Fred the Red Shirt wrote:


I was the commanding officer to whom Kerry reported his injury on Dec.
3, 1968. I had confirmed that there was no hostile fire that night and that
Kerry had simply wounded himself with an M-79 grenade round he fired too
close. He wanted a Purple Heart, and I refused. Louis Letson, the base
physician, saw Kerry and used tweezers to remove the tiny piece of
shrapnel - about 1 centi*meter in length and 2 millimeters in di*ameter.
Letson also confirmed that the scratch was inflicted with our M-79.


If there was no enemy fire, or at least enemies present, why was the
M-79 grenade fired?



I can not say this for certain, but it has been stated in other
threads that the grenade was fired during what is often termed
"reconaissance by fire." That is to say, if there MIGHT be an enemy
hiding in a tree line, or behind that haystack, or in those woods,
a grenade is a relatively cheap and (usually) safe way for you to
find out- and potentially avoid an ambush if there are in fact bad
guys there intent on doing you harm. If there isn't actually an
enemy around, then you've spent a grenade for peace of mind (and
a small shrapnel wound in the case in question- got to watch how
close you set off things that go boom).

Mike Williamson