SwiftVets.com

[Dane]

The Kerry campaign is charging that Bush enjoyed political influence in his acceptancew in the NG and throughout his time of service. Consider the following:

Kerry received his third "wound" 13 March 69.

The "thrice wounded" message went out 17 March (a Tuesday). This message was of "routine" precedence. Thus it was processed at BUPERS no earlier than Wednesday. (Even allowing for differences in time zones, it would have been processed no earlier than Tuesday.)

His transfer orders were transmitted from BUPERS 20 March (Friday), assigning Kerry to the exact dream billet that he requested - said billet being coincidentally open.


Anyone familiar with BUPERS knows that a detailer does not drop everything in order to process a routine request for an unprogrammed transfer. And the odds of the exact billet being available are extremely low - especially for a billet as limited as an Admiral´s Aide.

I contend that Kerry had been in contact with his detailer prior to 13 March. If this is true, it pretty well indicates that Kerry knew about the "three wounds" rule and actively planned to use it. (Other officers knew of its existance. Why wouldn´t Kerry have known also?) And he must have had someone running interference for him - someone with a lot of influence.

Consider, also, the issue of his Transfer FitRep from COSDIV 11. BUPERS sent a message directly to LCDR Elliot 27 November 1969 while he was stationed in Newport and Kerry was assigned as an admiral´s aide. BUPERS claimed that it never received the FitRep and asked Elliot to resubmit it. This is extremely unusual. The normal procedure is to send a message to the command and request the submission of a copy that is in the command´s files. Other possibilities are that Elliot could have called COSDIV 11 and requested the resubmission or he could have contacted Kerry and asked for a copy of Kerry´s copy. He did none of these. Instead, he drafted an entirely new FitRep that significantly changed the marked observation grades. One would assume that he did not use the original in order to draft the new version since he would have simply forwarded the original. Yet part of the text of the second version is remarkably similar to the first, leading me to believe that he DID have the original in hand while drafting the new version.

One must wonder from what level LCDR Elliot was being pressured to change a lackluster, almost bad FitRep into a glowing version.


Dane

[m_drummond]

Just wondering. I don't have the stomach to read ToD, but maybe there's a name or two in there that Kerry/Brinkley referred to in an different context.

We know his dad was an ambassador so that helps some, but I wonder.
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Maine Marijuana Dispensary

[BC]