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Revealed: how 'war hero' Kerry tried to put off Vietnam military duty
The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^
| 03/07/04
| Charles Laurence
Posted on 03/06/2004 4:37:21 PM PST by Pokey78
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1
posted on
03/06/2004 4:37:21 PM PST
by
Pokey78
To: Pokey78
There is an old Texas saying:
"I'd rather be swallowed up whole by a lion than nibbled to death by ducks" There are a lot of ducks nibbling on Kerry.
To: Pokey78
"I am not at all surprised that he wants to be president, because he exuded ambition from the word go," said Dr Goldhaber. "At the time, the idea that he tried to persuade the draft board to let him spend a year in Paris was just a detail." Kerry's ambition, although it can be seen as commendable, doesn't hold a candle to Dubyas conviction for what is right for our country or his faith based focus on achieving what is best for us.
3
posted on
03/06/2004 4:45:17 PM PST
by
EGPWS
To: Pokey78
Hmmmm... interesting.
4
posted on
03/06/2004 4:46:02 PM PST
by
jmstein7
(Real Men Don't Need Chunks of Government Metal on Their Chests to be Heroes)
To: Hon; backhoe
You may find this interesting.
5
posted on
03/06/2004 4:48:45 PM PST
by
arasina
(So there.)
To: Pokey78
Although this may indicate that Kerry was not the most willing entrant into the service, in fairness I wouldn't characterize this as some sort of 'smoking gun.' I am reminded that Alvin York sought deferral from military service as a conscientious objector on religious reasons, before entering World War I and winding up the most celebrated hero of that war, a
genuine hero of conspicious gallantry certainly puts Kerry's record to shame).
Link
6
posted on
03/06/2004 4:50:41 PM PST
by
atomicpossum
(Fun pics in my profile)
To: isthisnickcool; Kenny Bunk; Grampa Dave; okie01
He wrote to his local recruitment board seeking permission to spend a further 12 months studying in Paris, after completing his degree course at Yale University in the mid-1960s. I suppose a one year deferment isn't too odd in itself, assuming he wasn't going to bootstrap it to another, and another. But for studying in Paris? Prissy, and France again. It's always something about France with Kerry.
Seems the good dirt gets released in Brit papers these days...
7
posted on
03/06/2004 4:53:25 PM PST
by
Shermy
To: arasina
8
posted on
03/06/2004 4:55:53 PM PST
by
backhoe
(--30--)
To: atomicpossum
Although this may indicate that Kerry was not the most willing entrant into the service, in fairness I wouldn't characterize this as some sort of 'smoking gun.' I am reminded that Alvin York sought deferral from military service as a conscientious objector on religious reasons, .... True. On the other hand, Alvin York did not campaign for public office by letting his underlings accuse his opponent of being the moral equivalent of a draft dodger and a deserter.
9
posted on
03/06/2004 5:01:52 PM PST
by
Polybius
To: Polybius
True. On the other hand, Alvin York did not campaign for public office by letting his underlings accuse his opponent of being the moral equivalent of a draft dodger and a deserter. Fair point.
10
posted on
03/06/2004 5:05:21 PM PST
by
atomicpossum
(Fun pics in my profile)
To: atomicpossum
I knew lots of guys that didn't want to go in the Army, much less to "nam"...the lady in charge of the draft board in my rural NE la. parish became a very wealthy lady. Don't know exactly how considering the salary she was paid. But some little rich kids either never got called or got a deferment.
Kerry did what a lot of guys did..join the navy to stay out of the Army..Navy was considered "safe".
He is a chicken shit liar and a fraud!!! If he is such a Hero, i'll challenge him to go into any swamp in Louisiana and play "war hero" and see who comes out and who is never heard of ever again. No, I'm not a hero, war or any other kind, but it just frosts my shorts that this sumbitch is being portrayed as Rambo, when "bambi" is much more to his suiting.
To: Pokey78
This is one of my previous posts on FR but I think it is worth re-posting every once in a while considering that the mainstream media still believes that Kerry volunteered for combat.
************************************
What bothered me about this article saying Kerry "only served" four months on a tour is that he had a cushy job on the big ship and opted to volunteer for his second tour of duty on a swift boat. In other words he took himself off the easy duty and into the harder combat seeing duty. That has to count for something.
That is what Kerry and the Democrats want us to believe and that is the version they are putting out. However, that version is pure Bravo Sierra and is not supported by the facts or by Kerry's own statements.
It would indeed be extremely admirable if Kerry had knowingly taken "himself off the easy duty and into the harder combat seeing duty".
However, Kerry never volunteered for combat or any duty he dreamed would get him into combat.
Kerry was the First Division Officer when he served on the USS Gridley.
John F. Kerry, the junior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts is positioning himself for a run at the Presidency in 2004. Ensign (and later LTJG Kerry) reported aboard GRIDLEY straight out of the Fleet Training Center, San Diego on 8 June 1967. This boot Ensign headed up First Division and is shown here with Calvert BM1 and BMCS Enochs. His biographical materials never mention this period even though he was aboard GRIDLEY much longer than he was in Vietnam. Between having these two old salts reporting to him and Captain Slifer after him all the time, Ensign Kerry was a busy young man.
What is "First Division"?
First Division is one of the "Deck Divisions" on a ship. In Navy slang, the "Deck Apes". They swab the decks. They chip paint. They paint the areas they finished chipping. After that, they swab, they chip and they paint somemore. The bottom of the class at Navy Boot Camp ends up in a Deck Division.
