Kerry - Pardoned by Carter in 1977?

The record is puzzling. Why would Kerry claim hero status and then refuse to allow us to see his record and allow every reader to confirm his claims? Why, even in war time, does Kerry’ service in the USNR appear to stretch from 1966 to 1978, 12 years? How does one explain the strange irregularities (multiple citations for his Silver Star) and inconsistencies in the Kerry military records that are available? Why does the 6 year (plus six month?) USNR obligation begun by Kerry in 2/66 appear to end in 1/70 again, in time of war, even though available records seem to indicate that the terminal date of his reserve obligation was 17 Feb 1972? Why are the documents that should be available, not there? The answers to all these question may be linked and surprisingly obvious. My thesis would be very easy to disprove (if it is false) by simply releasing Kerry’s entire military record.

Even if you include a lot of puffery and self-promotion, Kerry’s in-country record in late 1968 and early 1969 was exceptional and one to be admired and honored. But, for reasons we do not yet understand, in roughly late 1969, Kerry turned bad.

In late 1969, Kerry asked for an early release from “active duty”even though he had re-upped to serve on active duty until August, 1970. He said he wished to enter the democrat party primary, held in September, 1970 in Massachusetts, to be a candidate for Congress for the Third District. He was detached from active duty effective 4:00 PM, 2 January 1970 and specifically reminded the he assumed “... The status of a member of the Naval Reserve on inactive duty.”

The paper trail of available Navy records disappears for almost 8 years. In March, 1970, Kerry drops out of the Congressional primary in favor of the notorious Father Drinan, Dean of Boston College Law School (where Kerry later attended law school, 1973-1976). From early, 1970 through the Summer of 1973, Kerry takes part in activities involving war protests, meeting in Paris with Viet Cong representatives and the leadership of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. These activities, some of which may have been legal, were of very questionable patriotism for an honest citizen of the US but certainly inappropriate for a US Naval officer.

That’s pretty much fact. Now, the thesis that explains the rest of the mysteries. I believe that Kerry was court martialed in the early 70s or otherwise terminated from the USNR under conditions other than honorable. Whatever actually happened represented a stain on Kerry’s record that might not have been taken lightly even by voters in Massachusetts.

Then, on January 21,1977, Democrat President Jimmy Carter (POTUS - January 20,1977 - January 20,1981) gave a blanket pardon, in Proclamation 4483, to certain offenders as follows:

“Acting pursuant to the grant of authority in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States, do hereby grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to: (1) all persons who may have committed any offense between August 4, 1964 and March 28, 1973 in violation of the Military Selective Service Act or any rule or regulation promulgated thereunder; and (2) all persons heretofore convicted, irrespective of the date of conviction, of any offense committed between August 4, 1964 and March 28, 1973 in violation of the Military Selective Service Act, or any rule or regulation promulgated thereunder, restoring to them full political, civil and other rights.”

Thus, if my thesis is correct, Kerry’s offense must have occurred between 2 January 1970 and March 28, 1973. My thesis suggests that during 1977, Kerry made application for full pardon under the administrative procedures promulgated by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Department of Justice. He almost certainly sought and received the support of Massachusetts Senator Kennedy who had much clout in the Carter administration. Kennedy may have been responsible for suggesting that the records of such a fine young man be embellished by Citations from the Secretary of the Navy, rather than a mere admiral, and in other details not yet known.

In my hypothesis, Kerry’s request for full pardon was granted. Kerry applied for his military records to be corrected accordingly, and applied for an honorable discharge. The Secretary of the Navy wrote to Kerry on Feb 16 1978, enclosing an Honorable Discharge Certificate and stating:

“This action is taken in accordance with the approved recommendations of a board of officers convened ... to examine the official records of officers of the Naval Reserve on inactive duty and determine whether they should be retained on the rolls of the Reserve Component or separated from the naval service pursuant to Secretarial instructions promulgated in reference [c].”

The reference, “[c],”is to “BUPERSMAN 3830300.” A Google search did not provide any information regarding the text of this provision. But, this might explain why he was discharged 12 long years after enlistment.

