Quote:
Originally posted by cegerer
"Kerry, who should have been discharged from the Navy about the same time -- July 1, 1972 -- wasn't given the discharge he has on his campaign Web site until July 13, 1978. What delayed the discharge for six years?"
Whether ya support this guy or not, ya gotta admit something's not sounding quite right here ...... 
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FWIW, it's possible that that's an "administrative" error. I sometimes get cases like that. Here's a scenario:
1 - Sailor is nearing the end of his time in the Navy. His ship tells him "You're done here, get off our ship and report to the nearest Transient Personnel Unit for separation processing."
2 - Sailor scored single digits on the aptitude testing, so he catches the "You're done here, get off our ship" part, but misses the "report to blah-blah-blah" part. Sailor goes home without any separation paperwork.
3 - Sailor is technically still in the Navy, though has changed status: after 30 days absence, the Navy (probably the TPU who has a "Failed to Report" message on him) will put out a DD-553 on the sailor, which puts out a warrant for his arrest.
4 - Sailor, who again, has the approximate mental capacity of a cucumber, gets picked up at a routine traffic stop, is arrested for some other charges, or otherwise draws the attention of the civil authorities, who run his record and discover the outstanding warrant for his arrest. Said civil authorities arrange transportation for Sailor back to the nearest TPU for processing, at Sailor's expense.
5 - Sailor goes in the Brig as a deserter awaiting court martial (trial). Court martial eventually happens, about a month later. The judge realizes that Sailor has approximately the same mental capacity as a rutabaga, and is found not guilty of desertion. (While the rest of this scenario is both realistic and common, this part is a bit unlikely. It gets worse.)
6 - Having been found not guily, Sailor goes back across the street to the TPU, where he is processed for administrative separation. As he is a deserter, the most likely choice for "Characterization of Discharge" is "Other Than Honorable," though through various odd chances, he may persuade the discharge authority to sign off on "General, under honorable conditions" or even (unlikely) "Honorable."
7 - It's possible that Sailor could impress someone with his work ethic, history of hard service, or political connections. It's also possible that the administrative types signing off on the DD-214 might miss something. Heck, I'm one of those admin types, and I occasionally see stuff that the previous three people in the chop-chain missed. Mistakes are certainly possible, though relatively uncommon. If Sailor is really as dumb as a box of nails, he won't notice the mistakes either, when he gets the DD-214 handed to him.
(shrug) That's one possible way to explain the 6 year gap between his end of service and his DD-214. I see about one case like this every couple of months, but they've always earned OTH discharges for their stupidity. If your argument is that something like this occurred, you have to claim that Kerry was dumber than a pile of bowling balls, and didn't realize for 6 years that he needed a DD-214 -- I don't think that's an argument you'd like to make.
Oh, and that's only one explanation for one small discrepancy in his long and illustrious service record. There are still those duplicates, and the "V" that he has to explain away.
Dan