Yep. Records released by the Kerry campaign are confusing and the confusion is very deliberate.
Kerry was NOT Honorably Discharged in January, 1970 but his campaign has deceived the news media to believe that he was.
Kerry Deceives News Media About His Navy Discharge on JohnKerry.com
John Kerry was honorably Discharged twice:
First Honorable Discharge: When he graduated from Officer Candidate School and was Honorably Discharged from Officer Cadet status (E-5 equivalent) in order to be commissioned as an officer. That is standard operating procedure.
Second Honorable Discharge: 16 February 78 when he was Honorably Discharged from the U.S. Naval Reserve during the Carter Administration.
The 3 January 1970 date is just a "baffle them with bulls#t" date where Kerry allegedly "requests" discharge. As you can see in the FR thread I wrote and posted, this was part of the Kerry campaign's effort to B.S. the news media into believing that he was "Honorably Discharged" in 1970.
Why?
He wanted the news media to belive he was Honorably Discharged BEFORE he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The truth is that he was still was a commissioned officer in the US Naval Reserve during his activities with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
The 2001 date is merely a DD-215 "correction" of his service record where he "corrected" the number of campaign stars on his Vietnam Service Medal from two to four. Later, a Navy spokesman said that he was only entitled to two stars. The "Combat V" on the Silver Star was never "corrected" on the 2001 DD-215.
The question is, "Why was Kerry not Honorably Discharged until the Carter Administration?
His period of obligated service would have been completed long before 1978 and Kerry is not the kind of guy that would have stayed in the Navy Reserves of his own free will for patriotic reasons.
The refusal to release his full military records may have something to do with the late 1978 Honorable Discharge date.
Carter's Amnesty program.
I still want answers about the Bronze Star citation that was signed by John Lehman. Either it is a forgery or for some unknown reason the original "disappeared" and had to be reissued during the Reagan administration. Either way, I think there should be some explanation.
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Bronze_Star.pdf