Kerry will be getting my vote in November. But I find his constant reference
to his Vietnam service a bit ad nauseum. He is no Audie Murphy. Kerry needs
to move on to other more substantive issues. However the question on
whether or not Kerry completed his service obligation, both active duty and
reserve commitment, is a straight forward one. The simple answer is, yes.

A month ago I posted my reply to a similar post. My reply specifically
addressed a questioned raised concerning a "5 year" reserve commitment and
"orders to report to a Naval Reserve Personnel Center. Here is my post with
links to referenced documents:

"Kerry like other officer candidates who graduated from OCS was commissioned
as an Ensign, USNR with a six year service commitment, three years of which
were obligated active duty. I'm not sure where the original poster got
"five" years active duty obligated service. He might have been confused with
the requirement defined in the officer candidate agreement which stipulates
that total active duty and Ready Reserve duty had to total 5 years. Thus if
Kerry had only served two years on active duty he would have been required
to serve three years in the Ready Reserve. In this time period, as is the
case today, the clock on the three year commitment began in December of 1966
when he was commissioned.

Thus when he was released from active duty in January of 1970, Kerry had
fulfilled his obligated active duty requirement.

Strangely enough I had assumed based on news headlines that he had taken
advantage of an early release program to shirk his initial obligated
service. Apparently, however, he had "voluntarily extended" his commitment
to remain on active duty until August of 1970. This would have given him
four years of total active duty based on his reporting to OCS in August of
1966 (his time at OCS did not count towards his contractual agreement -but
did count towards total active service). For reasons mentioned in his
November 1969 letter to BUPERS Kerry basically asks the Navy to forget about
his extension. The Navy granted Kerry his request. But since Kerry had
committed to a "new contract" he technically had to request an "early
release". Call him "flip/flop John", but the man met his initial active
duty obligation! I give him credit for that.

So upon his release from active duty in January 1970 John Kerry had a little
less than two years time that he needed to serve in the Ready Reserve to
meet the 5 year active duty/Ready Reserve requirement. And I believe this
is where people misunderstand what it all means.

Being a member of the Ready Reserve means that you are available for recall
to active duty if the President should declare a national emergency or when
Congress declares war. This is in contrast to being a member of the
Stand-By Reserve where you may only be recalled when Congress declares war.
If you read paragraph 5 of the OCS Agreement it delineates specifically
under the law what duty the government may order the released officer from
active duty to perform. And the operative word here is "may". There is
even a clause that states, "or whatever training the Navy may..." The
purpose of this clause in the Agreement is to keep the Navy's Selected
Reserve (a sub-category of the Ready Reserve) supplied with qualified junior
officers. Selected Reservists are those reservists who drill in units or
independently for pay.

But the Ready Reserve consists mostly of individuals
who receive no pay and/or do not drill!!!

Kerry's orders releasing him to inactive duty only specify that he will be
placed in the Ready Reserve and requires him to keep the naval records
activity holding his service record aware of any changes to his home address
or residency outside the U.S.

And while he was "urged" to investigate opportunities at the nearest naval
reserve center, he was not directed to do so, nor was he ordered to a
selected reserve unit.

So in practice, while the Naval Reserve desired recently released officers
for its selected reserve units, there simply were an overwhelming number of
officers coming off active duty with time remaining in the Ready Reserve to
available billets. So Kerry and thousands of others simply bided their time
in the Ready Reserve quietly without having to serve a day.

Hope this helps folks.

http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilse...t_Contract.pdf

http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilse..._Agreement.pdf

http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilse...ppointment.pdf