Hibbard and Schachte had been rotated elsewhere as had Kerry. In transit, Kerry was now in possession of his medical records file jacket including the form Carreon had filed out. And he apparently found someone to pay what he obviously thought was proper attention to what most people at Cam Ranh had regarded as an unintentionally self-inflicted wound by an improperly fired M-79 grenade launcher, if not a bad joke about a delusional rookie officer. The timing of the first purple heart request tells all.

No reasonable explanation has yet been offered for the grant of Kerry's first purple heart. Tedd Peck dissolves into laughter recalling a dispirited Schachte heading into the officers' club for a drink the day after the mission muttering that Kerry was threatening "to write his Congressman if he didn't get his purple heart," knowing the bales of quadruplicate paperwork that would ensue.

Twenty years later, in 1988, Rear Admiral William Schachte , then assistant JAG to the Department of the Navy was waiting with a friend for the Capitol subway train in the basement of Russell Senate Office Building . The friend he was with was eager to introduce him to another veteran of Swift boats who was waiting also. It was Senator John Forbes Kerry.

"Bill Schachte was not on that skimmer," Mr. Kerry says firmly. "He was not on that skimmer. It is a lie to suggest that he was out there on that skimmer... ."

On seeing Admiral Schachte, resplendent in his dress blues, gold braid and decorations, Kerry broke out in a broad grin and pointing his finger said: "BATMAN.".

How could he know?

This article first appeared at RealClearPolitics.com