Pentagon investigates Kerry war medals

This just in - the Pentagon has decided to launch an investigation into Kerry's war medals.

Never give a sucker an even break
Text added to avoid registration (Sydney Morning Herald)

It will result in fuck all being found - but by then the damage will have been done.
These guys have no intention of losing this election.

Pentagon investigates Kerry's war medals
September 6, 2004

In a fresh blow to John Kerry's flagging presidential campaign, the Pentagon has ordered an official investigation into the awarding of the Democratic senator's five Vietnam War decorations.

News of the inquiry came as two of the first polls released since last week's Republican convention said President George Bush had opened an 11-point lead over his rival - the widest margin since serious campaigning began.

The inquiry is to be carried out by the Inspector-General's office of the US Navy, for which Senator Kerry served as a Swift Boat captain for four months in 1968, making two tours of duty. He was wounded in action and subsequently awarded three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. But, for the past month, the details of Senator Kerry's military service in Vietnam have become shrouded in a controversy that the navy now feels warrants a full-blown search for the truth.

A self-styled group of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, many of whom served in Vietnam during the same period, say Senator Kerry exaggerated the significance of combat incidents and inaccurately reported the circumstances of his injuries. The accusations are repeated in a book, Unfit to Command, published last month.


Last week, the Kerry campaign attempted to leave the Vietnam debate behind, as signs appeared that the controversy was damaging Senator Kerry's standing in the polls. But to the consternation of campaign strategists, the US Navy has now agreed to a request by Judicial Watch, a bipartisan lobby group, for a full inquiry.

Judicial Watch is calling for the navy to report before the elections, but navy officials are so far refusing to give any timetable for the inquiry.

The group's president, Tom Fitton, sought an investigation in August into the "determination and final disposition of the awards granted to Lieutenant (junior grade) John Forbes Kerry, US Naval Reserve", in response to the Swift Boat Veterans' allegations.

A navy spokesman confirmed on Friday that the Inspector-General's office at the Pentagon had authorised the inquiry. "There's a feeling that it's time to deal with this thoroughly, once and for all," an official said.

Among other Kerry records to be examined is a citation for bravery that was apparently signed by the former navy secretary John Lehman, and contributed to the award of his Silver Star. The glowing citation states: "By his brave actions, bold initiative and unwavering devotion to duty, Lieutenant Kerry reflected great credit on himself."

But Mr Lehman denies all knowledge of the commendation. "It's a total mystery to me," he said last week. "I never saw it, I never signed it and I never approved it." The inquiry will also investigate other reports and citations leading to the award of Senator Kerry's medals.

Mr Lehman endorsed the investigation on Friday, saying that the relevant navy records needed to be "thoroughly researched and the facts established".

In an angry statement from campaign headquarters, Michael Meehan, Senator Kerry's senior adviser, condemned the inquiry as a waste of resources.

"The facts are clear," Mr Meehan said. "The navy awarded John Kerry the Silver Star, a Bronze Star with Combat V and three Purple Hearts. This is a waste of taxpayers' dollars and the Pentagon's time, especially during wartime."



[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by Pauillac]

JW is about as close to non-partisian as Fox new is. it was started to attack the Clinton administration and has stopped swinging yet.

Yes, but NOBODY earns five medals in a month.

This is just so many levels of sad that I'm almost ashamed to live here.

wow. the administration is run by savages.

any chance they could also investigate bush's record, if and when he went AWOL, skipped his flying assignments, abused coke and couldnt pass physicals?

anyone?

prettyplease?

Yeah? Let's see your combat creds tuba boy.

John Kerry fabricates his military decorations, and the Bush campaign is the villain for pointing it out. Classic.

Reminds me of Clinton blaming his sex scandals on Ken Starr,

Reminds me of the Klan saying they're "pro-white."

Edit: you also accuse everyone he served with and the Navy of faking documents. What evidence do you have.

[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by Raoul_Duke]

This is coming from a guy who is in the Sampley camp.

-- Ted Sampley -- head of this group has a long history of irrational public attacks against both John McCain and John Kerry. In 1992 Sampley created a fake photo of John Kerry shooting an American MIA. He has been jailed for starting a fight with John McCain's staff, and has called McCain the Manchurian Candidate, accusing him of being "brainwashed by the Vietnamese" and being a "KGB spy."

