Can someone tell me if Kerry ever received a wound that broke the skin surface on this outing? I have heard that all he had was a good sized bruise/ or contusion on his forearm.
I understand that sKerry suffered a self inflicted wound to his buttocks earlier that day. He tossed a concussion grenade into a rice pile but didn't move far enough away. Rice was blown into his flesh. The mine explosion bruised his arm. From what I understand, neither wound qualifies for a Purple Heart. However, apparently the bruise was caused by an enemy combat action.
I'll see if I can find a link but as I recall part of the description was "forearm, contusion (minor)".
From that incident yes, just a contusion. But Kerry used the spearate rice in the butt incident and combined the two to get a purple heart making it seem like he suffered the wound to the buttocks during this incident. If you read Kerry's casualty report dated March 14, it states that "LTjg Kerry suffered shapnel wounds in his left buttocks and contusions on his right forearm when a mine detonated close aboard PCF-94.