This was forwarded to me and I think that a double standard may be in play.
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I want to tell you something and maybe help some remember that not long ago another person was hounded about his medals. This person served the Navy just like John F'ing Kerry but in a far more honorable way and far longer and he reached one of the highest ranks a person could achieve. Now I have no idea what party he was a part of but when the press got wind that this man had a Navy award that he may or may not have been entitled to they went after him with a vengenace. IT cause this man so much grief that in the end he pulled out a gun and shot himself commitiing suicide. "The nation's top Navy officer, distraught after some of his military awards were called into question, died Thursday, May 16, 1996, from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Adm. Jeremy Boorda was to have met about the time of the shooting with the Washington bureau chief of Newsweek magazine, which was working on a story concerning his medals. Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no evidence the shooting was accidental and no suspicion of foul play. Two notes were found at Boorda's residence; they were sealed by investigating police.
At the White House, President Clinton praised Boorda, the first enlisted sailor in the history of the Navy to rise to its top position, as a man of ''extraordinary energy, dedication and good humor.''
Navy Secretary John Dalton said he had met with Boorda a day earlier. ''He was in great spirits,'' Dalton said.
Rear Admiral Kendell Pease, who was with Boorda a little over an hour before the shooting, said Boorda was to have met with Newsweek's bureau chief in his Pentagon office at 2:30 p.m. to discuss questions about his Vietnam combat medals. The implication was that Newsweek was investigating whether Boorda had worn a combat ''V'' decoration that he was never officially awarded.
Pease said that when he told Boorda, about 12:30 p.m., what the subject of the interview was, the admiral abruptly announced he was going home for lunch instead of eating the meal that had been brought to his office. ''Admiral Boorda was obviously concerned,'' said Pease, the Navy's top public affairs officer.
In a statement, Newsweek Editor Maynard Parker said the magazine ''had not reached any conclusions'' about the medal controversy. Boorda's body was found about 2:05 p.m. in a side yard next to his quarters at the Washington Navy Yard. He was pronounced dead at D.C. General Hospital a few minutes later.
Boorda was awarded commendation and meritorious service awards for his duty in Vietnam, which included combat operations. But copies of the citations released Thursday by the Navy did not mention that Boorda qualified for wearing a combat ''V.''
Boorda was to have joined Clinton and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the White House on Thursday for announcement of an initiative seeking a permanent worldwide ban on land mines.
Clinton opened the session with a moment of silence in Boorda's memory, as grim-faced military officers stood behind him.Clinton praised Boorda for his work in Bosnia and for showing ''unwavering concern for the men and women'' of the U.S. military.
As commander of NATO forces in southern Europe, Boorda was in charge of a NATO air strike against four Bosnian Serb aircraft flying in violation of a U.N. ban on fixed-wing flights. It was the first time a NATO commander had ordered alliance forces on an offensive mission in its 44-year history.
Boorda was born in South Bend, Indiana, and grew up in Chicago. He dropped out of high school, fibbed about his age and joined the Navy at the age 17.
He and his wife, Bettie, have four children. "
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Just some food for thought.....
Here is some more info....
Admiral Boorda info.....
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