I read the thread, and I would be surprised if kerry went on a secret mission.
It takes a man with balls to do it and if you look at the photos of kerry, he was always a limp wrist type of man.
He did not have experience of any type that was of value in a secret mission, he was a pretty boy.
Officers such as kerry, are what gets men killed.
No, I would rather have the man who knows how to fight, so what if he has lost rank several times for fighting while on shore in a bar.
At least he will fight.
This would be a few as possible number of men project, they would not want or need another boss.
Men like Lt. kerry may well be the most hated rank in the navy.
But hey, that is only an old ladies thoughts on a navy that does not exist as it was 50 years ago.
I think of my stepfather, a Kentucky hillbilly for real, who joined the Navy when the war (2) started.
Stan served almost 30 years and I think that his rank when he retired was 3rd class seamen.
He would laugh and say he had made 3rd class more times than any other man in the Navy.
Stan was a gunners mate as I recall. He drank for years, then married my mother and stopped. He took care of her until the day that she died in his arms as he was attempting to get her back into bed.
In 2 years he was found dead in his recliner.
When they went to clean up the papers, he had something like a dozen Purple Hearts and an assortment of other medals. Several of importance.
He had never admitted to even having one.
From the papers and reports, he might well have gone on several secret missions, but to hear him tell it, "Hey I drank my rank away ever time I made one, then I met your mom and we married and now it is time to be a father".
He always had 2 jobs and retired from Ryan manufacturing after the Navy sevice.
Not bad for a man with NO education, who joined the Navy at
13 or 14 years old.
Stan is the kind of man you pull for secret missions, a quiet, hard worker, who took orders and did the job he was asked to do.
But then when i look at kerry, I do not see manhood, not in 1970 and not today.
Stan was Harold E. Stanley, I don't recall all the ships, but the Renville may have been one, at least several of my family was on it at different times.