Posted on 09/05/2004 7:29:43 AM PDT by Tacis
bump
You are right about kerry.
Thank you for serving your country in Vietnam. You were then and are now one of my heroes. Not all of America felt that way then or do now; I am one of them.
> I've heard Kerry say he served TWO tours of duty.
That can only be literally true if Kerry was a tourist.
He put in only one full "tour", and that was not "in"
Vietnam.
A short tour was one full year. He only served for
4 months in Vietnam on PCFs.
His time on the USS Gridley might have been a full
year, but it was only ever briefly off the coast of VN.
Now if Kerry is refering to his service to North Vietnam,
then yes, he probably gave them a full year of anti-war
service.
___________
"Tour of Duty"
The fictions begin with the title.
However, using this twisted logic, anyone who went on a SpecOp or served any temporary duty in VN could claim they served more than one tour in VN. Heck, if sKerry twists this enough, since he was assigned to 3 different swift boats, he can also claim that he served 4 tours in VN!
Wouldn't it be interesting if PEANUT was involved in this mess.
hubby was vet from that war. Got three years of stipend for education on GI bill,,,suspect Kerry got the same for law school.
Regarding Kerry's "two" tours. The first was on the USS Gridley, of which only five weeks was spent anywhere near Vietnam, on aircraft gaurd duty. The remainder was spent off the west coast of the US and in a transit from there to Australia and back.
His second tour, on the Swifts, was four months, of which the first full month was spent at Cam Ranh Bay, in the safety and comfort of a former French resort while he went through training.
As to his "volunteering" for combat, that's a distortion as well. He first applied for a student deferrment to study in, of all places, Paris. He was refused. So, he volunteered for the Navy, with less prospects for combat duty in-country. After his year on the Gridley, he volunteered for the swift boats. However, at that time, the Swifts were coastal patrol craft that hardly ever saw combat. Right after he joined, they were ordered into the rivers, the dangerous duty with which they made their mark on naval history. Kerry is reported to have complained bitterly at the change.
Thanks, that is great, and very interesting.
Kerry violated much more serious laws when he met secretly with the North Vietnamese while he was still on active reserve duty status. He should be hung or shot for treason to the United States.
But, as regards:
He might have gone for the pardon to prevent this from occurring
I do not believe he could have gotten any kind of pardon under Carter's pardon. Those pardons were for violations of the Army Selective Service Act...Kerry's crimes had nothing to do with that.
Thanks for the ping, SLB. Hammer on the head of a nail, alright!
The Purple Hearts and the medals are just annoyances to them but the anti-war activity hurt them.
It seems as if he was discharged in 1978.
Why the additional six years?
Based only on what's seen here, it looks like he signed up for another six years. Probably in the Active Reserve, which he promptly ignored. He came from a prominent blueblood family. He may not have a desertion behind him (as they accuse W of having), but he may have had to get his service record "touched up" for those missing years, which is why they're off-limits to us.
It also means he was still a commissioned officer while he was hob-nobbing with the North Vietnamese.
Yes, indeed. Why the additional six years?
That'll take years . . .
Check out the John F. Kerry Timeline. Email it to your friends.
.
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