PRESTOPUNDIT

Kerry stated during the Dick Cavett debate with John O’Neill in 1971:

"The fact of the matter remains that after I received my third wound and was told that I could return to the United States, I deliberated for about two weeks because there was a very difficult decision in whether or not you leave your friends because you have an opportunity to go. But I finally made the decision to go back and did leave of my own volition because I felt that I could do more against the war back here." (link.)

Kerry chose to take advantage of a regulation that allows military with three Purple Hearts to leave the combat theater. He states that this was not an easy decision that he made. Yet facts are a stubborn thing. Kerry received his wound for which he was awarded (improperly) his third Purple Heart on 13 March 1969. From documents available on his web site, his request for reassignment was in Washington, D.C. four days later, after having been typed up in An Thoi and signed by the commander there on 17 March, 1969. (link.)

There were no two weeks of deliberation. Kerry had to have made the request (which is not on Kerry’s web site, and is one of the many missing pieces of documentation contradicting the Kerry claim of releasing all records) within a day or two of his last injury. He intentionally abandoned his crew as soon as he could.