Posted on 07/29/2004 6:16:06 PM PDT by wagglebee
(AgapePress) - A former U.S. Air Force pilot and one-time military attaché to President Bill Clinton says he wants to set the record straight about Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War activities.
During this week's Democratic National Convention, several speakers have touted John Kerry's character and distinguished military service during the Vietnam War. In the keynote address, Illinois State Senator Barack Obama remarked on Kerry's record, describing him as a Vietnam War hero and a leader who has consistently made "tough choices when easier ones were available."
Other Democrat speakers took advantage of the forum to attack President Bush for his perceived mishandling of the war in Iraq, but heaped lavish praise on their presidential candidate, characterizing him as a heroic, decorated war veteran. And when her turn came, the Massachusetts senator's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, told the convention crowd her husband "earned his medals the old-fashioned way, by putting his life on the line."
But retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Buzz Patterson has a different perspective to offer on John Kerry's military record. For one thing, he points out that the young Naval officer was only in Vietnam four months before he returned to the U.S. and joined the anti-war movement.
"[John Kerry] came home and immediately started protesting the war while still on active duty in the Navy," Patterson says. "He then went to Paris and met with Communist officials in May of 1970 -- having just gotten out of the Navy a couple of months prior to that -- and did his own personal negotiation for peace, which, of course, is also against the law."
Then there is the issue of the Massachusetts senator's military decorations, which the former attaché also questions. "He was only in Vietnam for four months, and he came home with a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts," Patterson says. However, he notes that Kerry put himself in for the Purple Hearts, "without really receiving any kind of war wound or injury -- most of what he received were cuts and scratches -- and then, when he got his third Purple Heart, that allowed him to petition the Navy to come home early."
The retired Air Force pilot says Kerry was the only member of his Navy unit to come home early. By doing so he cut what would have been a year-long tour in Vietnam by eight months. Then, Patterson says, "he immediately started protesting the war while still on active duty in the Navy."
Patterson contends that if an American naval officer did that today, he would be thrown in jail and subjected to a court martial. But in those days, the military expert says, when officers acted as Kerry did, people often just looked the other way.
I wonder if there is a statute of limitations on this.
"But in those days, the military expert says, when officers acted as Kerry did, people often just looked the other way."
No --- if your sugar-daddy was ted kennedy, you did whatever you wanted to. But Give Kerry credit, all he killed was a wounded vietnamese!
The military did not want to go against that other murderer - ted kennedy!
Apparentlly, he also came home with a lot of home movies of himself in action... er, play action.
Which is why Kerry will never be allowed into my living room.
I don't know about that. According to Swift Boat Website the six months that Kerry served in the boats was around average. William Shumadine, author of "Unfit for Command", only lasted 2 months. I wonder why?
Unless you (or your wife) have several hundred million dollars, he wouldn't come inside anyhow.
Against the law, but in the eyes of the citizens of Massachusetts, qualification enough to be voted into elected office.
There is a difference between time in a specific command and time in-country.
If I read that site correctly, they are referring to time assigned to a specific command.
And Kerry's FOUR months was time in-country.
I always thought Al Gore's 6 months in Nam amounted to little more than a "cameo appearance". However, Gore was practically a lifer compared to Kerry.
Six months.
Michael Savage had some fellow on tonight talking about this - he said some big news was going to break on it on August 17th. Not sure what the significance of the date is.
The first part of his "tour",
he served on board a ship.
BUGOUT kerry is about to get his due.
That would be great, although Savage is a little "out there" at times.
yeah; but gore had "babysitters..."
Actually, I was referring to just being on the television in my house. I did not allow Bill and Hillary in my living room, either. (On the television.)
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