Thursday, June 09, 2005

It depends upon the meaning of "release"

Did John Kerry release all of his Navy records to the public when he signed his Standard Form 180? Not necessarily, according to Swift Boat Vet John O'Neill. And O'Neill would know: when Kerry challenged his nemesis to authorize a release of all of his records, O'Neill did so. He filled out the form such that it released all the records. Kerry did not, as the Thomas Lipscomb article linked above notes:

"There is nothing magic about signing a SF 180," said former Naval Judge Advocate General Mark Sullivan. "It is sort of like your checkbook. You can fill out a check for one dollar or a million. It is the same check form."

"And the Globe story says Kerry sent it to the Navy Personnel Command, which is only a limited storage location. So it is not surprising that the Globe then notes that what they received was largely 'duplication' of records previously released. The Navy Personnel Command primarily stores a subset of service records rather than a person's full military records. There is no doubt there are a lot of after-action records missing from what Kerry has released," said Sullivan.


Get it? Kerry's "release" of his military records is only partial.

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