$25m ad campaign showcases Kerry's careerPage 3 of 3 -- Two commanding officers who stood by Kerry in 1996 when questions were raised about Kerry's Silver Star said they plan to attend the conference -- Lonsdale and George Elliott, who was a Navy lieutenant commander in Vietnam.
Elliott, who wrote up Kerry for the Silver Star, said he had no reason to question Kerry's actions in Vietnam, but he is still upset by the senator's antiwar actions. "I am going to stand by what I knew of John Kerry in 1969," Elliott said. "I have no reason to hedge that judgment whatsoever." But Elliott added, "I have no reason to hedge what I thought of him after, which was not very good -- he lashed out at a lot of people." Separately, a former military doctor who says he is the one who treated the injury that led to Kerry's first Purple Heart said in a telephone interview that he did not think at the time that Kerry deserved the medal. "Not in my opinion," said the retired doctor, Louis Letson of Alabama. Letson confirmed that he did take shrapnel from Kerry's arm on Dec. 3, 1968, the day after the event for which Kerry was given his first Purple Heart. Letson stressed that his view that Kerry did not deserve the Purple Heart has nothing to do with the minor nature of Kerry's wound, noting that regulations governing the award of the medal do not specify how severe the injuries must be. Letson said his judgment was based on the statements of other sailors that Kerry's wound did not come during enemy fire. "Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore," Letson said in a written statement that he sent by e-mail. "The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks." Letson said, however, that he could not remember the names of the crew, and two crewmates who served with Kerry told the Globe earlier this year that they assumed Kerry was hit by enemy fire, although they could not see it amid the firing. Meehan, the Kerry spokesman, dismissed Letson's comments, saying, "The Navy decided 35 years ago to award Kerry the Purple Heart." He described the attacks on Kerry from veterans as being orchestrated by Republicans who do not want to see the senator become president.
Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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