Did John Kerry receive only two Purple Hearts? -or- Was One Illegitimate?

[Bertha Venation]

According to this article, the answer's yes:

No record at Naval Historical of John Kerry's First Purple Heart

http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/04/27/Politics/Purple.Hearts.Three.And.Out-656749.shtml

~snip~

According to Kerry's own description in Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty, the Dec. 2, 1968, mission behind what he has claimed to be his first Purple Heart was "a half-assed action that hardly qualified as combat." Indeed. Kerry was stationed with Coastal Division 14 at Cam Ranh Bay. At that time he piloted a small foam-filled boat, known as a Boston Whaler, with two enlisted men in the darkness of early morning. The intent, apparently, was to patrol an area that was known for contraband trafficking, but it was an undocumented mission. Upon approaching the objective point, the crew noticed a sampan crossing the river. As it pulled to shore, Kerry and his little team opened fire, destroying the boat and whatever its cargo might have been.

In the confusion, Kerry claims to have received a "stinging piece of heat" in the arm, the result of a tiny piece of shrapnel. He was not incapacitated and continued with regular swiftboat-patrol duty. William Shachte, who oversaw this ad hoc mission, was quoted by the Boston Globe as saying Kerry's injury, from whatever source, "was not a serious wound at all."

But Kerry met with his immediate superior officer, Lt.Cmdr. Grant Hibbard, the next morning and requested a Purple Heart for his wound. Hibbard recalls that Kerry had a "minor scratch" on his arm and was holding in his hand what appeared to be a fragment of a U.S. M-79 grenade, the shrapnel that had caused the wound. "They didn't receive enemy fire," Hibbard tells Insight. Since this was an essential requirement for the award, the commander rejected Kerry's request. Hibbard does not remember that Kerry received medical attention of any kind and confirms that no one else on the mission suffered any injuries.

~snip~

What do you make of this?

PS there's a poll on that page: "Should Congress extend the Patriot Act?" When I voted, it was 70% "no."

[democrat in Tallahassee]

1. How many did bush get? just wondering.

[onehandle]

2. Right Wing Rag!

Moonie Publication. Try again.

[KC21304]

I know that I always go to Insight for my news so it must be true.

[onehandle]

10. Me too...

It's a shame what that Clinton woman did to that poor Vince Foster.

:evilgrin:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. It's Insight.

nuff said.

[benburch]

4. What I make of this...

BULLS**T

[curlyred]

5. the whole thing about his decorations is ridiculous

Did Kerry magically award himself these items?

I think not. I think there is a process and a chain of command and approval involved here. Is anyone questioning the other decorations granted by the officers involved? Was the process flawed? If so, attack that.

And I don't even like Kerry.:)

[BattyDem]

9. I was thinking the same thing

Kerry had no say in the matter. If he was awarded a medal that someone feels he didn't deserve, take it up with the Navy. :eyes:

[goddess40]

6. Check out this gem about Kerry

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12272

A Vet Questions John Kerry's Military Service


This is what the Kerry site has to say about the matter:
http://blog.johnkerry.com/dbunker/archives/cat_vietnam_war_protests.html

[MSgt213]

7. Consider the source. It is the republican style to attack anyone who has

served in the military, who is a liberal, who is considered to have a good military record. The only was they can do, this since not one of them assholes are going to put themselves on the line, is to make shit up. This incident happen 30 years ago and now this guy is saying he remembers each incident so clearly? Ask yourself if you are a doctor in a fucking war zone seeing maybe hundreds of injuries are you going to specifically remember every circumstance behind each injury and even such minors ones? If it was minor, but the big lie here is that you get a purple heart for being wounded in a combat zone. There is no such thing as a rating of the injury. Period.

[mark414]

8. Three, all legitimate

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/service.asp

[onehandle]

12. Snopes takes the fun out of everything! nt

[benddem]

11. You cannot award yourself a purple heart

It has to be done by someone else. If a higher authority decided he deserved a purple heart it was awarded. In Vietnam there were purple hearts awarded for far less...and in the subsequent skirmishes awarding medals for setting foot in a combat zone has become common.
Please stop listening to conservative hogwash.:spank:

[Bertha Venation]

14. to EVERYONE: I didn't realize I WAS "listening to conservative hogwash."

Everyone, for chrissakes, chill.

I posted an article and asked a question. I'd never heard of this before.

