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August 20, 2004

Did Senator Sasquatch Get Awarded a Silver Star 12 Years After His Service?

I think, long ago, someone pointed this out in the comments. Foolishly, I did not pursue it, and now the Washington Times is scooping it.

Thanks to Dummocrats.com, who has one of those cool major-headlines sidebars that I love but I'm too lazy to do myself.

Update: Wizbang informs me that the Dems promise "The Mother of All Backlashes" about this. He also has lots more on the entire subject, as usual.

Update-- The Telltale V?: This guy says that Silver Stars are never awarded with the additional specification "for V" (valor), because that's a redudancy.

And yet that's precisely what John Forbes Kerry seems to have managed.

How did all of this come to pass?

The Ace of Spades HQ Assignment Desk: Yeah, this is a Kaus schtick, but I actually have a question.

Can anyone determine the first instance of John Kerry's Silver Star -- or Silver Star For Valor (?) -- being mentioned by a contemporaneous news article?

When is the earliest instance of this decoration being noted by the press?

If there is a reference dating from 1969 or 1970, that disproves the twelve-years-after charge.

If there is no mention of the Silver Star until the eighties, on the other hand -- this would seem to confirm that John Kerry only received the decoration a dozen years after the event that "warranted" it. And that not only raises a whole host of interesting questions -- how did he get secretly awarded this medal, and by whom? -- but it pretty much dooms his candidacy.

I suspect that there's a good and innocent reason why the wrong name is on his citation. I suspect this won't come to anything.

But the press doesn't seem terribly interested in proving it one way or the other.

posted by Ace at 04:10 PM

Comments

Apropos of probably nothing...click over to Steyn's site and check out the (alas) anonymous letter posted on his "Mekong Mailbag' section.

Some cat claims he met Kerry at a VVAW meeting after his own tour of Nam.

Is it true? I don't have any idea. But it IS interesting and pretty funny.

Posted by: kelly on August 20, 2004 06:24 PM

Oops, sorry if I've breached blog comments etiquette by not providing a link.

http://marksteyn.com

sheesh, you guys are so touchy.

(And, Ace, apologies for directing any traffic away from your most excellent blog, but, c'mon it's Steyn, man, STEYN!)

Posted by: kelly on August 20, 2004 06:34 PM

You can link all you like in the comments.

Just don't do it within the first fifty or so characters, because then that causes my sidebar to bloat. (The sidebar program links the first dozen whole words, and links are "long words," and then they cause the sidebar to exceed its intended width.)

Posted by: ace on August 20, 2004 06:36 PM

Ace,

With regard to when the Silver Star was first mentioned:

(Well, at least I think that's what you want to know. I just completed a one day West Coast out-n-back and I am a little crispy)

The Silver Star was mentioned I believe in the early 70's when Kerry was asked by a TV reporter "How many medals do you throw away, John?"

She then enumerates them, Silver Star, Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts.

The best part of this interview is when Kerry says that he threw (I must paraphrase here) "Three, Four, Five, Six, and more" of his medals over the fence. When, of course, he threw NONE of his own medals (or ribbons) away.

I will email you if I find out the source.

Posted by: MeTooThen on August 20, 2004 07:18 PM

The other Silver Star citation attached to the Lehman one is signed by Adm. John Hyland, CincPacFlt from 1967-1970. I think there has got to be a logical explanation for this.

http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Silver_Star.pdf

http://www.history.navy.mil/seairland/appenb.htm

Posted by: Dan on August 20, 2004 08:07 PM

Hannity had some audio of Kerry talking to some news chick about his tossing of his medals. It was evidently from the early 70's - and the news chick and Kerry mention the Silver Star.

Posted by: blaster on August 20, 2004 08:34 PM

Blaster,

I found the source (and sent it to Ace, but what the hell)

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Investigation/kerry_vietnam_medals_040425-1.html

"I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals," Kerry said in an interview on a Washington, D.C., news program on WRC-TV called Viewpoints on Nov. 6, 1971..."

I can't remember.

Me too, then.

Posted by: MeTooThen on August 20, 2004 10:29 PM

Is this discussion over when Kerry got his Silver Star awarded?

I just googled a pic of Kerry giving his testimony to the congressional committee (search term "Kerry testimony" and there is a picture of him (67K)wearing his ribbon array. This is the same pic used as the background in the second Swiftvets ad. The top two ribbons are clearly a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.

Posted by: The Sage of Forest Park on August 21, 2004 02:40 AM

**2**

Posted by: on September 18, 2004 06:44 PM

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Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
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@chriswithans

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Somebody else holds your heart, yeah
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"It's f**king f**ked."
-- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source"
Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.

Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat

🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over

"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION
Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)

No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.

Only a cult does this.

Now they've lost 84%.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.

Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...

The British Patriot
@TheBritLad

🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.

Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult.
Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges

Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.

Nick Lowles
@lowles_nick

Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party

STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98.
Labour projected to lose Wales -- where they've ruled for 27 years.
Fulton County Georgia just discovered 400 boxes of ballots for Labour
Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
Brutal: In four out of five council seats where Labour is defending, they've lost. 80%.
I'm sure it's not this simple, but Reform is straight taking Labour's and the "Conservatives'" seats. They've lost almost exactly what Reform gained. If understand this right (and warning, I probably don't), all of London's council seats are up for election, and Labour might lose hugely there, as their old voters abandon them for Reform, Muslim Indenpendents, and the Greens.
REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.

Updates on the Labour collapse in council elections -- which wags are calling #Starmergeddon -- from Beege Welborne. There are about 5000 seats up for grabs, Labour is expected to lose 1,800, Reform will probably gain 1,580, up from... zero. So this would be more than that.
People claim that while Labour has adopted the Sharia Agenda to appeal to the million Muslims it allowed to migrate to the country, those voters are ditching Labour to vote for the Muslim Independent Party or the Greens. Delicious. This shadenfreude is going straight to my thighs.
Oh, and if Starmer loses about as badly as expected, Labour will toss him out of a window Braveheart style and replace him. He will announce he is resigning to spend more time with his Gay Ukrainian Male Prostitutes.

Media bias and senationalism are as old as, well, the media:

That was written by Denny O'Neill and illustrated by, get this, Frank Miller. Editor to the Stars Jim Shooter was in charge at the time.
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