KERRY PLAYS A FIERCE DEFENSE

New York Post ^ | 4/17/04 | DEBORAH ORIN

[kattracks]

April 17, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - An angry John Kerry yesterday raged that the White House has a "twisted sense of ethics and morality" as he faced new TV ads that accuse him of voting against U.S. troops in Iraq. "They don't think twice about trying to pretend to America that I somehow don't care about the defense of our nation," Kerry said as he stumped in Pittsburgh using an American flag as his backdrop.

[AD from SpringBay]

Hey John Kerry - the truth hurts. Your voting record is full of contradictions and pandering. It has nothing to do with Viet Nam. People are smart enough to see that.

[Rome2000]

John Kerry has an honorable record of service in our military and a horrible record of supporting our military as an elected official

ROTFLOL!

Hard to tell the difference these days between the press releases from the terrorists and the DNC.

They both have a problem with Halliburton.

[Cultural Jihad]

"I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid their chance to serve when they had the chance. I'm not going to listen to them talk to me about patriotism," Kerry fumed.

He's still serving us self-indignant and self-righteous leftovers from the VVAW, how those who served in the military should supposedly enjoy more rights or have their opinions automatically honored more so than those who didn't, even if their opinions are anti-American.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Nope.

Others in his unit (other boats) say Kerry DID write up his own medals based on actions that were dubious at best, and war crimes at worst (shooting wounded VC and unarmed civilians), and they DON'T support his self-promoted "heroics.

It's Kerry's self-promotion in Vietnam (WHICH IS HIS ONLY BASIS FOR HIS CAMPAIGN) that I question (since he has provided NO supporting details!) and NOT anybody's ELSE's actions or medals over there.

[bitt]

"This blue-blood is completely out of touch with reality."

Maybe the Forbes family tree gave him a tint of pale blue, but he seems to be more a product of "upward mobility" from the Kohn side of the family. He is also "no JFK", who's "blue blood" was really "lace-curtain green".

[Polybius]

"I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid their chance to serve when they had the chance. I'm not going to listen to them talk to me about patriotism," Kerry fumed.

Well, since Kerry brought up the subject of avoiding service, his choices regarding Vietnam service should be carefully examined.

I have posted this summary of Kerry's Vietnam choices before but I believe it bears re-posting every now and then for the benefit of any news media lurkers out there.

********************************

What bothered me about this article saying Kerry "only served" four months on a tour is that he had a cushy job on the big ship and opted to volunteer for his second tour of duty on a swift boat. In other words he took himself off the easy duty and into the harder combat seeing duty. That has to count for something.

That is what Kerry and the Democrats want us to believe and that is the version they are putting out. However, that version is pure Bravo Sierra and is not supported by the facts or by Kerry's own statements.

It would indeed be extremely admirable if Kerry had knowingly taken "himself off the easy duty and into the harder combat seeing duty".

However, Kerry never volunteered for combat or any duty he dreamed would get him into combat.

Kerry was the First Division Officer when he served on the USS Gridley.

John F. Kerry, the junior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts is positioning himself for a run at the Presidency in 2004. Ensign (and later LTJG Kerry) reported aboard GRIDLEY straight out of the Fleet Training Center, San Diego on 8 June 1967. This boot Ensign headed up First Division and is shown here with Calvert BM1 and BMCS Enochs. His biographical materials never mention this period even though he was aboard GRIDLEY much longer than he was in Vietnam. Between having these two old salts reporting to him and Captain Slifer after him all the time, Ensign Kerry was a busy young man.

What is "First Division"?

First Division is one of the "Deck Divisions" on a ship. In Navy slang, the "Deck Apes". They swab the decks. They chip paint. They paint the areas they finished chipping. After that, they swab, they chip and they paint some more. The bottom of the class at Navy Boot Camp ends up in a Deck Division.

In the Ward Room, the First Division Officer is the lowest guy in the ship's officers pecking order. When the XO or the CO need an S.L.J.O. (Shitty Little Jobs Officer), the First Division Officer is the guy that gets the job.

Kerry was in charge of the least skilled sailors in the lowest prestige division on his ship and, apparently, his C.O., Captain Slifer, was not making life very pleasant for our Boston Blue Blood who was more used to sailing on John F. Kennedy's yacht.

What to do?

Swift boats!

At the time, swift boats merely patrolled the coastline or ferried sailors between ships.

Most importantly, a lowly Lt.(j.g.) was the Officer in Charge (OIC).

Instead of being the SLJO on the USS Gridley, in charge of Deck Ape Division, with Captain Slifer making his life miserable, Kerry pictured himself as the OIC of his own boat, roaring up and down the South China Sea out of the war and with no Captain Slifer anywhere in sight.

But, don't take my word for it.

Let's hear it from John F. Kerry himself:

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.

Two weeks after Kerry assumed command of his swift boat, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt put into effect his idea of getting those swift boats out of glorified water skiing duty........

Picture of yours truly "RD2 Joe Muharsky" water skiing behind PCF 94 March 1969. Pictured is signed by Senator John Kerry who was a LTJG in Coastal Division 11.

