“Bring it on”, John …

“Bring it on”, John Kerry challenged when asked about challenges to his Vietnam record. By “bring it on”, of course, he meant more accolades; anything critical requires him to try to stifle it, whether it’s filing FEC complaints or grandstanding. And it’s no wonder; every time someone looks at his record, there’s more contradiction.

Raising questions about John Kerry’s Silver Star medal won in Vietnam, two researchers say its accompanying citation was reissued twice, an “unheard of” occurrence serving to expunge from the record the shooting of an enemy solider [sic] in the back and upgrade the signer from an admiral to the secretary of the Navy.

To reissue a citation, regulations would have required Kerry to prove there was an error in the previous citation or that the existence of the citation somehow constituted an “injustice,” say Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer, writing in Front Page magazine.

…

The authors, who want Kerry to release all documents related to the citations, have noted another peculiarity about Kerry’s Silver Star — its unauthorized “V” for valor which “makes it facially false, they say, and at variance with official government records.” That’s because Silver Stars are given for gallantry and never are accompanied with a combat “V,” which would be redundant. But Kerry’s DD 214, or “Report of Transfer and Separation,” displayed on his website, shows the “V.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering…

The researchers are not affiliated with Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, the group of 254 men who served with Kerry in Vietnam and now assert he is unfit to be commander in chief of the United States.

And here’s another account…

Former Navy Secretary John Lehman has no idea where a Silver Star citation displayed on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s campaign Web site came from, he said Friday. The citation appears over Lehman’s signature.

“It is a total mystery to me. I never saw it. I never signed it. I never approved it. And the additional language it contains was not written by me,” he said.

The additional language varied from the two previous citations, signed first by Adm. Elmo Zumwalt and then Adm. John Hyland, which themselves differ. The new material added in the Lehman citation reads in part: “By his brave actions, bold initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty, Lieutenant (jg) Kerry reflected great credit upon himself….”

Asked how the citation could have been executed over his signature without his knowledge, Lehman said: “I have no idea. I can only imagine they were signed by an autopen.” The autopen is a device often used in the routine execution of executive documents in government.

Autopen is one thing, but having comments supposedly from him added to the citation without his knowledge is certainly worthy of investigation.

Glenn Reynolds agrees and has more analysis. His view of the medal issue as simply a “distraction” is changing a bit due to this.

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