"O'NEILL: Step number 1 is, he wounded himself that morning, and also with respect to this wounded and bleeding arm, the records show that the was contusion minor, small bruise treated with cold cloth. There was no wounded, bleeding arm. So the third Purple Heart that he picked up to leave Vietnam in this incident was a complete fraud.
RUSH: Do you think he was trying to get out of Vietnam?
O'NEILL: Without question, Rush. "
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O'Neill needs to clarify for the majority that whatever the wound from the rice incident, it did not qualify for a Purple Heart per regulations.
"O'NEILL: That's a wonderful question. First of all, all of our guys say there was no second mine, as reported by Kerry. At least none of them heard it. There's no evidence of any damage to the Kerry boat from any second mine. Kerry produced a damage report, but it reflects injuries the day before to his boat, not that day. We know that from page 304 of his book Tour...."
So, maybe, Kerry dummied up the damage report to coincide with his dummied up report that the "fanny" wound occured during the fictional second mine accident.
Talking to some people, the thing they don't understand, including some who should know (:)), is why teh PH shouldn't have been awarded for the rice incident. Per rules it seems it was self-inflicted and not during the heat of battle so did meet the PH requirement, and could not be his ticket home.