The Solar Rhino

WHNT-TV, Huntsville, AL: Local Doctor Treated Senator John Kerry for Purple Heart Wound
Now I understand. When Kerry talked about seeing and comitting attrocities during the Viet Nam war, he was talking about how he wounded himself, then lied to get an undeserved Purple Heart and trip back to the States. You should have kept your mouth shut, JFK. Most of us were willing to at least give you credit for your service to the country during Viet Nam. Now we see that even those virtues were overshadowed by your dishonesty, selfishness, and ambition even then.

(The article was moved. I found it again, and updated the link. In case the article gets moved again, below is the text from the article.)

Carson Clark Reports, 5/5/04

Doctor Louis Letson of Scottsboro served in Vietnam at the same time that presidential candidate John Kerry did. In fact, Dr. Letson treated Kerry for a wound--the same wound for which Kerry later received a Purple Heart.

Now, as the Democratic nominee for president, Kerry is facing criticism from some of those who served with him. They have publicly said Kerry doesn't deserve that particular Purple Heart.

Last year Doctor Letson wrote an account of Kerry's treatment for a friend. His account contradicts what Kerry says about the incident. Kerry says he took enemy fire. His colleagues say Kerry's wound actually came from a mortar round Kerry himself fired at a river bank.

Doctor Letson says in his account: "What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry's arm. . . It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle. I simply removed the metal. . . with forceps. The wound was covered with a Band-Aid."

Kerry went on to get two more Purple Hearts, for a total of three, which made him eligible to leave Vietnam early.