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

Category: Phony soldiers

  • The end of the SGM Letuli saga

    Letuli

    The above picture is the one that brought down SGM John Letuli (center) who appeared in the photo with fellow sergeant majors after a fallen warrior ceremony in Iraq. Months afterwards, he was called on the carpet, after a 15-6 investigation for wearing a Ranger tab and Special Forces tab that he didn’t earn. Our buddies at Professional Soldiers alerted us to the case just days before my post two years ago. Of course, Letuli had defenders in that post (one of whom we suspect to be Letuli himself), so this post is to satisfy those who were hoodwinked. Even though I know it won’t.

    Here’s his 2-1 record of assignments;

    His 2-1 record of schooling;

    And his explanation of his actions at the 15-6 investigation;

    According to the 12 megabyte file I received yesterday, Letuli ended his career as an E-8 with a General Officer Letter of Reprimand in his files and a General Officer Article 15. So that settles that.

  • Coming to NYC “An Army of Rape: Why Supporting the Troops is Wrong! “

    I went over to the facebook page that was in this post. There is one comment that I could not pass up.

    Looking at the names involved that this conference this is going to be a real meeting of the minds. We have Sunsara Taylor, Carl Dix and Mathis. I find it funny that people are still refer him as a member of IVAW. Not to mention the direct statement that Carl Dix is a Communist.

    I tried to look for anything on the net but nothing so far. But considering that anything Mathis does is kept quiet for fear of use ruining it with his past.

  • Another phony Vietnam vet politician

    Republican Mayor John Spodofora is being investigated by his own party on whether he embellished his Vietnam-era service record according to the Ashbury Park Press. Here’s what his website says;

    According to the APP, the “Medal of Valor” was awarded to Spodofora by a hunting club. Of course, there is no US military medal by that name.

    There is no question Spodofora, 66, served in the Navy for seven years from 1966 to 1973, at the time of the Vietnam War.

    A public record of his military service obtained from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, indicates Spodofora was assigned to submarine duty and was in the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas, but there is no documented evidence he ever served in Vietnam.

    Spodofora contends there is a good reason for that: He was a spy, a self-described “spook,” he said.

    “There are two issues here,” Spodofora said. “One, I was in Naval intelligence. Two, I have Vietnam veteran status from the (Department of Defense) … I never said I was stationed in Vietnam.”

    Yeah, we call it “Vietnam Era” service in order to differentiate ourselves from veterans who served in Vietnam so as not to confuse civilians. And he was in the Navy’s secret squirrel (or some other more aquatic rodent – otter, maybe?) battalion;

    Spodofora declined to say whether he was ever in Vietnam. But even if he never stepped foot in Southeast Asia, Spodofora said he would still be permitted to call himself a Vietnam veteran based on the number of years he served and the fact that his service coincided with the war.

    “I worked in a position while in the Navy that prohibits me from discussing any mission, ship, submarine, time or location I was in while serving,” Spodofora said. “I cannot violate classified information to give any specific information. … I only claim I was a Vietnam veteran, which I am, according to the government.”

    Yeah, forty years after the war, his missions are still secret. Most classified information is de-classified after 25 years. I’m surprised his records didn’t burn up in a fire, or something, too.

    Spodofora said he planned to contact Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., in an effort to have his military record declassified.

    Yeah, do that, especially since Congress doesn’t de-class secrets.

    The record of Spodofora’s service indicates he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal. There is no Vietnam Service Medal listed.

    Anyone who served at least one day in support of military operations, including aboard a Naval vessel off the Vietnamese coast, would be eligible for the Vietnam Service Medal, according to the Navy.

    Yeah, well, his Vietnam Service Medal was classified, too, I’m sure, because we didn’t want the communists to know that there was one more guy in Vietnam.

    Martha Kremer said she remembers Spodofora would commiserate with her husband about his Vietnam War service and his survivor’s guilt.

    Fuckstick. I guess at this point, I should highlight the fact again that it’s the Republican Party calling the douchenozzle out – unlike when Blumenthal was caught calling himself a Vietnam veteran in the 2010 elections and the Democrats were making excuses for him.

    Thanks to ROS for the link.

  • Patty Murray lies to constituent

    “NOT Larry the Cable Guy” sent us a letter he got from his Senator, Patty Murray after he asked about the POW issue that we’ve been harping on.

    First of all, TWO phony POWs in the entire country is a little bit suspect. I’ll bet that there’s more than two who are listed as POWs (we’ll use her number 15,000) just because of clerical errors. But more importantly, no such recorded communication exists between Murray and Shinseki.

    As most of you know, in our quest to take over the world, TAH has tentacles that reach to Capitol Hill and when I emailed our insurgent yesterday with the letter, he quickly fired it off the Veterans Affairs Committee staff who promptly called him back to tell him that there was no committee hearing that month, and no record of communication that would support that conversation between Murray and Shinseki. So unless they talked on the phone, it never happened.

    Mary Schantag, after I showed her the letter, said that she has evidence of HUNDREDS of phony POWs. So if Shinseki did tell Murray that in an unlogged, unofficial phone call, he’s lying, too. Hell, we’ve busted more than two phony POWs here at TAH. But as it stands right now, it’s just Murray lying to her constituency.

