Kerry Purple Heart Doc Speaks Out

National Review Online ^ | May 04, 2004 | Byron York

[rwfok]

Some critics of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry have questioned the circumstances surrounding the first of three Purple Hearts Kerry won in Vietnam. Those critics, among them some of Kerry's fellow veterans, have suggested that a wound suffered by Kerry in December 1968 may have made him technically eligible for a Purple Heart but was not severe enough to warrant serious consideration, even for a decoration that was handed out by the thousands. Whatever the case, Kerry was awarded the Purple Heart, and, along with two others he won later, it allowed him to request to leave Vietnam before his tour of duty was finished.

Kerry was treated for the wound at a medical facility in Cam Ranh Bay. The doctor who treated Kerry, Louis Letson, is today a retired general practitioner in Alabama. Letson says he remembers his brief encounter with Kerry 35 years ago because "some of his crewmen related that Lt. Kerry had told them that he would be the next JFK from Massachusetts." Letson says that last year, as the Democratic campaign began to heat up, he told friends that he remembered treating one of the candidates many years ago. In response to their questions, Letson says, he wrote down his recollections of the time. (Letson says he has had no contacts with anyone from the Bush campaign or the Republican party.) What follows is Letson's memory, as he wrote it.

I have a very clear memory of an incident which occurred while I was the Medical Officer at Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay. John Kerry was a (jg), the OinC or skipper of a Swift boat, newly arrived in Vietnam. On the night of December 2, he was on patrol north of Cam Ranh, up near Nha Trang area. The next day he came to sick bay, the medical facility, for treatment of a wound that had occurred that night.

The story he told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that night. According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight, receiving small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this enemy action.

Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore. The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.

That seemed to fit the injury which I treated.

What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry's arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm. in length and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle.

I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4 mm. It did not require probing to find it, did not require any anesthesia to remove it, and did not require any sutures to close the wound.

The wound was covered with a bandaid.

Not [sic] other injuries were reported and I do not recall that there was any reported damage to the boat.

[Ann Archy]

thanks...:)

[bray]

I've hurt myself much worse than that, shaving my legs when I'm not quite fully awake in the shower in the morning.

What a coincidence, that's how he got his third PH?? Who would have guessed??

Pray for W and The Truth

[BykrBayb]

According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight, receiving small arms fire from on shore.

-snip-

Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore.

-snip-

What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry's arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm. in length and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle.

I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4 mm. It did not require probing to find it, did not require any anesthesia to remove it, and did not require any sutures to close the wound.

OMG!!! ROFLMFAO!!!!

[Pukin Dog]

One morning more than 10 years ago, I was jogging around the deck of a Carrier, and I tripped over a tie-down rope and fell down, tearing open the skin on my knee. I got a band-aid for that, but where the hell is my PURPLE HEART!?!?!?.

I never knew it was that easy.....

[bigpete_53]

ping ping ping

What a puss...

[scott7278]

Oh, and you'll have to sign a waiver so that you can't sue me for squeezing too hard...

[jonsie]

I am going to write Kerry a $200 check and then write void and place a Band-aid on it:)

[Lady Jag]

I'm shocked.

I wonder how Daschle is.

[The Bandit]

Wonder what the penality for lying to a superior officer and making false statements is?

[SAMWolf]

I'm wondering if instead of a "mortar" they were talking bout the grenade launchers some boats carried. Somehow a boat doesn't seem to be the most stable platform for a mortar. Any Brownwater Navy types out there?

The mortar part is speculation on the part of the crew according to the story. The slight wound and conflictiuong reports of a firefight are what makes me think the award was BS. You don't forget if there was a firedfight or not.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Because you and I want to, but I don't see the mortar part, it doesn't fit. Was it aboard the boat? Ashore? if it was fired and hit close enough to the boat to shower it with shrapnel it must have been damn near vertical, there has got to be more to this, think about it."

We had a Lt JG fire a M 79 grenade launcher form the ASROC deck on my destroyer.
He pointed it straight down.
We warned him 1st, then took cover.
Took shrapnel in one testicle.

[Integrityrocks]

Why are Kerry and Bush TIED?????

Because..... the "majority" of the city dwellers are democrats and they were educated in publicly funded public schools or going to publicly funded colleges on public grants or in public housing using publicly funded food stamps or living in apartments where the landlord is the bad guy and they don't have a clue about paying taxes or any of the things that make Americans understand INDEPENDENCE, or they go to their blue collar union jobs and have no clue about meeting a payroll or the cost of complying with a myriad of EPA, workman's comp, Handicapped or God knows what regulations and they are spoon fed the "Poor me" victim entitlement garbage by the MEDIA. Kerry FEEDS these people with his promises of more entitlements... THATs why half the population is still voting for any democrat that breaths.

[Robert_Paulson2]

probably caught a metal shaving off the tail of the mortar rocket while dropping it into the tube. Self inflicted wound.

Coward.

I wonder, what did the civil war era generals do to folks who self inflicted wounds, to escape combat?
What about patton era commanders?

America needs heros, not pussie/cowards for leadership roles.
Kerry does not meet the minimum acceptable standard for leadership.

[moehoward]

LOL BUMPEROO

[lstanle]

"I do find it implausible however that the Doctor would ever remember such an incident 35 years later. In any event, it wasn't combat related."

I can imagine how the Doc would remember a grown man, a Naval Officer no less, coming in with such a minor "wound",

[Jaxter]

"The owie was a small splinter?"

For that matter he could very well have stuck it in his own arm.

[MN_Mike]

The doctor failed to note that there was no blood lost, just ketchup.

[connectthedots]

if it was fired and hit close enough to the boat to shower it with shrapnel it must have been damn near vertical, there has got to be more to this, think about it.

That was my first thought.

[Ciexyz]

ohmygawd, and this is the turkey that the Dems are running for Prez? Unbelievable!

[Integrityrocks]

" I can imagine how the Doc would remember a grown man, a Naval Officer no less, coming in with such a minor "wound",


I think the part where he was bragging about being the next JFK might have something to do with remembering an arrogant faker like that.