User:Kizzle/John Kerry Military Service Controversy

During the 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry's Vietnam war record became the subject of controversy. In television advertisements and a book "Unfit for Command", the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) questioned Kerry's service record and the merit of his combat medals. Several SBVT members were in the same unit with Kerry, but only one, Stephen Gardner, served on the same boat. Other SBVT members included two of Kerry's former commanding officers, Grant Hibbard and George Elliott. Hibbard and Elliot have alleged, respectively, that Kerry's first Purple Heart and Silver Star were undeserved. In addition, members of SBVT have questioned his other medals and his truthfulness in testimony about the war. Defenders of John Kerry's war record, including nearly all of his former crewmates, have charged that organizers of SBVT had close ties to the Bush presidential campaign and that the accusations were false and politically motivated.

First Purple Heart
Grant Hibbard, Kerry's former commander, and other SBVT members have questioned Kerry's first Purple Heart, received for a wound sustained on December 2 1968. They assert that the injury was much too minor to merit a citation since the only treatment Kerry received was bacitracin and a bandage, and that he returned to service immediately. SBVT also claims that the wound was not from enemy fire but was from shrapnel of a grenade he fired himself.

The criteria for the Purple Heart specify citation for any injury received during combat requiring treatment by a medical officer. Under military regulations, the Purple Heart is awarded for "friendly fire" wounds in the "heat of battle", so long as the fire is targeted "under full intent of inflicting damage or destroying enemy troops or equipment."

An article in the Boston Globe described the circumstances in which Purple Hearts were given to wounded soldiers in Vietnam:
 *  'There were an awful lot of Purple Hearts &mdash; from shrapnel; some of those might have been M-40 grenades,' said George Elliott, Kerry's commanding officer. 'The Purple Hearts were coming down in boxes. Kerry, he had three Purple Hearts. None of them took him off duty.  Not to belittle it, that was more the rule than the exception.' 

In Douglas Brinkley's book Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, Brinkley notes that Purple Hearts were given out frequently:


 * As generally understood, the Purple Heart is given to any U.S. citizen wounded in wartime service to the nation. Giving out Purple Hearts increased as the United States started sending Swifts up rivers.  Sailors &mdash; no longer safe on aircraft carriers or battleships in the Gulf of Tonkin &mdash; were starting to bleed, a lot.

In the SBVT advertisement, Dr. Lewis Letson asserted "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury," but did not specify what the alleged lie was. Kerry's medical records list a medic, J. C. Carreon, as the "person administering treatment" for this wound. Dr. Letson's name does not appear on the record, but he claims that it was common for medics to sign the paperwork even though Letson would treat the patient. However, the claim cannot be verified as Carreon died in 1992.

On the night in question, Kerry's skimmer opened fire on suspected guerrillas on the shore. During this encounter, Kerry suffered a shrapnel wound in the left arm above the elbow. Accounts differ over the crew aboard the skimmer, the source of Kerry's injury, and several other major details. No after-action report for this incident is known to exist.

SBVT's claims about the incident are primarily based on an account by retired Rear Admiral William Schachte, then a Lieutenant. Schachte regularly led training missions for recently arrived officers such as Kerry. Schachte has stated he was the senior officer on Kerry's skimmer on the night of Kerry's injury, and had participated in all previous skimmer missions up to and including that evening. Schachte stated that the skimmer opened fire because of suspicous movement on the shore. In an August 2004 interview, Schatche stated there was no hostile return fire, and Kerry was "nicked" by a fragment from an M-79 grenade launcher he fired himself.  In an April 2003 interview, Schachte had described the action as a "firefight" and said of Kerry: "He got hit." 

