At long last, serious questions surrounding the legitimacy of the three Purple Heart medals awarded to John Kerry for his Viet Nam service have broken into the traditional press. His home town's larger paper, the liberal Boston Globe, has made a good start at probing into the circumstances which enabled him to win three decorations while losing one day, or possibly two days, from active duty.

"He had a little scratch on his forearm, and he was holding a piece of shrapnel," recalled Kerry's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Grant Hibbard. "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." Hibbard said he couldn't be certain whether Kerry actually came under fire on Dec. 2, 1968, the date in questionand that is why he said he asked Kerry questions about the matter.

But Kerry persisted and, to his own "chagrin," Hibbard said, he dropped the matter. "I do remember some questions, some correspondence about it," 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."

There is much more. Read the article.

Unsurprisingly, the Kerry campaign is stonewalling and refusing to comment in response to Globe inquiries. The ball is now in the court of those media outlets which hysterically insisted that President Bush "come clean" with regard to his National Guard service. If they do not insist that Kerry release his service records (which he has refused to do) and his medical history (ditto), then they will have proven themselves biased.

Posted by Thomas  04 14 04