I don’t know why Ben Smith called this “SwiftVets Revenge,” though: as far as I can tell, they didn’t have anything to do with what happened here. Which was back in August of last year, by the way – and no, I don’t know why this was suddenly news, then.
In a highly unusual move, the Navy secretary has stripped a Silver Star awarded to a retired captain and Vietnam swift boat veteran who is serving a federal prison sentence after admitting to possessing child pornography.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus revoked the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest valor award, which was awarded nearly 20 years ago to retired Capt. Wade Sanders of San Diego.
Sanders, for those who don’t remember, was the guy that introduced John Kerry at the ’04 Democratic convention (infamously known for the ridiculous ‘reporting for duty‘ beginning and the hysterical ‘balloons‘ ending); and while Sanders went round and round with the Swift Boats people I can’t imagine that anybody actually really cares at this point about that element of the 2004 elections. Certainly it – and the Democratic candidate – has been overshadowed by subsequent events.Anyway, I didn’t report on this yesterday because at the time because it had a pretty thin pedigree – the original Navy Times article wasn’t up yet, and it sounded a bit dramatic, frankly. But a call to the Navy eventually got me somebody who said that, yeah, they did revoke Captain Sanders’ Silver Star in August 2010. I’ll also gently note that any folks out there who were dismissing the story because of said pedigree possibly should have, you know, called on their own?
Moe, I’m one of those for whom any reference to the “Swift Boats” business brings a red-curtain-of-blood moment. The next thing I want to hear is that the DoD has revoked Kerry’s Purple Hearts.
I was never any sort of “river rat”, but a shipmate in ’72-73 had been, and even then the name “John Kerry” was known, and not favorably. He was and remains a serial fabulist (“damn’d liar”) who is the only person in the Universe who knows what color the sky is on his planet.
More importantly: it was the MSM’s success at suppressing the backstory of John Kerry that inspired them to do an even better snowjob with Obama as the subject. They hunted and searched for somebody less qualified than Kerry to be President, and lo!
Regards,
Ric
I’m with Ric. This is still a big deal to me. Until Kerry gets stripped of his phony Purple Hearts, it will always stick in my craw.