Someone noticed an obituary in which Robert Hammell was memorialized and whoever wrote it thinks that Robert was a Navy SEAL;
However, he wasn’t a Navy SEAL according to Don Shipley and the US Navy;
I have no proof that Robert ever made the claim that he was a SEAL. Often, confused family members write things in an obituary that aren’t true. The same goes for Funeral service providers. So, I’m not calling this stolen valor. I’m just correcting the historical record. Robert Hammell was never a Navy SEAL.
According to his records, he spent three years in the Navy. He served on the USS Cayuga – Cayuga did see some action in Vietnam when they provided support to Operation Song Than, a Marine Corps amphibious assault in support of the defense of Hue City in May 1972. Cayuga was on the receiving end of some North Vietnamese Army indirect fire which earned the ship the Combat Action Ribbon. However Hammell didn’t join the crew until about six months later in December, 1972, so he is not an actual Vietnam veteran with service in the area. He’s a Vietnam-era veteran.
But the Navy tells a different story about his career;
Based on Allen’s summary Sheet shows that he did just under 4 years of active duty in the Navy and not 12 that he claimed. He was discharged as a Seaman Recruit (SR) E-1. There is no record of him attending BUD/S, NO jump school, and NO SEAL Command. Allen was stationed on the USS John F Kennedy.
A retired Chicago police officer shot and killed a man who he said was trying to carjack him Wednesday night in the Bridgeport neighborhood, police said.
The suspect who died was shot in the upper body several times and police said his two accomplices were arrested.
The suspects picked a retired Chicago police officer to carjack just before 7:30 p.m. in the 2900-block of South Shields Avenue.
The retired officer in his 60s was either in or out of his vehicle on the street when he was approached by three men and one of them had a gun, police said. The retired officer managed to fire shots at one of the three who tried to take his car, police said.
That suspect was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, where he later died. The suspect has been identified to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office as 20-year-old Lazarick West of Chicago.
A Fayetteville convenience store clerk opened fire Wednesday night one two masked men who came into the store carrying a gun, police said.
The shooting occurred shortly before 10 p.m. at the Five Star BP gas station, at 2101 Cedar Creek Road, police said.
A woman who was staying a a nearby motel was leaving the convenience store and saw two masked men running inside, so she called 911, according to the store owner, who identified himself only as “C.J.”
Clerk Bassam Albareti, 29, saw on the store’s security camera two suspected robbers coming in and pulled out a gun, the owner said. Albareti fired several shots through the glass that enclosed the counter, hitting one man in the leg, the owner said.
The would-be robbers dropped their gun and fled. The owner said the gun wasn’t loaded.
“One of the suspects actually went to a residence somewhere in the county and called 911, saying he had been shot,” said Sgt. Shawn Strepay, spokesman for the Fayetteville Police Department. “Throughout the course of our investigation and the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office investigating that [911 call], we were able to tie everything together and determine that, even though he was calling 911 saying he had been shot, claiming he was a victim, he was actually the suspect in our case.”
The caller was identified as David Glenn Perry, 19, of Stedman Cedar Creek Road. He was being treated at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.
The second suspect was identified as Noah Lee Rowsey, 19, of Bullock Court. He was being held in the Cumberland County jail under a $50,000 bond.
Both men face charges of robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon.
The store owner said he allows his employees to carry weapons to protective themselves. The employees have permits, he said.
An update to the story we wrote about the other day in Memphis, Tennessee when a lady scared off a robber with a warning shot;
Surveillance footage of the exchange went viral when thousands of people shared the story and video across social media.
A Memphis mother was watching the news and recognized the robber as her 20-year-old son, Derriontay N. Perry.
She did not hesitate to call the police. Officers arrested her son without incident on April 25.
Perry is charged with aggravated assault and aggravated robbery.
Massachusetts’ Eagle-Tribune tells the story of 93-year-old Morley Piper who appeared with President Obama at a Normandy 70-year memorial to the D-Day invasion. Piper now admits that he didn’t come ashore with the 29th Infantry Division on D-Day as he had told folks that he had.
In an interview at his Essex home Wednesday night, Piper apologized for lying about his military service. He said he served in the Army with the 459th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion and participated in the Normandy invasion but well after the 29th Infantry stormed the beaches and bore the brunt of the German resistance. Piper’s updated account of his military service could not be immediately verified Wednesday night.
Piper said he began lying about his experience when he needed a credential to attend the 50th anniversary of Normandy in 1994. He told organizers he had been a member of the 29th Infantry so that he could participate in the ceremonies, he said.
When he returned to the United States and was asked to speak about his war-time experiences, he began including the misrepresentation that he had been with the 29th Infantry, including in stories that appeared in The Eagle-Tribune.
“I could have shut it off afterward, but I didn’t,” he said. “It kind of spiraled out of control.”
He has been giving speeches and talks about his imagined escapades, bragging about his non-existent Bronze Star for valor;
In a message that Piper said he planned to send to friends and others affected by his fabrications, he wrote, “I am profoundly sorry that I have to tell you I am one of those sad old men with an altered WWII military record. I made a terrible mistake. It should have never happened.”
[…]
“I meant no harm, though it seems inadequate to say that now,” Piper wrote in his message to friends and others. “People make mistakes. Mine is inexcusable.”
Someone sent us a link to the UK’s Daily Mail which wrote about the “cry closet” installed in the University of Utah’s library by senior Nemo Miller who will graduate this Spring with a a major in ceramics and a minor in sculpture. So, I think he might have peaked with this project;
The ‘Rules of the Closet’ displayed on the door invite students to knock before entering alone and spending up to ten minutes inside before turning off the lights and leaving.
