Most of the Vietnam veterans among you recognize the name of Robert Garwood as the Marine who defected to the Viet Cong in the closing days of his tour of Vietnam and eventually returned home in 1979 to a court martial that ended exceedingly well for Garwood what with him being a turncoat traitor and all.
Well, beretverde sends us a link to an encounter that he had with a neighbor. Of course, he claims he was Special Forces and Force Recon in Vietnam, as if no one has ever heard of him.
It’s a fairly long read that I won’t summarize here, but if you’ve ever wondered whether he was an innocent victim of circumstances, this strange article should disabuse you of that notion.
at what poi
At what point can we expect these idiots to actually take responsibility for their actions?
Garwood is scum. How does a convicted fellon amass that much stuff. Who would give him a well paying job? What bank would lend him money to buy a house? Total bullshit. Please post the rest of this story when it becomes available.
I tried to read it, but it is just too damn long.
What a douchebag. Long read. I’m surprised the guy didn’t kick Garwood’s pansy ass.
TLDR:
Garwood told wild stories of his shitty career in the US military. Seduced several neighbors with his god-like status. Turned at least one set of neighbors against author. Author’s wife falls in love with Garwood. Garwood tries to intimidate author through lies and proxies. Author eventually divorces Wife. Author’s Wife understands the lies but still thinks Garwood is the best thing since sliced bread. Author eventually remarries, has to endure a couple more years of Garwood but luckily Garwood does himself in by losing his trust fund for getting a new court-martial by trying to intimidate a minister, Tom. Katrina floods their home and they are forced to move back next to the Author. The author has since remarried a woman in China and she comes to live with author after a 20-month visa hell. Author and new Wife eventually move to Virginia. End of story.
I hope Robert Garwood pays for his crimes in this life and on into the afterlife. No punishment is too bad for this guy.
I think in retrospect, he should not have been allowed to return to this country. He made his bed he should have been forced to sleep in it.
how did the old saying go “a rice paddy to shit in”?
Seems to me the guy should have used all of the time he took to write the story for opening a can of whoop ass on this Robert Garwood traitor!
I read the whole thing, and I couldn’t help but feel like the author was indeed incredibly naive. How could he NOT see all that coming down the pipe? That being said… if I had been in that gentleman’s shoes, the traitor Garwood would have longed for rescue by the NVA before I finished with him!
As if anyone needed proof positive that a dirtbag is really a dirtbag. I’ll pass on Part II.
I’m passing this around on a few Marine boards I frequent. This twat deserves just about everything coming to him.
Strange indeed. This stuff, it turns out, has been around for years. I found verbatim portions of the article in the comments to an Aspen Post of May 2007 regarding Garwood. The commenters to the article also include the wife (she tells the author, Ron, to get a life. This is an ongoing soap opera, it seems and no good will result from it.
Yeah, the Garwood story has been around for years, however, there are a lot of people that don’t remember him, or aren’t aware that 2 dozen scorpions didn’t infest his pants and sting him multiple times in the junk leaving him a quivering mass to die a slow, painful death.
@2-1/AirCav: This? http://aspenpost.net/2011/08/28/comment-on-welcome-home-bobby-by-marilou-garwood/
He said, she said.
Garwood is a waste of oxygen, but this yarn wouldn’t even make a good daytime soap opera.
http://aspenpost.net/2007/05/27/welcome-home-bobby/
@15. Yep. That’s the one.
The Garwood post Vietnam story-soap opera (adultery) is common in today’s society. I found it both boring and sad. However, what I did find interesting was Garwood’s claims of being Special Forces and Marine Force Recon while in Vietnam. Everyone is three persons in one- who they think they are, who others think they are, and who they really are. His claims can be “justified” as him not wanting to be “outed” at what others think he really is (convicted-collaborator as well), yet another version would be your typical Stolen Valor Syndrome. The money part was the most puzzling part of the whole story (Marine 83)! I bet he gets 100% VA disability and claims PTSD! Now that “outing” would make a story… if I am correct on my hunch!
“The Garwood post Vietnam story-soap opera (adultery) is common in today’s society.”
Reading the transcripts posted on a 3rd Marine website, it appears that “womanizing” was one of the reasons the Vietnamese wanted to get rid of him in ’79, along with him being undisciplined, etc. Basically what was described in the Charest encounter and the encounter he had while still on Okinawa, before going to Vietnam. I see a pattern emerging from all the accounts by several different people over many years, so I have a hard time believing anything that Garwood has to say about anything. If he told me the sky was blue, I would have to go check.
Here’s the site I’m talking about
http://www.3rdmarines.net/Garwood_Overview.htm
I read this story a very long time ago and it is definitely worth the read.
This is proof how America has gone to Hell. Time past he would have lived his life out in prison. This P.C. Shit is ruining America.
Carter pardoned the pussy’s who hid and wimped out and people like Garwood got a pass from the government!
If not for the fact that I grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi and all this took place in my proverbial back yard, I don’t think I would have spent the time to read this entire soap opera. The author is a bit melodramatic (he intended to throw me overboard from his boat). But it was a bit a nostalgic for me to read. The riverside restaurant in Gautier where Garwood tried to whack him was called the Tiki. They had GREAT seafood, but I’m not sure if they reopned after Katrina.
