My guess-timate is that John Kerry did not ask to resign, and there is some probability that he fell into a pool of officers who were roughly and/or loosely contientious objectors, about whom the Navy did not wish to complete a less than Honorable Discharge. The group administratively languished.
When President Carter offered amnesty, the group members who cared to, probably proceeded down some administrative openings and resigned, in order to put it all behind them, receiving Honorable Discharges.
Probably, something like that, is what transpired for John Kerry.
Unless he was "a person of administrative interest," and thus, because of his not-so-stellar post-Vietnam duty performance, he'd gotten himself into "administrative hot water."
President Carter's order, "cool it," ended the matter and probably the Navy was happy to rid itself of the paperwork.
The slim chance that Lt. Kerry was administratively of interest because he did something about which the U.C.M.J. would come into play, is tantalizing for some, but not likely; mostly because, the Navy did not do anything more to him, than the Navy did to the bulk of the group, which was to let them go quietly and on paper, Honorably.
As bumpy as John Kerry's career in the Navy may have been, there is no significant Navy challenge to it, indeed, there is the Navy official stamp of approval on it.
Absent a significant evidentiary find that would satisfy a U.C.M.J. participation, the case is closed.
That does not mean that the participants and witnesses are wrong, though such a conclusion is for what the leftists have produced in the public eye.
I don't think so. I was a naval officer at the same time and received a similar letter. I resigned my commission in Nov 1972 after spending almost 8 years on active duty and was transferred into the Standby Reserves. I received my Honorable Discharge on Feb 16, 1978, the same date as Kerry who went into the Standby Reserves in 1972. It is part of the administrative process as an officer transitions through the Reserve system. Based on my personal experience, I don't buy any of the less than Honorable Discharge nonsense or a Carter pardon.