The Cry Closet looks as if it was pulled straight out of a wall, with what appears to be jagged drywall surrounding the door frame.
The inside of the closet is decked in soft materials and the floor is littered with soft stuffed animals.
Mick sends a link to the story of Marion Samuel Corba who tried to force his way into a South Carolina armory;
Police said Corba’s spree started when the “man with a message” struck two vehicles with his minivan after apparently growing impatient with a traffic jam. The crash left Corba’s vehicle without one of it’s tires — but he kept driving until he ended up in front of the South Carolina National Guard Armory, where Corba took out a sign and struck a parked car, officials said.
Then, Corba, with nowhere else to go, attempted to flee on foot and break into the armory, authorities said. But military police officers rushed in and detained Corba until the Springdale Police Department arrived. Corba, however, put up a struggle with cops, trying to wrestle the officers after they found a dagger in his pocket, police said.
From the Springdale Police Department’s Facebook page;
The man wrestled with officers who were assisted by the soldiers in detaining the man until he could be strapped to a bed to be transported to the hospital. In the midst of wrestling though, he would bless us all with his singing auditions. Then he would call us evil spirits and told us that he was the “Messenger of Meth”….He was eventually transported to the jail to share the message that meth leads to jail.
Luckily, no one was injured in the incident and the messenger of meth is safely locked away.
Admiral Doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew his name from nomination for the Director of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, according to Fox News;
The announcement comes after more allegations surfaced overnight, including that he crashed a government car while drunk.
Trump still defended Jackson Thursday morning and described the allegations as false.
“He would have done a great job, he has a tremendous heart,” Trump said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.” “These are false accusations, they are trying to destroy a man.”
Jackson had denied the allegations against him and as recently as Wednesday said he was looking forward to answering “everybody’s questions.”
But on Thursday morning, he pulled his name.
“The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated,” he said in a statement. “If they had any merit, I would not have been selected, promoted and entrusted to serve in such a sensitive and important role as physician to three presidents over the past 12 years.”
The doctor’s withdrawal follows a bombshell New York Times report Wednesday that said Jackson allegedly provided a “large supply” of the opioid Percocet to a White House staffer, and wrecked a government car while intoxicated.
After that story was published online, Jackson told reporters that he “did not wreck a car.” Jackson, who is Trump’s personal physician in the White House, also said his nomination is “still moving ahead as planned” before walking away from reporters.
Jackson also allegedly wrote himself prescriptions, and after he was caught doing so he asked a physician assistant to provide the medication, the Times reported, citing a Democratic Senate staff summary of alleged conduct by Jackson.
The summary is based on testimony from 23 current and former colleagues of Jackson.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure this didn’t happen. The man served at the White House for 12 years for three presidents. I know what it takes to work in the White House and allegations like this would have ended his work there.
In the latest round of claims that Assemblyman Randy Voepel has inflated his military record, audiotapes and transcripts from two California legislative hearings last year reveal Voepel speaking of being in “heavy combat” in Vietnam and serving with the “Tiger Battalion.”
Military records indicate Voepel served in the Navy aboard the U.S.S. Buchanan do not indicate that he was involved in any ground or river combat.
Our search found no unit called Tiger Battalion. Voepel may have been referring to Tiger Force, an Army infantry unit, or possibly the Tiger Division of the South Korean Army, which did serve in Vietnam.
By: MCPO (SW) Terence B. Hoey, USN (Ret.)
April 25, 2018
By way of the figurative “death by 1000 cuts”, here are some nuggets for the public to consume with respect to Voepel.
Although the U.S. Navy failed to list all Voepel’s commands on a purported official biography recently obtained by San Diego area media outlets, we know exactly where Voepel was, what he did and what he was awarded.
He was stationed aboard two ships during his harrowing combat days in Vietnam: USS GURKE (DD-783) and USS BUCHANAN (DDG-14). He was a sea-going radarman during his “time in the jungles of Vietnam.” So, you, the reader, can square that peg!
But, according to Voepel, as he testified in the California Assembly, that, “I served in Vietnam with the (South Korean) Tiger Battalion and when they went into an operational area, the Viet Cong took a vacation. Seriously, all combat in that area would cease.” Go to 3:08 to hear the comedy about his in country action with Korea’s Tiger Battalion:
During the same time he was in combat with the Tiger Battalion (presumably) … he was aboard the USS GURKE (DD-783) and he had quite the time, check out the little quip he left on the USS GURKE (DD-783) website (top of page). I don’t really know what it means, but it is interesting:
Additionally, Voepel describes his time at sea, on the front page of a newsletter … he sounds like a fully qualified unabled bodied seaman to me:
It is very interesting that Voepel does not discuss his time onboard the USS BUCHANAN (DDG-14) like he does so vividly speak about his combat time “in the jungles of Vietnam”. Strange … is it not?
Voepel’s altered DD-214N is making its rounds now in the circle of those who deal in such matters serious matters … 18 USC 498.
“Whoever forges, counterfeits, or falsely alters any certificate of discharge from the military or naval service of the United States, or uses, unlawfully possesses or exhibits any such certificate, knowing the same to be forged, counterfeited, or falsely altered, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”
We have tee’d up two questions for Voepel’s camp to answer, yet we believe the crickets have taken over this discussion. Those questions are: 1.) Did you know Voepel’s DD-214N was altered before you provided it to the press with the caveat of confidentiality? 2.) Do you now regret providing an altered DD-214N to the press?
