Eye Witness To A Self-Inflicted Wound

Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. was in the boat with John Kerry when Kerry received the "finger nail scratch" that got him one step closer to escaping Vietnam.

"Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 (grenade launcher)," Schachte said in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said, "Kerry requested a Purple Heart."

At about 3 a.m. on Dec. 2, Schachte said, the skimmer -- code-named "Batman" -- fired a hand-held flare. He said that after Kerry's M-16 rifle jammed, the new officer picked up the M-79 and "I heard a 'thunk.' There was no fire from the enemy."

Kerry's "wound" came from scrapnel from the grenade Kerry launched, because he incompetently fired at a target too close to the boat.