This has been posted several times before.....but who cares lets keep putting this truth out there!!!
Please check your facts. It's very possible that he didn't actually end his time in the IRR (inactive reserves) until 2001. You don't actually get the honorable discharge until you're done with the IRR component of your service.
He would have had to. I was both active and reserve, as was Kerry, and served about the same time as Kerry. I was honorably discharged in the 70's. Kerry's service record irregularities may be only a red herring, but it is sure beginning to stink like fish around the subject.