Wednesday, October 13, 2004

More Kerry weirdness

For a guy who can't shut up about Viet Nam and his service there, John Kerry is thoroughly content to leave us in the dark about a number of major questions therein. He still hasn't explained how he got a Silver Star with a Combat V for valor, an award that doesn't exist and never has, and there are questions about where he was during his stint in the Navy Reserves, during which he visited enemy leadership in North Viet Nam while the war was still going on, which seems like aid and comfort if not actual treason. Now the New York Sun is asking what the deal is with his Navy discharge. Here is a part of that story, linked in the title of this post:

"The document (in question) is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of 'a board of officers.' This in itself is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of officers.

"According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the 'authority of reference' this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163. This section refers to the grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service. And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr. Kerry's status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an honorable discharge."

All of these and more could be answered if Kerry would sign Standard Form 180, a release all of his military records to the public, but he won't even release his Yale grades, so I wouldn't hold my breath. There's something screwy about this guy's past, and he knows it as well as you and I do.

From Instapundit.

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