservative critics believe he has been given a free ride for too long on his war record, however, and are planning a fightback.
Support for their case is expected to come from a book to be published next month by reporters from The Boston Globe in Kerry's home state of Massachusetts. The book, JF Kerry, the Complete Biography, will question the extent of his injuries in Vietnam and whether he was entitled to an early release from the war.
Vietnam, The Washington Post opined at the weekend, "is a double-edged issue" for the 60-year-old Democratic frontrunner. Kerry has not authorised the release of his war records - a strange omission, say his political foes, given the ferocity with which his supporters have demanded to see every last document of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard.
"Vietnam is such a crucial part of his background and his campaign, you would think he would want people to see them," said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, a conservative journal. "There is going to be pressure on him to release them."
Kerry, who is surrounded on the stump by the "band of brothers" who fought with him in the Mekong Delta, became a fierce public critic of the Vietnam War after he left the navy.
A faked photograph of Kerry sharing a microphone with Jane Fonda was a warning of how his opposition to the conflict would be used against him. There also has been much criticism of the way he threw away another man's medals rather than his own during a 1971 protest demonstration.
Kerry's conduct during the war, however, was until now thought to be sacrosanct. Unlike many of his generation, he volunteered for service in Vietnam. He went on to perform heroically as the skipper of a Swift boat patrolling Vietcong-infested waters, and won a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for bravery.
Kerry served only four months of a year-long tour of duty after he received three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action. The injuries were not serious; by his own account, one shrapnel wound laid him off for two days and the other two did not interrupt his duties.
Five of his friends died in action and his medals show that, at the very least, he had several brushes with death. The future senator then invoked what he insists was a "three and you're out" rule enabling a soldier with three Purple Hearts to be sent home.
He requested a transfer and was given a plum job as an admiral's aide in Brooklyn. He returned to the US a bitter opponent of the war and was released from the army early.
In response to an inquiry from The Sunday Times, Kerry's campaign staff gave the newspaper a copy of naval regulations stating that "all naval personnel" who are "wounded three times, regardless of the nature of the wound or the treatment required for each wound" may be reassigned.
A spokesman for the US Navy said, however, that such redeployment was not automatic: "It would depend a lot on the nature of the injuries."
Ted Sampley, who runs Vietnam Vets Against John Kerry, said if a soldier could be sent home for minor wounds, "there would have been a lot of people claiming scratches, getting their Purple Hearts and getting out of there".
Sampley believes that the well-connected Kerry - photographed with president John F.Kennedy as a young man - simply received favourable treatment. "How many other people were able to get out of Vietnam early and be reassigned to a cushy post?" he said.
Again, you post this as if it is fact. His Commanding Officer says he lost NO duty days.
"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."
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml
Why are you doing this?
Destro, I agree that we should concentrate on his post war record, because that is what is relevant to the election. and, I have argued that we should not assist in spreading any dis-information.
We are just smarting from the rats (and Kerry initially) constant harping about Bush and his Air National Guard service.
The disconnect however, between what Kerry did in Nam and what he did after is glaring.
The guy is trying to morph himself into a war hero and it appears that he was but a opportunist for exactly this reason.
I hope that you can see what the anger is based on. And how it is relevant to the argument of his persona. If not his service.
The fact that all who served are heros, is not in question by this.
http://home.nycap.rr.com/pwcarter/
But then by the same token, GWB should be given full credit for flying the dangerous F-102 "widow maker" supersonic interceptor in the other war going on, the "Cold War." Plenty of F-102 pilots died, just flying that jet. Anybody who flew interceptors in the USAF in that era knows you didn't have to fly over Viet Nam to risk your life. I think something like 20% of all the F-102s ever built....crashed. With a lot of pilots in them.
The details of the event for which he was given the Silver Star make no sense at all. Supposedly, a B-40 (rocket propelled grenade) was fired at the boat and missed. Charlie jumps up with the launcher in his hand, the bow gunner knocks him down with the twin .50 (caliber machine guns), Kerry beaches the boat, jumps off, shoots Charlie, and retrieves the launcher. If true, he did everything wrong. (a) Standard procedure when you took rocket fire was to put your stern to the action and go (away) balls to the wall. A B-40 has the ballistic integrity of a Frisbee after about 25 yards, so you put 50 yards or so between you and the beach and begin raking it with your .50's. (b) Did you ever see anybody get knocked down with a .50 caliber round and get up? The guy was dead or dying. The rocket launcher was empty. There was no reason to go after him (except if you knew he was no danger to you - just flopping around in the dust during his last few seconds on earth, and you wanted some derring-do in your after-action report). And we didn't shoot wounded people. We had rules against that, too. (c) Kerry got off the boat. This was a major breach of standing procedures. Nobody on a boat crew ever got off a boat in a hot area. EVER! The reason was simple. If you had somebody on the beach your boat was defenseless. It couldn't run and it couldn't return fire. It was stupid and it put his crew in danger. He should have been relieved and reprimanded. I never heard of any boat crewman ever leaving a boat during or after a firefight.Something is very fishy.
I wonder, and so do we all.
This also smells.
July 4, 2003. We are in the Gloucester, Massachusetts parade today. An unusual twelve-person contingent in a sea of patriotic gore. Hundreds of small, rippling American flags are waved by throngs of hardworking blue-collar residents joined by an endless stream of gaggling tourists. The beery, swaying crowds swell with pride and puffed-up courage. How many have seen real combat?Every so often as we march down the boulevard, John, our fearless leader (who resigned his Marine Corps commission in '66), dispenses the peace sign with beatific calm. I stand on the right side of the VETERANS FOR PEACE banner we carry. Behind us, Paul, in real life an academic with high credentials, is dressed up as Ben Franklin and rings a stern bell, while behind him two VFP members grip an American flag burnished with the slogan REPEAL THE PATRIOT ACT. And behind them other people carry rigid signs stating all the losses gained since Lord Ashcroft usurped the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We walk slow and solemn like witches resurrected to remind the innocent of their dead.
. . .
For three solid miles we march in step behind a jolly float sponsoring the Armed Forces. The float is slow and cumbersome and plays sentimental music that the cheering crowds adore. They love the big color photos of flags and soldiers and swooping jets going round and round on a makeshift carousel. They gush and chant America! America! America! not knowing we are next in line. And when they see us marching silent and erect they are momentarily dumbstruck. It is clear that deep, deep in the landscape of their beer-swept American psyches they too know something is not right. And they know that we know, and the irony makes us big.
The parade finishes at eight, and we are thirsty and tired after two hours of marching. It is time for food. It is time to relax. We have done our share and then some. The next day we learn that Veterans For Peace, with its dimestore placards made from string and sticks, was awarded third place for civic pride. It gives one hope that Mr. Ashcroft and his surly camp will soon be repealed. U.S. OUT OF AMERICA! Hip, hip. U.S. OUT OF THE USA!
Marc Levy is a Vietnam vet and a member of VVAW from Massachusetts.
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