The questions that won't go away

Washington Times ^ | 8/20/04 | Wesley Pruden

[kattracks]

John Kerry is an authentic hero, and he has the medals to prove it. So we can be sure there are good answers for the persistent questions swirling about his celebrated war stories.
    Just because Sergeant York and Audie Murphy never had to answer questions about their medals doesn't mean that Monsieur Kerry -- who never got the French Legion d'Honneur, come to think of it -- doesn't have the right answers to questions about his.
    Monsieur Kerry is busy on the hustings, posing as the dashing, decisive, straight-shooting, torpedos-be-damned commander in chief the nation needs, and he will have answers soon.
    But not soon enough for many of his fellow veterans. Only this week, he got a chilly reception at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Cincinnati, where the applause ranged from tepid to lukewarm and his salute went unreturned. Some of the veterans stood to turn their backs.
    The monsieur's friends at The Washington Post attempted to muddy the waters for him yesterday, asserting that official military records dispute a fellow officer who says that Monsieur Kerry did nothing to deserve a Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart on a memorable night in March 1969. The Post cites the official Navy account that young Lt. Kerry pulled an injured crewman from the water "despite enemy bullets flying about him."
    The official account is the stuff of a John Wayne movie, but Larry Thurlow, a lieutenant commanding the Swift boat next to the Kerry boat, says it was stuff as fraudulent as Hollywood heroics.

[america-rules]

Donate to keep this story going at Swiftvets.com

[MJY1288]

For John Kerry, This must remind him of Manday Night Football years ago when "Dandy" Don Meridith would sing... "Turn out the Lights, The Party's Over" when the end of a blowout was near :-)

[fso301]

bump

[flying Elvis]

If only Lyndon Johnson's fellow veterans would have questioned his medals, how different things would be right now.

[flashbunny]

John Kerry stars in "The Ever-Changing Story":



(click the pic for a fullsize version)

[The Westerner]

A friend told me long ago about people in the military like John Kerry. My friend who was in Special Forces in Vietnam described the guys who'd come on board for awhile, arrange to get shot at, and then collect a medal. I heard this story before I ever heard of John Kerry. Of course Kerry was setting up his political career. What a question.

[punster]

It does sound like (leftist rags) like the Washington Post and the New York Slimes are trying to bury this story, to smear the Swift Boat Vets for even raising questions about John 'FUBAR' Kerry.

[Steven W.]

the scarcasm drips from nearly every word in this Pruden piece. The jig is up at the Washington Times. If the Post & NYT & ABC want to continue looking like fools, they may, will and probably shall, but they're really looking like idiots for shilling so hard for Kerry at this point IMO

[Ruth A.]

But not soon enough for many of his fellow veterans. Only this week, he got a chilly reception at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Cincinnati, where the applause ranged from tepid to lukewarm and his salute went unreturned. Some of the veterans stood to turn their backs.

Perfect!

[maryz]

And Pruden leaves out what was reported in The Prowler (posted here somewhere), that many of the vets who remained seated sat with their arms folded throughout.