Posted on 08/28/2004 7:30:49 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
Kerry citation a 'total mystery' to ex-Navy chief
August 28, 2004
BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB
Former Navy Secretary John Lehman has no idea where a Silver Star citation displayed on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign Web site came from, he said Friday. The citation appears over Lehman's signature.
"It is a total mystery to me. I never saw it. I never signed it. I never approved it. And the additional language it contains was not written by me," he said.
The additional language varied from the two previous citations, signed first by Adm. Elmo Zumwalt and then Adm. John Hyland, which themselves differ. The new material added in the Lehman citation reads in part: "By his brave actions, bold initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty, Lieutenant (jg) Kerry reflected great credit upon himself...."
Asked how the citation could have been executed over his signature without his knowledge, Lehman said: "I have no idea. I can only imagine they were signed by an autopen." The autopen is a device often used in the routine execution of executive documents in government.
Kerry senior adviser Michael Meehan could not be reached for comment on Kerry's records.
Thomas Lipscomb is chairman of the Center for the Digital Future in New York
Those aren't award citations. All three of his Purple Heart award citations are at: http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/militaryrecords_1.pdf
on pages 2, 4, and 6.
What you are looking at is a document he got before the citations which appear to have the correct dates. He had to request the actual citations later. It's the citations that are incorrect. Perhaps not his fault, but it is a personal responsiblity to have your records corrected.
I sure had alot of fun with this one at today's Tacoma Dome Kerry Rally. I literally told thousands of people about it, right after I asked them to look at Kerry's voting record printed out in black and white on my poster.
What a great day!!
Speaking of St. Louis, when was that notable fire which destroyed so many records there?
"Well, no this is starting to get very interesting."
How's this for interesting ?
Last night, Jim Robinson started a thread
where he posted the October 6, 1996 interview that Kerry gave Charles Sennott of the Boston Globe.( Flashback: 1996-The Boston Globe: The Making of the Candidate )
The whole article is a must read.
In a nutshell, Kerry proudly showed his home movies to the Boston Globe reporter.
Kerry's home movies showed Kerry and his men torching a Vietnamese hamlet and
Kerry, in cutoff shorts, sunbathing next to a blind folded and bound prisoner.
Kerry spent 5 hours with Sennott showing him his home movies from Vietnam.
Kerry would jump up and adjust the color and sound, etc. He would freeze frame and fast forward.
Here are my favorite excerpts :
" This was America's effort to win the war right here, Kerry says as the film showed soldiers
dousing gasoline on huts in a small village before setting them on fire."
" There was always a kind of sick, sweet smell of burning wood."
Page 62 of " Unfit For Command "
quotes George Bates an officer in Coastal Divison 11 describing how Kerry ordered the torching of a small hamlet that was obviously nothing more than a peaceful fishing village.
Kerry ordered the farm animals slaughtered and then Kerry ran around with his Zippo,
" burning up the entire hamlet."
Bates said the village was apolitical, no symbols or flags in evidence.
Bates said that " existing policies, decency and good sense required the boats to simply move on."
Bates believes that Kerry acted " in an almost criminal manner."
Maybe that's why Kerry loved Fahrenheit 911- a bit of a pyromaniac, perhaps ?
How about this-
" There is Kerry in cutoff shorts,
working on his suntan next to a Viet Cong prisoner bound and blindfolded."
Sounds like Kerry had his own little Abu Ghraib going.
When asked how he filmed in the heat of battle, Kerry said :
" I'd steer or direct or fire my gun and hold onto it, whenever I could."
"Sometimes, the other guys would pick it up."
Kerry " explained how he returned later with a Super 8 mm hand held movie camera to record highlights of the mission."
" That's me right there, one of my crew was filming this."
( Del Sandusky gave an interview to FOX on July 30, where he denied that Kerry or his crew ever filmed or restaged events in Viet Nam-guess he forgot to get the official version from Kerry before talking )
Kerry put his men in danger, when they were in hostile territory, by shooting video instead of commanding the boat.
Kerry put his men in danger by returning to the site of previous ambushes and making them play act in his sick fantasies.
