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.

[woodyinscc]

I e-mailed this to a friend. He EARNED his Purple Hearts (2). And he has the wheelchair to prove it.

Great post.!

Kerry is an affront to all other PH recipients, who did their job while in harms way. This man is pathetic and will never be elected.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Hey! Don't make fun!

Slivers are nothing to laugh about! It can become infected and you can die from it!

[onyx]

Today is NOT Kerry's day.

And I'm enjoying the heck out of it!




Yes!
Our own "Sinko-Kerry-de-Mayo"

(I know, it's bad).

[kabar]

I guess the story jibes with what Hibbard said has far as Kerry approaching him holding a little sliver in his hand. I guess that is what the Doc took out. 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.

[Bahbah]

Gives new meaning to "shot himself in the foot." The leg in this case.

[greasepaint]

Two points.
In previous threads about this issue,the name
'JCCarreon' was mentioned with the account
of Kerry's wound....
JCCarreon,,,, Louis Letson. WTF???
I assume Letson was an officer at the time.
Was is military custom concerning; tiny wounds,
that were treated by a doctor, but could otherwise
be treated by an enlisted medic, is that
a 'Purple Heart' wound?

[Hegemony Cricket]

You'll shoot your eye out, kid! LOL

[bray]

Band-Aid Brothers!

Their theme song be, "Ode to the Green Band-Aid."

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Wild Irish Rogue]

Perhaps, Kerry got his boo boo this way :

"The Long War of John Kerry " Joe Klein

"To release the tension after a trip up the river, Kerry would often instigate chicken races between the swift boats, cutting over each other's wakes."
" He also organized water-balloon battles."
" Once, his three-boat squadron attacked an American supply ship at night with flares."

And this doozy.
" John F. Kerry, The Complete Biography, By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best " :

"Kerry and Jim Rassman decide to toss grenades into "a huge rice cache that had been captured from the Vietcong and was thus slated for destruction. … "

"Rassman escaped the ensuing explosion of rice, but,
Kerry was not as lucky—thousands of grains stuck to him."

I can't get the image of Kerry, covered in rice, out of my mind. Maybe that's how he got the bruise on his forearm, for his 2nd PH ?

The dimensions of Kerry's " wound " are miniscule. Kerry could have taken it out himself, with a tweezer.

Kerry, as an officer with 3 Purple Hearts and no hospitalization, could have stayed in Vietnam.

Kerry must have known that the Navy would have granted him a waiver, if he had wanted to stay with his men.

This guy may actually be slicker than Clinton.

[nutmeg]

I am quite sure this will inspire a melody.

I was hoping it would...! ;-)

[Not A Snowbird]

Today is NOT Kerry's day. And I'm enjoying the heck out of it!

I confess I am too. I just don't want him to implode too quickly.

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

And I'm enjoying the heck out of it!

Hehehehe.......me too.

[MN_Mike]

I hope it was a Flipper bandaid.

[nutmeg]

You'll shoot your eye out, kid! LOL

ROTFL! ;-D

[tet68]

Why do I find this so easy to believe?

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.

Kerry fires mortar close enough to wound himself?
Incompetence or something else?

[glock rocks]

I'd love to be on your infrequent miscellaneous ping list!

[Free Trapper]

Who's Doug Brinkley?

I only know about important people...like Ann Archy. :O)

Kerry's Band-Aid Brothers! HeHeee...

[\/\/ayne]

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

Kerry: "I meant to say that small fiery arms with tiny hands were reaching out to me from shore...from where I fired the morter."

Kerry: "No, wait! That's not what I meant!"


Warning, this is a spoof of what Kerry might say, not what he actually did say.

[small voice in the wilderness]

Oh, you said slicker. I thought you said sicker. Either way, they are two sick slicks. No doubt about it.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Oh MAN.