John McCain on these people who these guys put so much trust in:

Notice the Neo-Cons ignore this because they think John McCain is a Vietmaneese soldier. They are sick people.

[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by Raoul_Duke]

There's a nifty campaign reform idea: Any inquiries into one candidate's records must also be made into the other's. You'd better believe the Bush administration wouldn't have said shit about shit if that were the case.

This is not good news!! And only 2 months before the election??!!

He's down guys, let the swift kicks to the gut ensue....

This is a ridiculous waste of time, I agree with dirtyprude, why in the hell do they figure out what Bush was doing for a year.

Also I think reprobate's "tuba boy" comment was hilarious

You realize that with this particular lie, you not only denigrate the candidate who is a decorated veteran, but also the dozens of other decorated combat veterans who were actually there and have uniformly testified on Kerry's behalf right?

"Now, 35 years after the fact, some Republican-financed Swift Boat Veterans for Bush are suddenly lying about John Kerry's service in Vietnam; they are calling him a traitor because he spoke out against the Nixon administration's failed policies in Vietnam. Some of these Republican-sponsored veterans are the same ones who spoke out against John at the behest of the Nixon administration in 1971. But this time their attacks are more vicious, their lies cut deep and are directed not just at John Kerry, but at me and each of his crewmates as well. This hate-filled ad asserts that I was not under fire; it questions my words and Navy records. This smear campaign has been launched by people without decency, people who don't understand the bond of those who serve in combat."

Jim Rassman thinks your a liar, too, Stock.

[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by reprobate]

call him baritone boy instead...its more inflammatory to those euphonium player-types

Yep, this is what the Pentagon should be worrying about right now. Glad to see my tax dollars going to good use, yet again.

The Inspector General's office is a thorn in the side of Both parties. Don't think for a second that the administration has controll over them. The IG recieves complaints about thousands of things every year, including complaints about Rosswell NM, (as you can see, not all investigations from the IG are super serious.) A good many of them are investigated.

An another note, if Kerry was honorable and deserved the medals, he can only be vindicated by this investigation. He is toted as a war hero by himself and his party. Somebody seems to have gotten tired of it enough to pry into the matter. Agree with the Swift Boat Vets or not, they are getting some results. All this would have been averted by Kerry if he had merely release ALL of the records that are pertainent to his service. As it stands, about 96% of records that could prove, or disprove, him are not public record.

Anyone else see Band of Brothers?

There's a scene where one of the men from Easy Company is recovering in a military hospital when a general comes in, congratulates the young GI and awards him a Purple Heart. The guy next to him shakes his head as the injured soldier puts his new Purple Heart next to two others he received.

The injured guy explains to his friend that he's been shot three times.

At the same time, nurses wheel in a new patient, whose entire head is wrapped in bandages. The guy, whose name was Blithe, was in bad shape and he eventually died.

This prompts the first GI's friend to turn to him, nod toward Blithe and say "Yeah, but he only gets one Purple Heart."

The point of all this? I don't know if anything Kerry did was criminal, but I have heard more than one veteran say it was in bad taste to nominate yourself for a Purple Heart, and I've heard others say that if you have been injured to the point where a Purple Heart was warranted, someone else would certainly do the nominating for you.

Case in point: A guy I know who walked all 65 miles of the Bataan Death March with shrapnel in his legs.

Also, Kerry has a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. I don't know if this is a fair comparison, but in all of Iwo Jima only 27 medals were awarded, and you're talking about 6,000+ people dead and some 20,000 wounded.

Then again, I'm not going to question Kerry's service. I have a lot of respect for the simple fact that he fought in the Vietnam war.

[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by Ecto_One]

Before you read this, here's the long story short. Kerry claimed in his biography to have won his first Purple Heart while commanding a boat that took enemy fire. The actual commander of the boat (Kerry misreports himself as being the commander of the boat) mistakenly thought there were enemy forces, and ordered Kerry to open fire. Kerry was wounded by a grenade he shot too close to himself. Turns out the commander of the boat was mistaken, there were no enemy forces, they had shot into vacant brush. Kerry requested a Purple heart for the wound, his commander advised their CO to deny the request since there was no hostile fire. The CO concurred. John Kerry nevertheless won the Purple Heart, somehow,

Statement of RADM William L. Schachte, Jr. USN (Ret.)
August 27, 2004

As was true of all "Swiftees," I volunteered to serve in Vietnam and was assigned to Coastal Division 14 for a normal tour of duty.

