John Forbes Kerry enlisted and was accepted 2-18-66 and then was released and reported to Naval training school on November of 1966. You can find the facts in the Bupers orders to Gridley. He then reported for duty. His education began in Dec. of 1966. He came in speaking English and German and it was recommended he go for the swift boat training with his goals for languages and law upon discharge.
In July of 1967 he received the National Defense Service Medal.
He received a Citation in March of 1969 while serving on the Coastal Division 11 against the Viet Cong Aggressors in the Am(sp) Vuyen Province Republic of Viet Nam against the communist aggressors during the Sea Lords Operation. For this citation Kerry received his recognition buy pulling out a stranded soldier who was knocked out into the water during two simultaneous mine explosions. His right arm was injured in that event. This citation was awarded to him by the Commander of the Navy, E.R. Zumwalt.
Also he received another citation for bravery and clear thinking while the above event occurred in that he insisted that his boat fire on the enemy snipers, etc., who were shooting at the same soldier Kerry rescued, engaging them in order to save his life. That citation was also awarded on March 13th 1969 by John Luch(sp), the Secretary of the Navy. Both of these above citations earned him two bronze star medals.
In 1970 his record was amended by Dena M. Martin to having a Viet Nam medal with 4 bronze, not 2 bronze stars.
On 2-20-68 he received a purple medal citation, 12-02-68 another, and on 3-13-1969 for his wounds and injuries while on mission in Viet Nam.
Until his discharge, Kerry had taken a total of 38 days leave with a balance of 39 days left which he never took.
He was honorably discharged on 2-27-72 with one day leave before entering the Naval Reserves. He was educated and served in the Naval Reserves where he was discharged 7-13 of 1978.
The man never wounded himself, not that was ever reported in his naval records, nor did he receive any award he didn't deserve.
He had a terrible time getting his records released up to this point and for the longest time, his discharge records could not be released. He desired to defend himself but it was damn near impossible due to the nature of some of his "noncommissioned" missions which were common in the Viet Nam War. These missions were not approved by the commander in chief or congress and the body of his missing documents are highly classified with a 50 year archive no military faction or governmental faction can access. To do so would jeopardize our civilian informants in the countries they visited as well as some of our intelligence. It has been suggested that much of Kerry's leave was taken to cross into illegal war zones we were instructed to keep out of. This was common practice according to my source, a source who has more medals than Kerry, a source who is personally close to me, and a source who is highly classified but lesser so than Kerry.
This man told me of such missions and what they accomplished to get back some of our POWs etc. In addition to that, we gathered important information that kept our fellows alive. More returned home because of such covert operations. It is for that reason portions of both my source's records and Mr. Kerry's records have been archived. That limit will expire for Kerry in 2028 in which case, the Navy will decide if the releasing of said information would be prudent. Until then, we must wait.
Bush has always had a record of slandering the service records of war heroes, not only in Kerry's case but also in John McCain's case. I find it odd, that we cannot find any record of Bush's war service. He does protest way too much.
USA Today pulled the records of the Swiftboaters, not one of them archived, none received accomodations; and this is what they found:
“None of the 13 men in the TV ads served on either of the two swift boats ... Kerry commanded.... Of the group’s 254 members--out of 3,500 swift boat sailors who served in Vietnam--only one served under Kerry. The rest who served on Kerry’s boats back his record.”
Add this to what my source said and Kerry's record says, our Senator is truly a hero.
My source had this to say about the current war. We should never have brought Saddam down without the backing of a majority. This will be a longer war with more casualties, but he agreed Saddam had to be removed someday. He dislikes Bush immensely and wonders if Kerry will be able to achieve solid alliances in the world as our diplomatic measures haven't got us very far in the past administrations. He has a keen way of looking at things and hopes for the best for our troops.
By Chelle Stockman
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