Kerry crewmates Bill Zaladonis and Patrick Runyon dispute Schachte's account. Zaladonis stated that "Myself, Pat Runyon, and John Kerry, we were the only ones in the skimmer." Runyon added, "Me and Bill aren't the smartest, but we can count to three." They recounted that the skimmer opened fire on suspected guerrillas attempting to evade the patrol, as they ran from sampan boats onto the shore. Both Runyon and Zaladonis believe, but are not completely certain, that the skimmer received return hostile fire; Runyon commented, "It was the scariest night of my life." Runyon also stated that he is "100 percent certain" that no one on the boat fired a grenade launcher.  Zaladonis has noted that Schachte went on "a bunch of" other skimmer missions and speculated that Schachte might have inadvertently mixed up his dates. 

SBVT also points to the narration of a subsequent event in Tour of Duty (pp. 188-189). Brinkley opens the account of a four-day cruise by telling us how "Kerry &mdash;who had just turned 25 on December 11, 1968&mdash; was a fine leader of his men". He goes on to quote Kerry's reflections in his notebook: "A cocky feeling of invincibility accompanied us up the Long Tau shipping channel because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky." SBVT argues that this journal entry shows that the incident could not have involved enemy fire. Others argue that Kerry was referring to ambushes, a common misfortune for Swift boats which Kerry had not yet suffered.

Bronze Star
Kerry's Bronze Star has been criticized by former Swift boat commander Larry Thurlow. During the incident leading to the medal, Thurlow was in overall command of a five-boat fleet including Kerry's. In 2004 Thurlow, along with two other SBVT members, alleged that Kerry's citation for bravery under fire is false because neither Kerry's boat nor any of the others was under hostile fire. In a sworn affidavit about the incident, Thurlow testified, "I never heard a shot." Of the five boat commanders present, beside Kerry and Thurlow, two others are SBVT members who now claim that there was no hostile fire during the incident. The fifth, Dan Droz, was later killed in action; however, his widow recalls Droz's account as being consistent with Kerry's.

Several other witnesses insist that there was hostile fire during the incident. Jim Rassmann, the Special Forces captain Kerry rescued, wrote, "Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river...When I surfaced, all the Swift boats had left, and I was alone taking fire from both banks. To avoid the incoming fire, I repeatedly swam under water." Del Sandusky, the driver on Kerry's boat, PCF-94, stated, "I saw the gun flashes in the jungle, and I saw the bullets skipping across the water." Wayne Langhofer, who manned the machine gun on Dan Droz's PCF-43, stated, "There was a lot of firing going on, and it came from both sides of the river." Michael Medeiros, aboard PCF-94, recalled "a massive ambush. There were rockets and light machine gun fire plus small arms." Jim Russell, the Psychological Operations Officer of the unit, who was on PCF-43, wrote "All the time we were taking small arms fire from the beach... Anyone who doesn't think that we were being fired upon must have been on a different river." 

Although it is not mentioned in Unfit for Command, Thurlow himself was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions during the same incident. Thurlow's citation includes several phrases indicating hostile fire such as "despite enemy bullets flying about him" and "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire", and speaks of fire directed at "all units" of the five-boat fleet. Thurlow's medal recommendation, signed by Elliott, used the phrasing "under constant enemy small arms fire." Robert Lambert, Thurlow's chief petty officer, won his own Bronze Star for "courage under fire" for pulling Thurlow out of the water. Lambert still insists that the boats were receiving fire from the enemy. 

Thurlow claims that his Bronze Star citation (given to him after he had left the military) is in error. He now states that he noticed some errors when he received the citation in 1969 but saw no reason to try to correct the record. He and others in SBVT claim that Kerry wrote the after-action report upon which all the citations were based. However, Lambert's medal citation contains considerable detail about the incident which would not have been visible to Kerry given his position across the river at the time.  The report is initialed "KJW", who SBVT claims is Kerry. However, Kerry's initials are "JFK", and SBVT cites no reason why Kerry would have included a "W". These same initials "KJW" appear on other reports about events in which Kerry did not participate. A Navy official stated to the New York Times that the initials referred, not to the author of the report, but to the headquarters staffer who received it. 

