Kerry's First Purple Heart

One of the Swiftee allegations is that Kerry did not deserve his first Purple Heart.

The Kerry talking point in defense of this seems to be, the doctor who is doing the complaining isn't even the one who signed the medical form.

This was addressed back in May by the LA Times, and more recently by the good doctor himself, with Jim Geraghty of the NRO, chatting with the NRA (yeah, he's great in front of a friendly crowd...). From the LA Times, as reprinted by the Seattle Times:

Letson said that Carreon, a lower-ranked "hospitalman," was "present at the time and he, in fact, made the entry into Lt. Kerry's medical record."

Mr. Carreon died in 1992.

Props to the commenters at Q and O.

The Purple Heart regs are here. Friendly fire and accidents in combat would qualify, so I am not sure why Kerry's accident wouldn't, strictly speaking, qualify. However, it was just a scratch...

MORE: My stint as a JAG ends - Under 2-8 (b) 6 (b), Kerry wins:

(b) Individuals wounded or killed as a result of "friendly fire" in the "heat of battle" will be awarded the Purple Heart as long as the "friendly" projectile or agent was released with the full intent of inflicting damage or destroying enemy troops or equipment.

Under 2-8 (b) 5 (h), I suppose Kerry could lose:

(5) Examples of injuries or wounds which clearly do not qualify for award of the Purple Heart are as follows:

(h) Self-inflicted wounds, except when in the heat of battle, and not involving gross negligence.

OK, the Kerry people should change their talking points.

And we still haven't seen the after-action reports for December (when this incident, and "Christmas in Cambodia" both occurred). C'mon, John you made a promise to Tim Russert.

We want the March 18/19 after-action, too - c'mon, Brinkley uses five pages of his book to excerpt from your "War Notes" journal discussing your March 18 mission is support of Operation Menu, and you can't release a simple after-action report? Like you said you would? C'mon.

Comments

[Tom Bowler]

Excerpting the Pandagon post: "The reason that Corsi's quotes from Free Republic are germane isn't because they show him to be a nasty, bigoted f**khead. Although they do. It's because they show him to be a highly partisan, bigoted, anti-liberal, anti-Muslim, anti-all humans but Republicans kind of guy."

I guess he's got all his facts in order. Pretty convincing argument, wouldn't you say?

[capt joe]

Ah, exactly the sort of person the repulicans are looking. hmmmm....

That certaintly says a lot about the poster. Is this highly partisan, bigoted, anti-conservative person a democrat's kind of guy.

Is ad hom the only sort of argument they know. They seem to feel that they are allowed to say the sort of things that they accuse the republicans of being. Projection.

[antimedia]

However, the Swiftvets point out that there was no enemy fire during the incident. We really need to see those after-action reports. Those will tell the tale (hopefully.)

[J_Crater]

Release the military records .. NOW!

[Lapsed Randian]

The medical records should be released because they are objective evidence, and, if they support Kerry's war stories, would drive a stake through this controversy. In fact, if Kerry were really on his game, he would release them with some fanfare, and blame the R's for causing him to have to cough up such private information.

We know that Kerry, based on his recent "7 Minutes of Delay" cheapshot alone, is very capable of this kind of tactical audacity. The questions thus becomes: why not do so? I'm afraid the question answers itself.

[Crank]

Serious question - are Kerry's journals generally available (at least to mainstream journalists), or just to Brinkley?

[polly]

This quote is from the Monterey Herald, linked below

"Veterans who were on the boat with Kerry give a different version. Pat Runyon said the crew was patrolling north of Cam Ranh Bay the night of Dec. 2, 1968, when Kerry and fellow crewman Bill Zaledonis spotted Viet Cong guerrillas massed on a beach and began firing.

He said Kerry was subsequently treated for a wound to the arm, which led to his first Purple Heart."

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mcherald/2004/07/13/news/nation/9142574.htm

[Polly]

here is Kerry's "7 minutes of delay" cheapshot
quote from NYT august 6

Mr. Kerry's railroad tour, which ends Monday in Kingman, Ariz., began after he detoured to Washington by airplane to address a national convention of minority journalists, where he was asked what would he have done had he been president on Sept. 11, 2001, if he was reading a story to a group of schoolchildren when an aide told him that the United States was under attack.

"I would have told those kids, very politely and nicely," Mr. Kerry said, "that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/06/politics/campaign/06kerry.html

[Brainster]

Tom, IIRC the issue has more to do with whether or not there is an actual enemy engaged. Wounded in friendly fire in a combat situation: Purple Heart (as sadly this year with Pat Tillman). Wounded in friendly fire with no enemy around: No Purple Heart.

[TM]

Brainster, I hear you, but... if Kerry reasonably believed he was shooting at some Viet Cong on the beach, I would think he qualifies. The fact that no shots were fired at Kerry's crew obviously counts against him (since incoming shots would have been convincing evidence of an enemy presence).

OTOH, if the crew had gone ashore and found that Kerry had blown up a water buffalo, that might suggest he wounded himself while shooting at shadows, and did not qualify for a Purple Heart (no enemy, negligence, whatever).

The thing is, he got a minor, self-inflicted scratch in what may or may not have been a combat situation. Probably not your typical Purple Heart, but maybe within the letter (if not the spirit) of the regs.

Well, it was obviously not within the spirit, since his CO, Hibard, refused to support it.

[Richard]

Release the records Jean Qerry!

[Greg D]

Tom,

If the officer commanding Kerry at the time of the action had signed off on the award request, Kerry would be pretty much in the clear. But he didn't. At least, that's what the CO says now. If Kerry releases his paperwork, we can find out who signed for the award, and when. If he doesn't, that probably tells us something, too.

But, if the "Swifties" are correct, then there was no "we were under enemy fire" report filed for the incident. Which makes it hard for Kerry to claim it was a friendly fire wound caused because of enemy attack.

Greg

[BigBird]

Could his records indicate that a piece of "Rice" was removed from the wound??

One of the "Hearts" was awared because he got wounded when throwing a frag, into a rice cache.

Hmmm..

Come on JFK, sign the 180...

Bird

PS: Life is Good

[TM]

The rice-in-buttocks was part of the comedy surrounding the third Purple Heart (and is mentioned in Brinkley's book.

[Karin Dunklin]

Stolen Honor"
http://www.buttondepress.com/BostonManifesto/StolenHonor.wmv
http://tinyurl.com/699su

I would like to make one clarification on this video regarding the segment featuring Admiral (later Senator) Jeremiah Denton: Prior to the interview depicted, Denton was severely tortured to force him to condemn U.S. policy. He defied his captors by stating the following: " I don't know what is going on in the war now because the only sources I have access to are North Vietnamese radio, magazines and newspapers. But whatever the position of my government is, I agree with it, support it and will support it as long as I live." Not only had Denton defied his captors with his words, but he consistently blinked "TORTURE" in Morse Code during the interview. This was later detected by Naval intelligence and it was the first confirmation of torture to U.S. POW's by the North Vietnamese. Afterwards, Denton was again severely tortured for his defiance. As strongly and positively as this video portrays our POW's, such heroism is beyond our imaginings. .......................................................................................Steve Sherman

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WOUNDS THAT NEVER HEAL
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but Alessandra Stanley in The New York Times on October 21, 2004 said:

"Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," the highly contested anti-Kerry documentary, should not be shown by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It should be shown in its entirety on all the networks, cable stations and on public television . . . . [I]t does help viewers better understand the rage fueling the unhappy band of brothers who oppose Mr. Kerry's candidacy and his claim to heroism."

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STOLEN HONOR
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