Posted on 04/20/2004 5:48:11 PM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON (AP) Amid questions about his military records, John Kerry's campaign on Tuesday provided documentation of Vietnam War injuries that included shrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and buttocks that earned him three Purple Hearts.
Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said the campaign was in the process of compiling the rest of Kerry's naval record and planned to begin posting it on Kerry's Web site by day's end. Kerry said all his military records are available to the public during an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Meehan said the Massachusetts senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee requested a copy of his record from the Navy last month and received roughly 150 pages last week.
Conservatives, talk radio and some newspapers editorials have questioned whether Kerry was deserving of the three Purple Hearts, fueling questions about his Navy service from 1966 to 1970 and the seriousness of his injuries.
He served two tours of duty, four months on the USS Gridley frigate off Vietnam's shore and nearly five months as a swiftboat commander in the Mekong Delta. He volunteered for the second tour and earned all his medals during the second stint.
Meehan gave The Associated Press 13 pages that included documentation for the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. The Boston Globe obtained some of the records last year for an extensive series on Kerry.
The documents also included declassified reports that briefly explain the injuries that led to Kerry's Purple Heart awards. They show Kerry had shrapnel wounds in his left thigh after his boat came under intense fire on Feb. 20, 1969, and he suffered shrapnel wounds in his left buttock and contusions on his right forearm when a mine detonated close to his boat on March 13, 1969.
The campaign could not locate a similar report for Kerry's original Purple Heart. As evidence that Kerry was wounded, Meehan showed The Associated Press a "Sick Call Treatment Record" from Kerry's personal files that included a brief written note dated Dec. 3, 1968, and stamped from the naval support facility at Cam Ranh Bay.
"Shrapnel in left arm above elbow. Shrapnel removed and appl bacitracin dressing. Ret to Duty," it said. The note is followed by a signature that appears to say "JCCarreon" and some illegible letters that Meehan said probably designate the medical official's rank.
Meehan said the campaign would allow a reporter to see the record at the campaign's headquarters, but not take a copy. He said it would not be made available to the public because Kerry considers it a private medical record.
Documentation for the second two injuries show that Kerry was deemed to be in good condition and returned to active duty after treatment. The documentation does not describe the severity of the injuries. A third Purple Heart meant Kerry could be reassigned out of Vietnam, and a document dated March 17, 1969, said Kerry requested duty as a personal aid in Boston, New York or the Washington, D.C., area.
Meehan said although Kerry could have asked to stay in Vietnam, it was the Navy's decision to request that he be reassigned. Kerry left the country in early April 1969.
Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager, accused Kerry's campaign of waffling on the release of his military records, saying the campaign's position on Tuesday to release the records in "due diligence" is contrary to Kerry's comments on "Meet the Press" that the records would be made public immediately.
"Senator Kerry's record of nondisclosure and his flip-flop on this issue should concern voters," Mehlman said.
Meehan responded, "Senator Kerry's record on the military is one we are running on, not running from. We are happy to compare Senator Kerry's record of service to anybody in the Bush campaign who has or has not served."
Bush was in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, but did not serve in combat. Bush released hundreds of pages of his Vietnam-era military records in February to counter Democrats' suggestions that he shirked his duty in the Texas Air National Guard.
The White House said the documents comprise his entire military record. The records did not provide evidence that Bush was in Alabama during a period when Democrats have questioned whether he reported for service.
Kerry on Friday questioned Republicans who avoided the war and now criticize him on national security, but he didn't mention Bush.
"I fought under that flag and I saw that flag draped over the coffins of friends," Kerry said. "I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid the chance to serve when they had the chance."
The Purple Heart is awarded to soldiers who are wounded or killed by enemy forces. The Silver Star is awarded for gallantry in action, and the Bronze Star is for heroic achievement.
Kerry received the Bronze Star for his actions after being wounded by the mine, which led to the third Purple Heart. According to his citation, one of Kerry's boatmates was thrown overboard and Kerry pulled him to safety with "his arm bleeding and in pain and with disregard for his personal safety." Kerry and the man, retired Los Angeles police officer Jim Rassmann, had an emotional public reunion in January, two days before Kerry would win the Iowa caucuses.
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On the Net:
Facsimiles of Kerry's Purple Heart citations are available at:
http://wid.ap.org/documents/kerry/purplehearts.pdf
Facsimiles of Kerry's bronze and silver star citations are available at:
http://wid.ap.org/documents/kerry/stars.pdf
Facsimiles of reports describing Kerry's wounds are available at:
So what is that he did not volunteer for two tours in Vietnam AS HE CLAIMED.
I never said one word about dodging the draft.
I agree that to serve, even reluctantly, is honorable. However, to sealawyer your way into undeserved medals then out of combat it not honorable. What happened to the man who replaced sKerry after he skipped out of Vietnam? What happened to the inexperienced crew that replaced his after he ran?
First of all, Zoomie1, let me assure you that I am not "throwing off" the services provided by Corpsmen or Medics. Those services are life saving and, most imporatantly, they are rendered right in the thick of combat. They are the most "worthy" medical services to be found in the military. Everything else pales in comparison.
The language of the Purple Heart regulation is designed not to put down the Medic or Corpsman but to weed out the injuries that merit Purple Hearts from the injuries brought to Sick Call by the "Sick Bay Commandos".
The operative word are "requires treatment".
As you know, we in the military medical services often found ourselves in situations that, to be perfectly honest about it, required treament by individuals that were more specialized than we were.
