The only way Kerry's version fits is if he considered our outgoing fire as enemy fire.
Considering that Kerry was a NV sympathizer, he WOULD consider it enemy fire. So this citation would them make sense. And what was Kerry doing crossing in front of the other boats (to pick up Rassmann)when they were taking the enemy under fire? That would mask the other boats fire to the other bank. So the only explaination would be that the other boats had already ceased to fire, and crossing the formation would not be hazardous.
Thurlow's citation was written up using parts of Kerry's AAR. What Thurlow did took stones, jumping on an out-of-control vessel that had already been damaged by a mine and was burning. The crew of PCF-3 was incapacitated. So he earned the Bronze Star that he recieved.
All this means is the charge of Kerry being a lying sack of horse dung is hitting real close to home.
So if the same person wrote both citations, and it wasn't Thurlow, we can expect whoever it was wanted to keep the story straight.
So who wrote the citations?