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Kerry Purple Heart Doc Speaks Out
National Review Online ^
| May 04, 2004
| Byron York
Posted on 05/04/2004 2:47:46 PM PDT by 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.
TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: attackedenemyrocks; bactine; bandaid; booboo; byronyork; crybaby; curad; fakejfkfrommass; flipflop; flipflopking; frenchrambo; jfnk; kerry; kerrymedic; kissandmakebetter; liarliarpantsonfire; losingtheelection; louisletson; lurch; lyingliars; mchalesnavy; medicalrecord; metrosexualcandidate; oops; oopshediditagain; ouchlesscurad; pt101; purpheart4splinter; purplehaze; purpleheart; putsomeiceonit; recallthemedal; recount; ricochetbooboo; servedvaliantly; skinnedknee; undeservingdemocrat; unearnedpurpleheart; warhero; zzzzzzzzz
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To: rwfok
Has anyone run this over to "the underground" to gauge their reactions yet?
21
posted on
05/04/2004 2:57:32 PM PDT
by
cripplecreek
(you tell em i'm commin.... and hells commin with me.)
To: Petronski
"Boo-Boo" Kerry! LOL! ;-D
22
posted on
05/04/2004 2:57:40 PM PDT
by
nutmeg
(Why vote for Bush? Imagine Commander in Chief John F’in al-Qerry)
To: rwfok
I e-mailed this to a friend. He EARNED his Purple Hearts (2). And he has the wheelchair to prove it.
23
posted on
05/04/2004 2:58:13 PM PDT
by
airborne
(lead by example)
To: rwfok
waitaminnit.
kerry was in VIET NAM !?!?!?!?
24
posted on
05/04/2004 2:58:41 PM PDT
by
smonk
To: doug from upland; ALOHA RONNIE; abner; Mia T
ping!
25
posted on
05/04/2004 2:58:43 PM PDT
by
nutmeg
(Why vote for Bush? Imagine Commander in Chief John F’in al-Qerry)
To: Petronski
Darn. You beat me to it.
26
posted on
05/04/2004 2:58:54 PM PDT
by
gitmo
(Thanks, Mel. I needed that.)
To: Pistolshot
How about an all-encompassing moniker: Kerrytastrophe.
To: rwfok
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." That's spelled jfk.
jfk - the Bandaid Hero.
Is a Swift Boat any thing like a PT boat?
28
posted on
05/04/2004 3:01:35 PM PDT
by
Cyber Ninja
(His legacy is a stain on the dress.)
To: nutmeg
29
posted on
05/04/2004 3:02:16 PM PDT
by
Petronski
(Hubris knows no editor.)
To: colorado tanker
If this is true, the first Purple Heart was a fraud because the owie was not caused by enemy fire. Kerry is his own worst enemy
30
posted on
05/04/2004 3:02:46 PM PDT
by
Oztrich Boy
("Despise not the jester. Often he is the only one speaking the truth")
To: rwfok
31
posted on
05/04/2004 3:03:53 PM PDT
by
pookie18
To: rwfok
I just do not understand how anybody, especially military, can support this guy. This "Anybody But Bush" stuff is going to hopefully continue a downward spiral of which the 'rats will never recover. ofv
To: rwfok
Boo-boo Kerry?
33
posted on
05/04/2004 3:05:03 PM PDT
by
jmstein7
(Real Men Don't Need Chunks of Government Metal on Their Chests to be Heroes)
To: colorado tanker
"..If this is true, the first Purple Heart was a fraud because the owie was not caused by enemy fire. The owie was a small splinter?"
Can you even begin to imagine how the alphebet media would be all over this if the story was about BUSH fradulently obtaining a PURPLE HEART? The Outrage wouldn't stop for years!!!
To: gitmo
Darn. You beat me to it. He beat you by eight minutes!! That's an eon on this board. :)
35
posted on
05/04/2004 3:05:26 PM PDT
by
Snardius
To: Eaker
"Frank Burns shell fragment" ping
Can you imagine him walking around, trying to keep the sliver from falling out on its own, before he could see the doctor?
36
posted on
05/04/2004 3:05:36 PM PDT
by
thackney
(Life is Fragile, Handle with Prayer)
To: Right_in_Virginia
Are these the SAME crew members that are sticking by Kerry's story??? Maybe they are really "The Band-Aid Brothers"....not "The Band of Brothers"....which is it?
37
posted on
05/04/2004 3:06:04 PM PDT
by
Ann Archy
(Abortion: The Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
To: rwfok
Do they hand out Purple Hearts for mosquito bites, too?
38
posted on
05/04/2004 3:06:26 PM PDT
by
K1avg
(What would Savage do?)
To: Right_in_Virginia
"they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore."
This appears to mean that Kerry was just shooting up stuff along the shoreline, with a mortar no less, probably wanting to see what sort of damage he could do, as the boat patrolled along.
If he hadn't been the superior officer, his superior would have told him to stow it, and quit wasting ammo!
39
posted on
05/04/2004 3:07:46 PM PDT
by
spoiler2
To: Right_in_Virginia; mhking; swarthyguy; archy; Grampa Dave; okie01; blam
"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."
Hey, we haven't had a "Hold Muh Beer" alert in a while. I think this qualifies.
Maybe a "Hold Muh Gin & Tonic"?
40
posted on
05/04/2004 3:07:48 PM PDT
by
Shermy
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