Posted on 09/05/2004 10:29:40 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Sen. John Kerry's campaign biographer Douglas Brinkley said Sunday that if an ongoing Navy investigation into Kerry's military decorations turns up evidence of "purposeful" deception, it could spell doom for the top Democrat's White House bid.
Praising reporter Thomas Lipscomb, who broke news of the Navy investigation on Friday, Brinkley told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, "Journalists are going to have to see whether there's a discrepancy on [the citations posted to Kerry's] web site - whether there's something wrong that's said there or not."
"If so," said the "Tour of Duty" author, "Kerry would have to fix it immediately - and it does raise some questions as to why that would happen."
"Is it sloppiness, is it purposeful intent, is there an easy explanation for it?" Brinkley wondered.
He said that while questions raised by the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth about Kerry's war record have been very damaging, "so far they haven't been lethal." But Brinkley predicted that a discrepancy with Kerry's medals could seriously escalate his political problems.
Asked if inconsistencies uncovered by the Navy probe could be the "death knell" for Kerry's campaign, Brinkley told Malzberg, "It could."
In the next breath he hastened to add, however, "Right now it's unclear. So we have to just wait to see what all this adds up to."
The presidential historian called on Kerry to authorize the release of his full military file, saying, "Clearly some of these military records should be made available to the press."
when you lose your biographer...it's over!
Have a question regarding the medals. I see there are several websites where you can buy different military medals. Has anyone seen these duplicates and how do they compare to the original? Could you tell the difference between a framed original or duplicate medal hanging on the wall? Just wondering.
I have no idea as to the quality of these replicas. Obviously, they don't come with the presentation cases, which many of the medals come with depending on the level of the award. Logically, I would assume the quality is not as good hence the need for a standard procedure that allows someone to request replacement medals. If the replicas were of equal quality, why the need for the military to have a standard procedure for replacements?
"If the replicas were of equal quality, why the need for the military to have a standard procedure for replacements?"
If you were needing all that came with the medals then I would see the need to go thru the military. As in the case I read where a wife was wanting to replace her husbands's medals & such that had been lost. But if you only wanted the medals & it to be a confidential transaction, you could go thru one of the websites that sells them.
Now you are thinking logically. I have always said that Kerry requested not only replacement citations (signed by Lehman)but also replacement medals. He actually did throw away his medals in 1971 as he said at the time. Kerry's ego would not permit him to just get replicas. He wanted new citations and new medals, including the presentation cases. His rationale is that he earned them. He is obsessed with his image as a war hero, an image cultivated over 30 years. He never thought that in 1986 that this would become an issue in 2004. His big mistake was releasing the Lehman signed citations.
Is that information regarding the possibility of requesting replacement medals for public viewing? I know the Navy is reviewing this at the present time. If he also requested replacement medals, will that be part of the findings?
One more question to anyone. Are the medals numbered in any way which could be traced back to an individual, unit, year? If so, would a replacement medal have a special symbol which would designate it as such?
The answer is no. The medals are not personalized or numbered. I have a couple and there is nothing identifying them to me.
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