Memphis coon season
2022-11-05 06:27:41 UTC
BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB - Special to the Sun
October 13, 2004
An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as
Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well
kept secret about his military service.
The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter
administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes
Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of
officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary
honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board
of officers.
According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the "authority of
reference" this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was
"Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163. "This section refers to the
grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being
reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service.
And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been
no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr.
Kerry's status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an
honorable discharge.
A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, was asked whether Mr. Kerry had
ever been a victim of an attempt to deny him an honorable discharge. There
has been no response to that inquiry.
The document is dated February 16, 1978. But Mr. Kerry's military
commitment began with his six-year enlistment contract with the Navy on
February 18, 1966. His commitment should have terminated in 1972. It is
highly unlikely that either the man who at that time was a Vietnam
Veterans Against the War leader, John Kerry, requested or the Navy
accepted an additional six year reserve commitment. And the Claytor
document indicates proceedings to reverse a less than honorable discharge
that took place sometime prior to February 1978.
The most routine time for Mr. Kerry's discharge would have been at the end
of his six-year obligation, in 1972. But how was it most likely to have
come about?
NBC's release this March of some of the Nixon White House tapes about Mr.
Kerry show a great deal of interest in Mr. Kerry by Nixon and his
executive staff, including, perhaps most importantly, Nixon's special
counsel, Charles Colson. In a meeting the day after Mr. Kerry's Senate
testimony, April 23, 1971, Mr. Colson attacks Mr. Kerry as a "complete
opportunist...We'll keep hitting him, Mr. President."
Mr. Colson was still on the case two months later, according to a memo he
wrote on June 15,1971, that was brought to the surface by the Houston
Chronicle. "Let's destroy this young demagogue before he becomes another
Ralph Nader." Nixon had been a naval officer in World War II. Mr. Colson
was a former Marine captain. Mr. Colson had been prodded to find "dirt" on
Mr. Kerry, but reported that he couldn't find any.
The Nixon administration ran FBI surveillance on Mr. Kerry from September
1970 until August 1972. Finding grounds for an other than honorable
discharge, however, for a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War,
given his numerous activities while still a reserve officer of the Navy,
was easier than finding "dirt."
For example, while America was still at war, Mr. Kerry had met with the
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegation to the Paris Peace talks in May
1970 and then held a demonstration in July 1971 in Washington to try to
get Congress to accept the enemy's seven point peace proposal without a
single change. Woodrow Wilson threw Eugene Debs, a former presidential
candidate, in prison just for demonstrating for peace negotiations with
Germany during World War I. No court overturned his imprisonment. He had
to receive a pardon from President Harding.
Mr. Colson refused to answer any questions about his activities regarding
Mr. Kerry during his time in the Nixon White House. The secretary of the
Navy at the time during the Nixon presidency is the current chairman of
the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner. A spokesman for the
senator, John Ullyot, said, "Senator Warner has no recollection that would
either confirm or challenge any representation that Senator Kerry received
a less than honorable discharge."
The "board of officers" review reported in the Claytor document is even
more extraordinary because it came about "by direction of the President."
No normal honorable discharge requires the direction of the president. The
president at that time was James Carter. This adds another twist to the
story of Mr. Kerry's hidden military records.
Mr. Carter's first act as president was a general amnesty for draft
dodgers and other war protesters. Less than an hour after his inauguration
on January 21, 1977, while still in the Capitol building, Mr. Carter
signed Executive Order 4483 empowering it. By the time it became a
directive from the Defense Department in March 1977 it had been expanded
to include other offenders who may have had general, bad conduct,
dishonorable discharges, and any other discharge or sentence with negative
effect on military records. In those cases the directive outlined a
procedure for appeal on a case by case basis before a board of officers. A
satisfactory appeal would result in an improvement of discharge status or
an honorable discharge.
Mr. Kerry has repeatedly refused to sign Standard Form 180, which would
allow the release of all his military records. And some of his various
spokesmen have claimed that all his records are already posted on his Web
site. But the Washington Post already noted that the Naval Personnel
Office admitted that they were still withholding about 100 pages of files.
If Mr. Kerry was the victim of a Nixon "enemies list" hit, one might have
expected him to wear it like a badge of honor, like many others such as
his friend Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, CBS's Daniel
Schorr, or the actor Paul Newman, who had made Mr. Colson's original list
of 20 "enemies."
There are a number of categories of discharges besides honorable. There
are general discharges, medical discharges, bad conduct discharges, as
well as other than honorable and dishonorable discharges. There is one odd
coincidence that gives some weight to the possibility that Mr. Kerry was
dishonorably discharged. Mr. Kerry has claimed that he lost his medal
certificates and that is why he asked that they be reissued. But when a
dishonorable discharge is issued, all pay benefits, and allowances, and
all medals and honors are revoked as well. And five months after Mr. Kerry
joined the U.S. Senate in 1985, on one single day, June 4, all of Mr.
Kerry's medals were reissued.
https://www.nysun.com/national/mystery-surrounds-kerrys-navy-
discharge/3107/
Originally published: http://www.nysun.com/article/3107
Do svidaniya.October 13, 2004
An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as
Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well
kept secret about his military service.
