"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.