What's with the Kerry discharge by Pres Carter?

[napi21]

I've heard quite a few questions about Kerry only receiving an homorable discharge after Carter gave dispensation to all those who fled to Canada. The story was that his discharge was suspended because of his testimony before congress, and he would have received a dishonorable if Carter hadn't pardoned him. I checked snopes and didn't find anything. Maybe I looked for the wrong words. What's the deal with this? Is it entirely made up?

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[Bandit]

15. And wasn't Carter President in '78?

:shrug:

[benburch]

2. Totally normal procedure.

He was a reserve officer even after he left the service.

An officer serves at the pleasure of the President, and so, the President is the one who has to grant the discharge. And so, during Carter's administration, Kerry gave up his reserve status, and the President duly released him from his service.

It's that simple.

[napi21]

10. I suspected something like that, but does this have any connection

to Carter's granting him some special treatment, or is this just standard stuff? I know this shouldn't matter, but it just pi**es me off that some freepers are always looking for dirt. I want to be able to tell them they are full of.....

[benburch]

12. Totally standard.

All officers would be separated the same way, unless by death.

[deadmessengers]

3. Just speculation, no facts

Some Repugnican pulled that one out of his ass, with no facts whatsoever to back it up, and for some reason the NY Sun printed it a couple of weeks ago. There was some speculation in freeperland that this was the October surprise. It wasn't much of one, in my opinion.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. *sigh*

Utter fantasy. He testified UNDER OATH. As such, any fucking with his discharge, as retaliation, would be illegal. As an officer, he spent a number of years in the Individual Ready Reserve. If you get commissioned, they don't just let you go.

[juliagoolia]

5. pardons are public

you can look up all the pardons that were granted by carter..

Im sure he is not on the list.

[Hello_Kitty]

6. Chickenhawks know nothing about military service

And therefore, have no idea how actually difficult it is to get a Dishonorable Discharge. You practically have to commit treason to get one. Most people get one that's called an Other than Honorable if they fail to meet Honorable conditions for most things.

[Politicub]

7. Funny. No one has ever asked me about that

And I go to lots of political events in Atlanta, and I frequent lots o' blogs and message boards.

The only places where I've seen people mumbling about it are freeper land and disruptors who innocently ask, "anyone hear anything about..." or, "I received this email..."

[napi21]

11. Please don't think I'm somehow a freeper! No greater slam!

I can't even tell you where I've heard this for sure. I know one of the places was on cspan during the Washington Journal calls each morning. I have some relatives who were in the Marines for 25 years and are very strong shrub supporters. I don't want to argue with them over a point I'm not sure of. That's the only reason for my question.

[sangh0]

13. Try google

or maybe www.johnkerry.com

[Politicub]

14. Sorry if it seemed like a slam

IMHO, when people start asking about stuff like you mentioned it's because they've already made up their mind and are just trying to push the negative message out there a little more (I think of it as akin to push polling).

I apologize for the freeper comment, though. I'm just a little thin skinned these days with the election coming up on Tuesday.

:toast:

[displacedtexan]

8. Unlike GW, JK spent 6 yrs in the guard after 2 tours in Vietnam.

And actually showed up for all 6 years.

Discharge in '78.

Signed by President Carter.

[captain_change]

9. My Discharge was signed by the Chimp

After active duty enlisted, my discharge was signed by President Reagan, After 8 years active duty/active reserves and 8 years IRR, as an officer my discharge was signed by the chimp in chief when I resigned my commission in protest, march 2003