John Kerry's web site includes a copy of his DD-214 (his discharge form), on which we find an award called a "Silver Star with combat V." The trouble is, there's no such thing. Also, there are three versions of Kerry's citation, which is bizarre (to put it mildly).
This from a man who criticized Admiral Boorda for possibly wearing a V without authorization. Watch the spin on this, because an honorable veteran would profusely apologize and instantly correct the error with a DD-215 ... as Kerry did when his DD-214 omitted 4 bronze stars on his Vietnam Service Medal.
The clock's ticking, John.
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UPDATE: Here, I'll help you find it, John.
UPDATE 2: Worse still, former Navy Secretary John Lehman denies signing the most recent of the three versions of the citation. The citation on Kerry's web site has Lehman's signature, and might have been signed with an autopen (which is no problem by itself). But this appears to be more than a case of authorized autopen use.
"It is a total mystery to me. I never saw it. I never signed it. I never approved it. And the additional language it contains was not written by me," he said.
Doctored records? If so, there's no way he'll survive the political damage.
Hat tip: Captain's Quarters
Kerry should be called on the carpet for this one and promptly correct it. Interestingly enough though, I was able to locate at least six other vets that were awarded Silver Stars with V devices just doing a search through old news articles in the last 10 minutes.
I imagine that part of this lies with Kerry's ego and his wanting that (V) to stand out and the other part I would attribute to the memo issued by DOA during the outbreak of the Vietnam war which changed the awards which a V device may be attached to. The other vets that I was able to locate probably have no idea that they have anything wrong in their file.