"These sound like pretty severe accusations if true. Any Vets care to comment?"
They already did - in the article.
As a former Marine, I can confirm that their disgust and contempt for Kerry is typical for what we call "sh*tbirds". Every unit has them, we call them the 10% (ie. every unit has a few bad apples).
I can also assure you that Vets in any branch would only step forward with such a harsh criticism of Kerry out of a sense of duty and honor. We prefer to handle these kind of antics "in-house" to avoid embarassing our unit - which is like a family to us.
These vets aren't partisan - they're stepping up to set the record straight b/c Kerry seeks to become CINC. To them, thats an abomination, whether he's a Dem or Republican carries little weight with them.
These sound like pretty severe accusations if true. Any Vets care to comment?
I did 20 years in the military including a year in Vietnam. I have never known of anybody receiving a purple heart for any wound that didn't require some hospitalization. In my opinion, any "walking wounded" injury does not rise to the level of being awarded anything more than a bandaid.
I would be very interested to find out how many PH's or Bronze and Silver Stars were awarded to the Swiftboat guys that are speaking out about Kerry's exploits. That would shed some light on the issue.