This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Antiwar crowd

  • IVAW/VVAW links: Camil part II [Jonn]

    1stCavRVN11B found some information on Scott Camil, the former VVAW member now advising the IVAW who I wrote about yesterday. He sent me a .pdf of an article from the April 2, 1975 New York Times “US Agents shoot anti-war figure” describing the events. Apparently, Camile was in the business of selling cocaine to DEA agents in 1975, with a side business of resisting arrest;

    I have the whole article and I’ll email it to anyone who wants a copy of it for posterity.  So Scott “The Assassin” Camil is just another in a long line of sociopaths who find their way into the anti-war movement. And another clown influencing the IVAW.

  • VVAW/IVAW links: Bill Perry [Jonn]

    This is Bill Perry of the old VVAW. Here’s a picture I took of him with Elvis Kokesh at the Ron Paul march last August carrying an upside down flag – that’s him, the sea cow-shaped guy, in the Black Vets For Peace T-shirt on your left;

    Ron Paul 079a

    Here’s a picture of him in the VVAW T-shirt horning in on a photo of me and Army Sergeant shaking hands at the Winter Soldiers Congressional hearing back in April(I didn’t find out who he was until after I wrote the post and posted the picture);

    DSC_0001

    Here he is planting a wet one on Elvis Kokesh last month in Nassau County when the charges against the IVAW arrestees were dropped.

    Here’s Bill Perry with VoteVets co-founder and chairman Jon Soltz along with some IVAW members:

    So who is Bill Perry, you might be asking. Well, he’s one of the original VVAW members and he testified at the first Winter Soldier hearings in 1971 (you know, with such luminaries as phony soldier Al Hubbard and John Kerry). He testified to his own misconduct which, if it happened, cost the lives of his own platoon as well as some innocent Vietnamese villagers;

    Bill Perry, 23, Pfc. (E-3), “A” Co., 1/506, 101st Airborne Division (November 1966 to August 1968)

    PERRY: I served in Vietnam from ’67 to ’68. I wouldn’t like to go too far into the horror stories you’ve been hearing about the last few days, but I would like to relate a few incidents. On March 5, 1968, in the province of Phuc Long, village of Song Be, a platoon of us, twenty-nine of us, were on a search and destroy mission. A few of us, who were considered expendable, were told to walk point.

    As we came up out of a bamboo thicket into a clearing, a woman with whom I and one of the other two people had previously had what you might call business transactions with concerning marijuana, informed us of an imminent ambush on the part of the local forces. Myself and two others ran into her home with her. We weren’t sure whether she was _____ us or what, but we were scared so we ran into her home. The rest of the platoon came up out of the valley into the clearing and was ambushed. We were isolated pretty well from the rest of the platoon while they were getting shot up. And when an NCO came up to look into the house where we were kind of looking out the door with the woman, the NCO automatically figured that we must be VC prisoners and he shot her up. She had a very young child inside her bomb shelter. Every Vietnamese home has to have a bomb shelter. The ambush actually lasted about two or three minutes, and the platoon got pretty well shot up. For about five hours they called in artillery and air strikes and pretty well demolished the town of Song Be. Finally when enough reinforcements came, they went out to sweep the area. They decided to throw fragmentation, or white phosphorus grenades, inside of each bunker regardless of what was going down in any bunker. We tried to stop them from fragging other bunkers where we could hear screams or moans or whatever, but they were really into it.

    There was another incident in mid-July 1968 in the vicinity of Nui Ba Den where we had been in about two days of steady combat. We had found a lot of bodies, some killed by air strikes and some killed by small arms fire. And the military fear, you know, came through once again in their mutilation of bodies. They were very much into cutting patches and numbers on dead bodies in this particular incident. I could go on with more horror stories, but like we all know what happens. You can hear it from the other GIs and when the rest of the people on the panel finish, I’d like to go into a little of what causes people to act this way, why people act this way, and what we can do to combat people acting this way. Thank you.

    Being a chickenshit coward, Perry hid in a mamasan’s hut without warning his platoon about the ambush (kind of the job of the point team). If he had done his job and warned the platoon, maybe the wanton killing of everything that moved in the area wouldn’t have happened. Then Perry went on to tell the tale of infiltrating Cambodia, apparently just for the sake of infiltrating Cambodia.

