August 28, 2004

ANOTHER EYEWITNESS says there was no enemy gunfire during John Kerry's rescue of Green Beret Jim Rassmann, contrary to John Kerry's own account of the event which earned him the Bronze Star.

My own take? Jim Rassmann -- the man Kerry pulled out of the water -- mistook cover fire by the Swifties for hostile fire from VC. Kerry's Swift boat, by all acounts, wasn't on the scene until the rescue. What Kerry went with in his after-action report was the account given to him by Rassmann.

So there you have it. In the fog of war -- and through the happenstance of military record keeping -- John Kerry got credit for more than actually happened on one day, on one river, on one unenviable assignment, in one damnable war.

Let John Kerry keep his medal -- or throw it over a fence -- or whatever he wants to do with it. I know many in the military will feel differently, but certainly most Americans would have little problem with giving a Bronze Star to every sailor who put himself at risk is such dangerous circumstances, whether or not they came under fire in any particular heroic instance. Does this devalue the Bronze Star? Or does it tell perhaps how Americans feel about those who served?

Give Kerry a pass on this one folks. Posted by Greg Ransom