There is some medical documention of Kerry's first wound, saying that they removed a piece of shrapnel and applied bacitracin. Which is far more documention tna we have of Dubya's service in Alabama.

As for Hibbard, who's now trashing Kerry and saying he didn't deserve the first Purple Heart, Hibbard's fitness report of Kerry is in the released military records, and Hibbard gave Kerry three "one of the top few" marks and one "above the majority" mark (and nothing worse than that). But Hibbard also noted he was unable to give more marks due to "insufficient observation" (Hibbard was doing the review after only the first half month of Kerry's Swift boat duty). So as far as reviews go, even the presently hostile Hibbard gave Kerry good marks back then, and the others that had more opportunity to observe Kerry gave him outstanding marks. So I guess you'll have to take Hibbard's present comments with a little grain of salt. . . .

The Republicans who are trashing Kerry for this simply have no shame. Line up Kerry's military record against Dubya's, and it's the difference between day and night. . . .

Cheers,
                         -- Arne