Critics countered on Kerry record of inactive service

WASHINGTON -- On Nov. 21, 1969, John F. Kerry made a crucial decision: He wanted to leave active duty in the Navy in order to run for Congress.

"Because various political figures have advised that I move quickly to establish my organization, I respectfully request that I be released from active duty as soon as possible," Kerry, who was serving as an aide to an admiral in Brooklyn, wrote in a memo.

Kerry won early release and was transferred to the Naval Reserve, which the Kerry presidential campaign says required that Kerry do no more than report his whereabouts in case of an emergency call-up. In the past, Kerry has estimated he shaved between two and five months from his active duty; this week, a campaign spokesman said it saved about six weeks.

With the revival of questions about whether President Bush fulfilled his National Guard duty, some of Kerry's critics have begun to focus on what Kerry did in the Naval Reserve, asking why he hasn't released records of his reserve service. The Kerry campaign says that he was on inactive status at the time and did not have to appear for Naval Reserve duty.

"He had no obligation," Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said.

"The only obligation was that he inform the Navy where he could be reached."

Meehan said that Kerry was not paid for being in the Naval Reserve and would have been called to duty only if the US government had exhausted other means of finding sailors, such as the draft.

Two knowledgeable people contacted by the Globe reviewed Kerry's record and agreed with that conclusion. "Everything looks in order," said Stephen Keith, a retired admiral who is executive director of the nonpartisan Naval Reserve Association. "It is very, very normal."

Keith said critics who have suggested that Kerry should have shown up for drills in the Naval Reserve are mistaken. "He doesn't have an obligation to drill."

Lawrence Korb, who oversaw reserve affairs as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and who also served in the Navy and the Naval Reserve, concurred that Kerry had no obligation to the Naval Reserve other than providing an update on his whereabouts.

"I went through the same thing," said Korb, who declined to say which candidate he supports in this year's presidential campaign.

"You are not required to do anything."

Separately, both Keith and Korb raised questions about the way Kerry, who was a Naval Reserve officer at the time, was attired when he testified before the Senate against the war in April 1971. They noted that Kerry was wearing a fatigue-type shirt with military ribbons on his chest. Korb said that it was "technically incorrect" for an officer to wear the ribbons while testifying against the war. Keith said Kerry had the right to speak as a private citizen but should not have worn what appears to be a military uniform at the time.

"After looking at the picture and examining his appearance, he has what appears to be a military uniform, his name is on it, ribbons, no collar devices, not a military- looking haircut," Keith said.

"This is something that a member of the Naval Reserve should not have done. He could do it as a citizen.

I'm just questioning what he wore to make his statements."

Meehan said that Kerry fought to uphold the right of free speech and was exercising that right in his Senate testimony.

"It was entirely appropriate what John Kerry wore," said Meehan.

"If the Nixon White House thought that John Kerry had violated some Navy regulation, we're con.dent they would have gone after him."

Last night, the Kerry campaign cited the view of lawyer Eugene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Harvard Law School, who said that Kerry's wearing of the uniform was an extension of his First Amendment rights. "Wearing the uniform in an unofficial capacity is not to be encouraged, obviously, but attempting to make a federal case out of what is at worst a technical violation in the course of exercising free speech rights is seriously misguided," Fidell said.

Kerry entered the Naval Reserve in February 1966, when he signed up for Officer Training School. He served two tours of duty, including a 4½-month combat tour in Vietnam. Kerry's normal combat tour would have been one year, but he was allowed to leave early after receiving three purple hearts. Kerry then moved to Brooklyn, where he served as an aide to Admiral Walter F. Schlech.

"I was the admiral's aide, which was fairly plush duty and which I was not comfortable continuing to do, in a sense, in the context of how I felt about the war," Kerry said in a May 2003 interview with the Globe.

Kerry said he made his views known to Schlech. "I sat down with the admiral; he could not have been more generous," Kerry said.

In his Nov. 21, 1969, memo requesting an early release from active duty, Kerry wrote that he wanted to follow his political aspirations.

"I have recently been offered an opportunity to become a candidate for Congress from the Third Congressional District, Commonwealth of Massachusetts," Kerry wrote.

"To accomplish my election I must enter the primary being held in September 1970 and actively campaign for the office commencing as soon as possible. My current regular period of obligated service would be completed in December of this year. However, I voluntarily extended my active duty until August 1970 as I did not foresee then that I would be afforded an opportunity for public service as an elected official."

Schlech, who is no longer living, granted the early release. Kerry was then transferred to the Naval Reserve as of Jan. 3, 1970, and placed on inactive duty, according to naval records. Kerry did not make it past a February 1970 Democratic caucus, which chose the Rev. Robert F. Drinan to oppose the incumbent Democrat in the September primary.