Navy strips Kerry’s swift boat ally of Silver Star

Politico doesn’t have a link, but quotes this from the Navy Times:

“Had the subsequently determined facts and evidence surrounding both the incident for which the award was made and the processing of the award itself been known to the Secretary of the Navy in 1992, those facts would have prevented the award of the Silver Star,” [Mabus spokeswoman Pamela] Kunze said.

This Wade Sanders is now in jail for child pornography charges (!!!), but that does not seem at all to be the reason for his losing of the Silver Star — the text indicates that the report about the incident that led to Silver Star was… falsified.

At least that’s my take. I can’t see how else to read that, except the government was defrauded as regards the supposedly heroic conduct he exhibited.

Interesting.

Update: The medal was not awarded when Sanders was serving in Vietnam (with Kerry, during Kerry’s brief four month tour), but in 1992.

The Navy is being very tight-lipped about the reasons for revoking the medal.

It’s not clear whether Sanders conviction played a role in him losing his Silver Star.The Navy declined to release a copy of the memo, which Mabus addressed to the chief of naval personnel, who in turn would be responsible for the administrative actions to pull the award from official naval records.

Kunze would not say who or what prompted the review of Sanders Silver Star, nor would she say what new information had surfaced about the Silver Star.

“Additional information was brought to light after 1992,” she said. “Those facts could have prevented the award of the Silver Star at that time.”

She gave no specific reasons as to how Mabus or the board came to their conclusion.

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