John Kerry Honorable Discharge...

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John Kerry's discharge from the Navy

From the documentation available on Kerry's website, something of a timeline can be developed. On 18 Feb. 1966, Kerry signed a 6 year enlistment contract with the Navy (plus a 6-month extension during wartime). On 18 Feb. 1966, he also signed an Officer Candidate contract for 6 years; 4 years of Active Duty followed by 2 years of Active Naval Reserve Duty, during which he would be subject to the standard 48 drills and 17 days of Active Duty Training per year, and 1 year of Inactive Standby Reserve duty, subject only to emergency recall, required to attend no further drills or training. On 3 Jan. 1970, he was discharged from Active Duty and transferred to Reserve Duty. No record of his having fulfilled any Reserve drill and training obligations has been made available.

By terms of his enlistment, his contractual discharge date would have been 18 July 1972, though by custom and standard practice, the routine discharge date would have been the first day of that month. However, the record shows that on 1 July 1972, he was not discharged, but transferred to Standby Reserve, Inactive. The record further shows that on 16 Feb. 1978, 67 months beyond his contractual discharge date, he was Honorably Discharged from the Naval Reserve by action of an Officer's Board - a rather strange circumstance for an Honorable Discharge. That's odd enough, but things get somewhat more complicated and puzzling from there.


There is considerable conjecture, which he could put to rest by the simple expedient of signing the Standard Form 180. He has not done so, the conjecture continues.