On January 20, 2003--Martin Luther King Day--the Democratic presidential candidate gave a speech in Richmond, Virginia. "I remember well April, 1968," he told his audience. "I was serving in Vietnam--a place of violence--when the news reports brought home to me and my crewmates the violence back home - and the tragic news that one of the bullets flying that terrible spring took the life" of Martin Luther King.
Okay, but the senator didn’t go to Vietnam until November 1968. But, hey, it gave him a chance to work his war record into one more speech. (Thanks to Division of Labour for the link.)
Well, he was on the Gridley, cruising off shore at the time. Evidently, all those so engaged did qualify for an "in-country" service medal.
I feel safer already.
Mike
Based on the indignation of President Lyndon Johnson, the Tonkin Gulf should be permitted to qualify as "Vietnam" in any memoir of the war. So I suppose this is one case in which we will have to give the Senator a pass. That’s where the records say he was in April, ’68. Waiting to make the Gulf safe for Navy shipping, I suppose.