Ex-Navy chief: Kerry earned Nam medals

[papau]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/222504p-191185c.html

Ex-Navy chief: Kerry earned Nam medals
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said yesterday that John Kerry "deserved" his combat medals for heroism in Vietnam, which some vets have disputed.
Sen. John Warner, an ex-Navy secretary under President Richard Nixon, particularly defended the process by which Kerry won his highest honor, the Silver Star.

"I'd stand by the process that awarded that medal, and I think we best acknowledge that his heroism did gain that recognition," Warner (R-Va.) told CNN's "Late Edition."

Kerry was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Hearts as a Navy Swift boat commander in the Mekong Delta in February and March 1969.

"We did extraordinary, careful checking on that type of medal , a very high one, when it goes through the secretary," Warner said. "I feel that he deserved it." Like Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Nixon - both Navy vets of World War II whose war service was later questioned - Kerry has had to face recent allegations in TV ads from others serving near him in Vietnam claiming that he lied about his combat heroism.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam prisoner of war, has condemned the ads - but President Bush has not.<snip>

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Which again puts another hole in the sinking ship of John O'Neill.

[The empressof all]

2. Questioning Kerry's Medals.....

Questioning Kerry's Medals brings into doubt the process through which all medals are awarded. Veterans need to understand that if Kerry's medals are in doubt so are their own medals, and the medals of their crew mates.

[newscaster]

3. Of course Kerry earned those medals.

Hell, having done two tours in the Nam War. Hell, the mere fact that he was there qualified him for a medal. And he was awarded that one too. Its called the Vietnam Service Medal. It goes to all men who were there, combat or otherwise.

What medals or awards do you think Shrub is authorized to display on his uniform?

[yellowcanine]

4. Now why doesn't the press ask Bush if Kerry deserved his medals?

Make Cheney say it too while they are at it. Dammit - you know they would be asking those questions of Kerry if the roles were reversed.