    MODERATOR: Perry, before we go on to the next one, you mentioned something before about an order received by the higher up and crossing across the national borders. Could you mention something on that?

    PERRY: It was very well known that we were within two klicks of Cambodia which is about a mile and two-tenths. Very often we went on search and destroy missions directly west as far as 8-10 klicks and back. We were definitely going into Cambodia.

    MODERATOR: Did you ever make contact in Cambodia? Did you ever make contact when you crossed the border?

    PERRY: No, I didn’t.

    So what was the point of that? There were no incidents in Cambodia so there’d be no reports of operations in Cambodia. Remember this was 1972 – one of the popular charges to make against the Nixon Administration that year was that they’d illegally extended military operations in to Cambodia. According to Perry’s service claims, he was out of the Army before Nixon was even elected.

    The end result of all the Winter Soldier in 1971 testimony according to Scott Swett;

    The Army’s Criminal Investigative Division (CID) had opened cases for 43 WSI “witnesses” whose claims, if true, would qualify as crimes. An additional 25 Army WSI participants had criticized the military in general terms, without sufficient substance to warrant any investigation.

    The 43 WSI CID cases were eventually resolved as follows: 25 WSI participants refused to cooperate, 13 provided information but failed to support the allegations, and five could not be located. No criminal charges were filed as a result of any of the investigations.

    So Perry’s story was pretty much bullshit. Again, these are the people behind IVAW.

  • VVAW/IVAW links: Scott Camil [Jonn]

    This is probably one of the most symbolic pictures of the relationship between the Iraq Veterans Against the War and the old Vietnam veterans Against the War – Scott Camil and Clifton Hicks in bed together;

    Here’s a video I found of Camil at the Winter Soldier II hearings;

    Clifton Hicks was one of the IVAW members who testified at the Winter Soldier hearings in Silver Spring, MD  I dealt with his narrative over a year ago. But some of you might not know or remember Scott Camil from the VVAW. Camil was one of the Gainsville Eight who skated on a conspiracy charge after the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami when the FBI pre-emptively stopped the VVAW from attacking public safety elements of Miami and Miami Beach. From a Time Magazine article at the time;

    “Fire teams” using crossbows, wrist-rocket sling shots, automatic weapons and homemade grenades would roam the streets of Miami attacking police, knocking out electric transformers, and firebombing stores. According to FBI Informer William Lemmer, those bizarre, bloody plans to disrupt the Republican National Convention last year were hatched by a group of Viet Nam Veterans Against the War. Lemmer says he attended a secret meeting in May 1972 in a Gainesville, Fla., attic, where plans for the disruption were discussed and the plotters demonstrated the use of crossbows, carbines and explosives.

    Lemmer’s story was a major factor in the arrest of six members of the V.V.A.W. in July 1972 on charges of conspiring and crossing state lines to incite a riot (subsequently, another vet and a civilian ally were also charged).

    They got away with it because they didn’t actually do it, thanks to the FBI. But that’s not all about Scott Camil. He was known as Scott the Assassin because of his proposal to murder pro-war Congressmen and Senators. From the book, Unfit for Command;

    Known as Scott the Assassin, Camil was a firebrand within the VVAW ranks. He advocated the creation of VVAW assassination squads who could emulate the CIA Phoenix Program in Vietnam. The idea, as proposed by Camil, was that the VVAW assassination squads would kill politicians who opposed ending the war, beginning with prominent senators.

    From a 2004 Sun Times article;

    Another source is an October 20,1992, oral history interview of Scott Camil on file at the University of Florida Oral History Archive. In it, Mr. Camil speaks of his plan for an alternative to Mr. Kerry’s idea of symbolically throwing veterans’ medals over the fence onto the steps of the Capitol during the Dewey Canyon III demonstration in Washington in April of 1971.

    “My plan was that, on the last day we would go into the [congressional] offices we would schedule the most hardcore hawks for last ­ and we would shoot them all,” Mr. Camil told the Oral History interviewer. “I was serious.”

    These are the people behind the IVAW.

  • Generals plot against Obama [Jonn]

    There’s an article floating around the Left side of the web written by a goofball named Gareth Porter in which he claims that the generals are plotting against Obama’s (and Bush’s, by the way) to withdraw combat troops from the cities and towns of Iraq to isolated posts in the countryside.I found a linkable copy of the story in the Asia Times.

