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How did Kerry serve TWO tours of Vietnam, yet he was reportedly only there 4 or 6 months?? (I forget which one)

I keep hearing that but can't figure it out.

There is a GI movement in this country now as well as over there, and soon these people, these men, who are prescribing wars for these young men to fight are going to find out they are going to have to find some other men to fight them because are going to change prescriptions. They are going to have to change doctors, because we are not going to fight for them. That is what they are going to realize.

-- John Kerry, testifying before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, April 22, 1971

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No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

-- United States Constitution, 14th Amendment, Section 3

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The Viet Cong didn't think they had to win the war on the battlefield, because thanks to these protestors they were going to win it on the streets of San Francisco and Washington.

-- Paul Galanti, P.O.W. from 1966-1973

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Then I was sent on to advanced genocide training down at Fort Polk, Louisiana. And this is where I got, you know, this is where I started to hate, hate anything that wasn't exactly like me. Anything that wasn't a fighting machine. Gooks.

-- Jim Weber, VVAW, in "The New Soldier"

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Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist is part of a network of anti-imperialist veterans who are proud of our resistance to U.S. aggression around the world. In the 1970s, to be a Vietnam veteran was to be against the war. That proud legacy must be carried forward into the new millennium. As veterans, we have been to the edge and seen the viciousness of Amerikkka unmasked.

-- from the VVAWAI web site

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“My plan was that, on the last day we would go into the [congressional] offices we would schedule the most hardcore hawks for last -- and we would shoot them all.”

-- VVAW leader Scott Camil, in the University of Florida Oral History Archive, October 20,1992

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Losing a war is a state of mind.

-- Tom Hayden, co-founder, Students for a Democratic Society, after attending the Winter Soldier Investigation.

He was there for a total of 4 months.

John Kerry

February 18, 1966:
A senior at Yale, Kerry commits to enlist in the Navy.

December, 1967:
Kerry is assigned as an Ensign to the guided-missile frigate USS Gridley. After five-months aboard, he returns to San Diego to undergo training to command a Swift boat, used by the Navy for patrols in Vietnam.

June, 1968:
Kerry is promoted to Lieutenant.

November 17, 1968:
Kerry arrives in Vietnam, where he is given command of Swift boat No. 44, operating in the Mekong Delta.

December 2, 1968:
Kerry gets his first taste of intense combat, and is wounded in the arm. He is awarded a Purple Heart.

January, 1969:
Kerry takes command of a new Swift boat, completing 18 missions over 48 days, almost all in the Mekong Delta area.

February 20, 1969:
Kerry is wounded again, taking shrapnel in the left thigh, after a gunboat battle. He is awarded a second Purple Heart.

February 28, 1969:
Kerry and his boat crew, coming under attack while patroling in the Mekong Delta, decide to counterattack. In the middle of the ensuing firefight, Kerry leaves his boat, pursues a Viet Cong fighter into a small hut, kills him, and retreives a rocket launcher. He is awarded a Silver Star.

March 13, 1969:
A mine detonates near Kerry's boat, wounding him in the right arm. He is awarded a third Purple Heart. He is also awarded a Bronze Star for pulling a crew member, who had fallen overboard, back on the boat amidst a firefight.

April, 1969:
According to Navy rules, sailors that have been wounded three times in combat are eligible to be transfered to the U.S. for noncombat duty. Kerry is transferred to desk duty in Brooklyn, NY.

January 3, 1970:
Kerry requests that he be discharged early from the Navy so that he can run for Congress in Massachusetts' Third District. The request is granted, and Kerry begins his first political campaign.

February 1970:
Kerry drops his bid for the Democratic nomination and supports Robert F. Drinan. Drinan, a staunch opponent of the war, wins the race and goes on to serve in Congress for ten years.

June 1970:
Kerry joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and becomes one of the group's unofficial spokespeople.

April 23, 1971:
Kerry helps to organize a huge anti-war protest outside Congress, earning a place on president Richard Nixon's "enemies' list." He joins a group of Vietnam veterans who throw medals and campaign ribbons over a fence in front of the Capitol.

April 23, 1971:
Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He tells lawmakers: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

November 10, 1971:
Kerry quits Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

April 1972:
Kerry moves to Massachusetts' 5th District to run for Congress again. He wins the Democratic nomination but loses to Republican Paul Cronin, in part because of his anti-war views.

November 1972:
After losing the election, Kerry is hired as a regional coordinator for Cooperative for American Relief to Everywhere(CARE).

September, 1973:
Kerry enrolls at Boston College Law School.

How did Kerry serve TWO tours of Vietnam, yet he was reportedly only there 4 or 6 months?? (I forget which one)

His people keep referring to his deployment on USS Gridley (CG-21, formerly DLG-21) as a tour. It wasn't; it was a WestPac deployment, more commonly termed a cruise. It wasn't the best of duty but it certainly wasn't the worst either.

His first tour was on a carrier in an electronics unit, not in country. He then volunteered to be a skipper of a small boat like his hero JFK. Once there he figured out how to get back out as quickly as he could -- three purple hearts in four months. Some hero!