Several documents beyond the medal citations indicate hostile fire during the action. The weekly report from Task Force 115 twice refers to the incident as "an enemy initiated firefight". According to a damage report, Thurlow's boat received three bullet holes that day; he now claims at least one bullet hole was from action the previous day. Kerry's boat had three blown-out windows and other damage that had to be repaired before it could resume patrols. Also, later intelligence reports confirm the presence of hostile forces, with six Viet Cong casualties from the incident. 

Silver Star
Kerry's Silver Star medal has been called into question by George Elliott, Kerry's former commanding officer and a SBVT member. Elliott's stated position on the award changed during the course of the 2004 Presidential campaign.

Kerry's medal citation indicates that he charged into an ambush, killing an enemy preparing to launch a rocket. In his 1969 performance evaluation, Elliot wrote "In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, LTJG [Lieutenant Junior Grade] Kerry was unsurpassed. He constantly reviewed tactics and lessons learned in river operations and applied his experience at every opportunity. On one occasion, while in tactical command of a three boat operation his units were taken under fire from ambush. LTJG Kerry rapidly assessed the situation and ordered his units to turn directly into the ambush. This decision resulted in routing the attackers with several KIA [Killed in Action]. LTJG Kerry emerges as the acknowledged leader in his peer group. His bearing and appearance are above reproach." 

During Kerry's 1996 re-election campaign, Elliott responded to criticism of the medal, "The fact that he chased armed enemies down is not something to be looked down on." In June 2003, Elliott was quoted as saying the award was "well deserved" and that he had "no regrets or second thoughts at all about that." 

More recently, however, Elliott has signed two affidavits that criticize the award. The first, in July 2004, stated in part, "When Kerry came back to the United States, he lied about what occurred in Vietnam..." After the release of this first affidavit, Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe quoted Elliott saying, "It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words. I'm the one in trouble here...I knew it was wrong...In a hurry I signed it and faxed it back. That was a mistake."  Elliott contended that Kranish had substantially misquoted him, but the Globe stood by its account, calling the disputed quotes "absolutely accurate". 

The story prompted Elliott to release a second affidavit, in August 2004, in which he stated, "Had I known the facts, I would not have recommended Kerry for the Silver Star for simply pursuing and dispatching a single wounded, fleeing Viet Cong." . The second affidavit made what Elliott called an "immaterial clarification", in that he admitted that he had no personal knowledge of the circumstances of the shooting. Rather, his initial statement that Kerry had been dishonest was based on unspecified sources and a passage contributed by Kranish to a biography of Kerry.

Kerry’s crew members who were there that day do not agree with Elliott’s characterization of the event. They contend that the enemy soldier, although wounded, was still a threat. For example, one of them, Fred Short said, "The guy was getting ready to stand up with a rocket on his shoulder, coming up. And Mr. Kerry took him out ... he would have been about a 30-yard shot. ... [T]here's no way he could miss us." Del Sandusky, Kerry’s second in command, described the consequences to the lightly armored Swift boat: "Charlie would have lit us up like a Roman candle because we're full of fuel, we're full of ammunition." 

Another eyewitness, William Rood, now a Chicago Tribune editor, recently gave an account that supports Kerry's version of the events of that day. Rood was commander of PCF-23, which was one of the two Swift boats that accompanied Kerry's PCF-94.

Rood discounted several specific charges made by SBVT about the incident. In his (second-hand) book account, O'Neill implied that Kerry chased down a lone "teenager in a loincloth clutching a grenade launcher which may or may not have been loaded," without coming under enemy fire himself. In contrast, Rood stated that there were multiple attackers, there was heavy hostile fire, and the guerilla Kerry shot was "a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the Viet Cong usually wore" armed with a "loaded B-40 rocket launcher". Also, O'Neill called Kerry's tactic of charging the beach "stupidity, not courage." Similarly, Hoffman characterized Kerry's actions as reckless and impulsive. However, Rood stated that Kerry's tactic of charging the beach was discussed and mutually agreed with the other boat commanders beforehand. He also notes that, at the time, Hoffman praised all three boat commanders and called the tactics developed "a shining example of completely overwhelming the enemy" and that they "may be the most efficacious method of dealing with small numbers of ambushers."  O'Neill responded that Rood's criticism was "extremely unfair" and stated that Rood's account of events is not substantially different from what appeared in his book, for which Rood had declined an interview. 

