Kerry's Vietnam timeline

A lot of folks in the blogosphere are asking for a timeline of Kerry's service in Vietnam. There's one on his website, but it's not really accurate.

Here's what I've been able to put together from public records.

Kerry's military records can be found here

• 11/17/68 - Kerry reports for duty in COSDIV (Coastal Division) 14 (Fitness_Reports.pdf - page 18)
  
• 12/2/68 - Kerry sees his first "action" on the "Boston whaler" - this is his first Purple Heart
  
• 12/6/68 - Kerry transferred to COSDVI 11, assigned to PCF-44 (Fitness_Reports.pdf - page 20-21)
  
• 12/11/68 - Kerry makes a diary entry stating that he hasn't yet experienced enemy fire
  
• 12/13/68 - Kerry transferred to COSDIV 13 along with his crew and his boat (Fitness_Reports.pdf - page 20-21) According to Unfit for Command, Kerry is transferred because he complained that he didn't want to be in a combat zone
  
• 12/24/68 - Kerry's "Christmas eve in Cambodia" incident - he has now recanted that story
  
• 12/29/68 - Steve Gardner wounded in action - claims "Kerry ran"
  
• 1/5/69 - Kerry's boat (PCF 44) transferred back to COSDIV 11 (Fitness_Reports.pdf - pages 14, 16, 22-24, 29, Tedd Peck interview.)
  
• 1/11/69 - PCF 44 patrols Rach Hang Ho, 2 WIA (COSDIV 11 Command History, pg. 2)
  
• 1/13/69 - PCF 44 patrols Song Ong Doc, no enemy contact (COSDIV 11 Command History, pg. 2)
  
• 1/20/69 - PCF 44 patrols Song Ong Doc, no enemy contact (COSDIV 11 Command History, pg. 2)
  
• 1/21/69 - Kerry' boat fires on a sampan killing a young child (John F. Kerry, The Complete Biography, pgs. 90-91)
  
• 1/22/69 - Kerry attends meeting with Admiral Zumwalt
  
• 1/29/68 - PCF-94 in fierce gun battle - OinC Peck and GM (Gunners Mate) David Alston wounded and medivaced (SpotReports_January1969.pdf page 1)
  
• 1/30/69 - Kerry takes command of (OinC) PCF-94 in COSDIV 11
  
• 2/13/69 - mission on the Song Bay Hap - negative enemy contact - psyops mission (SpotReports_February69.pdf - page 1-2)
  
• 2/14/69 - SEAL team insertion, negative enemy contact - psyops mission - (SpotReports_February69.pdf - page 3)
  
• 2/18/69 - Bay Hap river - positive enemy contact, mines encountered, no casualites - (SpotReports_February69.pdf - page 5-6)
  
• 2/19/69 - Bay Hap river - light enemy contact, no casualties - (SpotReports_February69.pdf - page 7-8)
  
• 2/20/69 - Song Dam Doi - Kerry WIA - earns his second Purple Heart, for a shrapnel wound to the left thigh, Thorson wounded by shrapnel, right arm - (SpotReports_February1969.pdf pages 9-14)
  
• 2/22/69 - Kerry travels to Saigon for a meeting with Admiral Zumwalt
  
• 2/25/69 - PCF-44 gets caught in a fish trap, light enemy contact, PCF-94 beaches, pursues enemy, drops grenade down "spider hole" (SpotReports_February69.pdf - page 23-25)
  
• 2/26/69 - PCFs 43, 44, 94 captured 5 VC - (SpotReports_February69.pdf - page 26-28)
  
• 2/27/69 - PCFs 23, 43, 95 on patrol, one 94 crewmate, trainee Michael Givens, lightly wounded - (SpotReports_February69.pdf - page 33)
  
• 2/28/69 - Kerry earns the Silver Star for killing a lone, fleeing, teenage VC
  
• 3/13/69 - Kerry earns the Bronze Star for rescuing Jim Rassmann and the Purple Heart (his third) for an arm contusion
  
• 3/26/69 - COSDIV 11 officially transfers Kerry to a stateside assignment (Fitness_Reports.pdf - page 23)
  

Captain's Quarters is working on a timeline as well. I will be adjusting mine as I find correcting information that can be confirmed.

UPDATE: You can find a careful analysis of Kerry's Fitness Reports here by someone who is obviously more familiar with writing fitreps than I am. (I got them. I never gave them.) Note that they disagree with my timeline of the transfers from COSDIV 14 to 13 to 11. I have changed the timeline to agree with their analysis, which is surely more accurate than mine.