John Kerry, in the ordinary course of events, would have been court-martialed and separated from the service under dishonorable conditions, much like Lt. William Calley.
But wait. Kerry was connected in high places, a protege of the Kennedy family, with a father who had been in WW II and was in the Foreign Serivce at the time. This would not look good on Dad's resume. So the chain of command in the Navy made an executive decision, to shower Kerry with whatever it took to remove him from the theater and get him to a rear area with all speed. The three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star, while the justification for them may have been a little questionable, were ratified by the levels of the chain of command all the way up to Admiral Elmo Zumwalt. The three Purple Hearts were also a rationalization to getting Kerry shipped out forthwith.
For the Navy, problem solved. Or at least sloughed off to somebody else. When the request for the relase from active duty came in, so John Kerry could pursue a career in elective politics, the US Navy is was more than accomodating, rushing the paperwork through with almost unseemly haste.
It is a little fraudulent for John Kerry to claim his military service in any way prepares him for making political decisions that in any way call upon the use of the military services as part of national policy.
Your take rings true.
Reminds one of rapist clinton's swift Oxford exit.
To the manure born, one might say.
Eileen Wellstone bump.