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I concur that a few days ago, when Lehman was hit without warning about it, he kind of knee-jerk spoke "Of course"... but now that he has had time to study the citation and the situation, he's gotten somewhat surprised and embarrassed. Certainly, if there had been some reason to make the change in the wording of the Silver Star cite, which would be an extremely unusual thing to do, he would recall having approved that.

And, Cboldt, I disagree with your take that this rewording does not constitute a material change to wording of the citation. The replay is much more powerful than the original statement, and would clearly be more impressive for a "new copy just to hang on the wall of the Senate office".

Something is not quite right here, and it is clearly easy to suspect some kind of foul play.

Sen.Kerry: PLEASE SIGN STANDARD FORM 180 so we can get this all behind us!
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And, Cboldt, I disagree with your take that this rewording does not constitute a material change to wording of the citation.

Another possibility enters my mind, and that is the original Silver Star citations omitted language that seems to be appropriate for a SIlver Star citation. I found a page that contains quite a few example Silver Star citations from the Vietnam era.

http://www.securenet.net/3rdbn5th/valor.htm <-- Real heros

Something is not quite right here, and it is clearly easy to suspect some kind of foul play.

Yes, obviously true. Suspicion of foul play is the reasonable norm when dealing with Kerry's record. But some discrepancies have innocent explanations, and if there is a strong outcry about something innocent, well, you know what that does to the accuser.

I think Kerry requested replacement medals for the ones he said he didn't throw over the fence. I think the difference in citation language is no big deal, I doubt Lehman was personally involved. But, I can be persuaded otherwise. I just don't find the difference in language between two Silver Star citation letters to be adequate evidence.

No, I don't think it was a material change - that's why the new citation was unusual - according to BG Burkett. There are only very limited circumstances where a citation would be reissued, and a change like that just isn't one of them. Neither was the first reissue - remember, Lehman's version was #3!

You summarized this mess quite well with these two sentences:

"Something is not quite right here, and it is clearly easy to suspect some kind of foul play.

Sen.Kerry: PLEASE SIGN STANDARD FORM 180 so we can get this all behind us!