Sorry I'm late getting here !Ping ya'll ! ;^)
Kerry 02-03-2004:
"For the second time this week a New England Patriot Won!"Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry
(Click here or on the pic)John Kerry's History Page
(Click here)
Posted on 03/14/2004 1:42:22 PM PST by Bob J
Sure thing, I have great respect for him.
They were the ones who first noted that Kerry would not release his military medical records:
About Kerry's Purple Hearts And Reassignment
Boston Globe ^ | 6/16/2003 | Michael Kranish
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.
Excerpted - click for full article ^
Source: http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml
Why won't Kerry allow his medical records from that period to be examined?
How many other people were reassigned using this seemingly very obscure technicality?
1 posted on 02/03/2004 12:10:42 PM PST by Hon [ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies ]
SENATOR JOHN FORBES KERRY REFUSED TO PROVIDE ANY RESPONSES TO CITIZENS ON ISSUES THROUGH THE NATIONAL POLITICAL AWARENESS TEST
SENATOR JOHN FORBES KERRY REFUSED TO PROVIDE ANY RESPONSES TO CITIZENS ON ISSUES THROUGH THE NATIONAL POLITICAL AWARENESS TEST SENATOR JOHN FORBES KERRY REFUSED TO PROVIDE THIS INFORMATION WHEN ASKED TO DO SO ON 23 SEPARATE OCCASIONS BY:
a long list of people and organizations.
Assuming people here would like to provide voters other than die-hard Republicans information about Kerry, perhaps Mr. Kerry's neglect to provide the public with info at Project Vote Smart could use some attention as well. I discovered FR during the campaign of 2000, yet I voted for Gore, as did a large number of people I know. It wasn't until sometime in 2001 that I realized my mistake.
I'm going to assume there are people visiting here everyday who, like me in 2000, will vote for a Democrat because they are Democrat. Yet Mr. Nixon and Mr. Reagan won landslide victories. So it is safe to assume that Mr. Bush could win the same kind of victory.
Though I visited here in 2000, I voted for Gore. I'm going to hazard to suggest that if there was information available here, in 2000, about Gore, information that was out there, yet not available here, I would have voted for Mr. Bush.
I've written this information and posted it before. I'm working on compiling a record of Kerry's vote on gun issues. Had I known Gore's stance on guns in 2000, my vote would have been different. I know people who voted for Gore in 2000, who cringe when I tell them about Gore's stance on guns. I own guns. I know people who own guns. Guns have a way of voiding all party affiliation. I'll repeat this information until election day. I hope there is a way to provide ready access to the passing stranger who logs onto FR for information.
I doubt it, self, since the media is campaigning for him.
How many people, d'ya think, visit FR daily, who would cast their vote for Mr. Bush if they knew exactly where Mr. Kerry stands on some of the issues?
Well, self, considering that you visited here in 2000, before becoming a member, and considering that you voted for Gore, despite you strong believe in the right of all citizens to keep and bear arms, and considering that some of the good folk here at FR believe that way...troubling, troubling, considering there are 750,000 deer hunters in Michigan who take a dim view of some politician who would take away their right to keep and bear arms.
Note to self: The next time Betsy wakes you up to put her out, go back to bed.
Sorry I'm late getting here !Ping ya'll ! ;^)
Kerry 02-03-2004:
"For the second time this week a New England Patriot Won!"Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry
(Click here or on the pic)John Kerry's History Page
(Click here)
You mean Mr. Kerry has been calling out Mr. Bush to debate him once a month, yet he hasn't provided the voting public with information about where he stands on the issues? You reckon a lot of people know that?I think I heard that the White House/Bush response was that Kerry needed to finish the debate he's having with himself (Waffle/taking BOTH sides of the issues) before the normal debates they always have after the party conventions ...
LOL ! I loved that reply !
Very Fishy.
I have felt this way since I started looking at this Jerk. Everything is way to fishy.
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
Dix... Maxie is a democrat and a defacto traitor.. otherwise he would not be a democrat.. Am I saying all democrats are traitors.. YES ALL.. Either as a direct malefactor or an indirect one (an enabler).. the unspoken fact that many republicans seem to be also.. is the un-nerving thing.. The democrat party is a lost cause and the republican party is suspect.. probably happened after "NEWT" got himself "BORKED"... I no longer trust republicans, any of them.. Bob Barr is working for the ACLU, by the way...
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