-- by Michael Stewart
Tiger Point resident Grant Hibbard is at the center of a national controversy over presidential candidate John Kerry's three Purple Hearts awarded during his four months in Vietnam.
Hibbard was Kerry's commander at Cam Ranh Bay where the Democratic nominee was awarded his first Purple Heart while on a mission to disrupt Viet Cong supply lines. Hibbard said the Purple Heart wasn't deserved. Kerry defenders say the charge is politically motivated. Kerry was unavailable for comment. But his senior adviser, Michael Meehan, questioned Hibbard's motives.
"Hibbard is part of group opposed to Kerry's campaign," Meehan said. "Why didn't he speak out then instead of now, in the middle of a presidential campaign?"
Kerry spent his first three and half weeks in Vietnam assigned to the Swift Boat Coastal Division 14 under Hibbard's command, patrollng coastal areas in 50-foot attack boats. And no one disputes that Kerry was on night patrol Dec. 2, 1968, when the crew encountered Viet Cong. Accounts of what happened that night vary.
"Kerry said he was wearing night goggles, that he had his weapon, that they threw up a flare, saw enemy movement and opened fire," Meehan said. "He said he was wounded in the confrontation but it was impossible to tell which direction the enemy fire came from because it was totally dark."
Hibbard questioned descriptions of the encounter as a firefight.
"The reports I got back the next morning from crew members was that they received no enemy fire," Hibbard said.
Hibbard, who was 34 at the time, said crew members reported they had spotted the Viet Cong fleeing on the beach and that Kerry fired a M-79, a small grenade launcher that struck some nearby rocks. Hibbard said Kerry was likely struck by a piece of shrapnel from the grenade.
The next day, Hibbard said Kerry approached him and said he had been wounded in combat and showed him a piece of shrapnel the thickness of a pencil lead that was less than a half-inch long.
"I described it as a fingernail scratch," Hibbard said. "He later received a Purple Heart for that scratch, but I have no information of how or from whom."
Scottsboro, Ala., resident Louis Letson, a retired general practitioner, was the physician at Cam Rahn Bay who treated Kerry's wound. Letson backed up Hibbard's account of what happened.
Letson said he removed a small sliver of metal from Kerry's arm that was consistent with the material in an M-79 grenade and covered it with a Band-Aid. Letson said he remembers the event well because he saw few injuries at Cam Ranh Bay and the ones he treated stood out.
"I probably would not have remembered Lt. Kerry's name had it not been for the comments that some of his crew made to the medics," Letson said. "They said Kerry told them he was the next JFK from Massachusetts and would some day be president. I found that sufficiently interesting and amusing that I remembered the event."
Shortly afterward, Kerry was reassigned to a swift boat division patrolling the more dangerous inland rivers, earning two more Purple Hearts and a reassignment stateside after four months in Vietnam. Kerry critics have questioned whether any of his injuries were serious enough to warrant Purple Hearts.
But defenders, including some of Kerry's former swift boat crew members, point to Kerry's Silver Star, awarded after he led a charge on a Viet Cong rocket position where he and his crew were outnumbered. Kerry was also awarded a Bronze Star when he was injured after a mine exploded next to his boat, the blast knocking a crew member overboard. The boat was under enemy fire from both banks, according to the citation.
"Lt. Kerry directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain, with disregard for his personal safety, he pulled the man aboard," the citation states.
Hibbard and Letson both are members of a group that call themselves "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," which consists of about 300 Navy and Coast Guard veterans who have spoken publicly against Kerry's campaign. The organization has denied it is aligned with President George W. Bush's re-election campaign.
"We're Democrats and Republicans and Independents," Hibbard said. "We're pro-life and pro-choice. We're all kinds of things. But we are all committed to bringing out the truth about John Kerry and his service and what he did after he came back."
Meehan questioned, if Kerry was such a bad officer, why did Hibbard give Kerry high marks on a performance evaluation 35 years ago. Hibbard said he only rated Kerry on four out of 20 areas and that he gave Kerry good ratings because he did not know him well and did not want to write anything that might hurt his career.
As to why Hibbard waited 35 years to come forward with his protests against Kerry.
"It didn't matter then," Hibbard said. "It matters now."
He has served in the Navy as an ordinance disposal diver, executive officer of a destroyer, commanded a mine sweeper and was base commander of Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. Hibbard retired from the Navy in 1984. He has lived in Tiger Point since 1983.
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