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Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge
New York Sun ^ | 10/13/2004 | BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB - Special to the Sun

Posted on 10/13/2004 12:54:03 AM PDT by politicket

Edited on 10/13/2004 1:07:27 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

Excerpt:

Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge

BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB - Special to the Sun
October 13, 2004
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/3107

An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well kept secret about his military service.

The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of officers.

According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the "authority of reference" this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was "Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163. "This section refers to the grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service. And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr. Kerry's status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an honorable discharge.

A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, was asked whether Mr. Kerry had ever been a victim of an attempt to deny him an honorable discharge. There has been no response to that inquiry.

The document is dated February 16, 1978. But Mr. Kerry's military commitment began with his six-year enlistment contract with the Navy on February 18, 1966. His commitment should have terminated in 1972. It is highly unlikely that either the man who at that time was a Vietnam Veterans Against the War leader, John Kerry, requested or the Navy accepted an additional six year reserve commitment. And the Claytor document indicates proceedings to reverse a less than honorable discharge that took place sometime prior to February 1978.

The most routine time for Mr. Kerry's discharge would have been at the end of his six-year obligation, in 1972. But how was it most likely to have come about?


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: discharge; dishonorabledischarg; kerry; kerrydischarge; lipscomb; lurch; militaryrecord; napalminthemorning; navydischarge; thomaslipscomb; traitor
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To: AFPhys

bump to the top!!!


361 posted on 10/13/2004 8:43:01 AM PDT by Soaring Feather (~Poetry is my forte.~)
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To: capitan_refugio
JF'nK is a disgrace, always was and always will be. I just hope Dubya gets the job done, so we don't have suffer Jimmy Carter 2. BTW where are the Clintons with the torpedoes?

We can't have Hillary's annointment in 2008 delayed by JF'nK.

362 posted on 10/13/2004 8:43:19 AM PDT by Agent Smith (Fallujah delenda est. (I wish))
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To: politicket

A PING and a PRAYER! (oh please, oh please, oh please...)


363 posted on 10/13/2004 8:44:34 AM PDT by itslex71 (southern by birth, republican by the grace of my dad)
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To: AFPhys

The President can also revoke a commission for cause.

Just thinking out of the box.


364 posted on 10/13/2004 8:46:46 AM PDT by judicial meanz
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To: js1138

yeah, I read that earlier, but I still am curious why kerry does not display his Honorable Discharge, maybe you could think of a reasonable reason?...rto


365 posted on 10/13/2004 8:48:39 AM PDT by visitor (dems are committing hairy kerry to defend our national security with a shifty politician like JFK)
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To: AFPhys

bttt!


366 posted on 10/13/2004 8:48:49 AM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: politicket

BTTT.


367 posted on 10/13/2004 8:50:17 AM PDT by NetSurfer (Proud member of the Pajama-Wearing Lunatic Fringe)
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To: Arizona Carolyn
I suggest that Kerry wanted the medals reinstated so he could use them politically, as he used his opposition to the Vietnam War. In this regard, see David Broder's column "Swift Boats And Old Wounds," washingtonpost.com, August 24, 2004, at p. 17, wherein he cites a conversation with Kerry and writes that Kerry told him that "he thought it would be doubly advantageous that 'I fought in Vietnam and I also fought against the Vietnam War.'" Broder observed that Kerry did not recognize that "some would see far too much political calculation in such a bifurcated record." Kerry's seeking the reinstatement of the medals was simply another calculation and part of his need to self-promote and manipulate his Vietnam experiences to advance his political ambitions.
368 posted on 10/13/2004 8:50:24 AM PDT by Pharlap
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To: madison46

You can count on it.


369 posted on 10/13/2004 8:51:35 AM PDT by sarasota
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To: Mike Fieschko

yep, I know, but never the less s/he is brand new to freerepublic.com and seemed to be overly agressive defending kerry???...rto


370 posted on 10/13/2004 8:52:47 AM PDT by visitor (dems are committing hairy kerry to defend our national security with a shifty politician like JFK)
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To: Pharlap

This is a guy who can't answer a question about what kind of water he drinks.


371 posted on 10/13/2004 8:53:31 AM PDT by js1138 (Speedy architect of perfect labyrinths.)
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To: itslex71

sKerry is absolutely, clearly hiding the DD214 that he was issued after his release from active duty.

That is the document that states whether service was HONORABLE or not.

