Posted on 08/17/2004 12:11:48 PM PDT by Ignatz
Presidential hopeful John Kerry has based his campaign bid for the US Presidency on his Vietnam war-hero status and his three Purple Hearts.
On the Garrison Show (WNDE, Indianapolis) this morning, a guest announced that soon-to-be-released excerpts from a diary kept by Kerry will shed doubt on his first Purple Heart. Apparently, Kerry notes in the diary that he did not come under actual enemy fire until days after being awarded the medal.
The diary was made available to a left-wing journalist named Cockburn who was apparently more angered by Kerry's participation in various atrocities in Vietnam than by what the diary proves of Senator Kerry's allegedly "illegal" Purple heart commendation. The information has been sent to Drudge, Fox News, and various other news organs.
Developing........
A purple heart must be due to enemy action. Training exercises don't count. "Coming under enemy fire" doesn't count either, unless there is a wound to show for it.
It's no strawman. They weren't ballistic missiles. The Terrier missile system was nuclear-capable. The Leahy-class guided missile frigates had four Terrier systems, two fore and two aft. There was a dual-rail missile launcher for each pair of radar systems.
The only guns were 3" 50 in twin mounts port and starboard. It also had an ASROC launcher (also nuclear-capable) and two sets of three torpedo tubes, port and starboard.
He didn't lose his limbs in combat...he was on his way to drink a few beers saw a granade thought he had dropped it, picked it up and it went boom...
Kerry considered exploding rice kernals enemy fire too.
(Now, don't go looking at my past posts to prove me a liar!) 
This is the story Kerry told the Boston Globe about his first Purple Heart:
Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968, when he "semi-volunteered for, was semi-drafted" for a risky covert mission in which he essentially was supposed to "flush out" the enemy, using a little Boston Whaler named "Batman." A larger backup craft was called "Robin."
Unfortunately, Robin had engine trouble, and Batman's exit was delayed until the boats could depart in unison. The Batman crew encountered some Viet Cong, engaged in a firefight, and Kerry was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart on his first day of serious action.
"It was not a very serious wound at all," recalled William Schachte, who oversaw the mission and went on to become a rear admiral.
I got my copy from Amazon yesterday.
The problem is he's running on his service in 'Nam. He's running away from his 20 years in the Senate.
Fake enemy fire? Secret enemy fire?
Especially one who condemned his fellow Vietnam vets after he came home, and while there were still POW's being held by the North, and troops still on the ground fighting there.
Kerry's plan was to get on the Swiftboats so he could emulate JFK for his future political plans. In Kerry's words:
"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."
But two weeks after he transferred there, the whole program changed and the Swiftboats began more intense river patrols to flush out the VC.
Kerry couldn't hack the thought of having to do this for a whole year, so he took the steps necessary to guarantee that he didn't...namely, 3 Purple Hearts and out.
To be legitimate a purple heart must be attributed to enemy action, although friendlly fire accidents while in contact with the enemy do count as well, IIRC. Accidents in training exercises do not count.
To amplify: This usually done by drunken adolescents. It's made possible by the fact that cows, like horses and many other four legged animals, can and often do, sleep standing up by locking their "knees". As you can imagine it's more popular in rural areas.
Andrew Cockburn, liberal NY journalist.
Boy, just what I was thinking. Cockburn and Hill have to be pretty close.
The Gridley DLG-21 when Kerry was aboard, but later converted to CG-21 (guided missle cruiser) had Terrier missles and ASROC rocket launched torpedoes, both of which could carry nuclear warheads. Here's a photo of her firing one of those Terriers in 1964:
While searching for this information I found this page of Gridley veterans, who don't seem overly happy about JFK's treatment of them in "Tour of Duty", and they point out several, ahum, incosistencies, in the books. ;)
Hmm, is rice in the bum the 'shrapnel' Edwards says Kerry still carries in his flesh?
Payback time. Kerry shouldn't have pissed off the far left with his flip flop on voting for the Iraq War.
New Kerry campaign song: Ooops, I did it again (britney spears)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I'm begining to get the impression that if John Kerry had told the truth, the outcome of the conflict may have been very different. I suspect that if J. Kerry hadn't lied to the Senate committee and the Media about war crimes he said he committed along with others, the devistating pull-out might have been avoided and perhaps the "loss" may have been a victory. Did his lies along with Hanoi Janes change public opinion and alter the course of history? I wonder.
Please see this post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1193345/posts?page=125#125
I have seen the error of my ways.
It wasn't a "conversion," it was merely a change in designation.
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