Melodrama and nostalgia aside, as someone who follows the stolen valor issue, it sure does seem like Garwood follows the classic M.O. of a phony. The whole CIA, Special Forces, Top-Secret stuff I’m happy to brag about…yada yada yada.
Bottom Line: Garwood is a convicted criminal, nuff said.
#14 I distictly remember reading(mostly as a teenager) about a Marine in Vietnam, who was captured and became a collaborator. This also came from more then one source, but if my memory is correct, it was always in passing. Whatever the article/book/topic was, it was never directly addressed. First time I’ve ever seen seen a name to place with this that tale.
Meant “distinctly”, mispelling sorry.
I remember watching this spectacle on tv when he returned. I won’t say what my foster dad (101st, ’68) said about him at that time.
@19…Unless things have changed, no DD can recieve benefits from the VA. Thank God. I read the whole thing…long and a bit melodramatic, but I always wondered what happened to this POS. I believe his money probably comes from the hollywood community, i.e. Oliver Stone, and other’s from the old anti-vietnam war community. To them, he’s a hero. Who would I believe….former POW’s who have no reason to lie, or this total POS? Well, the Court Martial says it all, incuding appeals. He’ll rot somewhere, someday.
Honor and Courage.
I think he is getting VA bucks. I hope I’m wrong.
Old story….
GARWOOD WILL RECEIVE PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT UNDER A MARINE LEAVE
AP
Published: February 19, 1981
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C., Feb. 18— Pfc. Robert R. Garwood will be placed on leave Friday and sent to a civilian hospital in Virginia for voluntary psychiatric treatment, the Marine Corps announced today.
Maj. John Schmidt said that Private Garwood, who was convicted of collaborating with the enemy and striking a fellow American while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was being placed on leave while his conviction was being appealed.
Military officials declined to identify the hospital. During the court-martial, Private Garwood’s attorneys did not dispute testimony from former prisoners of war who said he had served his captors as an interpreter and that he had guarded other Americans and informed on them.
The defense team argued that Private Garwood had been driven insane by deprivation and torture in captivity and could not understand the criminality of his acts. Testimony of Psychiatrists
Psychiatrists for both the defense and Government testified that Private Garwood remained mentally disabled. One psychiatrist said that even after effective, long-term therapy Private Garwood would bear the emotional scars of his ordeal for life.
Yesterday, Col. R.E. Switzer, the presiding judge, turned down two defense motions. One asked him to declare a mistrial and the other asked him to overturn the guilty verdict handed down two weeks ago by a five-man jury of marine officers.
The defendant faced a possible life sentence. The jury ordered a dishonorable discharge, reduction to the lowest pay grade and forfeiture of pay from the date of conviction.
The conviction does not become official until the base commander, Maj. Gen. David Barker, reviews the records of the court-martial and acts on it. He can affirm the verdict and sentence, overturn them, or reduce the sentence. The review is expected to take several weeks.
I won’t say how long it took to read that (poorly written) account, but suffice to say I will never get it back. The story is sad, but most divorces are. I take a lot of this account with a grain of salt. I wish the Senior Chief fair winds and following seas. However, I don’t see what this adds to the “debate.” Having a dishonorable discharge, Garwood should not be elligible for any VA benefits. Other than that, I think his 15 minutes are up.
The 20-year old story said he was placed on leave to be VOLUNTARILY evaluated at a civilian psychiatric facility. I have known many, many defendants in my day and the first thing they are advised to do by their counsel is to enter rehab or counseling if the offense involved drugs or alcohol and to get a psych evaluation and treatment, if possible, if the crime was–how shall I put it?– sufficiently heinous or repulsive. So, Garwood’s voluntary nut eval was consistent with that approach.
Okay, so I can’t add. It’s a 30-year-old story.
1AirCav69: He should have gotten life in front of a firing squad.
But that’s just me.
Well, he didn’t get life. The sentence was carried out and he is now a free man. That’s our legal system. It happened over 30 years ago and we just have to live with it.
#33…OT….I was always taught not to volunteer….but if that was the case…I VOLUNTEER!
I also agree with HM2…he should NOT be eligable for VA bennies with a DD.
HM2….ever know a Corpsman named David Tinoco? Now HM1?
Honor and Courage
No, Sorry Air Cav. It’s a big navy. I was TDRL’d in ’05. Do you know where he was stationed from 97-05?
HM2, After Corpsman school he was assigned to the Naval Hospital Beaufort, then MCAS Beaufort. He then went to Iraq twice, and just got done with a tour in the Stan. He’s at Charleston, Naval Hospital now. Your right…big Navy, but you never know. Every tour he carried my St. Michael’s Medal from Vietnam and my original P-38. He said before his first tour in Iraq….”Thanks Tom…these will get me back without getting wounded or killed?” I said…”well maybe not killed, remember, I got half my ass shot off.” He just shook his head and laughed. He was with EOD his first Iraq tour, in a town with just a few Marines living in an Iraqi police station his second, and got a concussion from an IED in the Stan. He’s like the son I never had. Welcome home Doc.
Honor and Courage
Sounds like a great guy. I was with 1/8 from 2000-2002 then sent to second tanks 02-03 before heading to Little Creek for my last tour.
It’s too bad our paths never crossed…