John Kerry now says those weren’t his medals he threw. When a reporter in the 80′s noticed Kerry’s medals on display in his office, Kerry explained that the medals he had thrown belonged to two other soldiers — one a World War II vet, one from Viet Nam — who had asked him to return their medals. He threw his own ribbons, but not his medals.

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061703.shtml

Key paragraphs:

Kerry, who understood well the importance that the media placed on imagery, put an exclamation mark on events by lining up with veterans to return their medals to the military on April 23. Kerry said he suggested that veterans place their medals and ribbons on a table and return them. But he said other members of the antiwar veterans group wanted to throw the medals and ribbons over a fence in front of the Capitol, and Kerry went along with the idea.

Video footage of the scene shows hundreds of veterans angrily gathering in front of the Capitol, near a fenced-in bin with the large sign saying “Trash.”

One by one, the veterans, most of whom had long hair and wore combat jackets, threw their medals into the makeshift trash bin.

Some press reports say that Kerry “threw his medals.” But Kerry has long maintained he threw his own ribbons but someone else’s medals.

In an interview, he said that he had previously met two veterans, one from the Vietnam War and another from World War II, who had asked Kerry to return their medals to the military. Kerry said he stuffed them into his jacket.

He said that when he prepared to throw his ribbons over the fence, he reached into his jacket and pulled out the medals from those two veterans. He said his own medals remained in safekeeping.

So the moment that Bill Ayers described as “John Kerry’s finest moment” never happened.

J.