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Page :1 Mystery Surrounds Kerrys Navy Discharge It Followed Unusual High-Level Review By THOMAS LIPSCOMB Special to the Sun An official Navy document on Senator Kerrys campaign Web site listed as Mr Kerrys Honorable Discharge from the Reserves opens a door on a wellkept secret about his military service. The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter adminis trations secretary of the Navy,W. It describes Mr Kerr ys discharge as being subsequent to the review of a board of officers. There is nothing about an ordinary honorabl e discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of offi cers. This section refers to the gro unds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being reviewe d, then, was MrKerrys involuntary separation from the service. The review was likely held to improve Mr Kerr ys status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an honor able discharge. A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, was asked whether Mr Kerry h ad ever been a victim of an attempt to deny him an honorable discharge. But Mr Kerrys military com mitment began with his six-year enlistment contract with the Navy on Feb ruary 18, 1966. It is hig hly unlikely that either the man who at that time was a Vietnam Veterans Against the War leader, John Kerry, requested or the Navy accepted an a dditional sixyear reserve commitment. And the Claytor document indicates proceedings to reverse a less than honorable discharge that took place sometime prior to February 1978. The most routine time for Mr Kerrys discharge would have been at th e end of his six-year obligation, in 1972. NBCs release this March of some of the Nixon White House tapes about Mr Kerry show a great deal of interest in Mr Kerry by Nixon and his e xecutive staff, including, perhaps most importantly, Nixons special cou nsel, Charles Colson. In a meeting the day after Mr Kerrys Senate test imony, April 23, 1971, Mr Colson attacks Mr Kerry as a complete oppor tunistWell keep hitting him, Mr President. Mr Colson was still on the case two months later, according to a mem o he wrote on June 15,1971,that was brought to the surface by the Housto n Chronicle. Lets destroy this young demagogue before he becomes anoth er Ralph Nader. Mr Colson had been prodded to find di rt on Mr Kerry, but reported that he couldnt find any. The Nixon administration ran FBI surveillance on Mr Kerry from Septe mber 1970 until August 1972. Finding grounds for an other than honorable discharge, however, for a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the Wa r, given his numerous activities while still a reserve officer of the Na vy, was easier than finding dirt. For example, while America was still at war,MrKerry had met with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegation to the Paris Peace talks in M ay 1970 and then held a demonstration in July 1971 in Washington to try to get Congress to accept the enemys seven point peace proposal without a single change. Woodrow Wilson threw Eugene Debs, a former presidentia l candidate, in prison just for demonstrating for peace negotiations wit h Germany during World War I No court overturned his imprisonment. The secretary of the Navy at the time during the Nixon presidency is the current chairma n of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner. A spokesman fo r the senator, John Ullyot, said, Senator Warner has no recollection th at would either confirm or challenge any representation that Senator Ker ry received a less than honorable discharge. The board of officers review reported in the Claytor document is ev en more extraordinary because it came about by direction of the Preside nt. No normal honorable discharge requires the direction of the preside nt. This adds another twist to the story of Mr Kerrys hidden military records. Mr Carters first act as president was a general amnesty for draft d odgers and other war protesters. Less than an hour after his inauguratio n on January 21, 1977, while still in the Capitol building, Mr Carter s igned Executive Order 4483 empowering it. By the time it became a direct ive from the Defense Department in March 1977 it had been expanded to in clude other offenders who may have had general, bad conduct, dishonorabl e discharges, and any other discharge or sentence with negative effect o n military records. In those cases the directive outlined a procedure fo r appeal on a case by case basis before a board of officers. A satisfact ory appeal would result in an improvement of discharge status or an hono rable discharge. Mr Kerry has repeatedly refused to sign Standard Form 180, which wou ld allow the release of all his military records. And some of his variou s spokesmen have claimed that all his records are already posted on his Web site. But the Washington Post already noted that the Naval Personnel Office admitted that they were still withholding about 100 pages of fil es. If MrKerry was the victim of a Nixon enemies list hit, one might h ave expected him to wear it like a badge of honor, like many others such as his friend Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, CBSs Da niel Schorr, or the actor Paul Newman, who had made Mr Colsons origina l list of 20 enemies. There are a number of categories of discharges besides honorable. There is one od d coincidence that gives some weight to the possibility that Mr Kerry w as dishonorably discharged. Mr Kerry has claimed that he lost his medal certificates and that is why he asked that they be reissued. But when a dishonorable discharge is issued, all pay benefits, and allowances, and all medals and honors are revoked as well. Senate in 1985,on one single day, June 4, all of Mr Kerrys medals were reissued.
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