    Apparently the plot is to redesignate combat forces as non-combat forces to get around the wording of the status of forces agreement between the US and Iraq.

    By redesignating tens of thousands of combat troops as support troops, those officials apparently hope to make it difficult, if not impossible, for Obama to insist on getting all combat troops of the country by mid-2010.

    General David Petraeus, now commander of CENTCOM, and General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, who opposed Obama’s 16-month withdrawal plan during the election campaign, have drawn up their own alternative plan rejecting that timeline, as the New York Times reported on Thursday. That plan was communicated to Obama in general terms by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen when he met with his national security team in Chicago on December 15, according to the Times.

    First of all Professor Porter, the goal is to remove the troops by the end of 2011, not the middle of 2010. Please pay attention. Secondly, the generals are subordinates of the President, they are required by law to obey his orders, not find a way around his orders. And believe me, if the job is done, the generals want to get out of Iraq as badly as we want them out. Why would they want to sit around on their dead asses directing public works projects when they can be somewhere else killing jihadists? We are not an Army that likes occupation duties.

    Porter writes that Petreaus and Odierno opposed Obama’s 16-month withdrawal plan without mentioning that Obama first started that blather 21 months before the election. In the nearly two years of the Obama campaign, Patreaus’ and Odierno’s efforts changed the events on the ground for a 16-month withdrawal schedule to be possible. Time marches on, Gareth, situations change and they don’t remain static.

    So what’s Porter’s evidence that the Bushites are plotting to keep combat troops in cities and town of Iraq?

    The determination of the military leadership to ignore the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and to pressure Obama on his withdrawal policy was clear from remarks made by Mullen in a news conference on November 17 – after US ambassador Ryan Crocker had signed the agreement in Baghdad.

    Mullen declared he considered it “important” that withdrawal of US forces from Iraq “be conditions-based”.

    Gasp! Condition-based!? Ya mean, if there’s a war going on, we want to be part of it? Of course we do, ya dumbass. This isn’t a withdrawal for the sake of withdrawing. This isn’t an evacuation under fire, it’s not a retreat. I know you idiots on the Left aren’t used to it, but this is what victory looks like, Gareth, m’boy.

  • Ya just can’t make this stuff up [Jonn]

    Some of you may remember the clown that TSO wrote about back in July named Cory Glass.

    He is a deserter from the Army who went to Canada and made a big stink and is now known as “The Poster Boy” of deserters. Well, TSO wrote that CBS discovered that he wasn’t being hunted by the US authorities;

    Calling Glass the “poster boy of the war resisters movement,” the American news agency found Glass was discharged from the California National Guard Dec. 1, 2006 — four months after arriving in Canada.

    “He is not considered absent without leave. He is not considered a deserter,” Maj. Nathan Banks, a U.S. army spokesman, told ABC. “He is running for no reason. He is fully welcome in the United States. I cannot believe this is a big deal in Canada.”

    When the news organization reached Glass with the news, he was flabbergasted. “I had absolutely no idea that I had been discharged. This is insane. This is so weird. There are no warrants? No one is looking for me?”

    So it would seem to a rational person that Glass would just return to the US since he’s not a fugitive – and since he’s not broken any laws. Wouldn’t it? Or maybe it’s just me. Regardless, Glass is still seeking asylum in Canada nearly six months later;

    U.S. Iraq war resister Dean Walcott was told on December 3rd that he must leave Canada by January 6th or face deportation to the United States. The decision follows similar ones in the cases of war resisters Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman and family, Patrick Hart and family, and Matt Lowell.

    If deported, Dean will face a court martial, jail time and a felony conviction, all because of his refusal to participate in the immoral and illegal war in Iraq. This decision goes against the expressed wishes of the Canadian Parliament which passed a motion on June 3rd calling on the government to allow war resisters to stay in Canada, and it goes against the will of Canadians who have consistently demonstrated in polls that they want war resisters to stay.

    The Federal Court stayed the removal orders of Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman and Matt Lowell. The Hart family faces deportation January 15th and will be asking the Court for a similar stay.