This hypothesis explains the inconsistencies in Kerry’s record and makes it clear why he acts like a three card Monte dealer in insisting that we watch his time in Nam very carefully and not pay attention to what happened afterward. It is exactly the position Benedict Arnold took with respect to what happened at West Point and afterward.

Proofs? Well, no. Certainly, the official USNR file on Kerry would quickly prove or disprove my thesis. Kerry refuses to sign a Standard Form 180 authorizing the Navy to release it, suggesting that Kerry has much more to lose by showing his records than by continuing to conceal material information. Kennedy? Not likely that his office would say anything that might negatively effect Kerry even though it might be in the nation’s best interest. It is, after all, Kennedy. The US Navy? It is unlikely that the Navy would, of its own volition, risk alienating a sitting US Senator and a man who might be the next CinC. Kerry’s first wife, Julia Thorne, who went to Paris with Kerry when he met with the Viet Cong, and her brother, David H. Thorne, certainly might be able to add facts but, would the old timey, ultra-left wing, liberal media even ask them?

But, there is a another possibility. Many aspects of the Presidential Pardon/Clemency process are matters of public record, in the Department of Justice. If Jimmy Carter pardoned Kerry, there should be a public record that Kerry shouldn’t be able to conceal. An applicant appears to be told in the application process:

"A record of each Certificate of Pardon will be maintained in the Office of the Pardon Attorney as an official record, together with your application form and any other documents compiled in the course of processing your request. The Pardon Attorney may disclose the contents of such files to anyone when the disclosure is required by law or the ends of justice. In particular, public record documents that may be compiled in the course of processing an application, such as the judgment order from the criminal case for which pardon is sought, trial or sentencing transcripts, court opinions, and newspaper articles, are generally made available upon request by third-parties (including representatives of the news media) pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, unless such disclosure could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of the petitioner's personal privacy. In addition, unsolicited Congressional correspondence is treated in the same manner. On the other hand, non-public documents that may be compiled in the course of processing an application, such as the application form itself, are not generally available under the Freedom of Information Act."

Publicly available information: Executive clemency statistics from the administration of President McKinley to the present; rules governing the pardon attorney and petitions for executive clemency published at 28 C.F.R. §§ 0.35-36 and § 1.1 et seq.; forms for applying for executive clemency; publication: Civil Disabilities of Convicted Felons: A State-by-State Survey (October 1996); copies of clemency warrants and proclamations for persons who have been granted executive clemency; description of clemency procedures contained in United States Attorney's Manual at § 1-2.110 et seq.; whether an individual has applied for executive clemency and action on such application."

Thus, I would urge any individual or member of the media with an interest in learning the truth about Kerry’s total military record to contact/visit the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Department of Justice and inquire whether there are any records for John Forbes Kerry. Check variations of Kerry’s name (intentional misfiling?), things like “John Kerry Forbes.” Kerry’s Social Security Number appears to be shown, unredacted, on a 17 Dec 1970 document in his file but his Military ID number is not known. Finally, don’t limit inquiries to actions under Proclamation 4483, President Carter may have taken some clemency action because key party members may have required him to. Finally, From a reading of the above, it appears that certain information should be available on a “walk in” basis and other information must be requested via FOIA application.

Samuel T. Morison, Attorney Advisor Office of the Pardon Attorney 4th Floor, 500 First Street, N.W. Department of Justice Washington, DC 20530-0001 (202) 616-6070

United States Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney 4th Floor, 500 First Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530"

Several observations: It is indeed unfortunate that a man who would be President, so distrusts the American public and his own background that he hides material information in his military records in the hope of hornswoggling the electorate, of tricking us into believing he is one thing when, in fact, he may be another. Second, the above process should have long ago been followed by the media. It is also unfortunate that most of the traditional media are far too interested in electing Kerry to bother with doing any fact finding or reporting of information that might dissuade the electorate or present the truth.

Proof? Again, no, no proof, but as long as Kerry in his arrogance, refuses to trust Americans, we have the right to make assumptions about his dishonesty, mendacity and refusal to be candid and to assume that he uses similar duplicity with respect to other matters, as well. The above represents my current best guess about why Kerry is being dishonest and what he is hiding.

