A lot of controversy surrounds Kerry’s first Purple Heart “wound.”
In Kerry’s authorized biography, “Tour of Duty,” written by adoring flack and campaign shill Douglas Brinkley, the author writes the following:
“They [Kerry and his crew in their Navy swift boat] pulled away from the pier at Cat Lo with spirits high, feeling satisfied with the way things were going for them. They had no lust for battle, but they also were not afraid. Kerry wrote 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.’”
Please note the date this journal entry was made - when “Kerry had just turned 25, on Dec. 11, 1968,” Brinkley wrote. That was nine days after Kerry falsely claimed to have been “wounded” during a firefight with the enemy.
According to military regulations, the only time a Purple Heart can be awarded is when the recipient has been engaged in combat with a hostile force. Inadvertent “wounds” that are self-inflicted, don’t count.
The Swift Boat Vets revealed Kerry didn’t deserve the first of three Purple Heart medals he got because his “injury” was from a tiny fragment of shrapnel that resulted from him firing an M-79 grenade launcher against the nearby shore from the deck of his boat.
KERRY’S C.O. DISPUTES VALIDITY OF FIRST “WOUND”
Grant Hibbard of Gulf Breeze, Fla., a retired Navy officer, told MilitaryCorruption.com he was the commanding officer to whom Kerry reported his “battle wound” on Dec. 3, 1968.
“I had confirmed that there was no hostile fire that night and that Kerry had simply wounded himself with an M-79 grenade round he fired too close. He wanted a Purple Heart, and I refused.”
The former Navy commander said Louis Letson, the base physician, saw Kerry and used tweezers to remove a tiny piece of shrapnel – about 1 centimeter in length and 2 millimeters in diameter – from the lieutenant j.g.’s (junior grade) forearm.
“Letson confirmed that the scratch had been self-inflicted when Kerry clumsily used the M-79.”
It’s been more than 35 years since the incident, but Hibbard still recalls Kerry’s actions with disgust.
“It is unacceptable to nominate yourself for a combat award. It compromises the basic military principle that we survive together.. To promote yourself is to denigrate your team . . . Kerry orchestrated his way out of Vietnam [in four months – a third of the required tour of duty] and then testified, under oath, before Congress that we, his comrades, had committed horrible war crimes..
“This testimony was a lie and slandered honorable men. We, who were actually there, believe he is unfit to command our sons and daughters.”
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