I also e-mailed my dad, asking the same question as my uncle, about the Swift Boaters and Kerry. Dad was in the Navy during the Vietnam War, was never there, but saw a lot as a Hospital Medical Corpman. He weighed in briefly:
I served for twenty years with combat veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. All told stories like [your uncle’s].
I saw seriously wounded men from the Vietnam War at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. They bled for their purple hearts. Some sustained indescribable injuries that would follow them for the rest of their lives. They did not need a guy like Kerry telling Congress that they were war criminals.
Kerry is a 24-carat phony. Like [your uncle] said, he gamed the system. He has always been a shameless self-promoter.
Check out the article in today’s Washington Times by Martin L. Fackler. He was a Navy Doctor at the Naval Support Hospital in DaNang. He tells of men he knew who tried to game the system for purple hearts so they could leave Vietnam early. He didn’t sign their requests but other anti-war doctors did. Kerry would have had no problem finding someone to verify his false claims.
