Kerry honors Purple Heart recipient at Fenway (Barf alert)

NECN ^ | April 21, 2008 | NECN

[balch3]

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry on Monday pinned the Purple Heart on Private First Class Sean Bannon in a pregame ceremony at the mound as Curt Schilling stood beside them.

Bannon, 22, of Winthrop, Massachusetts, was critically wounded by an IED in Iraq. He has spent the last month at Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Bannon requested that Kerry, a fellow Purple Heart recipient, do the honors of presenting him with the medal and asked that the Senator ask the Red Sox if he would be able to receive the award at home plate.

The Red Sox organization was happy to help honor one of our nation's brave Patriots on Patriots Day.

Bannon then threw the ceremonial first pitch to Schilling.

[NonValueAdded]

Well, it was the recipient’s request. Sheesh.

[HenpeckedCon]

I don't think a brave soldier receiving a Purple Heart deserves a barf alert. I dislike Sen. Audie Murphy as much as anyone being a veteran from Massachusetts, but the soldier deserves the honor of having the medal being pinned on him at Fenway by a U.S. Senator.

[Vaquero]

please don’t denigrate America’s most decorated hero, by jokingly calling Kerry by his name......

[crazyhorse691]

Bannon requested that Kerry, a fellow Purple Heart recipient, do the honors of presenting him with the medal

---

Kerry would have been no higher than 293,978,565th on my list. But, it was his choice to make.

[Bringbackthedraft]

I wonder if Kerry showed him all his wounds. Especially the one where the rice frag hit him.

[Huck]

The ribbons or the medals?

[Man50D]

I wonder of Kerry visited with his good friend Manny Ortiz?

[HenpeckedCon]

I was denigrating Kerry, not Audie Murphy.

[crazyhorse691]

The milk in my coffee is now curdling because of you.

[OldEagle]

I will bet a whole dime that Kerry was wearing HIS lapel pin Purple Heart. Is there a photo?

[G Larry]

Someday this brave young soldier will recognize Kerry’s disgraceful behavior and wish he had NOT made the request.

[G Larry]

Ya know....the more I think about this story, the more I smell the stench of a staged event.

I’m betting that Kerry’s folkS initiated the contact with the soldier and “suggested” the the soldier make the “request”.

[Da Coyote]

The fake purple heart recipient honors a real one. Life goes on. The next thing you’ll be telling me is that vapid opportunist is using the race card to run for president while an ex-president is support Hamas.

[HenpeckedCon]

It wouldn’t surprise me either. Everybody knows Kerry is a POS, but it is an honor for a soldier to be awarded a high military honor by a U.S. Senator.

[True Republican Patriot]

Did anyone Boo F’ing Kerry from the stands! Rice in the Butt Traitor F’ing Kerry presents a Real Hero with a Real Purple Heart!!! Congratulations to the Real Hero, Soldier Bannon! Boos and Disgrace to Rice in the Butt and a true certified Hanoi War Traitor and hero of Hanoi’s Communist Regime.

[Froufrou]

Could he at least be a senator that didn’t chuck his own purple heart? Someone who has displayed a sense of value for it rather than a sense of disdain?

[Calpernia]

WHO IS JOHN KERRY?

"John Kerry Vietnam War hero." Everyday the media tiptoes around John Kerry as if he is an icon of service to the Nation. But why is his service to the nation in war not balanced against his return to longhaired freakdom to march against his fellow veterans still in the war, including myself? I was especially incensed when my communist captors quoted him in propaganda.

 

I had a discussion with Senator Kerry in Bangkok Thailand. He made some surprising statements during that exchange. He stated emphatically that I should provide him with any information I had on missing Americans. This he stated he would take to Hanoi to discuss with the Communists.

 

He didn't seem to understand the Communists knew where the POWs were and needed no help from him to "find them." Expert on war? Hardly! He then stated that no matter what I had there would be no military operation to rescue them. In other words, Senator Kerry felt that Americans were worth talking about, but not worth fighting for.

 

Kerry brought up his service on patrol boats in Vietnam in a very defensive way with me, "you weren't the only one in that war, I was on those patrol boats?"

 

 

My answer, "Surely you are not attempting to compare anything you did in that war to my contribution to that endeavor!"

I did not say that to belittle the Senator, but to only give him a reality check. He said he had an important appointment. The insinuation was it dealt with the MIAs. Then a small child came up to us and said, "My Mom said it is time to go." Kerry sheepishly moved away. "All show and no go," just another paper thin ego.