The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter
administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes
Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of
officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary
honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board
of officers.
According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the "authority of
reference" this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was
"Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163. "This section refers to the
grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being
reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service.
And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been
no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr.
Kerry's status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an
honorable discharge.
A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, was asked whether Mr. Kerry had
ever been a victim of an attempt to deny him an honorable discharge. There
has been no response to that inquiry.
The document is dated February 16, 1978. But Mr. Kerry's military
commitment began with his six-year enlistment contract with the Navy on
February 18, 1966. His commitment should have terminated in 1972. It is
highly unlikely that either the man who at that time was a Vietnam
Veterans Against the War leader, John Kerry, requested or the Navy
accepted an additional six year reserve commitment. And the Claytor
document indicates proceedings to reverse a less than honorable discharge
that took place sometime prior to February 1978.
The most routine time for Mr. Kerry's discharge would have been at the end
of his six-year obligation, in 1972. But how was it most likely to have
come about?
NBC's release this March of some of the Nixon White House tapes about Mr.
Kerry show a great deal of interest in Mr. Kerry by Nixon and his
executive staff, including, perhaps most importantly, Nixon's special
counsel, Charles Colson. In a meeting the day after Mr. Kerry's Senate
testimony, April 23, 1971, Mr. Colson attacks Mr. Kerry as a "complete
opportunist...We'll keep hitting him, Mr. President."
Mr. Colson was still on the case two months later, according to a memo he
wrote on June 15,1971, that was brought to the surface by the Houston
Chronicle. "Let's destroy this young demagogue before he becomes another
Ralph Nader." Nixon had been a naval officer in World War II. Mr. Colson
was a former Marine captain. Mr. Colson had been prodded to find "dirt" on
Mr. Kerry, but reported that he couldn't find any.
The Nixon administration ran FBI surveillance on Mr. Kerry from September
1970 until August 1972. Finding grounds for an other than honorable
discharge, however, for a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War,
given his numerous activities while still a reserve officer of the Navy,
was easier than finding "dirt."
For example, while America was still at war, Mr. Kerry had met with the
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegation to the Paris Peace talks in May
1970 and then held a demonstration in July 1971 in Washington to try to
get Congress to accept the enemy's seven point peace proposal without a
single change. Woodrow Wilson threw Eugene Debs, a former presidential
candidate, in prison just for demonstrating for peace negotiations with
Germany during World War I. No court overturned his imprisonment. He had
to receive a pardon from President Harding.
Mr. Colson refused to answer any questions about his activities regarding
Mr. Kerry during his time in the Nixon White House. The secretary of the
Navy at the time during the Nixon presidency is the current chairman of
the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner. A spokesman for the
senator, John Ullyot, said, "Senator Warner has no recollection that would
either confirm or challenge any representation that Senator Kerry received
a less than honorable discharge."
The "board of officers" review reported in the Claytor document is even
more extraordinary because it came about "by direction of the President."
No normal honorable discharge requires the direction of the president. The
president at that time was James Carter. This adds another twist to the
story of Mr. Kerry's hidden military records.
Mr. Carter's first act as president was a general amnesty for draft
dodgers and other war protesters. Less than an hour after his inauguration
on January 21, 1977, while still in the Capitol building, Mr. Carter
signed Executive Order 4483 empowering it. By the time it became a
directive from the Defense Department in March 1977 it had been expanded
to include other offenders who may have had general, bad conduct,
dishonorable discharges, and any other discharge or sentence with negative
effect on military records. In those cases the directive outlined a
procedure for appeal on a case by case basis before a board of officers. A
satisfactory appeal would result in an improvement of discharge status or
an honorable discharge.
Mr. Kerry has repeatedly refused to sign Standard Form 180, which would
allow the release of all his military records. And some of his various
spokesmen have claimed that all his records are already posted on his Web
site. But the Washington Post already noted that the Naval Personnel
Office admitted that they were still withholding about 100 pages of files.
If Mr. Kerry was the victim of a Nixon "enemies list" hit, one might have
expected him to wear it like a badge of honor, like many others such as
his friend Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, CBS's Daniel
Schorr, or the actor Paul Newman, who had made Mr. Colson's original list
of 20 "enemies."
There are a number of categories of discharges besides honorable. There
are general discharges, medical discharges, bad conduct discharges, as
well as other than honorable and dishonorable discharges. There is one odd
coincidence that gives some weight to the possibility that Mr. Kerry was
dishonorably discharged. Mr. Kerry has claimed that he lost his medal
certificates and that is why he asked that they be reissued. But when a
dishonorable discharge is issued, all pay benefits, and allowances, and
all medals and honors are revoked as well. And five months after Mr. Kerry
joined the U.S. Senate in 1985, on one single day, June 4, all of Mr.
Kerry's medals were reissued.
https://www.nysun.com/national/mystery-surrounds-kerrys-navy-
discharge/3107/
Originally published: http://www.nysun.com/article/3107