I just cannot get over the fact that the MSM and Drudge are ignoring Kerry's own video where he happily torches a village and where he puts on his Ray Bans and sunbathes next to a bound and blind folded prisoner.
"BUt if the bad stuff lands on the desk of every newspaper and TV station in DC next week..well..."
Didn't see Hopscotch I presume :-) ( great movie - rent it )
A chapter of the new book to be published would be mailed to the effected each week, driving them more and more crazy, until the last - really big bombshell - would be included in the book when it came out.
... around October 15 or so ...
bttt
33 In a Memorandum to the Committee, the FBI described the basis for the opening of the full investigation as follows: "[In August 1971] information from a variety of sources dictated the need to determine the extent of control over VVAW by subversive groups and/or violence-prone elements in the antiwar movement. Sources had provided information that VVAW was stockpiling weapons, VVAW had been in contact with North Vietnam officials in Paris, France, VVAW was receiving funds from former CPUSA members and VVAW was aiding and financing U.S. military deserters. Additionally, information had been received that some individual chapters throughout the country had been infiltrated by the youth groups of the CPUSA and the SWP. A trend of increased militancy developed within the VVAW and the possibilities of violence escalated within the organization. During December 1971, VVAW members forcibly and illegally occupied or surrounded public buildings and national monuments in New, York City, Philadelphia, Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C." FBI Memorandum to Senate Select Committee, 12/2/75, pp. 2-3; Hearings, Vol. 6, Exhibit 72.via 40 posted on 04/02/2004 8:23:36 PM PST by Fedora- FINAL REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO STUDY GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS WITH RESPECT TO INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES UNITED STATES SENATE: THE USE OF INFORMANTS IN FBI DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE INVESTIGATIONS
Why do you believe this? He's wriggling himself out from under complete lies with the help of his media allies (not that I believe that it's going to work).
Thank you very much.
Check out the following article written by Wade Sanders titled "MEDALS NOT AWARDED". Apparently he is still in the business of getting medals awarded after-the-fact. He was offering free legal services to vets through a San Diego clinic as early as the 1980's (according to a 1988 article in the San Diego Union Tribune).
http://home.planetcomm.net/StableAble17/newsletters/april04_3.html(snip)
This former enlisted man had stood by that officer in the same combat, exposed himself to the same risk, was part of the same team that prevailed, and his officer left him behind with nothing but a Purple Heart. To my mind this is a terrible injustice.
Since I belong to an association of those who served in Navy patrol boats in Vietnam, I decided to see if I could improve the situation. After all, the one mantra that was ingrained into me by my father, and by the traditions of my service, was that my number one responsibility as an officer is to take care of my men (or women, to be contemporarily correct). So, I did a bit of research and discovered that there is no statute of limitations on awards. I found the office in the Pentagon that deals with awards, and I got the guidance I needed. The process is simple. An officer in charge of a unit is fully authorized to recommend any member of his "command" for a military decoration.
Makes me glad that Webb signed my comission........
Thanks for clarifying... and great observation on your part!
I have looked at these quite a few times and missed the 'out of sequence' issuance.
Yet another thing that makes no sense in Kerry's records!
Sounds like Kerry believed it, when he read his own press briefings in the early 1970s. Then he got to the point that he thought he could just make things up as it goes, including Silver Stars.
If this turns out to be true, this guy will likely wind up on a swift boat near the Cambodian border after all. And he'll probably show more valor than his last stint on them.
fyi
Since posting that (do you have the link to the original post BTW?), I've noticed a lot of references to the SWP as well as the CP in the FBI VVAW documents. The FBI's memoranda describe the SWP as the force behind the NPAC (National Peace Action Coalition), the offshoot of the New Mobe that helped the VVAW organize Dewey Canyon III. The other major offshoot of the New Mobe that helped organize Dewey Canyon III, the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ), was CP-dominated, and Al Hubbard was one of the VVAW's liaisons to it.
For something involving a Siler Star citation for a powerful Senator, I am sure that Lehman would definitely remember it -- if it had actually crossed his desk.
If I was Lehman, I'd be furious about this. Either it's a blatant forgery or a criminal misuse of his autopen device.
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