My speculation is that Kerry got a Bad Conduct Discharge in 1972 that wasn't pardoned until 1978.
Nonsense. We have plenty of official documents to shoot that theory down. We don't need to put softballs over the middle of the plate so Kerry can knock them out of the park. There are plenty of real issues to raise than this phony reserve/bad conduct speculation, which seems to have arisen lately. It destroys our credibility when we make allegations without any basis in fact.