Posted on 01/26/2004 7:21:58 AM PST by Conservomax
I was reading about Kerry's service on this site: Vietnam Vets Against John Kerry after hearing my father, a WWII vet go on a rampage against Kerry's service record. Being from MA, I was of course, familiar with Kerry's war record and moreimportanatly, post war record, but I did not know the details. On this site it says that Kerry was wounded and awarded the PH three times in a little over 3 months. Is that common?
My father was shot, stabbed, and blown out of a landing craft during WWII, and never received any citation, I know that it was a different war. But I don't understand how Kerry could be so decorated in such a short period of time without someone pulling strings for him.
What medical histories are you basing your claim that bayonet wounds have been so rare since 1903? If my member serves me correctly, our troops were engaged in two world wars and the (ongoing) Korean Conflict over that time. While the percentage of such wounds is low compared to shrapnel wounds from artillery or bullet wounds, bayonet wounds were not particularly rare in those three wars.
You are apparently also unaware of how records were kept in the days B.C. (before computers). World War II veterans have recently received medals they should have received 60 years ago. If you have a major military installation near you, call the Public Affairs office and ask if there have been any World War II veterans who have finally had their medals catch up with them. Or you can simply look for such stories on line. Such awards are still fairly common here. (In Massachusetts. That's probably because the First Infantry Division was stationed at Fort Devens but spent from February 1942 through August 1945 on a world tour of North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, northern France and central Germany.)
I would write more on this subject, but I have to attend a funeral for a member of the Big Red One who died Saturday at age 83.
Remember during the Paula Jones case, Clinton tried to claim he couldn't be sued because he was on "active duty status" for being the Commander in Chief?
LOL. I'd forgotton that one. It needs to be framed and hung in the front hall.
After training, Kerry volunteered for Vietnam. He served a relatively uneventful six months, far removed from combat, from December 1967 to June 1968, in the electrical department aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile frigate that supported aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin
Kerry commanded his first swift boat, No. 44, from December 1968 through January 1969. He received no medals while serving on this craft.
Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968. He was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart.
In late January 1969, Kerry joined a five-man crew on swift boat No. 94 completing 18 missions over 48 days, almost all of them in the Mekong Delta. Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a minor shrapnel wound in his left thigh on Feb. 20, 1969.
Kerry was given a Silver Star for an action on February 28, 1969
On March 13, 1969, a mine detonated near Kerry's boat, slighting wounding Kerry in the right arm. He was awarded his third Purple Heart. When later asked about the severity of the wounds, Kerry said that one of them cost him about two days of service, and that the other two did not interrupt his duty. "Walking wounded," as Kerry put it.
After his third Purple Heart Kerry requested to be sent home. Navy rules, he pointed out, allowed a thrice-wounded soldier to return to the United States immediately. Commodore Charles F. Horne, an administrative official and commander of the coastal squadron in which Kerry served, filled out a document on March 17, 1969, that said Kerry had "been thrice wounded in action while on duty incountry Vietnam. Reassignment is requested ... as a personal aide in Boston, New York, or Wash., D.C. area." Having engineered an early transfer out of the conflict because of his three Purple Hearts, John Kerry returned home to a sweet assignment as an admiral's aide in April 1969.
On Jan. 3, 1970, Kerry requested that his superior, Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr., grant him an early discharge from the Navy so that he could run for Congress.
Summary, Kery received minor wounds (no hospitalization) on Dec 2, 1968, Feb 20, 1969, and March 13, 1969. He submitted a request to leave country on March 17. He returned to the US in April 1969.
I don't know when he arrived in-country, but it appears that his Vietnam tour (excluding his service offshore) commenced in December 1968 and ended in March 1969. It all sounds suspicious to this old Navy veteran who served in-country for 12 months and offshore for 8 months.
I don't have time to dig through my library so that I can cite page numbers for you but any source will confirm that bayonet wounds are rare, and have been since the Civil War.
A quick internet search found the following paragraph.
The combination of the rifle-musket and minié bullet also made the bayonet nearly obsolete. In earlier years, the bayonet was often the most decisive infantry assault weapon, because the smoothbore flintlock musket's short range allowed attackers to approach close enough for hand-to-hand fighting. In the Civil War, however, firepower almost always decided an assault's outcome before charging troops came within stabbing distance. In fact, very few Civil War surgeons reported bayonet wounds. During Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's bloody campaign against Confederate General Robert E. Lee in the summer of 1864, for example, Union medical directors recorded only 37 bayonet wounds. Of the several hundred thousand wounded men treated in Union hospitals over the course of the war, surgeons noted only 922 bayonet wounds!
You can read it (and more) yourself at http://schools.guilford.k12.nc.us/spages/page/old_PAGE_web/via/sheltonb/Widow.htm
I also recently read something about the 1st Somme and it commented on the rarity of bayonet wounds that were recorded there among the British. It may have been Keegan's Face of Battle but it also could have been in any one of a number of journals or other books.
Now, if bayonet wounds were extrtemely rare in the Civil War, what makes you think they were "not particularily rare" in the mid to late 20th century?
I'm sure that the Gulf War I vets will stand beside him.
About a year ago I ran across an article that I believe was in the globe and was written during Kerry's bid for Senate...dang if I can find it...It raised some questions about his service...and actually touched on PTSD...Kerry and his wife both talked about his 'nightmares'...
No, there's just one of me.
Sometimes I feel parallel, though.
True! Like Mad Maddie Albright. But you gotta love a ham and cheese.
He was also in "Vietname Vets against the War" after his services. LMAO.
Maybe it was just rare to survive a bayonet wound long enough to be treated.
Another link:
Here's another link:
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