I've heard
very little about this in the mainstream press (not surprisingly), but an AP article on Yahoo reveals that Vice Admiral R. A. Route, the Navy's inspector general, conducted a review of Kerry's medal awards process at the request of conservative and pro-Bush Judicial Watch.
His conclusion?
"Our examination found that existing documentation regarding the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals indicates the awards approval process was properly followed," Route wrote in the memo sent Friday to Navy Secretary Gordon England.
Unhappy with the results, Judicial Watch's president, Tom Fitton, said the group would appeal, calling Route's review a "whitewash" because:
"[t]he Navy IG obviously is afraid of the political ramifications of a thorough investigation into a presidential candidate's service record".
Yes, he actually had the balls/stupidity to say that in the face of Bush's AWOL status, refusal to obey a direct order, and failure to fulfill his term of Guard service -- not to mention the Republicans' control of everything, including the Pentagon. <g>
In response to Judicial Watch's request for an investigation into Kerry's anti-war activities after his return from Vietnam, Vice Admiral Route dismissed it by implying that, had there been anything there in terms of either Kerry's anti-war activities or the awarding of his medals, the Nixon administration and Pentagon would surely have jumped on it at the time (this, of course, also subtly attacks the swift boat liars' revisionist memories):
"Our review also considered the fact that Senator Kerry's post-active duty activities were public and that military and civilian officials were aware of his actions at the time. For these reasons, I have determined that Senator Kerry's awards were properly approved and will take no further action in this matter."
Those of you who are Yahoo members can help give this story more prominence by going to the Web page and rating it highly (its current 2.92 rating is no doubt artificially low thanks to the activity of freepers):
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040918/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_navy_awards_6