Posted on 10/14/2004 11:50:13 PM PDT by kattracks
[snip]My experiences as a combat surgeon in Vietnam (Dec. 10, 1967 to Dec. 11, 1968) and also as a forensic consultant for the past two decades, however, lead me to the conclusion that Mr. Kerry's first Purple Heart award is his most serious problem. The recent revelation of the use of falsified documents (by CBS and Dan Rather) might not be the first time such a technique has been used. During Mr. Kerry's four-month tour in Vietnam, which he presents as his principal qualification to be president of the United States, his application for his first Purple Heart award was disapproved by both his commanding officer and the doctor who evaluated his wound. Yet he somehow managed to get that award. How?
[snip]
If Mr. Kerry fails to clear up before the election the question about how he got his first Purple Heart, voters intending to vote for him must consider the possibility that they could be voting for a man who might, sooner or later, be shown to have falsified his naval records to obtain a medal he didn't deserve — which is a federal crime. The fact that he used that medal to get out of Vietnam after only four months — while the rest of us served our full year — would greatly magnify the disgrace of such a crime. I think that every American citizen would find a replay of the impeachment of a sitting president to be extremely distasteful.
Dr. Martin L. Fackler served as a combat surgeon in Vietnam.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
cnn.com
and vote in their daily question poll...about Kerry mentioning Mary Cheney at the debate.
scroll down a bit, on the right of the page.
quick, please..we need to impact this one. we can do it!!!
:-) This should be the topic on all the talk shows tomorrow.
Mornin'. Thank you verrry much.
Could this be one of the October surprises (read as: nails in coffin)?
Too true.
But the crowds who were marching in Chicago and 'Frisco are also still alive and they have to justify their prior actions or face up to their sins. This time they are in more positions to drag others along with them - unions, politics, management and the media...
To most democrats Kerry's Vietnam history is only window dressing and to the rest his post-Nam activities are gospel.
1. Kerry claims to have been the Officer in Charge of the 1st Purple Heart mission (2 Dec 1968), with two other enlisted men in the boat
2. Kerry claims that there was hostile fire
3. Whenever there is hostile fire, the Officer in Charge must write up an after-action report.
from http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/politics/campaign/21DISC.html?ex=1397880000&en=b748e22fe9e25775&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
Published: April 21, 2004
...
"Mr. Meehan said no after-action report had been found for the first Purple Heart, awarded, according to the certificate, "for wounds received in action on Dec. 2, 1968."
Since Kerry claimed he was the OinC and that there was hostile fire, then it means that he was required to have written an after action report for the incident. No after-action report for this incident has ever been released. In all likelyhood no after-action report was ever written, because 1. Kerry was not the OinC (a rear-Admiral who was 2nd in command of JAG before he retired was), and 2. there was no hostile fire. This would imply that the 1st Purple Heart was bogus since...
No after-action report = No hostile fire = Bogus 1st Purple Heart
Why is Mr. Fackler only coming out with this now? Has he been living in a vacuum for the last year?
His second marriage was a civil ceremony? Why get the nullification in the first place?
You can't change the minds of those that don't want to believe anything sinister about Kerry.
The line in the sand has been drawn and the tug of war between parties is drawing to a close.
Let just see if all the swing states have "legal" action fall into play immediately following the election. That is the next challenge for debate.
Disagree strongly. The two new swift boat ads, the airing of Stolen Honor on Sinclair stations, and programs like last night's Nightline indicate that Vietnam is still an issue. It is all about character. Politically, it is a great issue to put Kerry back on the defensive. Kerry went into hiding for a month after the first SBVFT ad and the publication of Unfit for Command. Kerry has still not answered questions about Xmas in Cambodia, the circumstances surrounding his first PH, his replacement medals, and his VVAW activities including meeting the Vietnamese Communists twice in Paris and his attendance at a VVAW meeting in KC where the assassination of USG officials was discussed.
Kerry would like Vietnam to be dropped. The were successful in changing the subject in September aided by the MSM in making GWB's TNG record the main focus of the campaign, e.g., Rathergate. The pressure on Kerry re Vietnam and his antiwar activities must be increased and not put in the rear view mirror.
We don't know the chain of approval for this PH, and it was put in for moths after the incident via a chain of command that did not include Elliott.
It was LCDR Grant Hibbard, not Elliott.
.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks for that. Memory. It's the second thing to go. I forget what the first is. <g>
You would be correct:
Thomas Wright was one of John F. Kerry's fellow Swift boat officers in Vietnam. Since Wright outranked Kerry, he was Kerry's sometime boat group Officer-in-Charge, so Wright had occasion to observe Kerry’s behavior and attitudes, and the circumstances surrounding his early departure from the war zone. The intervening years have not dimmed his memories.
“I had a lot of trouble getting him to follow orders,” recalls Wright. “He had a different view of leadership and operations. Those of us with direct experience working with Kerry found him difficult and oriented towards his personal, rather than unit goals and objectives. I believed that overall responsibility rested squarely on the shoulders of the OIC or OTC in a free-fire zone. You had to be right (before opening fire). Kerry seemed to believe there were no rules in a free-fire zone and you were supposed to kill anyone. I didn’t see it that way.”
It got to a point where Wright told his divisional commander he no longer wanted Kerry in his boat group, so he was re-assigned to another one. “I had an idea of his actions but didn’t have to be responsible for him.” Then Wright and like-minded boat officers took matters into their own hands. “When he got his third Purple Heart, three of us told him to leave. We knew how the system worked and we didn’t want him in Coastal Division 11. Kerry didn’t manipulate the system, we did.”
The Swifties have been saying it since anyone would listen.
It's not new info. It just can't get traction in the old media.
Thanks for the ping.
The enemy is now within.
The 60s radicals who were attacking the system from without back then are now inside and are destroying it from their positions of power today.
Let's see Lurch spin that!
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