Questions About Kerry's Records
Blogs for Bush
The Boston Globe, which endorsed Kerry in last year's election, has reported that Kerry's released Navy records have been released to them...
According to the Globe, the records they received lacked "of any substantive new material about Kerry's military career," which, they correctly note, "raises the question of why Kerry refused for so long to waive privacy restrictions."
In fact, later in the story, there appear to be some vital things missing... "The file does not provide new documents about various combat actions. It contains mostly a repetition of Kerry's citations for the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts."
Buried as the last paragraph:
...Kerry received his first Purple Heart for action on Dec. 2, 1968. Kerry told historian Douglas Brinkley that ''I never saw where the piece of shrapnel had come from." Kerry's critics have questioned whether the wound came from enemy fire, and his former commanding officer said the wound resembled a ''scratch." The file includes a previously reported reference to Kerry being treated for the wound and that he was awarded the Purple Heart, but it does not address the details of the combat that night. No after-action report for the incident has been found.
So, the mystery has been far from solved. In fact, now we still have the same questions... if not more...
UPDATE I: Kit at Euphoric Reality sees the same holes as I do... Michelle Malkin has more... Our webmaster Russ reacts at his blog...
UPDATE II: It is worth noting that Standard Form 180 has a section where the person filling out the form can specify certain years to be omitted from what is released per the request (Section II, Question 1). I think it would be very revealing to see what Kerry put down there... I think anyone can conclude that there are definitely things missing from this release.
The Section in question (click for a larger version):
UPDATE III: I asked Swift Boat Veteran For Truth John O'Neill for a comment, he tells me:
We called for Kerry to execute a form which would permit anyone to examine his full and unexpulgated military records at the Navy Department and the National Personnel Records Center. Instead he executed a form permitting his hometown paper to obtain the records currently at the Navy Department. The Navy Department previously indicated its records did not include various materials. This is hardly what we called for. If he did execute a complete release of all records we could then answer questions such as (1)Did he ever receive orders to Cambodia or file any report of such a mission (whether at Christmas or otherwise); (2) What was his discharge status between 1970 and 1978 (when he received a discharge) and was it affected by his meetings in 1970 and 1971 with the North Vietnamese? (3)why did he receive much later citations for medals purportedly signed by Secretary Lehman who said he did not know of them; (4) Are there Hostile Fire and Personnel Injured by Hostile Fire Reports for Kerry's Dec. 1968 Purple Heart (when the officer in charge of the boat Admiral Schacte, the treating Surgeon Louis Letson, and Kerry's Division Commander deny there was hostile fire causing a scratch) awarded three months later under unknown circumstances."
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