SGT. KERRY'S LONELY PURPLE HEARTS CLUB BAND(AID)
"The story (John Kerry) told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that night (for which he received his first Purple Heart). According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight, receiving small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this enemy action. 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. The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.
"That seemed to fit the injury which I treated. What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry's arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm in length and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle. I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4 mm. It did not require probing to find it, did not require any anesthesia to remove it, and did not require any sutures to close the wound. The wound was covered with a bandaid."
- Dr. Louis Letson to columnist Byron York, National Review Online
Jim Elwell [EMAIL PROTECTED] 801-466-8770 www.qsicorp.com