    I don’t understand the motivation for covering up for these people – unless they’re covering for their friends and supporters. The word on the street is that there’s a bomb about to explode on this issue and a boatload of VA officials are about to get ‘sploded. And they’ll have TAH to thank for it.

  • Duckworth obit

    At the risk of attracting some more trolls, the story isn’t over until the phony gets planted or imprisoned. It’s the former for Jesse Wayne Duckworth;

    Visitors told us in the thread that he wandered off soon after our first post about him and his remains were found a few weeks later, but I can’t find anything to verify that.

    Thanks to Pat for the heads up.

  • The woman who busted Alvarez


    The Washington Times writes about the woman who outed now-famous poser Xavier Alvarez, the subject of the Stolen Valor Act case on the docket of the US Supreme Court (US v. Alvarez). Melissa Campbell is a former active duty Marine herself and in the conduct of her duties as an event planner at the Southern California Edison’s Big Creek power plant, she encountered Alvarez who obviously was using his fraud to impress the young lady;

    Finally, upon overhearing Mr. Alvarez boast of his many killings while in the military, including some involving children, Ms. Campbell said, she couldn’t help but interrupt.

    “He’s speaking for my Marine Corps,” she recalled thinking.

    At first, she said, she asked him from which base he retired. She said Mr. Alvarez said that he had retired from Camp Pendleton as “Delta,” or Special Operations Delta Force. To Ms. Campbell, the answer didn’t make sense.

    She asked again in a different way, noting that as sergeant major in the Marine Corps, his retirement would have been a big deal.

    That’s when Mr. Alvarez wouldn’t answer any more of her questions, she said.

    “He looked at me and he said, ‘Ms. Campbell, I know what you’re doing, and I don’t like it,’ ” she said.

    With a handful of people in the room, she responded before walking out of the room.

    “Mr. Alvarez,” she recalled saying, “I know what you’re doing, and I don’t like it.”

    Then she reported the incident to the FBI who then uncovered the statements he made at a political event about having served in the Marines for 25 years and being awarded the Medal of Honor by Ronald Reagan for which he was convicted under provisions of the Stolen Valor Act.

    But, unfortunately, Ms. Campbell lost her job over the incident for confronting Alvarez. Her employer asked why she even cared because she wasn’t a Marine any longer. Obviously, someone who had never served. Lawyers have offered to help her file a suit against the employer, but she has refused.

    So if the Supreme Court upholds the appellate court’s decision to overturn Alvarez’ conviction, Ms. Campbell will end up being the only person punished in the whole incident.

    Thanks to William Teach for the link.

  • Soup for Ron Paul

    I know that during this election season, you’ve wondered to yourself “how would MSG Nick Androski aka Soup Sandwich vote?”. Well, thanks to one of our alert readers, Joe, you don’t have to wonder anymore;

    Yes, he’s still out there pretending that he’s not the most famous poser on the internet behind Jesse MacBeth. By the follow-on comments, it looks like he ain’t getting away with it anymore, either. Those Ron Paul claims that he has the support of military veterans are sounding a little hollow about now, aren’t they?

  • What Stolen Valor costs

    I commend Combat CAsh for his post earlier and agree that the case, at least from a veteran standpoint has never been put into words so well here. But what sticks in my craw about the Stolen Valor thing is that the government won’t even go after the criminals who are costing us money while they go about the business of slashing legitimate veterans benefits. For one example, something I’ve written about before is the benefits that the DVA is paying to bogus POWs which is so easily remedied from The Strategy Page;

    There are only 661 officially recognized U.S. POWs from the Vietnam period. About 500 of those are alive, but when questioned, VA found that they were paying disability payments to nearly a thousand “Vietnam POWs.” It got worse after the 1991 Gulf War. There were 21 officially recognized POWs during that conflict, but the VA found it was paying disability to 286 Gulf War POWs. For years, the VA claimed that they checked out the records before recognizing all these phony POW vets. Apparently there were not a lot of people at the VA who knew how to count.

    Once recognized as a POW by the VA, you have several financial benefits (like not having to make copayments for medical services). Thus the fake POWs are also guilty of stealing money from the government. Veterans groups believe the VA resisted dealing with this obvious fraud because of unwillingness to deal with the resulting bad publicity.

    Our man in Congress who has investigated his own State estimates that each phony POW costs the state and federal government $36,000/year in benefits.

    As I’ve said in the past, the Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office maintains an online datebase of every veteran who has ever been recognized by them as a POW, and the easiest thing in the world is for the Department of Veterans Affairs to do is check their list of the people they’re paying benefits to the very complete list that DoD has compiled, but the DVA won’t do it. I’ve even volunteered to do it for them, to no results.

    We all know that Joseph Cryer, the Chippendale SEAL, (links here, here and here) is a phony and he’s collecting $2000/month for his totally phony mission into Libya in 1986. I’ve contacted the DVA OIG no less than three times on him, and still there’s no action and he continues to collect his benefit – which will never be recovered, even if he strips 24-hours-a-day up there in Ocean City.

    So tell me that the government’s blind eye doesn’t hurt veterans and makes us all look like lying leeches.