[river rat]

It's a difficult thing to criticize a man for what he may or may not have done under stress....

BUT - Kerry's tour simply doesn't pass muster...
It all seems too contrived....too unbelievable....too convenient and far too short a tour with far too many decorations to accept without first hand witnesses or Military/Medical records to substantiative the "claims"...

It is now clear -- that the CONNECTED and AMBITION Kerry went to Vietnam as an aspiring politician --- and extracted his ass from the war immediatly after getting his "ticket punched" and the medals racked up....

On return to the world -- he IMMEDIATLY began his career by joining with LIARS and TRAITORS and charging his former brothers with War Crimes.... Kerry is worse than a traitor.

Kerry INSISTS on being regarded as a hero, based on the record ..... He should gladly release the records and allow us to decide if he was the "hero" he desires to be or simply another man who served --- but with connections and a plan to save his "lily white ass" and get back home as soon as his three laughable Purple Hearts will permit him....

I think of Kerry as another wannabe --- who wouldn't amount to more than a pimple on the asses of the men I knew, loved and witnessed being a far better man that Kerry could ever dream of being...... NONE, of them were so grandly decorated....and ALL of them gave and risked everything they had for 13 months ---- NOT 4 months...

Semper Fi

[Travis McGee]

I agree. He went into the Swift Boats to get his "PT-109" ticket punched, for purely political reasons. I'd like to know all of the details of the Silver Star op, citation, etc. Who put him in for it? What did that person get in return? Who knew the award was in the pipeline, was it handled in an "expedited" way? The entire episode stinks.

[Delta 21]

You mean to tell me that Kerry is a PX warrior? Say it aint so ! ! !

[harpseal]

Typically a swift boat commander was a PO 1st class not a commissioned officer. Yes there were commissioned officers who commanded some of the swift boats but typically they were in command of a whole unit of swift boats. Yes, some swift boats were used for insertion extraction of Seal boat crews but this whole thing stinks.