John Kerry and the Purple Heart

[phuloi]

10:31 a.m. EDT Kerry's War Wound Called 'Fingernail Scrape' Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry insisted on being awarded his first Purple Heart in Vietnam even though his injury amounted to no more than a "fingernail scrape," his commanding officer at the time now says. Retired Lt. Cmdr. Grant Hibbard tells the Boston Globe that he can still recall Kerry's wound, and that "it resembled a scrape from a fingernail," the paper said. "I've had thorns from a rose that were worse," Hibbard insists. Still, the former Navy man remembered that Kerry insisted on receiving a Purple Heart for the wound he said was incurred during a Dec. 3, 1968 skirmish with Viet Cong near Cam Ranh Bay. "He had a little scratch on his forearm, and he was holding a piece of shrapnel," Hibbard told the Globe. "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." Much to Hibbard's chagrin, Kerry persisted in his quest for a war decoration for the scratch. "I finally said, 'OK, if that's what happened ... do whatever you want,'" Hibbard said. "After that, I don't know what happened. Obviously, he got it, I don't know how." Kerry's campaign refused to say whether he remains certain that his skimmer boat had come under fire or whether he recalls his superior officer raising doubts about whether he was entitled to the Purple Heart. While a Kerry aide provided a copy of a medical report showing treatment for the wound in question, The Naval Historical Center "could not locate a copy of the original card for the incident," the Globe said. Kerry was awarded two additional Purple Hearts for subsequent wounds that have also been described as minor. He then invoked a little-used regulation that entitled a triple Purple Heart winner to return to the United States. Former Sen. Max Cleland, a Kerry supporter who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was never awarded a Purple Heart.

[SuperScout]

Not just idle curiosity, but I waiting for the retired Lt.Cdmr. to come forward with his news and views about John Kerry's Silver Star. My money is on the Inflation Factor.

[colmurph]

My money says that Kerry wrote himself up for it.

[Hardball]

Maybe Kerry is so used to writing his own Medal commendations, that's where he got the idea to wear his Navy leather FLIGHT Jacket... keyword FLIGHT...

BOAT-GUYs didn't EARN the right. "...but he's got patches on it, it MUST mean something."

Just a pet-peeve of mine...standing up for the Aircrew.

Hardball

[skeeter]

I'm a former full blown Navy Aviator.. A "Brown Shoe" ..

I repeat "Brown Shoe" and brown shoes are aviators. Only aviators get issued the G-1 Leather Flight Jacket. The G-1 is issued to the aviator when he gets his gold wings by the Admiral in Pensacola, Fl. At that time you are classified as a "brown shoe" and a Navy Aviator. Now some of you may have seen war movies showing Navy ships Captains wearing a flight jacket. They can, if they are former Navy pilots. Anyone that is a aviator or former one can wear this much prized jacket. I have three that I earned from the Korean and Vietnam war days.

All other Navy personnal are called "Black Shoes" and they are known as surface officers. This would be the class that John Kerry would be in when he was assigned to Vietnam.

So it would seem he wears the leather flight jacket as a symbol of the Navy.

I have been trying to match up the patches on the jacket to my list of 890 patches. So far I haven't located a look-a-like.

I would advise John Kerry not to wear the jacket..


P.S. I made a grave error here. I failed to include the famous and important Navy Aircrewmen who also can wear the famous G-1 jacket.

[frisco-kid]

Aren't these given out as souveniers to celebrities or dignitaries visiting a ship, air base, or air station? I would think that Bob Hope had several, for example. Could Kerry have gotten one in this manner? Not sticking up for the guy, just wondering.

[Seascamp]

The VN era Navy was big on hand out do-dads for visitors but not necessarily limited to celebs, etc. I didn?t see any uniform articles handed out but an enameled ship?s crest set in dark oak seemed to be the biggie. For us ?Black Shoe? lower forms of life a cloth patch or ashtray and Zippo lighter with ship?s crest was usual. Plus if we came to do a job and succeeded, there was a nice letter from the Skipper as well.

