Where’s mine?
Posted By Russ Emerson on May 4, 2004 at 11:45 pm
According to the Senator’s military doctor, the wound for which John Kerry received his first Purple Heart was minor, and close to having been self-inflicted:
Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore. The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.
That seemed to fit the injury which I treated.
What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry’s arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm. in length and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle.
I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4 mm. It did not require probing to find it, did not require any anesthesia to remove it, and did not require any sutures to close the wound.
The wound was covered with a bandaid.
Well, heck.
The wound I described here was inflicted by a piece of metal about 1.5cm wide by .3cm thick (by 15cm long), and penetrated 3 or 4 millimeters. I pulled the metal out myself, and didn’t bother with a bandaid.
Where’s my Purpleheart?
I had several bone crushing hangovers while in the Army. Is it too late to apply for a Purple Heart?
Jim,
You would only qualify if the Enemy bought you drinks.
Kerry’s “Wound”
“I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it…