The case is closed, and somewhat embarrassingly for AWOL Dubya. It turns out that Senator Kerry is still carrying deep in his thigh the shrapnel from the combat wound for which he received his second Purple Heart. Along with the life-altering experience that serving with honor and emotional integrity in America's most controversial, most unpopular and longest war placed upon the psyche of the next President of the United States, Senator Kerry carries within him the physical evidence of the brutality and never-ending consequences of war between nation-states. It is not surprising--and therefore telling--that this man, who by all measurable criteria was born and trained to lead others in times of crisis, has not spoken of this himself.
I'm sure he doesn't like talking about it. I have some small understanding of that phenomenon; for almost 40 years I have carried the lead from a gunshot wound--not from Vietnam, from another kind of war, fought in my home state of Mississippi--behind my left eye which cannot be removed without the likelihood of losing sight in that eye. I do not like talking about it unless I also have in me a goodly amount of Scotch.
So what are the Nervous-Nellie neocons going to say about this news? They who know nothing about the choices and consequences of life-threatening violence other than possibly contracting gangrene from a cut received when their slide-rules fell out of their white shirt-pockets in their rush to acquire a deferment from serving in that searingly divisive war in Southeast Asia. We all knew the type; they were sucking up to teachers and authority figures in every high school class in America. We all know the type now; they are the goody-two-shoe ideologues that to our great peril are governing America at one of the most crucial periods in its modern history.
Kerry, the commander of a "swiftboat" in the Mekong Delta in late 1968 and 1969, was hit by the shrapnel in a Feb. 20, 1969, firefight. Dr. Gerald Doyle, Kerry's personal physician, said removal would have required an even wider incision in the leg.
"A decision was made to leave the shrapnel in place," Doyle said in a letter summarizing 35 pages of military medical records taken from Kerry's personal files. "Successful removal would have necessitated an extensive wider exposure."
The Massachusetts senator, who released his military records earlier this week after questions were raised about his first Purple Heart, also made the medical records available for inspection by reporters on Friday.
Doyle briefed reporters on the records in a conference call and released the letter summarizing them. The Navy files released earlier in the week did not include Kerry's medical records.
The records indicated Kerry, who is challenging President Bush for the White House, had shrapnel removed from his upper left arm in December 1968 and from his upper buttock in March 1969 after he was wounded in action.
Kerry won three Purple Hearts, as well as a Silver Star and Bronze Star, while in Vietnam.
The military records were released by the campaign under pressure from Republicans after one of Kerry's former commanders questioned his first Purple Heart and the severity of the shrapnel wound to Kerry's arm.
Regulations governing Purple Hearts, given for injuries caused by enemy action, do not specify a level of severity for the wounds. The Navy records indicate the first wound was treated with an antibiotic dressing after the shrapnel was removed.
The records also provided some other glimpses into Kerry's health, showing he was diagnosed with pneumonia twice while in the Navy, once in 1966 and once in 1967.
He also suffered from "an episode of an upper respiratory infection and bronchitis, as well as a minor nonspecific urinary tract infection, and both responded to tetracycline successfully," Doyle said.
The Massachusetts senator, who released his military records earlier this week after questions were raised about his first Purple Heart, also made the medical records available for inspection by reporters on Friday.
Regulations governing Purple Hearts, given for injuries caused by enemy action, do not specify a level of severity for the wounds. The Navy records indicate the first wound was treated with an antibiotic dressing after the shrapnel was removed.
