Kerry had an action-filled tour as a swift-baot commander in Vietnam, where he was severely wounded in an ambush, gaining three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, in addition to the hSilver Star, which by all rights should have been a Navy Cross. But Admiral Elmo "Bud" zumwalt Jr. had intercepted the paperwork for Kerry's Navy Cross and changed it to a lesser award so that he could approve it himself (the Navy Cross requires congressional approval) and pin it on Kerry a few days later, as an "impact award," to boost morale. (Home to War, pp.70)
There is no footnote for this paragraph. The bogus "severely wounded in an ambush" claim is rather a nice touch...
The typos are mine...
Thanks for the rapid response, LOL. Without a footnote, the way that's worded makes it difficult to determine Nicosia's source, which I believe is one reason I added the "allegedly"--I couldn't tell where he was getting that from. I know he interviewed Kerry for his book. He may have also interviewed Zumwalt, since he mentions him there, but I don't remember--might be in the acknowledgements or in the list of interviews at the beginning of the footnotes (think he had one of those IIRC). Anyway, though, Sanders seems to be adding some information Nicosia doesn't have there, so I'm wondering where he's getting that from.
The Secretary of the Navy can approve the Navy Cross.