From the National Review
I have a very clear memory of an incident which occurred while I was the Medical Officer at Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay.
John Kerry was a (jg), the OinC or skipper of a Swift boat, newly arrived in Vietnam. On the night of December 2, he was on patrol north of Cam Ranh, up near Nha Trang area. The next day he came to sick bay, the medical facility, for treatment of a wound that had occurred that night.
The story he told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that night. According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight, receiving small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this enemy action.
Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore. The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.
That seemed to fit the injury which I treated.
What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry's arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm. in length and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle.
I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4 mm. It did not require probing to find it, did not require any anesthesia to remove it, and did not require any sutures to close the wound.
The wound was covered with a bandaid.
Not [sic] other injuries were reported and I do not recall that there was any reported damage to the boat.
The Doctor that Treated Kerry in Vietnam Speaks Out
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stormraiser
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streetsoldier
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During "Operation Market-Garden", the liberation of Holland (16-17 SEP 1944), my Dad's C-47, loaded with 82nd AB troops, was hit so badly that the plane was almost cut in two.
He managed to bring it back to England, with 5 wounded paratroopers aboard, and landed it on a forward emergency field. The plane disintegrated, but there was no loss of life.
For this action, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the second of three Presidential Unit Citations, and the third of four Air Medals. BUT..a cigarette burned through his fingers during the flight (his focus was on other things), and they wanted to give him a Purple Heart....which he FLATLY refused.
This man, my father, had CHARACTER; what price glory, Kerry?
He managed to bring it back to England, with 5 wounded paratroopers aboard, and landed it on a forward emergency field. The plane disintegrated, but there was no loss of life.
For this action, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the second of three Presidential Unit Citations, and the third of four Air Medals. BUT..a cigarette burned through his fingers during the flight (his focus was on other things), and they wanted to give him a Purple Heart....which he FLATLY refused.
This man, my father, had CHARACTER; what price glory, Kerry?
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Rainband
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rainstorm
my take on kerry is that he has always hated the military. he went to viet nam to help his political chances and his resume. lets face it, the more you hate the military, the better you will do in massachusettes. i feel he tried anything to get out of viet nam once he got in.
if i am not mistaken, max clelland was horribly mangled in nam, and DID NOT get a purple heart.
if i am not mistaken, max clelland was horribly mangled in nam, and DID NOT get a purple heart.
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azskyman
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Didn't realize that the Presidential hopeful was cruising my "hood" in Vietnam until reading this post. I arrived at Nha Trang on January 6, 1970. I also made trips to Cam Ranh Bay not far away along the coast...where he had already left his mark.
Speaking of leaving his mark, we had a mutt on Camp McDermott that had been around there since at least 1966. I have located other soldiers who were there at least 4 years before me and recalled this spirited pup.
I wonder if somewhere along the way he ran into a guy named Kerry. I ask that because the mutt's name was "Bullsh*t"
He (the dog) was so famous among the troops that he has been featured on some Vietnam websites. Here's a link!
http://home.comcast.net/~nha459/Mascots/html/Bullshit.htm
After looking at his face again (the dog's), I really believe had he been able to talk he could have told us the truth about Mr. Kerry's service. Doesn't that face (the dog's) just look SO honest!
Speaking of leaving his mark, we had a mutt on Camp McDermott that had been around there since at least 1966. I have located other soldiers who were there at least 4 years before me and recalled this spirited pup.
I wonder if somewhere along the way he ran into a guy named Kerry. I ask that because the mutt's name was "Bullsh*t"
He (the dog) was so famous among the troops that he has been featured on some Vietnam websites. Here's a link!
http://home.comcast.net/~nha459/Mascots/html/Bullshit.htm
After looking at his face again (the dog's), I really believe had he been able to talk he could have told us the truth about Mr. Kerry's service. Doesn't that face (the dog's) just look SO honest!
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streetsoldier
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Anyone recall the early Dem primaries? NONE of the original nine had a CLUE, much less a cognizant platform...all they agreed on was "getting Bush out of the White House".
This utter LACK of solid foundation is already bearing ill fruit for Kerry, to the point that, save for the "die-hard" Dems, no rational person could POSSIBLY support his candidacy.
This utter LACK of solid foundation is already bearing ill fruit for Kerry, to the point that, save for the "die-hard" Dems, no rational person could POSSIBLY support his candidacy.
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coriolis wrote:New Nickname: John "bandaid" Kerry
Remember Joe from the later Three Stooges with his famous..."not so harrrrrd"... If I could only write for Saturday Night Live...lol...I'd have the doc tending to Kerry's "battle wounds"...They would bring him in on a stretcher...dirt from head to toe...ripped clothes...tear stained face. We have the Doctor asking how this happened....as Kerry begins to tell of his terrible ordeal we fade to Kerry screaming down the driveway on his tricycle, hitting a bump and falling over into a mud puddle. Zoom shot to his scraped forearm and a super close-up of a slightly embedded pebble. "Mommy...I fall down and go boom", and with blood curdling screams he runs into the house. Fade back to Doctor extracting pebble from Kerry's forearm. "Not so harrrrrd", cries Kerry as the Doctor together with a room full of assistants perform the delicate operation. "Ouch..that hurrrrrts Doc", wimpers Kerry as the doctor proceeds to place a pimple size bandaid over the wound......
enough of this sillyness...I got to get to work
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