May 04, 2004, 4:26 p.m.
Kerry Purple Heart Doc Speaks Out
The medical description of his first wound.

By Byron York

Some critics of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry have questioned
the circumstances surrounding the first of three Purple Hearts Kerry won in
Vietnam. Those critics, among them some of Kerry's fellow veterans, have
suggested that a wound suffered by Kerry in December 1968 may have made him
technically eligible for a Purple Heart but was not severe enough to warrant
serious consideration, even for a decoration that was handed out by the
thousands. Whatever the case, Kerry was awarded the Purple Heart, and, along
with two others he won later, it allowed him to request to leave Vietnam
before his tour of duty was finished.

Kerry was treated for the wound at a medical facility in Cam Ranh Bay. The
doctor who treated Kerry, Louis Letson, is today a retired general
practitioner in Alabama. Letson says he remembers his brief encounter with
Kerry 35 years ago because "some of his crewmen related that Lt. Kerry had
told them that he would be the next JFK from Massachusetts." Letson says
that last year, as the Democratic campaign began to heat up, he told friends
that he remembered treating one of the candidates many years ago. In
response to their questions, Letson says, he wrote down his recollections of
the time. (Letson says he has had no contacts with anyone from the Bush
campaign or the Republican party.) What follows is Letson's memory, as he
wrote it.

I have a very clear memory of an incident which occurred while I was the
Medical Officer at Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay.

John Kerry was a (jg), the OinC or skipper of a Swift boat, newly arrived in
Vietnam. On the night of December 2, he was on patrol north of Cam Ranh, up
near Nha Trang area. The next day he came to sick bay, the medical facility,
for treatment of a wound that had occurred that night.

The story he told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that
night. According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight, receiving
small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this
enemy action.

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.

Not [sic] other injuries were reported and I do not recall that there was
any reported damage to the boat.