Behind The Lines - Kerry and Form 180

Behind The Lines - Dr Jack Wheeler
Thursday, September 16, 2004

Comfortable? Have a bucket of buttered popcorn and a cold beer at the ready? (If you were my friend Otto, you'd have instead a Grey Goose martini.) All set for the greatest political fireworks show of your life? Showtime is about to begin.

Those SwiftVet ads, you see, have been just the pre-lims to warm the audience up. The main acts will be much more entertaining. They'll begin with signs appearing at Kerry campaign rallies saying:

Ho, ho, ho Kerry must sign the One-Eight-Oh

What does that mean, you ask? It is the demand that Kerry sign a DoD (Defense Dept.) Form 180, which authorizes the release to the public of all military records the Pentagon possesses on him.

George Bush has released all of his, just like John McCain and Al Gore. Kerry refuses. He's hiding stuff in there that destroys him, is why. One such record has already been leaked: The official Navy after-action report that was the basis of Kerry's being awarded the Silver Star. This is the key quote:

'PCF 94 [Kerry's Swift Boat] beached in center of ambush in front of small path when Viet Cong sprung up from bunker 10 feet from unit. Man ran with weapon towards hootch. Forward M-60 machine gunner wounded man in leg. Officer-in-charge, LTjg Kerry, jumped ashore and gave pursuit while other units saturated area with fire and beached placing assault parties ashore. Kerry chased VC inland behind hootch and shot him while he fled -- capturing one B-40 rocket launcher with round in chamber.'

It is impossibly insulting to anyone in the military awarded a medal for bravery in battle that Kerry was given one of the highest honors the military can bestow the Silver Star for shooting a single wounded man while he was running away. How did Kerry engineer this? Only the yet-unreleased records will tell.

Yet this is small potatoes to what's really in there. For starters, he has AWOL and performance problems that blow similar charges against Bush away. On February 18, 1966, Kerry signed Enlistment and Officer Candidate contracts for five years of active duty and reserves, plus one year of inactive standby reserves. On November 21, 1969, he wrote a letter requesting early release from active Navy duty, lying that my current regular period of obligated service (will) be completed in December of this year. Obviously, the true completion date was February 17, 1971.

Nonetheless, after only three years and 18 days of active service, on January 3, 1970, Kerry was transferred to the Naval Reserve Manpower Center in Bainbridge, Maryland. Yet Kerry has refused to release his Performance Records showing that he completed the 48 drills and 17 days of active duty per year required during his 2 1/2 years in the Ready Reserves. For some reason, the Democrat Party propagandists posing as journalists in the mainstream media have never asked about them.

On July 1, 1972, Lt. John Kerry was transferred to Standby Inactive Status. Over 5 1/2 years later and six years after his enlistment contract expired Kerry was discharged from the U.S. Navy on February 16, 1978. not the phoniness of the medals and the after-action reports Kerry is hiding by refusing to sign Form 180. It's not even his Reserve Duty Performance Records showing he missed as many drills as he's missed votes in the Senate. What he is really scared of is the record of his spending six years fighting an OTH Other Than Honorable discharge.

There are five classes of Discharge: Honorable, General, Other Than Honorable, Bad Conduct, and Dishonorable. Kerry's public activities in leading the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), including lying under oath, knowingly lying about alleged atrocities committed by his fellow soldiers, meeting with North Vietnamese government officials and Viet Cong leaders in Paris all while still serving as an officer of the US Navy were in direct violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), qualifying Kerry for a Dishonorable Discharge.

When Kerry appealed, he was offered an OTH (Other Than Honorable) as a compromise. He knew even that would destroy any possible political career, so he continued to stay in the Reserves with further appeals and re-submissions for over five years, until finally, somehow and someway, he cajoled the military into making his discharge Honorable. Then and only then did he leave the Navy.

The full story of how he gamed the system is in those records he won release. The legal activist group,Judicial Watch, has now filed a formal complaint with the Pentagon demanding such release. But this is just the opening salvo.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution has five sections. Here is Section Three:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

As Kerry took an oath to support the Constitution as a military officer of the United States, and subsequently gave public and verifiable aid and comfort to an enemy engaged in warfare with the United States, he is Constitutionally disqualified to run for President (or be a Senator for that matter).

Judicial Watch is thus preparing to file a lawsuit in federal court charging that Kerry's candidacy for President is a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Note, however, that last sentence in Section Three: But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. It turns out there are many Republican Congressmen and Senators who are closet Kerry-supporters so much so that they will be offering H.R.and S. Resolutions exempting Kerry from his 14th Amendment disability. They will stand up on the House or Senate floor and give earnest speeches in support of the resolution. How they will keep a straight face, and suppress any sign whatever of malicious glee, I have no idea but that's one of the skills any politician has.

So sit back and relax, folks. Have another beer (Otto have another martini). This is going to be as Ed Sullivan used to say, rrrreallybig, a rrrreallybig show.

(Oh, did I forget to say who leaked that after-action report from Kerry's Pentagon files, and who will be leaking the rest by, say October 15, if Judicial Watch can't pry them loose first? Here's a clue: he's two or three cutouts away from a certain senator from New York who dreams of once again residing in her husband's former home.)