    Corey Glass has since been granted a new application to stay on Humanitarian & Compassionate grounds. Jeremy Hinzman’s appeal date for his negative decision has been set for February 10th 2009, and Matt Lowell is waiting to hear whether his appeal will be heard.

    Here’s a screen shot of the report from one of those organizations to which I don’t link;

    Ya hafta wonder what the Canadian courts are thinking. The guy is not a wanted criminal – the reason he went to Canada was to escape justice. He’s not going to be court martialed or go to jail or anything when he comes back.  So why is Canada even bothering with it? And why hasn’t the Left even mentioned that he’s not wanted anymore here?

    Seein’s how I know his type, I know it’s one of two things. He has one of those sturdy Canadian women up there in Canada that he can’t trust and he doesn’t want to leave, or he likes the fact that everyone thinks he’s some kind of hero speaking truth to power and his ego couldn’t stand it if he was shipped south and had to become a regular peson.

    Either way, he’s childish goofball. I wonder if he even went AWOL.

  • Medea, Millard and Uranus [by TSO]

    On 13 March 1781, Sir William Herschel announced to the world that he had discovered the heretofore unknown seventh planet in our Solar System.  Now, all of the planets up to this point were named after Roman deities.  This was not an idea which much appealed to Mr. Herschel who believed that such a discovery should be tied with the current King of England.  Thus, he decreed, the plant should be named “George.”

    Now, this would have ruined school children everywhere who would have been required in their yut to memorize the sentence “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Geraldo Seven Pizzas” which doesn’t quite role off the tongue.  Luckily for 3rd graders and bloggers with a sophomoric sense of humor everywhere, the planet was instead named “Uranus” which my science has proven produces snickers like no other planet name EVER.  Unless planet X should be named “Booger.”

    Nonetheless, I tell this story because it segues nicely with the Jovian sized asshattery I just witnessed down at the White House.  Deciding to scrap a bad idea (George) with a potentially even stupider one (Uranus) always makes me melancholy about Code Pink.  But fear not, intrepid astronomer, because Code Pink has come through again.

    Here’s the short story:

    Peace Activists Take Shoes to White House in Solidarity with Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist
    Call for his release and tribute to Iraqis who have suffered under US occupation

    WHAT: Peace activists to gather with shoes in solidarity to Iraqi journalist
    WHEN: 11 a.m., Weds. Dec. 17
    WHERE:  In front of White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

    And what release would be complete without a quote from a phony CIB wearing PowerPoint Slide Clicker:

    “Having one shoe thrown at George Bush pales in comparison to the suffering that veterans and Iraqis go through everyday,” says Geoffrey Milliard of Iraq Veterans Against the War. “Perhaps if Bush can see some more of these shoes before he leaves office, he will feel some of our pain.”

    So, I braved the elements with my intrepid photographer, and down Ye Olde Whyte House.  Here are some pics, and here you are kids.

    You remember Geoff Millard from Jonn’s post the other day;

    A giant Bush decapitated head – BDS reigns supreme;

    And this guy was in another of Jonn’s posts last month; Jim Goodnow who defended the Impeachment Bus from a gang of wingnut facists (in his dreams);

    The press out numbered the protesters by about 3:1.

    I spoke with this young lady briefly.  She is from a Russian news station, and she is in quite a quandary.  She wants to come to the inauguration, but she has been unable to secure a place to stay.  I don’t want to give out her name, but if you know of anywhere, just email her at youmustbekiddingme@hotchicks.com

    She likes conservative men, bubble baths, frolicking naked, and drinking profligate amounts of alcohol.  Sometimes when she gets really drunk she likes to give massages, make out with other girls, and make samwiches.  If you can find it in your heart to help her out, won’t you please email now?  Because if not you, then who?  If not now, then when?

  • Robert Dennen: Phony sailor in West Chester, PA (UPDATED)

    Several weeks ago, someone sent me some pictures of Robert Dennen, a frequent anti-war protester in West Chester, PA. This person told me that Dennen claimed to be a Navy veteran and asked me to identify the medals he was wearing;

    The only one I could identify is the American Campaign Medal – it was a World War II medal awarded for service between Dec. 7, 1941 and March 2, 1946. The other two medals I couldn’t find anywhere on the internet. So I ran the guy’s name through Military dot Com and came up completely empty.

