Kerry's 3 Purple Hearts

from PolMach Forums
Most of us have heard that John Kerry has three Purple Hearts, which he received during his 4 months and a few days in Vietnam, but can anyone tell me what his wounds were? (e.g. bullet through the leg, shrapnel in the back, bayonet in the chest, etc.). I have heard that the Kerry Camp will not release most of his military records, as President Bush has done, so no one really knows why he got the three Purple Hearts or his other metals. Is this true? If so wouldn't that be like a candidate saying that he got three A's in College but not saying in what classes he got them and not letting anyone look at the rest of his grades?
politics
3,893 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
At least one of the purple hearts was strongly questioned by his crewmates. See: this link and This link too.
There are claims that his other two purple hearts were for similarly superficial wounds and that he aggressively sought the purple hearts to take advantage of a military loophole that allowed you to get out of combat duty and back to a stateside posting after 3 purple hearts, but other than the fact that he did indeed use that loophole to leave Viet Nam after only 4 months, I've seen no significant proof.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
"Letson said he removed a small sliver of metal from Kerry's arm that was consistent with the material in an M-79 grenade and covered it with a Band-Aid. Letson said he remembers the event well because he saw few injuries at Cam Ranh Bay and the ones he treated stood out.

"I probably would not have remembered Lt. Kerry's name had it not been for the comments that some of his crew made to the medics," Letson said. "They said Kerry told them he was the next JFK from Massachusetts and would some day be president. I found that sufficiently interesting and amusing that I remembered the event.""


... scary... 3 band-aids and home you go. Some JFK.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
OK so one band-aid was on the scratch on his arm but what about the other two wounds? I have looked and asked many people for that answer and have so far come up with nothing. Aren't there any Kerry supporters that wonder why Kerry will not release his records?

I say if you are not going to tell the whole story about your war record then shut up about your metals/ribbons.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
This is a nice summary:

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

The first and second Purple Hearts were minor wounds during brief firefights.
He won his Silver Star for chasing down a guerrila who was (presumably) trying to get into position to launch a rocket at his boat.
He won his Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart when he was rescuing a man overboard while under fire from the river banks. It cost him "about two days of service" and shrapnel "gave Kerry pain for years."

Purple Hearts were generally given out for even trivial injuries, so Kerry's first two Purple Hearts were not unusual.
Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top
Thanks Vincible, that was an interesting read. More interesting is that I just heard Congressmen Ford (D) mention on Fox News this morning at the DNC in Boston that John Kerry "was shoot a couple times" in Vietnam. So either top level Democrats do not know what Kerry’s war record is, which is understandable since he refuses to release his medical and military records, or they are trying to mislead the American people.