You did a fantastic job with that intraconal orbital injury but that patient actually "required" an Ophthalmologist for such an injury.
When I was aboard my CGN, if some fat Senior Chief had keeled over with a heart attack as a result of a coronary artery stenosis, I would have done my best as a General Medical Officer fresh out of Internship and he might have lived but that Senior Chief would still have "required" a cardiologist to perform a coronary angiogram and angioplasty.
When I was stationed at Guantanamo we treated and now, in civilian practice in a rural county, we treat patients that actually "require" specialties that we do not have here until they can be air-lifted to the medical center in the Big City.
So, the Purple Heart requirement is written, not to denigrate the Corpsman or Medic or GMO or the surgeon when a cardiologist is "required" or the cardiologist when an orthopedic surgeon is "required", but to weed out the Sick Bay Commando.
Does an intraconal foreign body "require" an Opthalmologist? Damn right it does. But, if an Opthalmologist is not available, then that man had the next best thing and that was you.
The same thing applied to me, a General Medical Officer fresh out of Internship in a nuclear cruiser equipped with an Operating Room. If somebody's ruptured spleen needed to be taken out, I could have muddled through it but what such a patient actually "required" would have been for a "real surgeon" to be flown over over from the carrier.
So, here we are in a war zone. I am the General Medical Officer and you are my senior Corpsman or Medic.
Lt.(j.g.) John F. Kerry, comes to our Fleet Sick Call demanding that he "requires" a medical officer for his "wound" that his Swift Boat C.O. described as being analogous to "a fingernail scratch".
Does it really "require" that I, the medical officer, see him?
Does it really "require" that you, my senior Corpsman or Medic see him?
In reality, can't his "injury" be handled, totally, from start to finish, by our lowest ranking Medic or Corpsman or even by a "striker" who is a non-designated E-2 who is assigned to the Medical Department but has not yet gone through "A" School to become a real Corpsman?
That is the isuue.
Did Kerry's wound ideally "require" treatment by a medical officer?
An HMCS?
An HMC?
An HM1?
An HM2?
An HM3?
An E-3 "striker" assigned to the Medical Department?
If the answer for John F. Kerry's Band-Aid and Bacitracin wound is: "An E-3 "striker" assigned to the Medical Department"......
Then John F. Kerry did not meet the requiremts set forth by the Purple Heart criteria.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass., is seen in this 1969 photo as a Navy Lt.j.g., second from left top, with members of his crew aboard PCF-31 in the Mekong Delta during the war in Vietnam. Records of Kerry's Vietnam War service released Wednesday, April 21, 2004 show a highly praised naval officer who volunteered for a dangerous assignment and at one point was ``unofficially credited with 20 enemy killed in action.'' (AP Photo/Courtesy of John Kerry, HO)
Bullsh#t.
Kerry volunteered for no such thing.
A while back, I posted the summary, pasted below, of the choices Kerry made during his Vietnam service.
Since the myth of Kerry's "volunteering for a dangerous assignment" keeps being put out by Kerry and parroted by the news media, I believe the post merits re-posting from time to time for the benefit of any news media lurkers on FreeRepublic.
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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.
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:
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........
.......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 squadron 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".
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.
including some time under my bunk during a rocket attack. Hard to believe it was over 35 years ago.
How time flies! It seems like only last week.
When we were finally evaced from Hue to Phu Bai we all felt safe. The first night the hospital was hit with 122 mm rockets. We spent several hours in unfinished bunkers.
" To top it off, Kerry said, he had gone several miles inside Cambodia, which theoretically was off limits, prompting Kerry to send a sarcastic message to his superiors that he was writing from the Navy's "most inland" unit. "
One of our boats (an LCU) was captured in Cambodia. We had numerous resupply missions in that area, but never thought it was anything special. We certainly never considered we were the Armys Most Inland Unit.
The crew of the captured boat was held as POWs at a very fine hotel, their captures picking up all the tabs they ran up for room service. They had guided (guarded) tours around the city and actually enjoyed themselves for the first few months. One of them later joined my crew after release. He seemed embarrassed to admit he had been a POW.
The Cambodians had to take the boat to show their support for the Communist forces, but they also treated them very well because they had to show their support for the US.
Well, actually, since Cambodia was neutral at the time, he was legally an "Internee" in Cambodia and not a POW.
Under international law, when belligerent forces end up inside a neutral country and are "caught" by the neutrals, the neutral have an obligation to keep them inside the neutral country until the war is over. However, since the neutral country wants to stay friendly with both sides, the treatment during internmemt is usually Club Med or as close to it as wartime conditions will allow.
During World War II, many damaged U.S. aircraft were flown to Switzerland so that they would not crash land in Germany. All those American airmen were "Internees" of the Swiss until the end of the war unless they "escaped".
As you can see from the link of the Swiss Internees Association Website, these guys did not have a "Stalag 17" experience........."Am wondering if any Internee from the Palais Hotel or Bel Air Bar winter of 1944/45 remembers a young chambermaid/waitress whom you nicknamed "Betty"? "
An Internee can brag about being on the mission, about the combat and about his service but, when an Internee meets a "real" POW, it is best not to brag about his internment at the Palais Hotel and "Betty" the waitress. :-)
One amusing aspect of the Swiss internment was that the town chosen as the internment site for American airmen was right next to a Swiss resort popular as a German R&R area. So, Amerticans and Germans in uniform would bump into each other on the neutral Swiss streets. The Fourth of July was celebrated by aiming fireworks and rockets at the German consulate. :-)
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