Kerry visits VFW Hall on campaign stop

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry visited a V-F-W hall in Des Moines this morning. The event attracted about 30 V-F-W members and Kerry, who is a Vietnam veteran, wandered around swapping stories for awhile. Once he stepped behind the microphones, Kerry — who is a Navy man — engaged in a little verbal jousting with the marines in the crowd. Kerry says the Navy had to “pull those jar heads out of trouble all the time.” Kerry proposes a series of reforms to help America’s veterans get the medical care they were promised. For example, Kerry wants to speed up the process for getting prescriptions for veterans filled through the V-A system.Kerry says the country has a bad track record of breaking its promises to veterans. Kerry says “sometimes it takes veterans reminding the country of the obligation in order to guarantee the things that ought to happen are happening.” The post commander suggested the gathered troops end the meeting by singing “God Bless America” and Kerry joined in, throwing his arms around the commander and Congressman Leonard Boswell as a camera recorded the image.