Kerry's Naval Records - What, if anything, is he trying to hide?

Thomas Lipscomb, writing in The New York Sun, presents his vies on this topic which seems to have zero interest for the MSM. Compare this blatant fraud to the pointless hullabaloo over GWB's brief stint in Alabama and then try to argue that the press doesn't let ideoology or partisan advantage color its news judgment. Lipscomb's article is particularly good at putting the story into the context of the Nixon administration and its enemies. Read the full story here:
Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge - October 13, 2004 - The New York Sun

First, let me make the point that I have downloaded all the Kerry military records available on his website and reviewed them. It is an amazing hash job with single files containing unrelated bits of information and a multitude of one page files a lot of which tell us nothing useful - which might be excused if the information was an exhaustive collection, but it isn't. As Lipscomb notes, the Navy has confirmed to The Washington Post that there are another 100 pages in their possession not eligible for public release without Kerry's permission.

Here are a few of my observations based on this material.

DD 214 - if you are my age and male, you probably know what that means. When I was young, every time you applied for work, they asked if you had served in the armed forces and asked to see your DD 214 if you had. This is the basic document summarizing your term of service, rank, and type of discharge. On his website, Kerry helpfully provides a file named DD214, but it is not the one that marked the end of his naval service. It is the one effective 15 Dec 1966 that discharges him from his enlisted status (E5) as an officer candidate to allow him to accept his commission as an Ensign (O1). He also provides a file headed DD215 (the DD 215 form is used to amend a prior DD 214), but it modifies the DD 214 issued for service ending 3 Jan 1970 which marked his separation from active duty - and it merely makes corrections to the list of medals, etc. to which he was entitled. The curious part is that it is dated 12 Mar 2001 (giving some commentators the mistaken impression that Kerry was somehow still in the Navy 35 years after his enlistment).

The missing 17 days - so much has been made of gaps in the Bush ANG record, but I have not seen any reference to the fact that Kerry's records indicate that when he left the Gridley (which was due for decommissioning) effective 20 July 1968 he was to report to Coronado for a nine-week PCF skipper course beginning 25 Aug and report to Cam Ranh Bay by 31 October. Note that this gave Kerry nothing much to do for almost a month from the end of his school, yet he does not report in at Cam Ranh Bay until 2200 hours on 17 Nov.

When did Kerry's service obligation end? Kerry helpfully supplies copies of his enlistment and OCS contracts from the NYC recruiting station where he signed up in mid-February 1966. As other documents in his file make clear, he was on inactive reserve status until reporting for his four-month OCS course in August, after graduation. (This was a typical arrangement in those days.) His contracts were for the standard term of six years, the OCS contract specifying five years active duty and one year inactive reserve, so he should have been out in February 1972. Curiously, Kerry notes in his 21 Nov 1969 letter asking to be released early to run for Congress that his period of obligatory service would be completed in December but that he had "voluntarily" extended his active duty period to August 1970. Nothing I have found in the files would explain why his active service should end three years after his commission or four years after his entry on active duty. We do have the admiral's letter of endorsement to the Bureau of Personnel which expresses his desire that Kerry be separated as soon as possible to run for Congress and that happens 2 Jan 1970 (plus one day to travel to his home). Curiously, Kerry was promoted to Lieutenant (O3) effective 1 Jan 1970 having received a "superseding temporary appointment" as Lt(jg) on 1 Dec.

Was Kerry released from active duty with no obligation to participate in reserve drills, even though he had served less than three years and five months active duty (including OCS)? Was this usual practice? If it were George Bush, someone in the press would be asking.

Kerry was, of course, still in the Navy Reserve after leaving his admiral's aide gig in Brooklyn. On 17 Dec 1970 he received a "superseding temporary appointment" as Lieutenant which Kerry accepted on 5 Jan 1971. A form letter dated 1 Mar 1972 to Kerry says his Ready Reserve status is about to expire (Note that his six year obligation, if dated from date of his enlistment contract, should already have ended.) and says that he will be routinely transferred to Standby Reserve Inactive effective either 1 April or 1 Oct unless he takes action. An addendum dated 16 Aug modifies the date of his transfer to Standby Reserve Inactive from 1 April to 1 July but doesn't explain why there was a change or why the non-standard date of 1 July was assigned.

This is where we begin to see a problem since we have just seen that a document from March 1972 refers to Kerry as then being in the Ready Reserve, but the May 1986 letter from Navy personnel, responding to a request from the senator, shows Kerry's status as Inactive Reserve as of 3 Jan 1970 and the next entry is 1 Jul 1972 transfer to Standby Reserve. In any event, that letter says Kerry was honorably discharged 16 Feb 1978 (two days shy of the 12th anniversary of his enlistment).

There is a lot in this mess of papers that is all but impossible to decipher. Forms with obscure military abbreviations that you can't even read due to the grainy quality of some of the scanned images. Still, you pick up some interesting stuff like the fact that Kerry got a nice vacation the summer he worked for the admiral in Brooklyn - they sent him on an all expense paid, four city tour to Labrador, Newfoundland and Greenland. They also sent him to New Orleans. We also find that he first requested Swift Boat duty at the time he graduated from OCS. And, quite surprisingly, we find that Kerry was a rather mediocre student placing 7 of 22 in one Navy training course and 17 of 35 in another.

Lipscomb's article indulges in interesting speculation on the significance of the 16 Jan 1978 honorable discharge and whether it superseded some prior lesser dischage. The problem with that is that there is no indication he had been separated from the naval reserve prior to the date of that letter from Navy secretary W. Graham Claytor, Jr. Claytor could not have convened a board to reverse a lesser discharge if he had not been discharged and was still in the naval reserve. It just doesn't add up.

Some of the more interesting questions, in my view, are:
Why a Navy JAG Corps lawyer assigned to personnel was tasked with a review of Kerry's service the month he entered upon his duties in the US Senate in 1985?
Why Kerry was writing to the Navy for documentation of his naval service in 1986?
Why Kerry's DD 215 from 2001 corrects the list of medals on a DD 214 from 1970 that he does not include on his website?
Why Kerry does not supply a DD 214 covering the end of his reserve service?