Are John F. Kerry's medals also in danger of being yanked? Don't count on it.  Why his acolyte, retired US Navy Captain Wade Sanders, had his Silver Star for battlefield gallantry revoked, is a mystery.  Will incurious news media get to the bottom of the story?  Answer: It's doubtful.

News Item: "San Diego — In a highly unusual move, the Navy secretary has stripped a Silver Star awarded to a retired captain and Vietnam swift boat veteran who is serving a federal prison sentence after admitting to child pornography." — Navy Times , July 25, 2011

Except for a few intrepid news and opinion outlets, plus Navy Times, a cone of liberal silence descended around the shocking news that a Silver Star medal for gallantry was yanked from a high-ranking Navy officer in August 2010.  Why it was revoked is not explained; it is a mystery shrouded in a mist of military bureaucracy.

What is clear so far, the revocation of the third highest honor in the pantheon of military medals, is unrelated to the felony conviction of retired Navy Captain Wade Sanders for possessing horrid child pornography.  For that he is now serving a 37-month sentence in a federal prison for a 2008 crime largely unknown except locally until now.

Military medals for gallantry are not lightly revoked. Recipients are entitled to recognition due for their heroic self-sacrificing deeds such as portrayed in medal citations. Medals are a way for a grateful nation to thank its real-life heroes for risking their lives. Knowingly false reporting for medal consideration at least is a court-martial offense. It could land you in the brig, and a bad conduct discharge.

All the more reason higher grade medals, leaving out "good conduct" stuff, ought to be based strictly on facts, not fancy, nor on exaggerated tales. Fudging facts is off limits.  As additional duty back in the Sixties I wrote medal citations from after-action reports.  To be frank, at times I doubted the entire veracity of walk-on-water heroics in the field reports. Sometimes, although rarely, I requested additional info from field commanders. Some were ticked off/   "Damn headquarter types," grumbled one light bird, rebuffing my request. His word, you see, was god speaking in his after-action reports filled with bravado.  

Revoking US Navy Capt. Sanders' Silver Star is no small or laughing matter. It is all the more noteworthy because he introduced fellow swift boat vet and Navy pal John F. Kerry at the 2001 Democrat National Convention in Boston.  That was when Kerry portrayed himself as a military hero "reporting for duty" with a smart, heel-clicking salute. Sanders  then served as Kerry's point man in the presidential campaign, proving to be a tenacious attack dog.  Sanders tired to take down the noble, ultimately successful efforts of the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth, calling them vile names, disputing their indisputable facts.

(In his effort to discredit  "swift boaters" by smear tactics, Capt. Sanders and his ilk were joined by many camp followers in media. Such was the blind, uncritical support for the Massachusetts liberal.) 

Why the silence since last August, when the award was yanked? Perhaps some dogged news hound could file a Freedom of Information petition to find out? Aw shucks, but it didn't work to reach Kerry's only partially released military records. Worth another try?

A spokesperson for Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus says the revocation of the Silver Star was made made following a review and recommendation by the Navy Department's Board of Medals and Decorations. "[Secretary] Mabus signed a memorandum in which he revoked the previously awarded Silver Star," said Capt. Pamela Kunze, without adding much detail.  Except for this paragraph, pregnant in its cool understatement:

"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 [when Sanders received the award, well after the war], those facts would have prevented the award of the Silver Star."

Capt. Kunze, in rank equivalent to full-bird colonel in other branches, would not say who or what prompted the review of Sanders' Silver Star. Nor would she say what information had surfaced to bring about the 2010 revocation.

At a minimum we know Sanders' revocation is  factually based. Thank God for small truths, but must the rest of the story be left to speculation? To what purpose? Or, like Kerry's military medical records, is the reason for medal revocation to be kept forever a military secret?

Sanders, shilling for Kerry, libeled his fellow Swift Boat vets something terrible. Among other dark and creepy things. he called them disciples of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels — that is, outright liars.  Was he duty-bound, or what, to spout such lies for Kerry?  Perhaps, just amateur speculation here, in hopes of a high-level appointment in a Kerry administration?   After all, Capt. Sanders had served as deputy assistant Navy undersecretary in the Clinton administration. 

So why the lack of publicity about his coveted medal going south?   Now hear this: Mainstream media were mostly in the tank for Sen. Kerry. Silence of the liberal birds, flocking together, seems the rule of the day when the news is not favorable for their class.    

It stands to bare reason, if nothing else, silence attends Capt. Sanders' loss of his medal, along with being imprisoned on child pornography charges. An even larger question looms: If Capt. Sanders is NOT entitled to his medal, what about John F. Kerry's?  Were these the same he claimed he tossed over a fence protesting the war, then recovered, apparently, to be posted prominently on his Senate office wall?  Yeah, those medals!

We await news now from inquiring new media, digging deeper, not giving much hope to the mainstream left, to dig out details on the enigmatic case of Capt. Sanders' medal. We are not holding our breath on this, but a few answers would be truly enlightening.

Editors' Note: Larson's '04 article on reasons for Kerry's election defeat is titled "Swifties Sink the USS John F. Kerry" as found at the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth website.