Category: Bloggers

A few weeks ago, I did an interview with Doctor Mike Simpson and we talked about Stolen Valor on his podcast “The Mind of the Warrior”.

Here’s Mike’s bio;

Serving over 3 decades in the military as an Airborne Ranger, a Special Forces Operator, and finally as an Emergency Medicine Physician assigned to Special Operations, Mike Simpson is well acquainted with what it truly means to be a warrior. As a board certified Emergency Medicine Physician, and a practicing fight doctor, Mike works extensively with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters, law enforcement, and military organizations providing medical care and training. As one of the foremost experts in both tactical medicine and combat sports medicine, he is highly sought after as a lecturer and instructor. Now, as host of the Mind Of The Warrior podcast, Mike shares his knowledge, and that of his guests, in an effort to spread to warrior ethos to the general public.
Website: http://www.hoplonmedical.com
Email: hoplonmedical@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hoplonmedical
Twitter: @MMA_Doctor

Here’s the 30 minute interview;

If that doesn’t work, you can listen to the podcast on iTunes.

So, our post yesterday about Chris Kyle and the proposal to enable President Obama to award him a Medal of Honor made the Washington Post and The Hill. The Post quotes us;

“There are hundreds of members of the military whose martial biographies are similar, but they don’t have a best selling book and a blockbuster movie, and I get the feeling that is the only reason that Williams is going through all of this because of Kyle’s name recognition,” Lilyea wrote. “The Routh trial and the success of the movie about Kyle are intersecting at the Medal of Honor.”

Lilyea said the legislation seems like a political stunt.

“There was no effort to get him the award while he was alive, before there was a book, before there was a movie,” he said. “I’m not saying that he doesn’t deserve the award, but I’m thinking that he would be the first to disabuse folks of the notion.”

And from The Hill. I spent a half-hour or so on the phone with the lovely Kristina Wong;

Lilyea said the veterans groups have battled to get service members like Marine Corps Sgt. Rafael Peralta and Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn C. Cashe — who the Medal of Honor, and it’s been a difficult fight.

Rather, it should be up to the Navy to decide if Kyle should be awarded a Medal of Honor, not the president. The Navy has already honored Kyle with two Silver Stars — two levels below the Medal of Honor — and five Bronze stars with V device with valor, he said.

“That’s what they decided he deserved in the Navy, and that probably should be the extent of it,” he said.

The Hill also quoted a Facebook commenter.

But my final thought on the whole subject is that if they want to give him a lifetime achievement award, the Legion of Merit is much more appropriate than the Medal of Honor. It only highlights the fact that Congress should be a part time job, they spend too much time thinking up stuff they can screw up that are outside their lanes.

So here we go into yet another year of blogging, but going forward, let’s look at 2014.

Over 3.8 million unique visitors this year up from 2.6 million in 2013. Our most popular post, after the Stolen Valor page last year was Soup Sandwich, this year our most popular post was the one about Katrina Moerk the trolling 1SG, followed by Joe Teti – our two most popular posts weren’t even Stolen Valor people. Ron Mailahn and Soup Sandwich make an appearance again this year, with Derek Church, the Round Ranger, ending up the most popular phony that we exposed this year, but then he had sockpuppets and his wife campaigning for him.

For the first time, we upgraded our presence on the internet with a dedicated TAH server and we changed the format of the blog back in March. We would have ended the year in the black (from ad revenue and your donations) for the first time if it hadn’t been for legal expenses brought about by people who think they can sue us so they can be as phony as they want to be. It didn’t work for them, and legal expenses for my sole proprietorship are tax deductible – so I win again on the front lines of Stolen Valor.

By the way, the results of the Stolen Valor tournament will publish at 2359 hours (that’s 11:59 pm for civilians) tonight, so check in during your celebration.

Thanks to all of my fellow co-bloggers here as well as all of the regular commenters who can’t seem to quit us for yet another successful year. Special thanks to Mary, Doug Sterner, Don Shipley, Scotty Hughes and Bulldog1 for their invaluable contributions to our success. And our most popular busts this year, Derek Church and Mark Tiemann, the Round Marine, came from your tips – so don’t stop believing. I don’t know exactly how many phonies we (us and our partners) busted last year, but I do know that since March, it’s been over two hundred.

So, it was eight years ago that This Ain’t Hell took root in my fertile mind after a few years of honing that mind in forums from Paratrooper.net to the History Channel. It took a few more years to latch onto the Stolen Valor thing. We didn’t start the Stolen Valor thing, but we brought it to social media and the popular culture. We have spawned some of the better Stolen Valor sites and set the standard on the internet for outing phonies. It helps having the finest legal mind in the stolen valor community on staff and some of the best military records researchers an email away. Most of them are named in the lawsuits against us.

But, like I’m quick to tell the media types, stolen valor isn’t all we do here. We just kind of fell into it one day. And, whenever I talk to the media about issues that affect the military and veterans, they always ask what my commenters think, because your opinion is more important than mine. I just pay the bills, again, with your help and your donations.

TAH is the best idea I’ve ever had that didn’t involve nudity – I have friends across the country, some of whom stop by and give me booze and guns. I break even money-wise and I’m rich in friends. That’s a perfect business, right? And all of my enemies are the bad sort, society’s worst scoundrels.

So, welcome to our ninth year of being the most reviled and celebrated blog on the internet. Thanks to all of you helped keep us going and to all of my blogger friends who saw value in my blog and shared my incoherent blather with their own readers and brought all y’all here in the first place.