Kerry's Discharge

Charles at LGF points to a link regarding the possibility that John Forbes Kerry was not honorably discharged from the US Navy... This is something I had blogged about here, here and here. Thomas Lipscomb writes in the New York Sun: bq. Kerry's Discharge Is Questioned by an Ex-JAG Officer A former officer in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve has built a case that Senator Kerry was other than honorably discharged from the Navy by 1975, The New York Sun has learned. bq. The "honorable discharge" on the Kerry Web site appears to be a Carter administration substitute for an original action expunged from Mr. Kerry's record, according to Mark Sullivan, who retired as a captain in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve in 2003 after 33 years of service as a judge advocate. Mr. Sullivan served in the office of the Secretary of the Navy between 1975 and 1977. His discharge: bq. The "honorable discharge" on the Kerry Web site appears to be a Carter administration substitute for an original action expunged from Mr. Kerry's record, according to Mark Sullivan, who retired as a captain in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve in 2003 after 33 years of service as a judge advocate. Mr. Sullivan served in the office of the Secretary of the Navy between 1975 and 1977. bq. On behalf of the Kerry campaign, Michael Meehan and others have repeatedly insisted that all of Mr. Kerry's military records are on his Web site at johnkerry.com, except for his medical records. bq. "If that is the case," Mr. Sullivan said, "the true story isn't what was on the Web site. It's what's missing. There should have been an honorable discharge certificate issued to Kerry in 1975,if not earlier, three years after his transfer to the Standby Reserve-Inactive." But where is the original discharge: bq. With the only discharge document cited by Mr. Kerry issued in 1978, three years after the last date it should have been issued, the absence of a certificate from 1975 leaves only two possibilities. Either Mr. Kerry received an "other than honorable" certificate that has been removed in a review purging it from his records, or even worse, he received no certificate at all. In both cases there would have been a loss of all of Mr. Kerry's medals and the suspension of all benefits of service. The article goes into a lot more detail, I'm cherry-picking the highlights. It will be interesting to see what happens as this develops; regardless of who wins the election tomorrow... UPDATE: Earl Lively offers his thoughts here. (Earl Lively is a former colonel who was assigned as director of Operations of Headquarters, Texas Air National Guard when George W. Bush was a lieutenant in the Air Guard.) bq. There is overwhelming evidence that the Navy gave John Kerry either a dishonorable discharge or an undesirable discharge � which is the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge without the felony conviction � and that, as a result of such discharge, he was stripped of all of his famous but questionable Navy awards and medals. And the kicker? The evidence is on his website! And more: bq. Sen. Kerry has said that his medal certificates were reissued because he lost them (and his dog ate his homework, I suppose). Rewards are certified in one's permanent personnel record jacket. If you lose a medal, you can get a replacement medal if your records show the award. The only way awards would have to be reissued is if they were rescinded and deleted from your records. And this narrows the possibilities down to a dishonorable discharge or an undesirable discharge. And more: bq. A document on Kerry's website is a form letter from W. Graham Claytor, Carter's secretary of the Navy, which grants his Honorable Discharge. bq. Secretary Claytor's letter says that this action to award an Honorable Discharge Certificate is taken in accordance with Title 10, U.S. Code, Sections 1162 and 1163, which deal with grounds for involuntary separation of a reserve officer and provide for the action of "a board of officers" to examine an officer's records and review previous actions. Obviously, this was the aforementioned board for appeal resulting from President Carter's executive order. Unless Lt. Kerry had previously received an undesirable discharge, he had nothing to appeal and would not have come before this board. Developing... It will be interesting to trace Kerry's career if he looses this election. Wonder if T. Heinz will keep him on or drop him like a hot potato...