Commenting on the Silver Star issue, Republican Sen. John Warner, who was Under Secretary of the Navy at the time, stated "We did extraordinary, careful checking on that type of medal, a very high one, when it goes through the secretary...I'd stand by the process that awarded that medal, and I think we best acknowledge that his heroism did gain that recognition." 

Cambodia mission
One chapter of SBVT's forthcoming Unfit for Command questions Kerry's repeated statement that he was sent on an illegal, secret mission into Cambodia during Christmas December 25, 1968. On March 27, 1986, Kerry made a speech to the Senate that included the following passage:


 * Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there: the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared&mdash;seared&mdash;in me.

Kerry indicated that this event was a turning point for him, causing him to distrust the United States government, and spurring his opposition to the war upon his return from Vietnam. At the time, President Lyndon Johnson had falsely denied military incursions across the Cambodian border. SBVT points out that, in a 1979 article in the Boston Herald, Kerry mistakenly identified the president in question as Richard Nixon. Nixon was actually president-elect at the time, and he had not yet issued his own false denial. None of Kerry's crewmates has confirmed ever being sent to Cambodia. Some have, however, stated that they may at some point have entered Cambodia without knowing it. James Wasser, who was on PCF-44 on that December mission, while saying that he believes they were "very, very close" to Cambodia, does not recall actually crossing over. Wasser acknowledged uncertainty, stating "I don't know exactly where we were. I didn't have the chart," and "It is very hard to tell. There are no signs." Michael Meehan, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign responded to SBVT's charges with a statement that Kerry was referring to a period when Nixon had been president-elect and before he was inaugurated. Meehan went on to state that Kerry had been "deep in enemy waters" between Vietnam and Cambodia and that his boat came under fire at the Cambodian border. Meehan also said that Kerry did covertly cross over into Cambodia to drop off special operations forces on a later occasion, but that there was no paperwork for such missions and he could not supply dates. 

Based on examination of Kerry's journals and logbook, historian Douglas Brinkley placed the missions soon after Christmas. In an interview with the London Daily Telegraph, Brinkley stated "Kerry went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions. He had a run dropping off U.S. Seals, Green Berets and CIA guys." Brinkley added, "He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off." 

In the book, O'Neill argued that a Swift boat commander would have been "seriously disciplined or court-martialed" for crossing the Cambodian border. The book also asserts that border was impassible &mdash; posted with a large warning sign and patrolled by several PBR's precisely to prevent such crossings. Critics point out the inconsistency between this description and O'Neill's own claims documented in a conversation with President Nixon in 1971. O'Neill: "I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water." Nixon: "In a Swift boat?" O'Neill: Yes, sir."

Navy Inspector General Report on Medals
In September 2004, Vice Admiral Ronald A. Route, the Navy inspector general, completed a review of Kerry's combat medals, initiated at the request of Judicial Watch. In a memo to the Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, Route stated


 * ''Our examination found that existing documentation regarding the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals indicates the awards approval process was properly followed. In particular, the senior officers who awarded the medals were properly delegated authority to do so. In addition, we found that they correctly followed the procedures in place at the time for approving these awards.


 * ''Conducting any additional review regarding events that took place over 30 years ago would not be productive. The passage of time would make reconstruction of the facts and circumstances unreliable, and would not allow the information gathered to be considered in the context of the time in which the events took place.


 * ''Our review also considered the fact that Senator Kerry's post-active duty activities were public and that military and civilian officials were aware of his actions at the time. For these reasons, I have determined that Senator Kerry's awards were properly approved and will take no further action in this matter.