This is how Elliot described Kerry in his 1969 fitness reports: “In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, Lt. j.g. Kerry was unsurpassed. . . . His bearing and appearance are above reproach.”

So go to Snope’s.com, where the Left is Right!

As a closing statement to all of you Clintonere’s out there who proclaim praises to the economic genius of the Clinton era, I say this. The economy would have tanked six years earlier if it we not for the Dot-com boom. That was the only reason for the Clinton success. Once the Dot-com’s failed, so did Clintonomics. Keep that in mind when you vote ‘Dumb-ocratic’, you are saying, “Yeah, I want to pay MORE than 33% of my pay to taxes, to help some 4 time loser on welfare get a fifth, and maybe even a sixth and seventh chance. I’ll give all of my money away to help this country along in becoming a Socialist nation.”

Those of us who served in Vietnam and in military air understood Bush’s honorable service quite well, and we know why he didn’t need “daddy’s influence” to get in. What we have trouble understanding is why John Kerry came back and then chose to lie, under oath, in a manner that painted all of us a baby killers and our government as one which authorized atrocies (which it didn’t), without ever once mentioning the VC policy of murdering the families of those in villages who refused to go along with them.

He also didn’t mention the 3000 civilians who were summarily executed in the killing fields outside of Hue during the short time the VC held onto it.

We fail to understand how someone with his education could not grasp even the most fundamental principles of warfare and American strategy, so that he would make absurd charges like we were trying to “Vietnamize the Vietnamese.”

Benedict Arnold was a war hero.

Kerry served honorably (although in no way qualifies as a hero), and then got the heck out of dodge as fast as he could (4 months in combat compared a draftee’s 13 month minimum). When he came back for ‘Nam he wasn’t particularly bothered by it, according to his friends. But then he discovered a cause which would launch him into political office – Vietnam Veterans Against the War – the same group which plotted to assassinate 9 senators and which received a lot of funding and obeyed the demands of Jane Fonda.

Kerry is no Benedict Arnold – Arnold was a much better soldier.

PAUL ( CRIS ) PEMBERTON X-V/NAM VET 67/68

It’s the burning time of the week – the time for the best of the worst of the best to surface amongst some rather stinky flames. Week 35. (Somebody get me a drumroll?) First, visit Red Wheelbarrow for some roasted chicken (mmmm) and, wow, some roasted …

Kerry sure picked someone to pattern after when he picked Kennedy. It has STILL never been explained to this day what Kennedy was doing in the area his boat was in when he broke it in half. When people started asking questions that couldn’t be answered, Ol Joe whipped his film cronies together and made a bullshit movie about the courageous and daring exploits of his little “Babe in the Woods.”

Although he DID do a pretty good job with the Russians and most of the presidency, he still had a few blemishes on his career, especially with Marilyn Monroe “mysteriously” ODing on booze and drugs. They never DID find the “doctor” who was there and supposedly tried to “revive” her, either.

Kerry is just another piss-in-the-pants liberal looking for a name. His wife won’t take his name (can’t say I blame her) so he wants the presidency to have it.

Rotsa Ruck, Yankee!

Mr. Mortenson probably won’t change his opinion about John Kerry. Of course he isn’t going to be easily swayed from something he feels so strongly about. I mean, c’mon! Who do you think he is? John Kerry?

According to Snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/service.asp) Kerry served from around December 1968 to March 1969. Four months total.

1st purple heart:
“The “stinging piece of heat” Kerry felt in his arm had been caused by a piece of shrapnel, a wound for which he was awarded a Purple Heart. The injury was not serious — Brinkley notes that Kerry went on a regular Swift boat patrol the next day with a bandage on his arm, and the Boston Globe quoted William Schachte, who oversaw the mission and went on to become a rear admiral, as recalling that “It was not a very serious wound at all.” ”

2nd purple heart:
“Kerry felt a piece of hot shrapnel bore into his left leg. With blood running down the deck … Brinkley noted that, as in the previous case, “Kerry’s wound was not serious enough to require time off from duty.” ”

3rd purple heart:
“While exiting the river, a mine detonated under another Inshore Patrol Craft and almost simultaneously, another mine detonated wounding Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry in the right arm. … Asked about the severity of the wounds, Kerry said that one of them cost him about two days of service, and that the other two did not interrupt his duty.”

Then he got out of Vietnam by:
“Although there was no hard-and-fast rule, U.S. military procedure generally allowed any serviceman who received three Purple Hearts to request reassignment away from a combat zone, so Kerry talked to Commodore Charles F. Horne, an administrative official and commander of the coastal squadron in which he served. Four days after Kerry took his third hit of shrapnel, Horne forwarded a request on Kerry’s behalf to the Navy Bureau of Personnel asking that Kerry be reassigned to “duty as a personal aide in Boston, New York, or Washington, D.C.” Soon afterwards Kerry was transferred to Cam Ranh Bay to await further orders, and within a month he had been reassigned as a personal aide and flag lieutenant to Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr. with the Military Sea Transportation Service based in Brooklyn, New York.”

Frankly, considering that the sources for all this are extremely favorable to Kerry, this is pretty minor stuff. Perhaps, only perhaps, his conduct for which he got the Bronze Star was worthwhile. But I’m rather unimpressed by all this nonsense concerning his purple hearts, his early transfer and the Silver Star.

Now to be honest about all this I’m only 39 so I wasn’t old enough, by a lot, to serve in Vietnam. I did serve in the Marines, but it was a long time after Vietnam. But my father *did*. He served there for two tours as a U.S. Army Warrant Officer engineer on a river tugboat moving supply and **ammunition** barges up the rivers. Comparing this stuff to the stories he’s told me of having to deal with taking rifle and rocket fire, not to mention dealing with mines, while moving barges loaded with artillery shells leaves me a little flat.

Just a little. :/

However, recently, I have read that Kerry served two tours of duty in Vietnam. Anyone know the real lowdown on this?

Even Air Force regulars who had served their full year tour of duty in VN used to pull every legally allowed trick in the book to escape that second TOD in VN. People were even reluctant to accept a cushy overseas TOD in Europe, for example, because the powers that be might have you and your family all packed and enroute to that sweetheart TOD and when you arrived at the departure base, scoop up the active duty Air Force personnel and reroute them to Viernam for a surprise second TOD for a year.

In those nightmare days of fighting in Vietnam, the unwinnable for political reasons war, military people serving in Vietnam found it especially discouraging when a “short-timer”, having nearly completed his year of duty, was killed or seriously wounded.

IF Kerry had previously and honorably served a full tour of duty, and even IF he self-inflicted one or more wounds, I can’t fault him for exiting VN anyway he or others could scheme to do it. Such was the norm for practically, if not entirely, everyone back then.

A year spent in Vietnam just wasn’t that fun or fulfilling! The non-heroes welcome when returning to the homeland didn’t make it any more appealling!

I cannot speak specifically about either JFK, but I did see flaky, cowardly officers get medals, including the Purple Heart for the most minor of wounds.

The sum is: Just the possession of a medal is not proof of heroism. Shooting the enemy, if justified, is our duty and is not extraordinary.

Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War

Article 1

The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.

Article 2

In addition to the provisions which shall be implemented in peace time, the present Convention shall apply to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.

The Convention shall also apply to all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of a High Contracting Party, even if the said occupation meets with no armed resistance.

Article 3

In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:

1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

Snoopes sources seem to be limited to the Boston Globe (!) and the Douglas Brinkley biography of Kerry.

Brinkley’s motives and integrity are currently being questioned. He started with Kerry’s own incomplete autobiography and admitted that he interviewed Kerry for only 4 hours. Read the reviews on Amazon.com