QandO

April 22, 2004

I still question the Purple Hearts
Posted by McQ

Jon and I have a bit of a difference on the Kerry 'war hero' issue, so I thought I'd at least take the time to clarify my stance on the issue. Jon grants him the benefit of the doubt based on the record available. I can't fault or argue with him on that.

Let me make two quick points before I go into my major point:

A) It appears that Kerry did his duty in Vietnam, however short his tour. I'm not arguing that. He was there, he didn't shirk, he went out and did what he was ordered to do. You can't ask much more of any person in the military.

B) My problem stems not from his citations for bravery (although the article I cite later does discuss some discrepencies) so much as his Purple Hearts.

Opinion Alert: I think they were a device calculatingly used to remove himself from a combat zone in the shortest time possible.

THAT is my major problem with the issue.

Why do I have that opinion? Because, as I've pointed out in an earlier post, and Jon again pointed out today, Kerry admits he didn't really want to get involved in the war.

IOW, in reality, he wanted the 'record' of being in VN, without the danger of being in VN. Why? His idol was JFK. JFK (the other one) was a PT boat commander in WWII. There is and was a certain dash and panache attached to that sort of command. Kerry, in my estimation, wanted that sort of image without having to suffer through combat to get it.

When he volunteered for Swift boats, they were a pretty safe job ... coastal patrol. They were essentially the RVN Coast Guard. Not many VC or NVA out there threatening RVN or US interests. But soon after he got there, the mission was changed to riverine patrol. Much more dangerous. More dangerous than Kerry wanted.

Now, let me again make the point that all that follows is surmisal and opinion on my part leavened with a healthy dose of time in the military AND experience with some less than savory types in terms of medals and recommendations. Maybe it has made me cynical. Or maybe I'm just naturally suspicious. But something, as a result of my experience and at least to my eye, isn't right about the Purple Hearts.

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about:

"The idea that John Kerry would have put in for three Purple Hearts during only four months in country is just ridiculous," said Mel Howell from Evansville, Ind., a retired Navy officer who flew helicopters in Vietnam. "Most of us came away with all kinds of scratches like the ones Kerry got but never accepted Purple Hearts for them."

This is precisely the point I made to Jon yesterday in a comment to his post. This is another veteran who, based on HIS experience, smells something which isn't quite right.

It was almost a point of honor for most NOT to apply for PH's for bumps, bruises and scratches. That's because most of us knew people who lost arms, legs, eyes or their lives and were awarded nothing but a Purple Heart. I'd be damned if I'd try to put myself in the same category as those so wounded unless I had a REAL wound. Not something a bandaid and Bacitracin would take care of.

So, back to my point ... what this says to cynical me is he, Kerry, was looking for any way he could find to "honorably" get the hell out of Dodge. And the 3 PH "regulation" (which was only available in the Navy and USMC ... and later stopped in the USMC) was the method. He identified that as the way out immediately and set to work to accomplish his goal. The scratch provided one PH in the bank with two to go.

As to the medic's record of the "wound":

"Shrapnel in left arm above elbow. Shrapnel removed and appl[ied] bacitracin dressing. Ret[urned] to duty."

Another medic takes a look at this an make a very important point:

"If it only required bacitracin and a Band-Aid, it sounds like a piece of hot shrapnel that was flying around and may not have even broken the skin," said Mr. Waller, adding that he'd never heard of a shrapnel injury that didn't require a tetanus shot and time off leading to a Purple Heart.

Ray Waller was a medic with the Marines in Vietnam. The impotrant point I mentioned? That he never received a tetnus shot. I can't EVER recall a shrapnel wound of any type which wasn't treated with a tetnus shot, ESPECIALLY when you consider where they were ... Vietnam. Tetnus thrives there. So based ON THE RECORD, I have to agree with Waller ... something isn't quite right here.

And then there's the recollection of his commanding officer about the incident:

It was Mr. Kerry's first injury that already is the source of serious questions raised by his commanding officer at the time, Grant Hibbard.

Mr. Hibbard declined requests yesterday to be interviewed by The Washington Times, but he told the Boston Globe that Mr. Kerry's injuries were too minor to qualify for a Purple Heart.

"He had a little scratch on his forearm, and he was holding a piece of shrapnel," Mr. Hibbard said. "People in the office were saying, 'I don't think we got any fire,' and there is a guy holding a little piece of shrapnel in his palm."

But Mr. Kerry persisted and, to his own "chagrin," Mr. Hibbard told the Globe, he dropped the matter.

OK ... wait a minute. More inconsistency. Hibbard says he had a scratch on his FOREARM. The record says he was hit ABOVE THE ELBOW. More for the "this all sounds like bullshit to me" category. Did Kerry show his CO a different "wound"? One that may have seemed worse than the one "above the elbow?"

Reviewing: His own people are saying "I don't think we got any fire", his commanding officer remembers a scratched forearm and the medic recorded a 'wound' above the elbow that didn't require any more than a bandaid and Bacitracin (no tetnus shot).

There's that smell again.

But Mr. Kerry persisted and, to his own "chagrin," Mr. Hibbard told the Globe, he dropped the matter.

"I do remember some questions, some correspondence about it," Mr. Hibbard said. "I finally said, 'OK, if that's what happened ... do whatever you want.' After that, I don't know what happened. Obviously, he got it, I don't know how."

Now, I'm sorry, but if my company commander had said, in so many words, "look, this doesn't quite measure up", I'd have been ashamed to pursue it. Apparently, as his commanding officer recalls, Kerry wasn't at all. Couple that with the fact that the recommendation for the award was submitted by Kerry and you can begin to understand why I'm so cynical about this ... why the smell just won't go away.

And because injuries warranting Purple Hearts are verified by medics — or corpsmen — it would have been a soldier inferior to Mr. Kerry who was in charge of determining the seriousness of his injuries.

"If the commander walks up to the corpsman and says, 'I'm wounded,' " said Mr. Waller, "his corpsman isn't going to say it's just a scratch, he's going to say 'OK.' "

And I have to agree. No skin off the medic's back and not worth the confrontation.

But it does add to the smell.

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