Unfortunately, I got the kind of knee-jerk reaction I rather expected. I'm at the bottom of a dogpile, started by the assumption that because I posted a clearly right-wing article, I must believe it.

Give me a break.

I :spank: all of you who jumped to the erroneous conclusion that I believe whatever I read. :eyes:

[alarcojon]

22. I'm with you

I have seen these allegations before - they are currently quite popular in the right-wing media machine. And it behooves us to verify the facts and follow them wherever they lead. Fortunately for us, the vast majority if this crap is easily debunkable, including this particular article.

We need to know where the right-wing attacks are coming from so we can counter them and launch attacks of our own. While we see this for the obvious propaganda it is, the sad reality is that millions of Americans need to be pointed to the truth, lest they believe this stuff. Yes, some of these people can't be reached, but we need to reach all the ones we can. Maybe we can at least plant enough of a seed of doubt in their mind that they stay home or vote for the Libertarian on election day.

[stellanoir]

16. " You cannot award yourself a purple heart"

but you can use your father's political connections to get an "honorable discharge" when you've been AWOL (aside from a dental exam) for a year. An you can pull off insider trading when you're dad's president.

These idiots know no bounds.

[madrchsod]

13. everyone who

basically bled got a purple heart,it was a moral booster over there. i remember hearing it was a joke about them passing ph like candy. you never hear them mention his ----silver star----do you?

[truthspeaker]

15. Who cares? At least he bothered to show up. More than Bush can say.

[Caution]

17. ughhh here we go again

a purple heart is awarded for injuries sustained due to combat or enemy fire. If Kerry was wounded by a piece of enemy shrapnel, no matter how big or small it was, he is entitled to a purple heart. He received three of them for varying degrees of injury.

If a soldier came home from the current mission after having recieved three purple hearts, 2 Presidential Unit Citations, a National Defense Medal, a bronze star and a silver star and a democrat went out and denigrated his service, republicans would go fall all over themselves frothing at the mouth.

The nerve of these people is incredible. The man is a hero, plain and simple and the men who were with him during the action for which he was awarded the Silver Star have attested to that fact.

The Silver Star is the third highest military award designated soley for heroism in combat. The only higher honors are the Gold Star and the Medal of Honor (of which less than 3500 have ever been awarded).

Fer crissakes General Abizaid, a four star general now serving as Central Command Commander in Chief and in charge of the military operation in Iraq has <sarcasm>only</sarcasm> ever received a bronze star. (notice the sarcasm tags? I would not denigrate his heroism).

[scottcsmith]

18. Right-wingers are desperate

To me, as a veteran, there's nothing more despicable than right-wingers attacking a liberal veteran over issues like whether or not he deserved certain medals. It shows how desperate they are to smear Kerry in any way they can. Just so there's no confusion, here are some criteria for a Purple Heart, as provided by the Department of Defense:

"...examples of enemy-related injuries which clearly justify award of the Purple Heart are as follows: (a) Injury caused by enemy bullet, shrapnel or other projectile created by enemy action."(emphasis added).
The guidelines do not make a distinction as to the extent of the injury. In fact, the Purple Heart criteria states, "...a wound is defined as an injury to any part of the body from an outside source or agent...a physical lesion is not required.

Which means, say your patrol is attacked, and in the attack you get knocked out and end up with a concussion, that would qualify for a purple heart.

Kerry earned his Purple Heart. And yes, someone in the chain of command would have to have filled out the form and submitted it for approval. You don't just find a Purple Heart medal in a box of Cracker Jacks.

[yellowcanine]

19. Moonie paper !!!!!!!

Insight is a Moonie magazine affiliated with the Washington Times. It is even more of a propaganda arm of the Unification "Church" than the Washington Times, if that is possible. It should not be considered a reliable source.

[yelladawg]

20. The repugs will stop at nothing

The repugs will stop at nothing to slander a Democratic war hero.:grr:

[JPZenger]

21. Sorry, duplicate

[July]

23. Sincere question: do you have another candidate?

You seem not to like or not to want to support Kerry. He's going to be the Democratic candidate, but you don't have to like him or vote for him. This is one of at least two posts by you that question Kerry, so I'm wondering what your view is? Are you anti-Kerry? Pro-someone-else, and therefore anti-Kerry? Assuming Kerry, like everyone else, comes with some negatives, what is the point? Arming ourselves against Republican attacks, knowing our candidate, something else?

I would like to know your perspective, this is not a flame.