I just looked at my DD214, from Sept.1981, and put some info from it on post#238 this thread. I encourage some other vets to do the same, especially those whose service was about ten years before mine.




372 posted on 10/13/2004 8:53:40 AM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: AFPhys
You can get "other than honorable" discharges and releases without court martial procedures: administrative, general, etc...

True. It's important to keep in mind that officers don't receive dishonorable or bad conduct discharges as a result of court-martial. Officers receive dismissals, which are equivalent to dishonorable discharges.

An officer can offer to resign in lieu of court-martial and try to bargain his way to an honorable characterization of service, but such an offer is rarely approved.

The provisions cited by the New York Sun govern involuntary administrative separations of reserve officers, and the service characerizations can range from fully honorable to less than honorable. The board of officers hearing the case makes a recommendation both as to sufficiency of grounds for discharge and service characterization.

It may be that Kerry faced a board and was involuntarily separated, but that the board recommended an honorable discharge. If so, that is still significant but much less of a bombshell.

373 posted on 10/13/2004 8:53:45 AM PDT by JCEccles
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To: AFPhys

Look again - page 2 shows that he had 3 years of active duty at the time of the second DD214 (page 2) being issued.


374 posted on 10/13/2004 8:54:04 AM PDT by Notwithstanding
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To: ops33

wonder why?...rto


375 posted on 10/13/2004 8:55:31 AM PDT by visitor (dems are committing hairy kerry to defend our national security with a shifty politician like JFK)
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To: AFPhys

Yes I know. I was not speaking of Admin type of discharges. The poster that I replied to talked about Kerry recieveing a dishonorable discharge. Those apply to enlisted folks. Officers are dismissed from service (IOW there is no such thing as a "Dishonorable Discharge" for a comissioned officer.)


376 posted on 10/13/2004 8:55:41 AM PDT by Truth Table
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To: AFPhys; A CA Guy; aculeus; afz400; Agent Smith; Alamo-Girl; AMDG&BVMH; Andy from Chapel Hill
Hey Capt.,

You raised my curiousity...SOOOO....I just dug up BOTH my DD Form 214s. Yep...that's right! I've got TWO of the suckers!

I had a break in service in 1988, which is why I have TWO. I never really took a GOOD look at them, but BOTH of them have the SAME thing in "SPECIAL ADDITIONAL INFORMATION"...block 24. CHARACTER OF SERVICE (Include upgrades)....

HONORABLE

Now certainly Senator Kerry can produce HIS DD Form 214! :-) For certain his will also bear truth to his story!

By the way...It took me 30 minutes to find one of my 214s and I nearly went into PANIC mode. These aren't the types of things we want to lose! :-)

I think we should ride this issue like a horse that needs to be broken....until we either make so much noise that it's NOT ignorable by the media, OR we get to see his records.

It's laughable really....a man who aspires to be CINC of the most powerful nation on the planet, and he won't divulge his military records! Do you think that any sane "heavy" pilot would hand over control of the aircraft just because he "says" he can fly the thing? What if he had a KNOWN habit of flying aircraft into the ground?! We WANT to see his "pilot's certification", but I have a suspicion that it will tell us that he FAILED ground school after four months.

I just went thru MOST of my military records (30 inches worth of paper from nearly 13 years of service!) looking for this other DD Form 214, and I didn't see ANYTHING that I would mind divulging publicly.

Anybody running for a public office on the basis of military service should do the same!
377 posted on 10/13/2004 8:55:48 AM PDT by hiredhand
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To: AFPhys

Page 2 also lists his medals (complete with the infamous incorrect devices wasarded).

But what about the attachment noted after the Purple Heart?
Is that simply the documentation of his wounds that everyone already has seen and discussed in great detail already?


378 posted on 10/13/2004 8:56:17 AM PDT by Notwithstanding
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To: AFPhys
Wrong. He's lying. Surprised?

And not surprised that the Lamestream media is ignoring it and protecting Kerry!

Big trouble ahead for this nation.

The "old commie media" is the most ruthless and destructive institution in the country.

And, they are still influential enough to win this election for the commie/socialist, pompous, and pretentious Kerry.

379 posted on 10/13/2004 8:56:52 AM PDT by beyond the sea (ab9usa4uandme)
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To: JCEccles

An officer can offer to resign in lieu of court-martial and try to bargain his way to an honorable characterization of service, but such an offer is rarely approved. Really? I did not know this. Interesting.

380 posted on 10/13/2004 8:57:18 AM PDT by Truth Table
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