He received many military honors
One of the most interesting facts about John Kerry is that he received many military honors. Kerry was in command of a small boat working near a peninsula north of Cam Ranh Bay with a Swift boat during the night of December 2 and early morning of December 3, 1968 (PCF-60). Kerry and his two crewmen, Patrick Runyon and William Zaladonis were ambushed by a gang of Vietnamese members unloading sampans at a river crossing that night. Kerry got a shrapnel wound in the left arm above the elbow during this battle. Kerry won his first Purple Heart Medal for this injury.
Kerry won his second Purple Heart on February 20, 1969, for a wound incurred in battle on the Bồ Đề River. Kerry's boat was hit by a B-40 rocket as the Swift boats approached the Cửa Lớn River, and a piece of shrapnel hit Kerry's left leg, injuring him. After that, the enemy fire stopped, and his boat arrived safely in the Gulf of Thailand. Kerry still has shrapnel implanted in his left thigh because the physicians who initially treated him chose to remove the damaged tissue and cover the wound with sutures rather than making a large opening to remove the shrapnel.
The events that earned Kerry his Silver Star Medal occurred eight days later, on February 28, 1969. During a military operation, Kerry was in tactical charge of his Swift boat and two other Swift boats. As stated in the story The Death Of PCF 43, their task on the Duong Keo River entailed bringing an underwater demolition crew and dozens of South Vietnamese Marines to destroy enemy sampans, structures, and bunkers. Lieutenant Commander George Elliott, Kerry's commanding officer, told Douglas Brinkley in 2003 that he didn't know whether to court-martial Kerry for beaching the boat against instructions or award him a medal for saving the crew. Elliott nominated Kerry for the Silver Star, and Zumwalt traveled into An Thoi to personally award medals to Kerry and the remainder of the mission's sailors.
Kerry was in command of one of five Swift boats returning to their base on the Bái Háp River on March 13, 1969, after performing an Operation Sealords mission to transport South Vietnamese troops from the garrison at Cái Nước and MIKE Force advisors for a raid on a Vietcong camp located on the Rach Dong Cung canal. James Rassmann, a Green Beret advisor aboard Kerry's PCF-94, was thrown overboard when a mine or rocket exploded near the boat, according to witnesses and paperwork. Kerry's arm was wounded when he was slammed into a bulkhead during the explosion, according to event paperwork. PCF 94 returned to the site, and Kerry rescued Rassmann, who was under fire from snipers in the water. For his conduct during this incident, Kerry was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" for heroic achievement, as well as his third Purple Heart.
