SwiftVets.com

[JK]

Hopefully this newsmax.com article will be picked up the main media so Larry has an opportunity to tell the truth and the whole story...last night Chris Matthews gave him a terrible grilling trying to link Larry with the Republican Party and even asking Larry to respond as if he was the President!!! As we know Matthews is an angry guy who is on the frontal attack for Kerry. Matthews was even angrier to a fellow woman reporter who reported Kerry self inflicted a wound to earn the Purple Heart - Kerry was outraged and assumed Kerry used a pistol unfortunately he never gave the reporter a chance to respond a typical Matthew move.

Friday, Aug. 20, 2004 12:08 a.m. EDT

Swiftvet Backs Thurlow's Version in Bronze Star Imbroglio

The Swift Boat vet who came under attack on Thursday for saying that John Kerry didn't deserve his Bronze Star because he wasn't under enemy attack at the time has been corroborated by another Swiftvet who witnessed the episode.

In its first serious coverage of the Swiftvet controversy so far, the Washington Post obtained the citation for Larry Thurlow's Bronze Star, which was awarded for the same action that earned Kerry his medal.

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Thurlow's citation claims that he came under "constant enemy small arms fire," a description seized on by Kerry backers to discredit all the Swiftvets' claims.

Thurlow maintains, however, that the citation was inaccurate.

Fellow Swiftvet Andy Horne backed Thurlow's claim on Thursday, saying that the reason for the discrepancy was because Kerry himself wrote up the skirmish after-action report, exaggerating Thurlow's valor along with his own in order to secure the decoration.

"Nobody saw the after-action message that generated any awards out of that action until very recently," Horne told radio host Steve Malzberg, who was filling in for Linda Chavez on the Liberty Broadcasting Network.

Horne said that when Kerry's account of the skirmish turned up on his campaign Web site, the reaction from a number of Swiftvets was "Wait a minute, it didn't happen that way."

Kerry was in the habit of writing up the after-action reports himself, Horne told Malzberg, "and John Kerry's message then becomes the basis" for the enemy fire claim.

"The Navy system trusts officers to write the truth," Horne said, indicating that in Kerry's case, that trust was misplaced.

The Swiftvet said that Thurlow didn't even receive his Bronze Star citation until he was back home in Kansas, at which point the "enemy fire" discrepancy seemed like a moot issue.

Ed