I was a Lieutenant serving as Operations Officer and second in command at Coastal Division 14 when Lieutenant (junior grade) John Kerry reported to us in mid-November, 1968. Lt. (jg) Kerry was an Officer-in-Charge (O-in-C) under training in preparing to be assigned as one of our Swift Boat O-in-C's.

At some point following President Johnson's announcement of the suspension of bombing in North Vietnam in March 1968, we were directed to become more aggressive in seeking to find and destroy or disrupt the enemy in our operating area. As part of this effort, I conceived a new operation that became known as "Skimmer OPS." The concept was simple. A 15-foot Boston Whaler was sent into an area where, based on coordinated intelligence, North Vietnamese cadre and Viet Cong were expected to be meeting or where, for example, concentrations of enemy forces might be involved in the movement of arms or munitions. We were to draw fire and quickly get out of the area. This would allow more concentrated firepower to be brought against the enemy forces we had been able to identify.

These operations were carried out only in "hot" areas and well away from any villages or populated areas. A Swift Boat would tow the skimmer to the general area of operations, and the ambush team would then board the skimmer and proceed to the designated area of operations. The Swift Boat would be riding shotgun and standing off, occasionally out of sight, to provide fire support and long-range communications. The Skimmer was powered by an outboard motor, and we carried an FM radio, handheld flares, an M-60 machine gun with a bipod mount, and an M-16 mounted with a starlight scope. If the night was heavily overcast, we brought an M-14 mounted with an infrared scope. We also carried an M-79 single-shot grenade launcher. In addition to our combat gear and flak jackets, we often carried .38-caliber pistols.

The operation consisted of allowing the skimmer to drift silently along shorelines or riverbanks to look or listen for sounds of enemy activity. If activity was identified, we would open fire with our automatic weapons, and if we received fire, we would depart the area as quickly as possible, leaving it to air support or mortar fire from a Swift Boat standing off at a distance to carry out an attack.

I commanded each of these Skimmer operations up to and including the one on the night in question involving Lt. (jg) Kerry. On each of these operations, I was in the skimmer manning the M-60 machine gun. I took with me one other officer and an enlisted man to operate the outboard motor. I wanted another officer because officers, when not on patrol, were briefed daily on the latest intelligence concerning our sector of operations and were therefore more familiar with the current intelligence. Additionally, at these daily briefings, officers debriefed on their patrol areas after returning to port.

On the night of December 2-3, we conducted one of these operations, and Lt. (jg) Kerry accompanied me. Our call sign for that operation was "Batman." I have no independent recollection of the identity of the enlisted man, who was operating the outboard motor. Sometime during the early morning hours, I thought I detected some movement inland. At the time we were so close to land that we could hear water lapping on the shoreline. I fired a hand-held flare, and upon it bursting and illuminating the surrounding area, I thought I saw movement. I immediately opened fire with my M-60. It jammed after a brief burst. Lt. (jg) Kerry also opened fire with his M-16 on automatic, firing in the direction of my tracers. His weapon also jammed. As I was trying to clear my weapon, I heard the distinctive sound of the M-79 being fired and turned to see Lt. (jg) Kerry holding the M-79 from which he had just launched a round. We received no return fire of any kind nor were there any muzzle flashes from the beach. I directed the outboard motor operator to clear the area.

Upon returning to base, I informed my commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Grant Hibbard, of the events, informing him of the details of the operation and that we had received no enemy fire. I did not file an "after action" report, as one was only required when there was hostile fire. Soon thereafter, Lt. (jg) Kerry requested that he be put in for a Purple Heart as a result of a small piece of shrapnel removed from his arm that he attributed to the just-completed mission. I advised Lt. Cmdr. Hibbard that I could not support the request because there was no hostile fire. The shrapnel must have been a fragment from the M-79 that struck Lt. (jg) Kerry, because he had fired the M-79 too close to our boat. Lt. Cmdr. Hibbard denied Lt. (jg) Kerry's request. Lt. (jg) Kerry detached our division a few days later to be reassigned to another division. I departed Vietnam approximately three weeks later, and Lt. Cmdr. Hibbard followed shortly thereafter. It was not until years later that I was surprised to learn that Lt. (jg) Kerry had been awarded a Purple Heart for this night.

