Posted on 07/24/2004 10:41:13 AM PDT by USMCVIETVET
I am a CAPT, USNR, and have recently sat on several promotion boards and selections boards ...
The write-up is extremely accurate!! I need to dig into it myself and see what other gems I can come up with .. but just the clip that was posted from LTJG Kerry fitrep on the USS Gridley is interesting. PAO?? PAO?? Only untrustworthy junior officers are given the job of PAO. They can't be trusted with being given a real division officer job (Electrical, Asst. Weapons, IC, or many of the other billets that can be held by CAPABLE Ensigns or LTJGs.) A selection board would view a fitrep as a PAO as someone who can't handle more responsible jobs. (Now ...if it was a collateral duty on top of other more responsible jobs .... not a problem!!) A good fitrep would have stated "He is highly recommended for early promotion." or "PROMOTE NOW!!" ... or something similar. But a "He is recommended for promotion." is really a "promote him if you don't have someone else available with a pulse..." (does the phrase "damned with faint praise.." mean anything?),
Thanks for posting this ... now to get the word out.
But ultimately, the missing FITREPS and the missing documents to justify the various awards of Purple Hearts, Bronze Star and Silver Star should also be provided to allow everyone a chance to analyze the full story!
Mike
PING
PAO = Public Affairs Officer.
I don't want to disparage those officers who have the Restricted Line Designator of PAO .. there are special qualifications for the job, and they are usually outstanding at what they do. These guys are very good! (And you might have a LCDR or CDR assigned as PAO on an aircraft carrier ...with 1 or 2 junior officers and lots of enlisted staff working for the PAO.)
Nor do I want to disparage the junior guy who reports on-board a ship, is a line officer, and while getting qualified as OOD, and earning his SWO pin, is given the job to be a PAO ... but the PAO job is not where top junior officers who have gotten qualified are assigned.
(I just wanted to give a little clarification ... so I don't get flamed by someone who has had the job or collateral duty of PAO as part of an overall excellent career.)
Mike
"John Kerry's service in Vietnam lasted 4 months and 12 days, beginning in November 1968 when he reported to Cam Rahn Bay fora month of training. His abbreviated combat tour ended shortly after he requested a transfer out of Vietnam on March 17, 1969, citing Navy instruction 1300.39 permitting personnel with three Purple Hearts to request reassignment. So far as we are able to determine, Kerry was the only Swift sailor ever to leave Vietnam without completing the standard one-year tour of duty, other than those who were seriously wounded or killed.
It is clear that at least one of Kerry's Purple Heart awards was the result of his own negligence, not enemy fire, and that Kerry went to unusual lengths to obtain the award after being turned down by his own commanding officer.
John Kerry has long insisted that using the three-injury loophole to leave combat early was his own idea, but Kerry's fellow Swift officer Thomas Wright, who served on occasion as the OIC (Officer in Charge) of Kerry's boat group, contradicts that claim. Wright reports that he "had a lot of trouble getting Kerry to follow orders," and that those who worked with Kerry found him "oriented towards his personal, rather than unit goals and objectives." He therefore requested that Kerry be removed from his boat group.
After John Kerry qualified for his third Purple Heart, Thomas Wright and two fellow officers informed him of the obscure regulation, and told him to go home. Wright concluded, "We knew how the system worked and we didn’t want him in Coastal Division 11."
===
To me, that's pretty much it, in a nutshell, right there, from the link. Not to mention his traitorous behavior once he came back to the USA. That really boils my blood!
Sorry I missed seeing that; it's always fun though, ain't it?
Well that would torpedo him right there. Not gunnery officer, not sonar officer, not main propulsion assistant but public affairs??????
This is probably why JF'K's been hiding his boat, the Scaramouche from reporters.
Here's a link to the registration: Scaramouche
"The timing of this leak is suspicious to me."
What did Bush know and when did he know it? How is Halliburton involved? And what role did Darksheare play?--since we know he was at fault, we just don't know how. . .
Thanks for the "useful artwork"
I can neither confirm nor deny the allegations of ninjahood into file cabinets.
He just wants a Purple Heart, not get killed. Splinters qualify if you whine enough.
Ninja: the invisible office assistants. . .
He Purple Hearts weren’t even for splinters!
"Don't laugh; check out the Communist Part of the USA website (cpusa.org) and you will find they fully support Kerry..."
Do you remember (or did you see) the moveon.org hard link on the cpusa.org website last year? It was removed back in November (or somewhere about that time)...getting too much attention on conservative websites like FR, I guess!
Tay-ray-zuh told the story in an interview of how she was awakened in the middle of the night by screaming and shouting the first time she stayed over night at his apartment. His daughter siad not to worry, that it was just dad. Apparently he did that regularly.
I think we should demand full physical and mental medical records from his service days, as well as afterwards.
He never shows up for work, he's a habitual lyer, he was a womanizer and may still be. I think he's a nut case -- not only not fit to command, but not fit to have his finger on the button.
Bump for some interesting info.
Re: Marfan Syndrome -- I think you're on to something.
LOL!
An office presentation going on, and a flurry of activity says there's others in the room but no-one sees them..
One thing that was mentioned was the trend of "dings" from command to command. What wasn't mentioned is that the authors of those FITREPS don't have access to the previous FITREPS, but subsequent commanders independently observed the same flaws.
In contrast to most office presentations where there's visible people but no visible activity :)
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