Military career of John Kerry

Kerry's military record received considerable attention during his political career, especially during his unsuccessful 2004 bid for the presidency.

On January 3, 1967, Kerry began a ten-week Officer Damage Control Course at the Naval Schools Command on Treasure Island, California.

The next day, Kerry requested duty in Vietnam, listing as his first preference a position as the commander of a Fast Patrol Craft (PCF), also known as a "Swift boat."

[4] The Gridley traveled to several places, including Wellington in New Zealand, Subic Bay in the Philippines, and the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam.

On June 20, he left the Gridley for special Swift boat training at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, California.

During his tour of duty as an Officer in Charge of Swift boats, Kerry led five-man crews on patrols into enemy-controlled areas.

Kerry's boat surprised a group of men unloading sampans at a river crossing, who began to run.

Dr. Louis Letson, a member of the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), claimed to have treated Kerry for this wound, but the sick bay report is signed by medical corpsman J.C.

[7] According to Letson's account and the sick bay report, shrapnel was removed and the wounded area was treated with bacitracin antibiotic and bandaged.

[9] At the time, the U.S. military command in Vietnam had an established policy of "free-fire zones": areas in which soldiers were to shoot anyone moving around after curfew, without first making sure that they were hostile.

Kerry and the other officers reported that the "free-fire" policy was alienating the Vietnamese and that the Swift boats' actions were not accomplishing their ostensible goal of interdicting Viet Cong supply lines.

According to some who retell the story, Kerry and the other visiting officers' concerns were dismissed with what amounted to a pep talk.

Their mission included bringing a demolition team and dozens of South Vietnamese soldiers to destroy enemy sampans, structures and bunkers.

After the South Vietnamese troops and an accompanying team of three U.S. Army advisors had disembarked at the ambush site, Kerry's boat and another headed up river to look for the fleeing enemy.

The medal citation notes that Kerry "then led an assault party and conducted a sweep of the area" until the enemy had "been completely routed."

The mission was judged highly successful for having destroyed numerous targets and confiscated substantial combat supplies while sustaining no casualties.

Kerry's commanding officer, Lieutenant George Elliott, joked that he didn't know whether to court-martial him for beaching the boat without orders or give him a medal for saving the crew.

James Rassmann, a Green Beret advisor who was sitting on the deck of the pilothouse eating a cookie, was knocked overboard.

The Navy's account of Kerry's actions is presented in his medal citation: PCF-94 received special recognition from Captain Roy Hoffmann, the commander of Task Force 115 (which included Coastal Division 11), on March 14 in his weekly report to his men: After the dazed and injured crew of PCF-3 had been rescued, PCFs 43 and 23 left the scene to evacuate the four most seriously wounded sailors.

Kerry was slightly injured earlier in the day by shrapnel from a grenade tossed into a rice bin; he received contusions on his right forearm from hitting the bulkhead when the mine exploded near his boat during the later action.

On April 11, he reported to the Brooklyn-based Atlantic Military Sea Transportation Service, where he would remain on active duty for the following year as a personal aide to an officer, Rear Admiral Walter Schlech.

He lost five close friends in the war, including Yale classmate Richard Pershing, who was killed in action on February 17, 1968.

The request was approved and he was released from active duty effective January 3, 1970, and transferred to the Ready Reserve (inactive).

Navy documents show that in 1978, he received an "honorable discharge certificate" after a board of officers convened and reviewed his record.

Navy officials say today that the board was standard operating procedure at that time for all reservists and does not indicate Mr. Kerry did anything wrong.

Detractors contend that Kerry's ties to his fellow liberal political ally, then-President Carter, was behind the upgraded discharge.

As the presidential campaign of 2004 developed, around 200 Vietnam-era veterans formed the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) and held press conferences, ran ads (financed in part by a major Republican party donor in Texas) and endorsed a book, Unfit for Command, questioning Kerry's service record and military awards.

Defenders of John Kerry's war record, who include nine of the ten living crewmen who served under him,[22] have charged that organizers of SBVT had close ties to the Bush presidential campaign and that the accusations were false and politically motivated.