I did not see Lt. (jg) Kerry in person again for almost 20 years. Sometime in 1988, while I was on Capitol Hill, I ran into him in the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building. I was at that time a Rear Admiral and in uniform. He was about 20 paces away, waiting to catch the underground subway. In a fairly loud voice I called out to him, "Hey, John." He turned, looked at me, came over and said, "Batman!" We exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes, agreed to have lunch sometime in the future, and parted ways. We have not been together since that day.

In March of this year, I was contacted by one of my former swift boat colleagues concerning Douglas Brinkley¹s book about Senator Kerry, "Tour of Duty." I told him that I had not read it. He faxed me a copy of the pages relating to the action on the night of December 2-3, 1968. I was astonished by Senator Kerry¹s rendition of the facts of that night. Notably, Lt. (jg) Kerry had himself in charge of the operation, and I was not mentioned at all. He also claimed that he was wounded by hostile fire.

None of this is accurate. I know, because I was not only in the boat, but I was in command of the mission. He was never more than several feet away from me at anytime during the operation that night. It is inconceivable that any commanding officer would put an officer in training, who had been in country only a couple of weeks, in charge of such an ambush operation. Had there been enemy action that night, there would have been an after action report filed, which I would have been responsible for filing.

I have avoided talking to media about this issue for months. But, because of the recent media attention, I felt I had to step up to recount my personal experiences concerning this incident.

http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document200408280010.asp




[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by stockula]

Right, this is bipartisan.

The Pentagon, after all, is bipartisan.

They would never, for instance, allow active duty soldiers to be delegates to the RNC.

Oh wait, yeah they would.

Based off what I said, the right cares more about ONE purple heart than a complete Vietnam dodge and a complete record...it's called the "cult of personality." It's like Kim Jong-Il with better hair. This is obvious BS to most people even Republicans...only those in the cult of personality give it any credit.

Edit: this is Zell Miller on Kerry.

[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by Raoul_Duke]

Long story shorter: Schachte's name appears nowhere in the official record and the other two crewmen who were actually there have attested to the fact that not only wasn't here there, they didn't have a grenade launcher. They are also both on the record before Schachte appeared out of the ether. Their account was also edited to remove all references to enemy fire on the SBV website and then removed entirely so as not to contradict Schacte's claim.

Bill Zaladonis and Pat Runyon think you're a liar, too Stock.

If that's the case, they're in violation of regulations. If it's true, I also hope that they get in a lot of trouble, as I personally (as a military servicemember) am not at all a fan of the military being an active participant in politics. I would much rather leave the responsibility of affecting and shaping policy to civilians, and have us just do the whole "executing" part (I'm sure a bunch of folks loved that pun ) . I'll look this up when I return stateside, but there's a good chance that this is bad reporting. It wouldn't be the first time that officers fulfilling remaining time in the (inactive) reserves were misidentified for a variety of reasons and articles. Those sort of errors happen often; for instance, one book I was checking out today made reference to the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) making their first combat jump since WWII in northern Iraq during OIF. It was untrue, of course, and if one journalist-slash-author can misidentify more than 20,000 soldiers, their mission, their geographical location, and their role in the war... well... you get my point.

[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by Phoebus]

He did?

You have anything besides your usual brand of right-wing kook pseudo-journalism to back this up?

This is news to me.

Long story shorter still, it doesn't explain how he fabricated the other two purple hearts, the silver star, and the bronze star. It also doesn't explain why the fuck we're still talking about this.

[Edited on Sep 05, 2004 by AceTracer]

*gasp!!* Do you mean that something printed in Buckley's right wing rag the National Review is actually wrong??? Could it be? Well...that would mean that people like Rush are wrong too and maybe even liars!!

My world is collapsing around me.