Posted on 08/09/2004 5:36:55 PM PDT by Howlin
SCOTTSBORO - A retired family doctor said Thursday he used a Band-Aid to treat the first of three wounds Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry received in the Vietnam War.
Dr. Louis Letson of Scottsboro, who appears in a new 60-second TV ad questioning Kerry's war record, said Kerry came into his office at Cam Rahn Bay on the morning of Dec. 3, 1968, with an injury to his upper arm.
Letson said Kerry told him he and a boat crew of about five enlisted men were on patrol that night when they began receiving small arms fire and he was injured.
But Letson said the crew told a different story after Kerry left the office. "They were kind of amused by the whole thing," he said.
The crew members denied that they had been under enemy fire, Letson said. The crew said it was about 2 a.m. when they thought they saw some people on shore and Kerry fired a M79 grenade launcher.
"He had fired it up close against some rocks on shore when the grenade exploded" and he was hit in the arm by shrapnel, Letson said. "That's what caused the injury. The fragment was not from enemy fire" as Kerry portrayed it, the crew told him.
"The fragment was about the size of a match stick," Letson said. "It was sticking out of his arm. I grabbed it out and put a Band Aid on it. It didn't require an anesthesia or sutures."
Letson is among several swift boat veterans in the TV ad who say Kerry lied about his service, exaggerated his wounds to win war medals and betrayed soldiers with his antiwar protesting after he returned from Vietnam.
Kerry campaign's headquarters in Washington did not return calls for comment.
Letson said the crew said Kerry was not in charge of the boat that night, but was in training and that they were under the command of another lieutenant who was on board that night. He said the crew had joked how Kerry had told them he wanted to be the next JFK.
The late President John F. Kennedy was injured when a Japanese destroyer collided with the small patrol boat (PT-109) he commanded in World War II.
Letson said the base's commanding officer, Lt. Commander Grant "Skip" Hibbard, who now lives in Gulf Breeze, Fla., rejected Kerry's request for a Purple Heart for his injury that night. He said Hibbard told him that Kerry did not deserve the award because the injury was not combat-related. Efforts to reach Hibbard for comment were unsuccessful.
Letson said he is member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which was organized in April. About 390 swift boat veterans belong to the group, he said.
Am I correct in remembering, wneighbor...she had a shrapnel wound that went clear through her arm? Did I hear her correctly? I think she said so.
Dr. Letson was on my Philly Talk Radio a week or so ago and said EXACTLY what was mentioned in this article
Dom G. (the radio guy) said he found Dr. Letson to be very creditable
John Kerry needs help getting ALL of his military records.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1188078/posts
Oh shoot......that made me mist up. What a great story!
Oh yeah. Too bad Kerry's daddy didn't pay someone to write a book for him...
He didn't abuse him, but he didn't give him a chance to tell much of his story either.
Nothing new about that. Egomanic O'Reilly never gives any guest a chance to talk because Mr. Blowhard is in love with himself and loves to hear himself bloviate. There was an opportunity for Kerry's lies and exaggerations to be exposed to a large national audience by a man who was there, and O'Reilly didn't give him more than 5 seconds at a time to make his case.
I'm watching Hannity & Colmes with Lanny Davis
The new Dem Spin .. Dr. Letson didn't SIGN the medical report
They aren't saying that Dr. Letson didn't TREAT Kerry
Man, Lanny is upset!
They were saying that last week.
When Lanny is upset you know the game is afoot.
Thanks . I didn't know that
I just hearing the "they were on the same boat as Kerry" spin
Oh just a little bit *L*
Precisely.
He's almost spitting.
Good!
cute
i thought it was "As Queer as a $2 Bill......"!
The word testify is a legal term, and as far as I know, none of them have been placed under oath.
King Kong's Fay Ray dead at 97.
" As for O'Reilly, he is too quick to dismiss this. Not sure why. I can understand taking a measured approach as Tony Snow has, but O'Reilly has essentially said, nothing to it."
I caught some of O'Reilly's radio show today and his logic in defending Kerry is mind boggling.
O'Reilly believes Rassman, because " Kerry saved his life."
But,when questioned by a caller about all the eyewitnesses who say that the action and circumstances went down differently-
O'Reilly then qualifies for the Chinese circus with his contortions.
Basically, O'Reilly says-" If Rassmann/Kerry says it's so-it's so."
If there were only 2 people present at the scene-Kerry and Rassmann -then O'Reilly would be 100% correct.
O'Reilly also said a lot of the confusion was due to the fog of war and that he, O'Reilly knows about the fog of war,as he was a war journalist and knows what it's like to have bullets whizzing by your head.
ON prior occasions ,O'R has said " He has no idea which candidate Osama prefers."
And that " He will never criticize John Kerry on his show, he will hold him to task ,only if he deserves it."
Kay ?
If I were to bet, I would say that when O'Reilly votes in Nov-he's pulling the lever for his old friend, John Kerry.
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