SwiftVets.com

[lightfoot67301]

Is there any way to research and answer the following questions ?

1. How many in-country personnel received 3 or more purple hearts?

2. Of these, how many elected to leave before their tour was up ?

Answers to these questions would dispel the notion that what Kerry did
was an every day happening.

[Hueygunner]

You hit the nail on the head!

I went back to Vietnam because I heard only one family member at a time would be assigned there. I wanted to protect my younger brother who was also in the Army at that time. Ironically, he became a "lifer", fought in Desert Storm, put in 23 years, and retired as a major.

[mr_mechanical]

My father in-law served in Vietnam and received three PHs and didn't even know it was an option!

All three of his PH's required evacuation and hospitalization.

[mtpNY]

It would be important to distinguish between which ones were healthy enough to stay and *wanted* to go home after three, as opposed to those whose third Purple Heart left them no other option (lost a leg, etc.).

Ollie North turned down Purple Hearts #3 & #4 so he could *stay* with his men.

=====

Bring it on, John
Oliver North

August 27, 2004 | printer friendly version Print | email to a friend Send

"Of course, the president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.'" -- Sen. John Kerry

Dear John,

As usual, you have it wrong. You don't have a beef with President George Bush about your war record. He's been exceedingly generous about your military service. Your complaint is with the 2.5 million of us who served honorably in a war that ended 29 years ago and which you, not the president, made the centerpiece of this campaign.

I talk to a lot of vets, John, and this really isn't about your medals or how you got them. Like you, I have a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. I only have two Purple Hearts, though. I turned down the others so that I could stay with the Marines in my rifle platoon. But I think you might agree with me, though I've never heard you say it, that the officers always got more medals than they earned and the youngsters we led never got as many medals as they deserved.

This really isn't about how early you came home from that war, either, John. There have always been guys in every war who want to go home. There are also lots of guys, like those in my rifle platoon in Vietnam, who did a full 13 months in the field. And there are, thankfully, lots of young Americans today in Iraq and Afghanistan who volunteered to return to war because, as one of them told me in Ramadi a few weeks ago, "the job isn't finished."

Nor is this about whether you were in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968. Heck John, people get lost going on vacation. If you got lost, just say so. Your campaign has admitted that you now know that you really weren't in Cambodia that night and that Richard Nixon wasn't really president when you thought he was. Now would be a good time to explain to us how you could have all that bogus stuff "seared" into your memory -- especially since you want to have your finger on our nation's nuclear trigger.

But that's not really the problem, either. The trouble you're having, John, isn't about your medals or coming home early or getting lost -- or even Richard Nixon. The issue is what you did to us when you came home, John.

When you got home, you co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War and wrote "The New Soldier," which denounced those of us who served -- and were still serving -- on the battlefields of a thankless war. Worst of all, John, you then accused me -- and all of us who served in Vietnam -- of committing terrible crimes and atrocities.

On April 22, 1971, under oath, you told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that you had knowledge that American troops "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam." And you admitted on television that "yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed."

And for good measure you stated, "(America is) more guilty than any other body, of violations of (the) Geneva Conventions ... the torture of prisoners, the killing of prisoners."

Your "antiwar" statements and activities were painful for those of us carrying the scars of Vietnam and trying to move on with our lives. And for those who were still there, it was even more hurtful. But those who suffered the most from what you said and did were the hundreds of American prisoners of war being held by Hanoi. Here's what some of them endured because of you, John:

Capt. James Warner had already spent four years in Vietnamese custody when he was handed a copy of your testimony by his captors. Warner says that for his captors, your statements "were proof I deserved to be punished." He wasn't released until March 14, 1973.

Maj. Kenneth Cordier, an Air Force pilot who was in Vietnamese custody for 2,284 days, says his captors "repeated incessantly" your one-liner about being "the last man to die" for a lost cause. Cordier was released March 4, 1973.

Navy Lt. Paul Galanti says your accusations "were as demoralizing as solitary (confinement) ... and a prime reason the war dragged on." He remained in North Vietnamese hands until February 12, 1973.

John, did you think they would forget? When Tim Russert asked about your claim that you and others in Vietnam committed "atrocities," instead of standing by your sworn testimony, you confessed that your words "were a bit over the top." Does that mean you lied under oath? Or does it mean you are a war criminal? You can't have this one both ways, John. Either way, you're not fit to be a prison guard at Abu Ghraib, much less commander in chief.

One last thing, John. In 1988, Jane Fonda said: "I would like to say something ... to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm ... very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families."

Even Jane Fonda apologized. Will you, John?

Oliver North is a nationally syndicated columnist, host of the Fox News Channel's War Stories and founder and honorary chairman of Freedom Alliance.