    You can tell by the black T-shirt, he’s a member of the Delaware Valley Veterans for America, he appears on their website protesting John McCain and Sarah Palin in Philadelphia. That’s him on the viewer’s far right;

    The Delaware Valley Veterans For America’s website is unsurprisingly plastered with pictures and events of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Vets For Peace.

    Someone sent me another picture of Dennen wearing the same medals and a Vets For Peace pin on his cap;

    And a picture of him claiming to be a gay veteran in West Chester, PA demanding “whats due” gays;

    In this picture from Skye, that looks like his hat and his trademark woodland camouflage, but he’s hiding behind a very confusing sign;

    I’m told his distinctive hat with the buttons stuck in it have earned him the nickname “Pinhead” from the West Chester Sheepdogs.

    So there’s really no doubt that he’s trying to pass himself off as a veteran, but his medals and the lack of a record say otherwise. So I sent his information to our new friends at POW Net. This is what I got back;

    Instead of listing him as “discharged” it says he was “released from active duty” and about half-way between his third and fourth year. That indicates some sort of malfeasance. His rank is SR – Seaman Recruit, an E-1. Again, indicative of some bad behavior – no one stays an E-1 for 3 and a half years.

    In the awards section, it lists none – not even fire guard ribbons. Now as I previously mentioned, during his participation in protests, he wears an American Campaign Medal which is for service between 1941 and 1946. His actual service is from 1956 to 1960. I still don’t know what the other two are, if anyone has a clue, please let me know.

    His sea assignments were on the destroyers  USS Courtney in the North Atlantic and USS Hull in the Western Pacific.

    But there’s a common thread running through many of these anti-war veterans – they all seem to be malingerers and common criminals who can’t conform to the good order and discipline of the military – no matter when they served. And apparently, they can’t help but wear medals they didn’t earn.

    I can’t wait to get back some of these FOIA requests.

    Added: Someone sent me a close up of Pinhead’s hat. Click it;

    UPDATED: Someone sent me a closer look at Pinhead’s medals;

    It looks like an older version of the Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal;

    So, we’ve got this dork wearing one medal that was issued while he was in grade school and a Coast Guard Medal – he was in the Navy.

  • Geoff Millard; the latest IVAW phony soldier (Updated)

    The anti-war movement loves the Iraq Veterans Against the War. In an interview, Head Hag of Code Pink bragged that IVAW gives the anti-war movement credibility;

    “The vet groups are our street cred,” a California-based anti-war activist tells me at the group’s barbecue. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of feminist anti-war group Code Pink, says the veterans’ group appeals to the American glorification of the military, even within the anti-war movement. “People who have been part of a war that I consider immoral and illegal still have more legitimacy than people who were against the war from the very beginning and refused to fight in it,” she explains, sitting in the vets’ living room while her college-age cohorts chat with the veterans and eat hamburgers and sausages. “They command more of a sense of authority and more of a sense of understanding of what’s actually happening on the ground.”

    Let’s take a look at the credibility that Medea values so much, shall we?

    The president of the Washington, DC Chapter, Geoff Millard, for example, is a real gadfly on the Washington, DC Leftist scene. I saw him going into the William Ayers book signing last month. Here’s a picture of him sitting behind then-candidate Barack Obama at a speech leading up to the election in Pennsylvania;

    This is his profile on the IVAW website;

    In his profile, Millard brags “Along with a peace delegation Geoff became the first Iraq war veteran to meet with members of the Iraqi parliament about their 26-point peace plan. Also Geoff has traveled Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iran meeting with Iraqi refugees at every chance.”

    But he’s being modest. He’s also addressed the Socialist World Forum in Venezuela and fawned over such luminaries as Hugo Chavez and Cindy Sheehan. Here’s a picture of him marching with Medea Benjamin and Cindy Sheehan a few years back exercising his “street cred” for the anti-war movement;

    My buddy/alter ego Robin at Chickenhawk Express did some extensive research on Millard a few years back when he first started making the IVAW scene while he was AWOL. Robin includes his history as a malingerer complaining constantly about his bouts of pain from a old wrestling injury  – he claimed an Iraqi doctor said he should go back to the States, but Army doctors disagreed.