Masterful! I aked a similar question some time ago HERE. For some reason, his insistence that we look at his left hand while his right hand manipulated the shell set off a small alarm in the back of my devious female mind.

GREAT POST. And I hope you're right, because my wacky hypothesis would have spelled trouble for Bush. My suspicion was on something I'm all-too familiar with. Many servicemembers were 'sheep-dipped' which meant that they were discharged from the military for classified 'civilian' work. It could be that Kerry was tied up with U.S. Intel rather tightly and all this stuff he did in Vietnam could be, well, explained if only it wasn't still classified. If that were the case, then it could backfire on Bush if it somehow got declassified to clear his name. It could explain Cambodia (before my time, but I know that SOG was definitely in there way back early in the war). It could explain his 'extracurricular' activities stateside from about 70 to 73. Kinda spook stuff, but possible. The biggest problem with all this of course is the fact that so many people served with him in a non-classified role. But perhaps he could have been ship-dipped only after he returned stateside?

The more I think about, I think you're on to something here. I think you're probably right. He probably went AWOL after taking leave stateside, started getting involved in protesting and had to be pardoned by that a$%-clown Carter.

"If he's a member of the American Legion, he must submit a copy of his DD214 to join."

Yes, but there are two types of DD214's. An UNDELETED Report of Separation and a DELETED Report of Separation.

You can select either, and here are the differences (per Standard Form 180):

UNDELETED VERSION: -- "This normally will be a copy of the full separation document including susch sensitive items as the character of separation, authority for separation, reason for separation, reenlistment code, separation (SPD/SPN) code, and dates of times lost. An undeleted version is ordinarily required to determine eligibility for benefits."

DELETED VERSION: -- "The following information will be deleted from the copy sent: authority for separation, reason for separation, reenlistment eligibility code, separation (SPD/SPN) code, and for separations after June 30, 1979, character of separation and time lost."

don't forget - Kerry was drafted - he was refused deferrment to school in Paris so he joined with the Naval Reserve (like the National Guard) in hopes of avoiding combat. When he was sent to Vietnam he chose swift boats because, at that time, they were not involved in any hostile activities. It was only thereafter that their mission changed and he was forced to serve in combat, something he whined and complained incessantly about for those 3 months he served, before getting his 3rd Purple Heart and bugging out 3 days later, arriving home in NYC "so heavily bandaged", his former fiance told Douglas Brinkley, she could see it stuffing out.

James Webb audio on NPR......disappointing, IMO

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3869115

you will need realplayer or WinMed-9

click "all things considered"......3 minutes or so

I didn't know that; I mean, that he was drafted. Jeez, I need to read that "Unfit for Command" book! Anyway, I think it would have had to been a violation of the "failed to report for drill" type since the pardon referred to was for draft card burners (and their various AWOL ilk). The early release was probably an early-out request, which is a standard but not well-known way of getting out of active duty early. I know they do it for college. If he were discharged from the USNR under LTH conditions, then the pardon would probably reverse that to Honorable.

If Kerry was indeed an informant against the VVAW, the media will take a very unsympathtic view of it. With all their "hero candidadte" rhetoric, the left is really the most proud of Kerry trashing the US/military when he returned from Vietnam. They would NOT want him "working with" the "government." But if Kerry did, wouldn't it be just like him? Just another flip-flp and knife in the back of friends.

Regarding the SPD/SPN codes: IIRC, these stopped being put on DD214s mid-1970s.

If Kerry's DD214 (pdf format, from his web site) is from March 1970, where's the spin code?

(It's been 30+ years since I looked at DD214s, so corrections welcomed.)

Since Kerry is now being investigated by the Dept of The Navy, little bits and pieces surface, such as Kerry being courtmartialed in the early 70's by the Navy.

There are other traces that may be even more interesting... I'm speculating here, but at a bare minimum there should be an Article 32 investigation - with the attendant reports, transcripts, etc. that would normally be done in conjunction with any courts martial.

Someone, somewhere knows ALL about this. They will come forward before all this is over.

Did reserve status gain JF'K any pay? Medical benefits? College help? Cheap PX purchases like cigs or medicine?

Rumor has it that Jean Fraude stocked up on medals at the PX so he had plenty to lob over the White House fence.

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