 

I was invited to lunch by his staffer Francis. She stated in an adoring manner that John Kerry would someday be the President of the United States. My answer was short and succinct," Based on what?" She said, "He's a war hero." I said, "But he then marched in a filthy uniform and threw his medals over the White House fence."

 

She then told me the medals were someone else's. I merely stated it showed disrespect to honors received on the battlefield by "Someone." End of discussion on that.

 

Someone in the Asian customs stated a rumor that Senator Kerry purchased a tiger skin in Vietnam and officials were told to ignore it. Somehow Vietnam Veterans got the story and as far as I know, there has never been a denial from the great "environmentalist" John Kerry.

 

But true or not it gives a good look at how Kerry operates. Take the "war hero" the next. Take the "Champion of MIAs" one day and the "we aren't going to war for them" the next day and you have John Kerry.

 

Senator Kerry threatened to order me before his committee unless I gave him intelligence to carry to Hanoi. My answer? "you do not have to order me before your committee, I'll be there." I waited but, when I called Francis and said I was in America and ready to put the record straight on the rumor about Ross Perot being spread by committee staff, she said."I'm sorry Mark we have run out of money to bring you here."

 

I said; "I have miles to burn and will pay my own way." She said she would discuss it with Kerry and get back to me.

 

I never heard from her or the "War Hero" again. Vietnam Veterans beware. The best way to describe John Kerry's attempts to be all things to all people is, "Heinz 57."

 

There has been much sniping at President Bush for being a fighter pilot in the Air National Guard. Liberals who seem to believe September Eleventh was somehow our fault and most surely the President's, laugh at his flying to an aircraft carrier to welcome home U.S. Troops.

 

They said he looked silly dressed as a pilot. No candidate for President had more right to dress like that, than George Bush; he is a fighter pilot. Where were these people, when the draft dodging Clinton wore a "Tanker Jacket" when visiting the troops? A part of a uniform he evaded wearing in time of war.

 

I hope Kerry does not show up to see the troops, if elected, in the ragged field jacket and head band, he wore in the peace marches. When time to honor a battlefield hero, I hope he does not have a "flashback" and throw our Nation's highest award over the White House fence.

 

After all, he does think throwing other people's medals over that fence is all right.

 

Lastly, as Guard and Reserve Troops fight and die for our freedom, I don't want any Commander In Chief who would think their service a joke.

Further, if the big time Vietnam Veteran Kerry knew a thing about the Vietnam War, other than how deep the river was, he would know Guard and Reserve Pilots regularly flew combat missions in Vietnam. I for one appreciated the support.

 

"War Hero?" O.K., he received the Silver Star. But, "Expert" on war? No John, but those of us who are, will take the honest leadership of President Bush anytime over you.

 

You have not changed a bit from the time of the Vietnam War. Your wet finger is still in the air checking the political winds, before making any decision or changing one already made. We are at war and I know war.

 

Your brand of equivocation on every issue costs lives in a war and I don't want more dead and wounded here and abroad. You went to war and then marched against it and those of us who still fought. I know you as "Springtime Patriot" and then as a "Winter Soldier." People should look up what you said during your "Winter Soldier" days.

 

You voted for the present war and now you condemn it. You may be an Ivy League graduate, but, your war record is minor league and your leadership is straight out of the "Waffle House."

 

If being President is going to be based on medals earned in battle, there are a whole lot of us in front of you, John Kerry.

 

There is one last thing that places all of your fellow veterans ahead of you in the honor department, with the exception of a few of your fellow "Winter Solders."

 

We had too much respect for our fellow warriors, who fell on the field of battle, to throw even our lowest award over the White House fence.

 

If you keep running on the "warrior ticket," you will lose sailor! For on that ticket, you are who you have always been.......NOBODY.

 

Mark A. Smith -
DSC
Major, USA, Retired
Member, The Legion of Valor
Returned Prisoner of War

[nutmeg]

I thought we had seen the last of John F'in Kerry at Fenway, but apparently not...

Saw Mitt Romney in the crowd at yesterday's "Patriot Day" game on TV. He was clearly visible in the camera shot every time a right-handed batter was up. Mitt's hair was messy, and he was chowing down for most of the game... it was pretty funny, actually... LOL

He must have season tickets at Fenway... I've seen him in that same seat several times over the years.

[nutmeg]

Did anyone Boo F’ing Kerry from the stands!

We (my husband, myself and some friends) did back in 2004 when F'in Kerry was introduced at Fenway before one of the games. Many in the crowd did as well. There were a fair amount of boos, mixed with "polite applause".

I don't know how yesterday went... I wasn't at Fenway, and didn't see any TV coverage when John F'in Kerry was announced.