Speaking of ship?s patches, there was no consistency as to USN regs about wearing patches on our blue jackets. A faded blue jacket with an assortment of patches sewn on was considered ?salty? and it was highly desirable to be considered salty as it helped in keeping the ambitious new J.O.s intimidated and at bay until they got their sea legs, etc. Anyway, some basses like Pearl Harbor absolutely forbid ships patches so if ya went on the pier in a blue jacket with patches the Bubbleheads were there and waiting ta grab ya up and take ya to the base brig for a few hours of harassment and intimidation. But they were nice guys as compared to the HASP Bubbleheads patrolling Honolulu, yikes!!!!!

Kerry would have been well advised to keep the patches off the flight jacket or wear a jacket with a different cut and style that could still convey the intended ?war hero? message. I never saw one of those jackets on a 7th fleet Cruiser or Destroyer, as leather is not at all practical in the tropics. The fungus critters love leather and a leather jacket would have grown a long, long green beard plenty pronto. But maybe the Carriers had better HVAC and jackets like that could have been seen there and not grown green beards, I don?t know, as I kept my distance from Carriers and Carrier ops as best I could. The only aviation I hung out with was USMC helocopter crews and I guess they didn?t rate flight jackets as they always had on flight suits and added a kapok jacket when we went a vibrating and clunk-clunking across the skies.

Scamp

[MORTARDUDE]

Correct me if I am wrong here. Did Kerry not lay his life on the line for his men ? Have any of his men said he ran when they were fired at or gave them an order that was out of line ? Geez...what is this world coming to when a man who was shot at, wounded, and killed the enemy is nitpicked, by fellow Vietnam veterans, about what he did...when 95% of the politicians and those who are sending our sons and daughters to battle, and their possible deaths, did everything in their power to avoid military service from 1964 - 1975...

Why can't we focus on what we can do to make this country better ?

Larry

[skeeter]

From: DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

Subj: MILITARY PERSONNEL UNIFORM POLICY STANDARDS.


Ref: (a) U. S. Navy Uniform Regulations.

(b) LEATHER FLIGHT JACKETS

WASHINGTON: (NNS) - Brown leather flight jackets and
green aviation (Nomex) jackets have limitations when it
comes to where, when, and how they can be worn.
The rules, outlined in NAVADMINs 164/97 and 193/97,
define those limitations for those authorized to wear flight
clothing.

The brown leather flight jacket is authorized for wear to
and from work with working uniforms. The brown leather
flight jacket may be worn by naval aviators, pilots, flight
officers, undergraduate pilots, NFOs, flight surgeons, and
eligible enlisted aircrewmen (E7-9) with flight suits, service
khaki, working khaki, winter blue, winter working blue and
aviation working green

Note: Well-traveled aviators and aircrewmen were once
able to cover these leather jackets with a variety of
patches or insignia. Because a neat, professional unifrom
appearance is desired, current regulations now limit the
number of patches or insignia to a "maximum" of two on a
leather flight jacket. One nametag may be worn over the
left breast, and an optional command patch may be
attached over the right breast pocket.


It seems to be, the flight jacket John Kerry is wearing comes under the Naval regulations.

[Packo]

Because, Larry, this same hero made a big deal out of our Presidents service in the Air Guard, leaving his questionable 3 Purple Hearts, Bronze, and Silver Stars fair game. All this was done in 90 days with no Corpsman verifying his wounds. Now he will not open his records, which was DEMANDED of President Bush, to see just how much of his blood was shed for his 3 Purple Hearts HE put himself in for. Then, once he got his 3rd, immediately put in to go back to the states and apply for an early out to run for office. If he was such a hero, why did he leave his beloved men when he was never wounded bad enough to miss a day of skippering his ship. Sounds just a bit suspect to me, but hey, I only got one Purple Heart and a helluva limp to go along with it. I'm also sick of him saying how in his "command" position this makes him more qualified than Bush to be Commander-in-Chief. Well, as a 19 y/o Squad Leader I "commanded" 11 men in day to day ground combat. Guess that makes me outrank all of them. If what he says, and all the Democrats, about his ability because of his Vietnam Service, is true......I wonder if he voted for Bob Dole instead of the Coward-in-Chief, Clinton. Funny how military service only counts when a Democrat is running who happens to have some. It comes down to character.....does he have the character to be President of the greatest most powerful nation on Earth? Nobody would love having a Vietnam Vet as President more than me, but I would never vote for someone JUST because he's a Vietnam Vet. I spent 12 years working my ass off for thousands of Vietnam Vets, and didn't find that many I would want as President. Now, if Frisco was running........

Packo