Senator Kerry has had a distinguished career both as a US Senator and as a Veteran. In that time, he has made a number of positions clear. Instead of making a case against Senator Kerry, I'll let the Senator from Massachusetts speak for himself...

On veterans who wind up being less than what they are pretending to be:

In 1996, speaking of Rear Admiral Boorda's recent suicide:

"In a sense, there's nothing that says more about your career than when you fought, where you fought and how you fought," Kerry told the Boston Herald.

"If you wind up being less than what you're pretending to be, there is a major confrontation with value and self-esteem and your sense of how others view you."

At that time, a left-leaning news service had raised questions about Boorda's combat "V" clip, which is awarded for valor under fire. The doubt was over whether Boorda's two tours in Vietnam aboard combat ships qualified him for the awards. The Washington Post reported Boorda's right to wear the clips apparently was supported by a Navy manual, but hours before he was scheduled to address the issue with Newsweek reporters, he shot himself.

The Herald described Kerry as among the veterans who said although they would take offense at someone falsely wearing the "V" pin, they couldn't see how it would drive Boorda to suicide.

"Is it wrong? Yes, it is very wrong. Sufficient to question his leadership position? The answer is yes, which he clearly understood," Kerry told the Herald.

Kerry also spoke with the Boston Globe.

"The military is a rigorous culture that places a high premium on battlefield accomplishment," he told the paper.

Of Boorda and his apparent violation, Kerry said: "When you are the chief of them all, it has to weigh even more heavily."

Source article: Kerry judged false decorations 'very wrong'

Henry Mark Holzer, professor emeritus at Brooklyn Law School, and Erika Holzer, a lawyer and novelist, are co-authors of "Fake Warriors: Identifying, Exposing and Punishing Those Who Falsify Their Military Service." They plan a second edition of their book with a new preface entitled "John Kerry: The Ultimate Fake Warrior."

The authors, who want Kerry to release all documents related to the citations, have noted another peculiarity about Kerry's Silver Star -- its unauthorized "V" for valor which "makes it facially false, they say, and at variance with official government records." That's because Silver Stars are given for gallantry and never are accompanied with a combat "V," which would be redundant. But Kerry's DD 214, or "Report of Transfer and Separation," displayed on his website, shows the "V."

Source article: Questions swirl around Kerry's Silver Star

...A U.S. Navy spokesman told the Chicago Sun-Times, "Kerry's record is incorrect. The Navy has never issued a combat 'V' to anyone for a Silver Star."

Source article: Kerry judged false decorations 'very wrong'

Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. has come forward to dispute John Kerry's contention that his first Purple Heart resulted from enemy fire.

Schachte, who spoke to columnist Robert Novak, says he was in command of the small boat, a "skimmer," when the incident occurred on Kerry's first combat mission...

..."Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 [grenade launcher]," Schachte told the columnist in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C.

...nine days after Kerry claims he was hit by hostile fire in 1968, he wrote in his journal as he set out on a subsequent mission, "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."

Source article: Admiral comes forward to dispute Kerry medal

Perhaps I am biased myself, not only because I am a veteran, but because "Little Mikey Boorda", the Admiral who shot himself before his own medals could be dragged through the mud of the liberal press, was one of my heroes. He started his career from the ground up as the lowliest of the Navy's enlisted. Through decades of hard work, sweat, blood and tears he rose to the highest rank the Navy offers, a hero in every sense of the word.

...for Kerry to specifically question his ability to lead

...to emphasize the importance of such honesty for "the chief of them all"

...when it appears that he himself had added the very same award in question to his own resume, among others

This demonstrates the most extreme example of hypocrisy possible and has me stuttering, unable to respond.

The fact that Senator Kerry has purposefully offered this hypocrisy as one of the center planks of his campaign is bewildering.

Posted by Michael at August 29, 2004 12:25 PM