.......into the shooting war in the rivers of the Mekong Delta.

Oooooops.

As Robert Burns once wrote, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

Kerry signed up for being OIC of his own water skiing boat and here he was in the middle of a friggin war!!

What does Kerry do now after he has gone from glorified water skier straight into deep kim-chee?

Well, Kerry then proceeds to rack up three Purple Hearts for "injuries" that kept him off duty for a grand total of.....drum roll, please..... two days of duty by his own admission and zero days according to his swift boat C.O.

Kerry then sea-lawyered himself out of combat after only four months and requested a transfer as an "Admiral's aide", preferably in "Boston, New York or Washington".

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

When the Boston Globe asked Kerry to give permission for the release of his Navy medical records so that the Boston Globe could document what sort of injuries earned Kerry three Purple Hearts and a ticket out of combat after 4 months.........Kerry refused.

Every decision and/or request John F. Kerry ever made; from First Division Officer to swift boat OIC; from swift boat OIC to early termination of his combat tour; from early termination of his combat tour to Admiral's aide; from Admiral's aide to early discharge from active duty; from early discharge from active duty to politically-popular-in-Massachusets American-G.I.'s-are-war-criminals anti-war protestor........

Every decision and/or request John F. Kerry ever made in his Navy career was made to further the comfort, safety and political ambitions of John F. Kerry.

[bushfamfan]

He served in Vietnam, yada yada yada, he wants to be President. That quote really riled the Kerry campaign, but the Bush campaign spokesman really nailed it and it is funny. The ONLY thing he is running on and it's pretty lame.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Bookmarked!

Do we know whether that "unofficial Navy policy" of "3 wounds and you're out" was ever actually published in the Personnel Manual?

[Thom Pain]

Answer me this Batman. Does being a POW (Bless him for his service and sacrifice) qualify someone as an expert on military affairs or strategy or foreign policy? Does serving (if that's what we F'ing call it) as a swift boat commander qualify someone as a F'ing leader of the free world? Does being a passenger on a 747 qualify me to fly the F'ing thing? Sheesh.

[wingman1]

I have heard of one man in his unit - on his boat - say that Kerry played it safe. Nine others said that he was a good officer and many of those are helping him in his campaign. As for the CO who said he was undeserving of the first PH, I find it incredible that he has such powers of recall.

Other boats do not count. If his medals were self written, daily reports and after action reports would be available that possibly could shed further light - without having to dig into his personal records. For example, I was wounded in a non combat situation and medevaced to the rear area. A friend of mine found the report that described the wound and incident in the National Archives. Anyone could find similar reports about Kerry's wounds and citations for his awards in the same place.

I wasn't there when the VC was killed by Kerry. I don't second guess those who were.

What I am sure of is that Kerry did face enemy steel.

My invitation to you and any others on this board, is to do a search in the National Archives.

Case closed.

[Right_in_Virginia]

"I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people .....," Kerry fumed.

And I'm SO tired of you, Miss Kerry.

[Polybius]

The debate about Kerry, as I predicted a while back, creates the perception that all medals were awarded due to "medal inflation". This is not true.

See my Post 47.

The real medal scandal will be found not in questioning whether Kerry's Silver Star and Bronze Star were deserved or not but in the way that Kerry manipulated the "three Purple Heart" guidelines to sea lawyer himself out of combat duty as soon as he possibly could with three Band-Aid Purple Hearts that required the loss of two days of duty by Kerry's own admission and the loss of zero days of duty according to Kerry's superiors.

Kerry has refused permission to release his Navy medical record that would tell us the true nature of his "wounds".

This past week, Kerry's former swift boat C.O. said that Kerry showed him "a barely visible scratch" and was holding a tiny piece of metal claiming it was shrapnel when Kerry requested his first Purple Heart. Purple Hearts require wounds serious enough to require treament by a medical officer. The C.O. initially turned down Kerry's request for his first Purple Heart but later signed off on it in disgust after Kerry kept pestering him.

Kerry subsequently racked up two more Band-Aid Purple Hearts and then invoked the "three Purple Hearts" guidelines to bug out of combat duty after only 4 months.

I recently learned from another Freeper that my uncle had been mentioned in the book "We were Soldiers Once...And Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam". He served one combat tour early in the war with the First Cav and a second combat tour later in the war as a Green Beret. Each tour ended with a single Purple Heart and my boyhood memories of the seriousness of those wounds formed my first impression of what a Purple Heart was supposed to represent.

A Purple Heart was not meant to represent "a barely visible scratch".

Kerry's manipulation of the Purple Heart requirements and the "three Purple Heart" guidelines to avoid serving more than 4 months of his combat tour was cowardice, pure and simple.

[Robert A Cook PE]

National archives don't have his records (according to Hannnity Friday!): and Kerry refuses to release his medical records.

