Kirk apologizes, acknowledges more errors in military resume

Posted by Rick Pearson at 5:15 p.m.




Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk apologized today for erroneous statements about his 21-year record as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer and acknowledged more discrepancies between his actual service and the political rhetoric describing his actions.



Appearing before the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board, Kirk would not directly answer questions about whether the series of errors amounted to an effort to embellish his military military history as he takes on Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias.



Instead, he said he had tried to translate precise military terms into “civilian-speak.” In the future, he said, he would speak more precisely about his record in the reserve. And he said he would let his military fitness reports, which he promised to release soon, speak for his service.





In a new disclosure, Kirk acknowledged that his campaign's promotion of him coming under fire while flying aboard an intelligence reconnaissance plane in Iraq may not be correct because there is no record of whether his aircraft was being fired upon.



Kirk also acknowledged a constituent letter sent out by his North Shore congressional district office last year that described him as a member of Operation Desert Storm, though he did not participate in that effort.



“I am sorry, absolutely,” Kirk said. “You should speak with utter precision. You should stand on the documented military record. In public discourse, for high office, you should make sure that there is a degree of complete rigorous precession.”



The controversy over Kirk's military record took off last week when he acknowledged that he did not receive the Navy's award for intelligence officer of the year.



Kirk, who joined the Naval Reserve in 1989, has repeatedly described the honor as an individual award from the Navy for his actions during the war in Kosovo, known as Operation Allied Force. But late last week, amid media inquiries to the Navy, Kirk corrected his resume to show he actually received a different award.



That citation, the Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award, was given to his unit while it was in Italy. Navy officers make the nominations for the award, which is given by a professional organization known as the National Military Intelligence Association.