I blogged last night about Swift Boat Veterans and their opinion that John Kerry is unfit for command. They have a book coming out next month, “Unfit for Command,” that describes their impression of Kerry, including a description of the first Purple Heart. Other veterans on Kerry’s boat that night maintain that
- there was no enemy fire
- Kerry fired a grenade at some rocks and a piece of shrapnell scratched his arm
- his commanding officer refused to put in the paperwork for a Purple Heart
- the medical officer treated the scratch with a bandaid
- Kerry probably recommended himself for a Purple Heart.
But in Kerry’s own unit, Coastal Division 14, his attempt to gain the award through fraud marked him as someone who could never be trusted. When Kerry was dispatched to go to An Thoi with Lieutenant Tedd Peck (now Captain, USNR, retired), Peck told him, “Kerry, follow me no closer than a thousand yards. If you get any closer, I’ll teach you what a real Purple Heart is.”
Wizbang has a copy of Chapter 3 of “Unfit for Command,” The Purple Heart Hunter, available for download.
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