Kerry has yet to produce any evidence of what he claims to have happened: We think they are:

A single minor cut on his arm from a US grenade fragment that happened during an unauthorized mission at night in a Boston Whaler against unknown people in an unknown sampan while that Whaler should have been on security duty looking for swimmers near the base ships.

A unauthorized (blatantly wrong!) "ground attack" Kerry did by running ashore OFF his boat while under fire that he grounded to go kill a wounded VC teenager.

The third wound? Not sure: Kerry refuses to release his medical records.

Others in his squadron have indicated they too, did not hold him as "heroic" officer.

He was there, true. For one trip off-shore in airconditioned comfort on a guided missile frigate. For about 90 days.

Then he left that duty station early to go train for boat duty for 6 months off the California shore.

Then he was in Vietnam. For about 105 days: December 01 to mid-March. That's it. Some 18 days of combat duty in total. Then he left Vietnam early to go home to his admiral's aide billet.

Then he left that billet early to run for Congress.


Kerry has NO record other than a self-promoting book written by an ally for election, and two Boston Globe stories now some 20 years old.

Nothing else is substantiated. Everything else is repeats of those (unverified, unofficial) sources. Except what we've uncovered here in FR from others who served in his unit, and in his squadron at that time frame.

[Robert A Cook PE]

See?

Kerry DIDN'T play it "safe" on his boat:

He played it STUPID and FOOLISH in combat.

He (as boat CO) grounded the boat at least TWICE under fire to go "running on shore" and kill VC (one already wounded by 50 caliber fire, one carrying an RPG that Kerry wanted to recover (souvenir perhaps?).

this was directly against policy and requirements and safety!

A grounded boat with people ashore is trapped: you can't leave, can't maneuver, can't fire guns easily (people are missing) and the ones ashore can be captured and taken prisoners/held "hostage" by covering fire so they can't return to the boat and leave.

A CO ashore is worse: his crew is left leaderless! (Not that some consider Kerry much of a leader ...)

But Kerry did it TWICE against specific orders.

And by killing wounded and civilians: HE committed the war crimes that HE later falsely attributed to "thousands" of other US troops (in the fake Congressional hearing on war crimes) later!

[Polybius]

Bookmarked! Do we know whether that "unofficial Navy policy" of "3 wounds and you're out" was ever actually published in the Personnel Manual?

I don't know if the "three Purple Hearts" rule was actually published or if it was an unofficial guideline.

However, see my Post 53.

The real scandal is not the "three Purple Heart" guideline. The real scandal is phony Purple Hearts.

My uncle never manage to earn his third Purple Heart but both of his Purple Hearts are legitimate.

Kerry's three Purple Hearts are reminiscent of the MASH episode where Frank Burns applies for and is awarded a Purple Heart as a result of "shell fragment injury"...............Frank had been making an omlette and had gotten a tiny egg shell fragment in his eye.

A Purple Heart does require wounds "serious enough to be treated by a medical officer". A very good reason for Kerry to refuse permission for the release of his Navy medical record is that such a release could conclusively document in writing that no such treatment was ever required for his "wounds", that his three Purple Hearts were "Stolen Valor" Purple Hearts and that he used those phony Purple Hearts to bug out of his combat tour after only 4 months.

[wingman1]

It's interesting about Hannity searching the National Archives and not finding anything. All I can say is that doing a search is an arduous process, but unit records and casualty reports are available. He should continue to look. If he has no evidence then he is speculating.

The fellow who recently came out against Kerry was one who served with him. He said that Kerry "played it safe".

It's interesting that you would characterize Kerry's recovery of an RPG as souvenir hunting. I look at it as one less RPG in the area. Our company captured a 60mm mortar from the NVA. We used it on patrols. Whenever the brass paid us a visit we made sure that we threw a poncho over it and kept it hidden. It was AGAINST regulations for Army units to have a 60mm. We got our ammo from a local Marine CAP.

If you think that warS ARE "fought by the book", then you are mistaken. I can think of many instances where we did things that were not SOP. If I had been part of Kerry's crew, there would have been much resentment towards those who sat on their fat a$$es in the rear while telling us to obey the ROE. For instance we were not given artillery support if the target was within 1000 meters of a hamlet of three or more hooches. Many times we grew furious with the Major up on the hill who would not give us fire support. What did we do? We called in jets or Cobra gunships.

You are correct in listing all the tragic possibilities. But when the sh#t is flying and an opportunity exists to kill the enemy those possibilities are secondary.

[chilepepper]

Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeldt, and George Bush, regardless of what they did in the past, are definitely serving NOW.

If Kerry wants to dwell on what he did for four months in Vietnam, fine.

I for one will pay more attention to what he did in the months and years AFTER he came back from Vietnam...

[Ruth A.]

Just how close is livid to the I-have-a-scream point?

BTW, what does the t-shirt (see Bon Jovi pic) mean? All I can see is Change U Kerry 2004. Nothing like making a nuanced point. Hah!

[mtntop3]

The public questions about Kerry's patriotism, per se, should properly come from veterans, particularly those who served in Vietnam. That is happening on this site and others. And it is going to happen a lot, lot more as we go down the line.