Posted on 08/28/2004 5:10:56 PM PDT by IMRight
After weeks of denigration of the Democratic challenger's Vietnam war record, Mr Kerry's backers have responded with allegations against the President - including the claim that he was once photographed in uniform wearing a medal ribbon he had not earned.
As polls showed that Mr Bush had edged ahead of Mr Kerry for the first time, a pro-Kerry organisation labelled the President an "impostor" over the photograph, taken in 1970 and discovered in his father's Presidential Library in Houston, Texas.
The ribbon is an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award - which was not awarded to the 111th Fighter Intercept Squadron in which Mr Bush served until 1975, five years after the photograph was taken, according to the group US War Report.
..clip..
Asked about the medal ribbon, a White House spokesman said he could not respond until the record had been checked.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
This was brought up by a DUer by the name of Walt Starr who says he uses his own name. They sent out their "info" to lots of media people and obviously somebody decided to use this crap.
Alert the media!!
It would only prove he was there for the duration of the photograph. It would also explain how he would be able to get away with wearing a false unit medal (because the rest of his unit wasn't there!).
Of course, I'm just speculating.
Ben Barnes also surfaced yesterday, and the story on his charge quickly blossomed from a local rag to the AP wire, to local evening news coverage.
Kerry/MSM are planning on resurrecting the Guard/AWOL story during the Convention..
Dime store??!! ROFL! ;o)
I thought unit awards were worn above the opposite breast pocket from personal awards? Maybe the Air Force is different?
In AF all ribbons are worn together.
Thread from the other day:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1199970/posts
The ex-service people said that you can wear the ribbon if the unit you served in was awarded it at any point in the past. However, once you leave the unit, you can't wear it and it doesn't become a part of your record. Seems the DUmmies are wetting themselves over nothing.
If I remember correctly, INSCOMM is a part of the Army? We've previously established that "temporary wear" of unit medals IS the standard in the Army. We've found no parallel regulation for other services. I have confirmed with my father (Riverine warfare in the Navy during Vietnam) that it WAS the practice at the time in the Navy at the time.
Thanks for the info....
Is that the only one he's wearing? Do the DUmmies really believe Bush would walk around his base wearing a unit ribbon that the unit itself was never awarded?
Again, that was the Army. Their regulations on the topic are clear and still in force. There is no such Air Force regulation (but MAY have been during the 70's since they had only recently been formed.)
Evidence of this is precisely what we're looking for.
Did Bush throw it over the White House fence when Nixon was President and then denounce all his vast decorations during his anti-war stint? If so, I'd question his whole service, too.
Doh! Wrong candidate - my bad.
Not many of those leftist dunce caps over at DU ever served. They'd believe just about anything, I reckon.
Lol! I love it.
And even if you attempted humor there. I think it might actually be a good idea.
roger that...
but I believe that it is not something Kerry can point too....
Unit awards are the most misunderstood award there is. In 71 while in a Pershing Battalion at Ft. Sill I was in the 2/44 FA. We wore one or perhaps two unit awards that had been earned by the unit MANY years before. Later in the year we were re designated the 3/9th and had no unit awards. When I went overseas in March 72 several people still had the old unit awards on their uniforms. Most people almost never wore their class A's so it could be months before someone pointed it out to them.
medals, ribbons, citations, duplicates, replacements, take your pick. Everything is interchangeable to fit the truth on the head of a pin/
Some are. The Outstanding Unit Award goes in line with other decorations.
There's no need to panic. Dems routinely make up stuff, that turn out to be nothing.
As for me, I trust Dubya. We all know he's not the type to wear an unearned medal. I'm sure he'll be able to clear this up, and the Dems will look stupid again.
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