As a retired Navy Captain, a Vietnam combat veteran, and a Swift Boat skipper who served in the Mekong Delta at the same time as John Kerry, I have been appalled by recently published articles which often open with a recycled whopper: a tangled conspiracy theory about Navy records related to Kerry's Silver Star medal for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action on February 28, 1969.

The cold and undisputed truth is that Vice Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Commander Naval Forces Vietnam, personally selected the Silver Star award for Kerry and personally pinned the Silver Star on Kerry's chest at a ceremony at our Coastal Division 11 base in An Thoi, South Vietnam just days after the action. A decoration, like every other award for heroism, that was recommended by his Division Officer and endorsed by then Captain Roy L. Hoffmann. According to Zumwalt, he actually wanted to give Kerry an even higher award, the Navy Cross, but decided upon a Silver Star because he wished to make the award as expeditiously as possible. These points were publicly reiterated by Admiral Zumwalt in 1996, in defense of Kerry's military record.

Undaunted by the word of one of the most revered naval commanders of any era, the Swift Boat Veterans for truth, and others without principle, continue to attack Kerry's medal with talk of “a Silver Star with a V for valor listed [in Kerry's records] that the Navy stated it had never awarded” and supposedly suspicious multiple copies of medal citations reissued to Kerry in the Reagan era and bearing the signature of then-Navy Secretary John Lehman who some quote as having said he “denied ever signing them.” What Lehman actually said, was that he did not remember signing them. Big difference, if one is interested in accuracy and the truth.

However, an October, 2004 Washington Times article probing fringe theories about Kerry's records found that the Pentagon gets scores, if not hundreds, of requests every year from veterans seeking new copies of their award citations. According to the paper, the reissued citations are put through an autopen machine, which explains why a Secretary of the Navy (who is, after all, a busy fellow) would not see or sign one. I, myself, made such a request for duplicates when my citations were stolen several years after my Vietnam service, and received replacement documents bearing the signature of then Secretary of the Navy Lawrence Garrett, who was not the signatory on my original citations.

As for those who claim that there were “heavy revisions in Kerry's favor,” in the Lehman-signed citation, that's not true. The only change in the Lehman-issued citation from its predecessor involves a dozen or so words of boilerplate text in the final sentence not involving details of the action. In the case of my Garrett issued citations, I would not be surprised if they contained words and phrases not in the originals. Does that affect the underlying facts: the basis for the original award? Of course not. Oh, and by the way, just like Kerry's, mine were also signed by autopen.

As for the Navy saying it has never awarded Kerry a Silver Star with a V for valor: that is absolutely true. Kerry did not win a Silver Star with V for Valor because the award is actually called a “Silver Star.” Kerry did win a “Silver Star” and a “Bronze Star with a V for valor,” as numerous Navy records show. That a clerk incorrectly typed the words “with V for valor” after “Silver Star” as well as “Bronze Star” on a piece of paper in 1970 (which is what Kerry's detractors are talking about) proves nothing except mistakes can happen, which should surprise no one who served in uniform (believe it or not, even in our armed forces, administrative errors do occur).

The bottom line is that all Navy documentation supports the integrity of Kerry's medal and the official Navy account on this, as do all the crew of PCF-94 (Kerry's boat at the time), as does the officer-in-training aboard the boat, as does the skipper of the second of three boats present, Bill Rood, as does a crewman aboard the third boat (its skipper, Don Droz, was killed in action later in 1969). Even Vietnamese eyewitnesses have been heard from; they back up the U.S. Navy/Kerry account, too.

On the Bronze Star, some rehash an old canard about the spot report for the action in question having been “probably written by Kerry himself.” But the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's evidence on this was definitively disproved in 2004. First, spokesman John O'Neill insisted the fact the spot report carried the initials “KJW” proved Kerry's authorship (never mind those are not John F. Kerry's initials). But the Navy said the initials belonged to the clerk receiving the report, not the person authoring it. Then Retired Rear Admiral(lower half) Roy Hoffmann -- who should have known better -- claimed a numerical identifier on the report, “CTE 194.5.4.4,” belonged to Kerry, before later admitting he was wrong. The number indicates authorship by a command task element, a higher level than a Swift boat skipper. Kerry was not the command task element, he was a junior Swift Boat skipper and he did not write the report.

On the matter of missions near and into Cambodia, the obfuscations continue, with a confusion of Kerry's operations near the border with Cambodia during late December 1968 and the mission taking Kerry into Cambodia, which was later, in February 1969. Who's assertion that “three of Kerry's PCF 44 crewmen have denied ever being in Cambodia with Kerry” in fact proves nothing since these men's service with Kerry ended in January 1969, and wouldn't have been there in the first place.

Admiral Hoffmann once claimed that “none of my Coastal Commands every inserted any troops of this kind into Cambodia” but the full text of Hoffmann's quote actually seems to undermine his fellow Swifties, not help them. Hoffmann continues, “We had some operations we ran north that I am not at liberty to discuss,” apparently conceding that Command Task Force 115 was involved in cross-border missions -- a point the Swifties have long denied as part of their alleged proof Kerry could never have been in Cambodia.

(It is an established historical fact that the American military as well as civilian intelligence were operating covertly in Cambodia years prior to the secret bombing campaign and the public incursion. SOG -- the Studies & Operations Group -- was a joint command that undertook secret missions inside Cambodia beginning not later than 1967, according to the book “Sideshow,” a leading historical work on the war in Cambodia.)

In apparent desperation, some invokes the witness of another Swifty, Tedd Peck, who maintains he never saw SEALS while at An Thoi. Actually, SEALS frequently operated out of Ha Tien -- the coastal town opposite our island base at An Thoi and site for many missions at Coastal Division 11. And Swift Boats, including my own, participated in numerous operations with SEALS and...