    After he finished his tour of Iraq and the Army wouldn’t give him a medical discharge, he became a conscientious objector and went AWOL for nine months. Familiar story, isn’t it? It’s always some sort malfeasance on the part of IVAW members that preceeded their “conscientious objectors” or “resisters” status.

    Notice, like most of the other folks in IVAW, he lists himself as a Sergeant. In addition, he claims he served in Germany, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq. It sounds more like a flight path than a career path.

    I got a hold of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on Geoffrey a few weeks back and it was a little light on information;

    It said that he is a specialist and not a sergeant as he claimed, and his awards were only two medals and ribbon – quite a bit different than what he sports in public;

    That’s a lot more than what’s in records, no? Need a closer look?

    That’s three awards of the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) on top – but none of them are in the FOIA.

    Well, see, I’m a fair guy, so I decided before I posted anything, I wanted to give Geoffrey a chance to respond – actually, TSO and Uncle Jimbo advised me to proceed cautiously.

    Thanks to some prodding from  Army Sergeant, I’m sure, he responded the same day, and sent me one of his three DD214s – of course, he sent the best one of the three, the one that says he earned all of those medals and that he’s a sergeant. The only thing I’ve altered is his Social Security Number, his mother’s name and address and his home address;

    Now that would seem to settle it, right? Well, not quite. I sent the DD214 to my new friends at POW Net and, eagle eyes that they are, they noticed right off that even though he has awards for foreign service in block 13, there’s no foreign service time in block 12f.

    The folks at POW NET sent the FOIA request back through St Louis with the DD214 Millard sent me.

    Guess what? The Army sent the same FOIA information back even though they had his DD214. His form 2-1 doesn’t mention any service in Iraq.

    The folks at POW NET are forwarding the FOIA and the DD214 Millard sent me to the FBI for further investigation.

    1stCAVRVN11B emailed this picture of Millard wearing a CIB, which also isn’t in the DD214 or the FOIA report;

    He explained in his email to me;

    [The DD214] will not show a CIB that is a longer story of my being pined [sic] in Iraq but not having it on paper back home because of Army FUBAR.  I was unsure about wearing it and I admit I did once but never felt comfortable with it on.

    Well, the real reason he should have felt uncomfortable about wearing a CIB is because he never earned one no matter who “pinned” him – it wasn’t an Army FUBAR. To earn a CIB, a soldier has to be a qualified infantryman in the 11 or 18 series MOS and be serving in an infantry unit lower than brigade level. Millard was a 12B combat engineer not an 11 or 18 series, and he worked for a general – there are no generals below brigade level. I told him all of that in an email, but he didn’t see fit to respond.

    Millard wants the honors accorded an infantryman who served in combat without having to put up with the shit of actually being an infantryman. Stolen valor.

    So let’s recap the “street cred” of the anti-war movement; Millard claims to be a sergeant, the Army says he’s a specialist. He claims to have a chest full of medals, the Army says he has two and a ribbon. Millard claims to have been awarded the Combat Infantry Badge, even though he was never a combat infantryman and the Army disagrees with him. Millard claims to have served on the Mexican border, Germany, Qatar, Kuwait and in Iraq and the Army has no record of him ever leaving New York State except for basic training and advanced individual training.

    Oh, and the FBI will be investigating him for falsifying his military records.

    At least he’s got experience doing a perp walk – he may need that skill.

    Now, I’ll admit that I have a hard-on for Millard since he tried to intimidate TSO and me at Winter Soldier by asking us for our blog URLs so they could monitor what we were writing about them from the inside. I’m pretty sure he didn’t ask any of the friendlier bloggers for that same consideration.

    Later, he threatened to throw TSO, Rurik and me out of Winter Soldier because TSO talked to a Washington Post reporter. Oh, and he made one of his minions remove me from the Congressional hearing room for Winter Soldier after I filmed him playing general’s aide before the hearings checking mikes and shuffling paper.

    So this post is my pay back – and that’s why it’s languished for three weeks in my draft folder waiting to get the facts just right. It’s been rewritten countless times and a number of people have contributed to it and they’re all credited.

    I’ve got several other records requests being processed, so you may see a spate of “phony soldier” posts in the next few months. Ya’all phony soldiers had better adjust your narratives.

    UPDATED: For all of you sharpshooters, someone sent me a clearer picture of his medals;