Kerry has shrapnel in left thigh from Vietnam War injury

AP ^ | 4/24/4 | NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

[SF Republican]

John Kerry has a piece of shrapnel in his left thigh from an injury he suffered in the Vietnam War, his doctor said Friday during a review of 36 pages of the Democratic presidential candidate's military medical records.

[mewzilla]

I could see why they'd leave the shrapnel if it was in a place where it could be dangerous to remove (near the heart, in the brain), but did the doc you spoke to say why they'd leave it in the leg?

[TexasNative2000]

PING. Didn't know if you had seen this today.

[KQQL]

Kerry's three Purple Hearts and show that he suffered from respiratory ailments, a skin rash and
a minor urinary tract infection
during his four years in the Navy

[P-Marlowe]

a minor urinary tract infection

Did he get a discharge because of a discharge?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[danamco]

Ooohhhhh..... So am I, every time I drive a car.


But remember he drives a SUV!

[kezekiel]

John Kerry has a piece of shrapnel in his left thigh from an injury he suffered in the Vietnam War

Well, that does it then. He should be our president.

[TankerKC]

nsu or nonspecific urethritis.

Doctor, doctor
Gave me the news
I gotta bad case of nsu
*Sung to the tune of Robert Palmer‘s “Bad Case of Loving You”

[FreeAtlanta]

[Polybius]

......is this a conservative website or a lefty one? Are we making fun of a soldier's service? Not post service record - but during his service? Is not the Republican party the party of duty and honor? Should we not uphold that creed even of the Democrats do not? Salute Kerry's war record and pick apart his Senatorial record. This is beneath us.

Kerry's Purple Heart record merits examination because he used the "Three Purple Heart" guideline to bug out of his combat tour after only 4 months.

The Purple Heart was not instituted to be awarded for every Band-Aid injury that one would normally encounter with any strenuous activity. The Purple Heart was instituted to recognize injuries that would "require treament by a medical officer". In the military, "medical officer" means an M.D.

A sucking chest wound may intially be treated by a combat Medic or Corpsman but it is an injury that "requires" eventual treament by a medical officer.

A medical officer may see a scraped knee or a minor bruise at Sick Call, but such an injury does not "require" treatment by a medical officer.

If Kerry sea-lawyered minor injuries into three Purple Hearts and then turned those three Purple Hearts into a ticket out of his Vietnam combat tour after only 4 months, then such conduct deserves scrutiny........especially after Kerry portrays himself as a Vietnam "hero" and the Democrats portray Bush as a coward.

"Duty and honor" does not mean serving only one third of your combat tour because you dishonorably obtained Purple Hearts you did not legitimately earn.

[FreeAtlanta]

I want to see the X-Ray....

I want to see the scars.

Freepers should start showing up at his events waving metal detectors :-)

[stocksthatgoup]

RALPHIE, YOU'LL SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT.

[Polybius]

I could see why they'd leave the shrapnel if it was in a place where it could be dangerous to remove (near the heart, in the brain), but did the doc you spoke to say why they'd leave it in the leg?

A small foreign body won't do any harm and digging around for it only turns a small wound into a bigger wound.

[concerned about politics]

A small foreign body won't do any harm and digging around for it only turns a small wound into a bigger wound.

I had a sliver once, and when I pulled it out - it left a hole! I knew what it was like to almost die, too. Elect me in 2004.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Kerry has bats in bellfry. Now he says he do, now he don't. Soon he says he will, then he won't. So, what are we going to do? Reelect GWB!!!!

[cajungirl]

I think Kerry is a mentally sick man. He has no core, he is what the psychiatrists call an "as if"personality,,,like a chameleon, takes on roles, no real there is there. This man is sicker than al gore in my opinion and pretty much sicker than Clinton. Clinton was sort of a human idiot savant, brilliant in ways with his role playing. Gore was a robot, programed, nothing spontaneous. Kerry is like a will of the wisp,,he just sort of floats out there, looking for a phrase, a puff of wind, even a preposition to hang his hat on and become, something. He is ill, Iam not kidding.

[hoosiermama]

Now now, First it was in the right thigh but that was before it was in the left. But it wasn't HIS thigh. His wife owned it.

No, No wait that was yesterday's story...or was it last weeks. DId you know he served in Vietnam?

[Polybius]

Nineteen reporters are allowed 30 minutes with the doctor and get to see a "file." No copies are allowed. No one knows who saw them or how many documents were involved; no one knows is the records are complete or authentic.

If copies were allowed, former Navy medical officers such as myself would be able to see the original medical records and would be making too many embarrasing observations such as whether the injuries were serious enough to actually "require treatment by a medical officer" as mandated by the Purple Heart regulations or why the individuals who treated Kerry's minor cuts and brusises were said by Kerry's staff to be "medical officers" when they signed the medical record "HM3" or "HM2".

[MindBender26]

This is a clear indication that the shrapnel is and was tiny.

The larger, treatment-induced wound would have been caused only if they had to probe and search for a tiny piece of metal. A large or medium size object would be easy to find.

Secondly, the shrapnel would have been left "in suti" only if there was no danger of further movement trauma or migration due to it's tiny size.

Another case of Kerry military records proving to mean exactly the opposite of what Kerry says they do!

[Hatteras]

Frank, that was an EGG shell fragment!

[MindBender26]

>"HM3" or "HM2"

?

Inexperienced E-3, E-4 corpsmen?