>> "Mining bronze from the mine was art."
> Have you ever seen an article or book which describes
> some examples of how that was done?
No, I haven't. Until the SBVFTs began asking pointed
questions, I'd never heard of a case like this (outside
fictional comedies). As an ordinary citizen, most of the
real cases I've heard about (Boorda) involve people
wearing awards not actually issued, or issued but not
authorized at the moment.
As to how it was done - this is just the military
version of embezzelment - embezzelment of honor.
Financial embezzelers seem to be drawn from the ranks
of accountants and bookkeepers, people who discover
that they're being left alone with the money, and that
no one is double checking (or checking at all, until
the accounts go empty).
Here's some pure speculation.
Kerry found himself off-script (on a "PT" boat, as
planned, but in actual combat, oops). Might as well
exploit it for all it's worth.
He took on an unpopular job (writing the reports),
and probably noticed that:
a. those above didn't verify, and
b. peers & those below never looked at the reports
Kerry then accidentally hooked up with a Decorations &
Awards guy (Rassmann), who explained the ropes of D&A.
Motive. Opportunity. Method.
My impression at present is that Kerry didn't start
out trying to get a 3*PH ticket out. He stumbled
into that near the final days. But he was collecting
medals by any necessary means (and as we see with the
"V" device, he kept it up for years afterward).
I agree with the general outlines of your scenario, except I'm wondering if Kerry was already onto the basics of collecting PH's (though perhaps not yet the full-blown scheme of manipulating after-action reports) when he arrived in Vietnam, given that he was already trying to get Letson and Hibbard to approve a PH within two weeks of arriving. In thinking about this, I've wondered if the genesis of Kerry's plan might date back to his initial attempts to avoid the draft. Antiwar groups had developed methods to aid draft dodgers. Did Kerry learn about the three-and-out rule from antiwar groups at the time when he was considering ways to avoid the draft c. 1965-1966? That's one possibility I've considered.
In relation to that, here's a piece of information I find interesting which I didn't include in the article for the sake of keeping it manageable, but I'm planning to mention it in Part 3: Judy Droz, the widow of Donald Droz, who was with Kerry during the Silver and Bronze Star incidents, was active in the antiwar movement while her husband was in Vietnam, and has mentioned that while Droz was in Vietnam he wrote her back letters about how he and Kerry were planning to protest the war when they got home. Was Kerry already in contact with the antiwar movement within the military before he left Vietnam (at this time the antiwar movement was making inroads into military bases in California, where Kerry was training in 1967-1968), and could they have helped him go three-and-out? That's another possibility I've been wondering about.
Now into that scenario, enter what you mentioned about Rassmann. . .
Any reports submitted by a Naval officer are expected to be accurate and totally honest. Questioning a report questions the honesty and integrity of the fellow officer submitting it. Kerry abused the trust of those he served under for personal gain.