In the Ward Room, the First Division Officer is the lowest guy in the ship's officers pecking order. When the XO or the CO need an S.L.J.O. (Shitty Little Jobs Officer), the First Division Officer is the guy that gets the job.
Kerry was in charge of the least skilled sailors in the lowest prestige division on his ship and, apparently, his C.O., Captain Slifer, was not making life very pleasant for our Boston Blue Blood who was more used to sailing on John F. Kennedy's yacht.
What to do?
Swift boats!
At the time, swift boats merely patrolled the coastline or ferried salors between ships.
Most importantly, a mere Lt.(j.g.) was the Officer in Charge (OIC).
Instead of being the SLJO on the USS Gridley, in charge of Deck Ape Division, with Captain Slifer making his life miserable, Kerry pictured himself as the OIC of his own boat, roaring up and down the South China Sea out of the war and with no Captain Slifer anywhere in sight.
But, don't take my word for it.
Let's hear it from John F. Kerry himself:
Boston Globe, 6/16/2003: ........"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."......... But two weeks after he arrived in Vietnam, the swift boat mission changed -- and Kerry went from having one of the safest assignments in the escalating conflict to one of the most dangerous.
Two weeks after Kerry assumed command of his swift boat, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt put into effect his idea of getting those swift boats out of glorified water skiing duty........
Picture of yours truly "RD2 Joe Muharsky" water skiing behind PCF 94 March 1969. Pictured is signed by Senator John Kerry who was a LTJG in Coastal Division 11.
.......into the shooting war in the rivers of the Mekong Delta.
Oooooops.
As Robert Burns once wrote, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."
What does Kerry do now after you have gone from glorified water skier straight into deep kim-chee?
Kerry signed up for being OIC of his own water skiing boat and here he was in the middle of a friggin war!!
Kerry then racked up three Purple Hearts for "injuries" that kept him off duty for a grand total of.....drum roll, please..... two days of duty by his own admission and zero days according to his swift boat C.O.
Kerry then sea-lawyered himself out of combat after only four months and requested a transfer as an "Admiral's aide", preferably in "Boston, New York or Washington".
Boston Globe, 6/16/2003: ......... He requested and was granted a transfer out of Vietnam six months before his combat tour was slated to end on the grounds that he had earned three Purple Hearts. None of his wounds was disabling; he said one cost him two days of service and the other two did not lead to any absence. .........The bottom line is that Kerry could have remained but he chose to seek an early transfer.
When the Boston Globe asked Kerry to give permission for the release of his Navy medical records so that the Boston Globe could document what sort of injuries earned Kerry three Purple Hearts and a ticket out of combat after 4 months.........Kerry refused.
Every decision and/or request John F. Kerry ever made; from First Division Officer to swift boat OIC; from swift boat OIC to early termination of his combat tour; from early termination of his combat tour to Admiral's aide; from Admiral's aide to early discharge from active duty; from early discharge from active duty to politically-popular-in-Massachusets American-G.I.'s-are-war-criminals anti-war protestor.....
Every decision and/or request John F. Kerry ever made in his Navy carreer was made to further the comfort, safety and political ambitions of John F
12
posted on
03/06/2004 5:07:20 PM PST
by
Polybius
To: Polybius
What about the other medal(s) he allegedly got??
To: Betteboop
What about the other medal(s) he allegedly got?? Well, he got a Silver Star for purposely beaching his boat (thereby needlessly endagering his boat and his crew), jumping out of the boat (the Officer in Charge is NEVER supposed to leave his boat) in order to give a coup de grace (his own crew's words) to a Viet Cong that had already been riddled by .50 caliber machine gun fire. He then came back with a souvenier Viet Cong RPG launcher.
He got a Bronze Star for turning his boat around, while under fire, to save a Special Forces man that had fallen overboard. He pulled the man out of the water himself. That one was undoubtedly well-deserved.
So, a Silver Star for needlessly endengering his boat and crew and putting a bullet into a pile of hamburger in order to get a souvenier but only a Bronze Star for saving an American soldier.
Go figure.
14
posted on
03/06/2004 5:36:59 PM PST
by
Polybius
To: Pokey78
How did Kerry get to be an officer....was he in NROTC at Yale?
15
posted on
03/06/2004 5:40:05 PM PST
by
joesnuffy
(Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
To: Pokey78
"When he approached his draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy." Everyone my father knew at that time enlisted in the Navy to avoid action in Vietnam. Most of them ended up on carriers in the Meditterranean. Kerry wanted Swift boats because they operated far from the action. It was only later that they were moved into deltas and rivers. Kerry did everything possible to avoid action. That's fine...but let's just be honest about it.
To: Pokey78
Republican strategists for President Bush were already investigating Sen Kerry's record of three wounds sustained in Vietnam. "We find that he had only one day off sick - with three wounds? What exactly were these wounds?" she asked.Verrrrrry interesting.
To: joesnuffy
How did Kerry get to be an officer....was he in NROTC at Yale? O.C.S. (Officer Candidate School)
You sign up with a college degree under your belt and you are sent off to O.C.S. for the equivalent of an R.O.T.C. course except that it is a full time course rather than part time classes spread out over 4 years.
18
posted on
03/06/2004 8:21:44 PM PST
by
Polybius
To: E=MC<sup>2</sup>
Republican strategists for President Bush were already investigating Sen Kerry's record of three wounds sustained in Vietnam. "We find that he had only one day off sick - with three wounds? What exactly were these wounds?" she asked.
"Just give me the aspirin. I already got a Purple Heart."
19
posted on
03/06/2004 8:26:42 PM PST
by
Polybius
To: Pokey78
Lying hypocrit! "Cadaver man" is a lying hypocrit!
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