[Mooncusser]

My friend was killed in Vietnam and he had two brothers also stationed there who escorted his body back.

[one more captins mast]

Look up record of Lt. Terrance C. Graves, what kind of "heart"

does some one have to "jump out of the rescue he/lo"

back to sure death, to be with his men.

Kerry shamed this man. that is enough for

his long trip with the "demons of hell"
_________________
the strange mr aj

[300zxuser]

I earned three hearts with 1st Recon Bn in 1967 near Phu Bai. Hospitalized 1st time over 48 hours, second time dug shrapnel out of my arms and face, kept on truckin, third time was hospitalized (Jan 20,1968) over 48 hours. Upon release had orders to fly to Okinawa.
(S.D. Butler) Had no idea three hearts and your out. But I sure was out. Didn't have a say in the matter. Spent 8 1/2 months there and would have gladly traded my duty for Kerry's. Everytime an 81mm mortar landed near me I got bounced off the side of a bunker I was hunkered down in. I got so many bruises that you would think I was in domestice fights with my spouse (AND she was winning!) Kerry makes it sound like he was on the front lines. For those of you not there, everywhere was the front lines. By the way, wife says she read an article that either after the war or near the end that Jane Fonda funded trips for Kerry to go back to the Nam (Only north) to campaign for the end of the war. Any body hear that scuttlebutt?
BB-USMC
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Bob Bruno

[EODARMY]

Thanks Bob for the info and thanks for your service!

[Butch]

Yes....most of us knew about the three and out but it wasn't a big thing because most of the guys would not report the small stuff or were embarrassed to tell me. If a guy got two PH's they may try to use minor ones as the out but it usually wasn't the case. I remember one time that rockets starting flying in when we were in a transition area and a lot of the guys hit tent stakes trying to find the bunkers. "Hey Doc....does this count?" "No...take two aspirin and call me tomorrow." Just kidding...I would put a bandage on their bobo and make sure it didn't get infected.

Doc, Bravo 1/4, 3rd Mar Div
_________________
"You're just jealous because the voices are talking to me." Viet Nam Vet, Semper Fi

[BB Stacker]

Let me see, Kerry bragged about "no man left behind" and then left his entire crew behind by taking advantage of an obscure out clause that few even knew about. Shouldn't there be records on this?

[Mooncusser]

Since when did heros leave their men.

I knew a few guys who lost a parent, went home for funeral and came back, they could have gotten out of country...but didn't.

[sevry]

[RocketFett]

I called a lot of places looking for answers and called the Republican National Committee to ask about the 14th Amendment thing, and the guy I talked to for awhile told me that incidentally they checked, and based on the records the military has, there is only one Vietnam Veteran who got three Purple Hearts, in three months of combat, and was sent home, upright and healthy without ever spending so much as a minute in a hospital bed. All others that got three Purple Hearts came home either in a box, on a stretcher or in a wheelchair, or after a lot longer than three months. More like two or three tours. Any guessess who the ONLY "vet" is that got out of Vietnam in three months with three Purple Hearts and NO wounds causing any time in a hospital bed and no noticable injuries?

[300zxuser]

Interestingly enough, I spent three years in the Corps before going to the Nam. On 4/19/67 I landed in Da Nang. I got hit the three times as I said I did in a previous post. No medals, no mention of 3 and your out, nothing.
I got home Around April of 68 and was MAILED three hearts with a letter about fighting communist insurgents etc. To this day, I never received a good conduct medal, any nam campaign medals NOTHING. I got the ribbons as I qualified for them, but nothing was ever presented formally. I am about to write to the proper people I got a form from and request all but my PH medals. They were something that never even occurred to me at the time. My wife asked about them when she saw Kerry throw his ribbons. Told her I didn't have a clue. SO I looked into it and damn, I should Have. Guess I wasn't in it for the glory. Being in the bush that long I guess we just didn't have the time for BS wounds.
We were just looking for payback. GET SOME!!!Semper Fi, my friends. Keep up the swiftvets pressure. Bush was a pogue going into the guard, but for Kerry to embellish what little he saw was BS. Heck, we have more gun fights here in NM then Kerry ever saw!!
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Bob Bruno

[Stevie]

oh dear, you guys are gonna make me think! let's see.... just who could it be???? Bill Clinton????? no.... not him..... hmmmm - well, how about that Cheney guy I've heard about? oh, he didn't go into the service? well, you mean just because he didn't go, he doesn't get any purple hearts??? I heard he needs a new one.... ok, I'll keep thinking....

I might have to take a nap... think some more and get back to you later. this is really taxing my brain!