The biography, written by Douglas Brinkley, says Kerry suffered two injuries that day. The first was a shrapnel injury to his buttocks from a grenade that was thrown into a rice bin to destroy food caches for Viet Cong soldiers. The second, for which he received the Purple Heart, was for an injury to his right arm from an enemy mine explosion, according to the book.French also said Kerry lied about their unit's record in Vietnam. The two men were in the same division for two months in early 1969. He said Kerry's claims after he returned home that the unit engaged in "atrocities" are false.
That item refers to the assignment in Jan 1969 to Coastal Division 11 at An Thoi where Kerry becomes commander of one of their swift boats, PCF 94. This from Frontpage magazine describes the organization of a Coastal Division of Swift Boats:
Kerry’s four-month tour of duty was with Coastal Division 11, a small naval unit of roughly a hundred sailors and fifteen to sixteen boats, where Kerry spent most of his time. These boats operated in even smaller groups of two to six and, quoting O’Neill: “Each of these boat officers operated directly with John Kerry on numerous occasions.”
These guys would hang out together, eat together, bunk together, dock together, party together, have unit functions together, etc.
French and Kerry were part of this same unit. They overlapped for 2 months (half of Kerry's very short 4 months), and French would have had more than ample opportunity to both observe Kerry and hear first hand accounts about Kerry.
I would love to see French's affidavit to see if he is clear about this. Remember....only 5 of these 100 sailors would have been on Kerry's boat.