Posted on 08/01/2004 7:23:20 AM PDT by MVV
John Kerry's service in Vietnam lasted 4 months and 12 days, beginning in November 1968 when he reported to Cam Rahn Bay for a 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 didnt want him in Coastal Division 11."
Constructing a complete picture of Kerry's service is difficult due to gaps in the Naval records provided by the Kerry campaign. These gaps include missing and incomplete fitness reports, missing medical records and missing records related to his medal awards.
For this reason we call upon Senator Kerry to authorize complete access to all his military records by filing a standard Form 180, a simple two-page release form.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is in the process of researching John Kerry's time in Vietnam by conducting interviews with eyewitnesses to his activities, and we plan to add material to this section over the next several weeks as it becomes available. We will report the true circumstances of Kerry's medal awards and injuries, describe other controversial missions, and provide in-depth analysis of his fitness reports.
Kerry's Medals
1st Purple Heart: December 2, 1968
2nd Purple Heart: February 20, 1969
Silver Star: February 28, 1969
Bronze Star / 3rd Purple Heart: March 13, 1969
Other Missions
Sampan Incident: January 20, 1969.
Fitness Reports
Analysis of John Kerry's Fitness Reports
Kerry is a liar and a FRAUD!!!
FYI!
You're preaching to the choir. How can we get the word out?
What I wonder is how he can possibly have seen so much pillaging, raping and baby killing in a mere three months time, from a boat.
Roger that!
Notice how the democRats must berate US Armed Forces Reserve military service, while they glorify the traitor. Benedict Arnold was a war hero too.
It would be so cool if someone presented Hanoi John with an oversized booking chit at a campaign stop.
Fat friggin' chance...
Send the info to Rush and Sean!
Big deal. Kerry went to war.
Then he came back and renounced that war.
Then he publicly renounced his service in that war.
Then he threw his medals away and renounced them.
Then he said everyone he served with were war criminals and he renounced them.
Renounce: To refuse to recognize any further.
Now we're supposed to listen to him talk about his war service and his medals.
I renounce him.
The "old fashioned way"....I am standing on one foot here (NOT) waiting for the media to ask ketchup woman to define "old fashioned way".
Tell everyone you meet on the streets, even strangers about this FRAUD! P.S. -- love your bi-line, pray for Terri everyday!
If he were a Republican ( I know, that is impossibe, but for the sake of argument) the news media would be reporting this day and night. Unfortunately for the Republicans, if they bring this issue up the media reports it as attacks against a war hero.
Clinton taught Kerry how to manage the media and he is doing it well. He tells lies with impunity and has the media helping him avoid any issue he doesn't want to discuss. How come NO ONE in the media has raised the issue of his behavior after the war? It's all so sickening.
Oh he is playing his brief tour to the hill! He makes me sick with his war stories, do you ever listen to Michael Savage? You should hear what he has to say about Kerry!
Love it!! Thank you.
Say for arguments sake that Kerry was a "war hero" thirty years ago...how is that relevant now? Is he going to sit with generals and map out miltary stategies? Is he going to slip on a bandelero and bandanna ala Rambo and go into Afghanistan to bring back bin Laden? Is he going to Iraq to dig up roadside bombs? His medals and ribbons mean squat.
My deepest apologies to you my friend, you and your buddies are GOOD Americans. This "fraud" will never win in Nov. Bush is the man!
Well maybe not right away. After all they currently have all their resources deployed trying to determine if President Bush did all his National Guard service in Alabama. But I am SURE that they will be on this just as soon as they can free a reporter or two. After all, only right wing kooks believe the press has a partisan bias.
This is AMAZING! I reported to Boot Camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in November of 1968, the same time Kerry reports to Cam Rahn Bay. I stayed on after Boot Camp for Electrician's Mate "A" School and Motion Picture Operator's "C" School, and didn't leave Great Lakes until June 1969. That was three months after Kerry finished his Vietnam "tour"!
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