I would also like to ask . . . what kinda f'n gal would f' f'n Kerry anyway. He's nothing but a horse-faced Ed Muskie clone, per Teresa-babe's memoirs, whose other . . . uhhh . . . tools don't match the mental image concocted. You know what they say about long faced-small-feeted men, right?
Don't believe me about Mister Ed, may he rest in peace, and Lurch being clones? Okey-doke . . . you be the judge . . .
Now paint me serious for a second . . .
No one will ever convince me that anyone who looks like that, especially a patrician liberal from Massachoooooooookistan, legitimately won the Silver Star. I know questioning his "alleged" heroism is a loser for us because the media would fry us over the coals but just think about this list for a second . . .
1. A "real" Vietnam War hero friend of mine lost both his legs. He says Kerry's Purple Heart injuries were called Lollipop Injuries by him and other grunts and the only ones he ever saw who got Purple Hearts for them were "rich guys, usually officers" who made sure their superiors knew they'd gotten "scratched" then followed up relentlessly to make sure they received their Purple Hearts. The "real" heros, the grunts, called them "resume-stuffer" awards.
2. Would someone please point me to the right place so I can investigate the specific and DETAILED action he took to receive his Silver Star? I looked for two hours yesterday. I found where his boat took fire, he grounded his boat, took off after a VC the boat's gunner had already wounded, disappeared from sight, then returned -- in two accounts he returned with a weapon "supposedly" from the wounded VC . . . but how would anyone know that if Lurch disappeared from sight? And how would they know if he'd actually killed the guy? And how would they know if the guy even put up a fight -- if he didn't, wouldn't that be a War Crime?
3. Do the witnesses to his "heroic" action have names? Isn't there supposed to be two witnesses?
4. What are the names of the other folks who served on the boat with him during his "heroic" action?
5. Who put him up for the Silver Star? One of his crewmates? A superior after hearing about his "heroic" action from an awed and appreciative crewmate? Or did Lurch self-promote the medal like my friend suggests he had to for the three Purple Hearts?
6. I'm no boat expert, I've never been to the Mekong Delta, and I know squat about military tactics . . . but weren't those boats designed for speed and evasiveness to keep them out of harm's way? If so, I would think a boat beached on a muddy bank while it's skipper is charging after a machine-gun sniper through a dense, forbidding, and dangerous forest armed with nothing but a Q-Tip and a killer attitude . . . might leave the boat vulnerable to more fire. Or is Lurch not only Audey Murphy Part Deaux but omnipotent as well -- how'd he know there weren't any other machine guns pointing his way?
7. My friend -- a legless Hispanic who is liberal-to-the-bone and has never voted for a Republican in his life, but he will if Kerry's the Dem-Dimmer nominee -- says this doesn't pass the smell test to him. He says Kerry's crewmates would've raised all kinds of hell if he'd left them stranded. He only saw two of those boats in action . . . but he said both crews were highly trained to "strike and evade" at the first sign of trouble. He says they were "grilled and drilled" so thoroughly that the reaction was immediate and second nature to them. He says they wouldn't have thought about what they were doing until they were at least a mile away from the activity. He says those "Tonka Toy bathtub toys" weren't designed for John Wayne-wannabes and the Navy would never assign a Gung-Ho, Rough Riding skipper to one of those boats. He says there's no way the story could've happened the way everyone thinks.
8. Lastly and most importantly . . . my friend says EVERY medal was cheapened in Vietnam. Remember, Vietnam was the first "televised" war. Johnson and Nixon were both fighting a losing battle with the blame-America-firsters in charge of the media. My friend says they tried to counter this by passing out medals like they were M&M's and "no one should get especially excited about anyone who got a chest-full of medals in Nam. Be easier to ID those who didn't."
Again, I know it'll do us no good to investigate these types of things . . . the media has already anointed Kerry King . . . but I'd like to know for myself.
I'd appreciate any links anyone can provide.