Navy: Kerry medals approved properly

Saturday, September 18, 2004 Posted: 10:58 AM EDT (1458 GMT)

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Navy's chief investigator concluded Friday that procedures were followed properly in the approval of Sen. John Kerry's Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals, according to an internal Navy memo.

 

Vice Adm. R.A. Route, the Navy inspector general, conducted the review of Kerry's Vietnam-ear military service awards at the request of Judicial Watch, a public interest group. The group has also asked for the release of additional records documenting the Democratic presidential candidate's military service.

 

Judicial Watch had requested in August that the Navy open an investigation of the matter, but Route said in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press that he saw no reason for a full-scale probe.

 

"Our examination found that existing documentation regarding the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals indicates the awards approval process was properly followed," Route wrote in the memo sent Friday to Navy Secretary Gordon England.

 

"In particular, the senior officers who awarded the medals were properly delegated authority to do so. In addition, we found that they correctly followed the procedures in place at the time for approving these awards."

 

Some veterans have challenged Kerry's version of the circumstances surrounding the incident that led to his Silver Star award for battlefield heroism, as well as his three Purple Heart medals.

 

The Silver Star was awarded for his actions in pursuit of enemy forces while commander of swift boat unit PCF-94 in Vietnam in February 1969.

 

Judicial Watch also asked the Navy inspector general to investigate Kerry's anti-war activities after he returned from Vietnam and left active duty.

 

The group's president, Tom Fitton, called Route's review a "whitewash" and said Judicial Watch would "appeal as appropriate."

 

"The Navy IG obviously is afraid of the political ramifications of a thorough investigation into a presidential candidate's service record," Fitton said in a statement.

 

Route concluded that there was no justification for looking further into the decisions to award the medals or the anti-war activities.

 

"Conducting any additional review regarding events that took place over 30 years ago would not be productive," he wrote. "The passage of time would make reconstruction of the facts and circumstances unreliable, and would not allow the information gathered to be considered in the context of the time in which the events took place.

 

"Our review also considered the fact that Senator Kerry's post-active duty activities were public and that military and civilian officials were aware of his actions at the time. For these reasons, I have determined that Senator Kerry's awards were properly approved and will take no further action in this matter."

I don't have a problem with him getting them, but him throwing them away and denouncing the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. I won't comment on this issue anymore because I will turn very emotional and I don't want it too.

You dont want to comment on it because you cant prove he ever denounced soldiers who fought in the war. When did he ever do that?

You dont want to comment on it because you cant prove he ever denounced soldiers who fought in the war. When did he ever do that?

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On television interwiews, by protesting the war, by throwing away the medals that he was given.

Typical error. Denouncing the war which a lot of people would later realize was a sham is denouncing the soldiers. He never denounced the soldiers who fought.

You dont want to comment on it because you cant prove he ever denounced soldiers who fought in the war. When did he ever do that?

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On television interwiews, by protesting the war, by throwing away the medals that he was given.

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Funny, when I read/heard it, I saw that he was

1. telling what he heard at the Winter Soldier Meetings, thus mentioning the common view of many soldiers, and

2. criticizing higher command for their tactics.

Kerry's vietnam record: irrelevant. Should not be an issue in the election,

agreed legacy.

agreed legacy.....it should be about what both canidates have done while in Washington in the oval office and on the senate floor not what happened or didnt happen in vietnam

If people in this country didnt make judgments based on stupid things then stupid things wouldnt be used.

If people in this country didnt make judgments based on stupid things then stupid things wouldnt be used.

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Kerry has used vietnam as a political strategy (for w/e reason i dont want to argue the merits of this strategy here). And by using this startegy then people begin to care.