See Posts 134 and 138.
OFFICERS DO NOT GET "DISCHARGED" WHEN TRANFERRING FROM ACTIVE DUTY TO A RESERVE COMPONENT.
Kerry only got two discharges in his career.
The first discharge was when he was discharged from the enlisted rank of Officer Candidate (E-5 equivalent).
That terminated ALL of his enlisted obligation.
He then became a commissioned officer and assumed an entirely different set of service obligations.
After that, an officer can only get "discharged" ONCE, and that is at the end of his obligated service time as specified by his contract.
The transition from Active Duty to Ready Reserve and the transition from Ready Reserve to Inactive Reserve are not "discharges".
The term "discharge" is only used when a servicemember with ANY military obligation left becomes a civilian with ZERO military obligation left.
Since I am a retired Naval officer with a direct commission, I have never been "discharged", ever.
I have, however, gone from Active Duty, to Ready Reserves to Inactive Reserves to Retirement. None of those are "discharges".
Although this may seem like a nit-picking point, it is very important because it is such confusion in terminology that allows the news media to claim that Kerry was "Honorably Discharged" in 1970 when he was merely "Released from Active Duty" in 1970.