Grant Hibbard

From dKosopedia

Category: Swift Boat controversy

One of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

April 13, 2004

From "John Kerry's Vietnam" by Andrea Stone in USA TODAY:

Grant Hibbard, the division commander, says he initially rejected Kerry's first Purple Heart because he only had a "little scratch" on his arm and a "squiggly" one-eighth-inch shrapnel shard in his left hand. A Navy "sick call" sheet provided by the Kerry campaign shows that he was treated the next day for shrapnel in his left arm above the elbow.

"It just didn't seem to warrant" a Purple Heart, Hibbard says. He later "acquiesced" after receiving "some correspondence" -- he doesn't remember from whom -- and because he was going home soon and didn't feel like fighting it.

Kerry doesn't remember Hibbard or the conversation but does recall "someone raising a question" about the award. If he asked for the award, he says, it was because he didn't realize Purple Hearts were given automatically and not at the discretion of commanders. "They decided to award it," he says. "I'm not going to rehash a judgment made by the Navy 35 years ago."