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

Category: Phony soldiers

  • Jay Polk: Another Occupy phony?

    Kevin sent us an article in the East Coast Magazine about a special forces master sergeant by the name of Jay Polk who cooked for the filthy hippies at Occupy San Diego until he called up for a deployment to Afghanistan. Then a few days later, he called a local preacher for some prayers because he was “worried”;

    Polk had just learned of his deployment, but said that “he could not divulge anything, since it was really secretive.” Polk said his goodbyes to friends in San Diego just days before news came of his demise.

    For those who may not know, it takes “days” just to get to Afghanistan. But the article is dated January 12, 2012, so looking at the casualty lists of the weeks prior to the article, there is no listing for a Jay Polk, or any other Polk;

    The article also says that Polk will be buried in his hometown of Iberia, LA, but unless he was transgendered, there’s no record of an obituary by that name in Iberia;

    The article explains all of that away;

    The U.S. Department of Defense has not yet published news of Polk’s death, however such confirmation is commonly delayed in special forces operations.

    Yuh, huh. Well, here we are more than two weeks after the article was written and still no announcement of his death. But Occupy San Diego needed a martyr more than they needed the truth;

    At today’s memorial service, a Veterans for Peace member read the poem, Fidler’s Green, to honor Polk’s service in the Cavalry. He also read the Special Forces Prayer, in honor of Polk’s active duty service with the U.S. Special Operations Command.

    You know if VFP is involved, there’s something fishy going on. AKO has no record of a Jay Polk. The only person on AKO whose name with that rank is even remotely like MSG Jay Polk is a MSG Jeff Polk who is retired.

    The only reason I put a question mark in the title is that we don’t know if that was his real name or not. But you’ll notice the casualty list has no master sergeant listed either. It just sounds too fishy to ignore. Kevin has written to the magazine to get them off their asses to check into the story with their resources. Seems to me that a phony soldier getting the Occupy folks all upset is a bigger story than what they’ve written.

    The article says that his Facebook account has been taken down, yet here it is.

    Apparently, he wrote on his Facebook page that he was deploying to Syria, which has the Democratic Underground conspiracy theorists spinning. Yeah, I’m sure a real special forces soldier would reveal that tidbit on Facebook.

    This tiny entry on a local page of obit announcements in San Diego after the memorial ceremony;

    East Coast Magazine just this minute updated their article with a disclaimer;

    Update February 3, 2012: Sgt. Polk’s death has still not been reported by the Dept. of Defense, nor has any notice of his death appeared in his family’s hometown newspaper. A source has further informed ECM that his name has not been provided for addition to a memorial that honors fallen special services soldiers. Thus at this point, it appears likely that Polk did not die in service overseas. Perhaps he faked his death, or possibly someone else posted misleading information on his Facebook account. Where is he now? If anyone has conclusive evidence, please email editor@eastcountymagazine.org.

    ADDED: Apparently our buds at SOCNET are already on it.

  • TAH in the Washington Post

    I spent a few minutes on the phone with Erik Wemple this morning who writes about the media in the Washington Post. He wanted to hear about how we took down the Leo Webb lie. So I gave you guys props;

    Lilyea says he’s “85 to 90 percent sure” that it was his readers who forced the retractions. To confirm the claim, this blog has reached out to American Public Media (home of Marketplace) and to KQED and is awaiting responses.

    In the meantime, Lilyea will wait for the next faker to emerge. When he launched This Ain’t Hell six years ago, he focused on Iraq war opponents who lied about having served in the military. The Internet, however, insisted that he cast a wider net. “My readers decided I should out phonies everywhere,” says Lilyea. “They’re the ones who click my ads and get my income in, so I go where they send me.”

    But, to me, the big victory in this isn’t our new-found media attention, but Wemple asked me for my DD214 before he published his post. So I think we’re getting through their thick skulls. Trust but verify. I call it winning.

    But read the whole article. I told him that I have the best readers in the world, that no one comes here to read my drivel, they come here to read your comments and the tips you send me. I remind myself of that every morning when I open my laptop and wonder WTF I’m going to write about today and some of you always come through for me.

  • Phony SEAL Truitt in his hometown

    Jason Truitt our amazing SEAL sniper, was featured on his local news last night. Poor baby hurt his head during his 8-month stint in the Navy and was discharged. Of course, it’s the noggin knockin’ that caused him to lie about his service and steal a real wounded soldier’s hunting trip and rifle. They interview his father and one of the real veterans who went on the trip with him;

    We’ve heard all of this shit before; maybe now he’ll get the help he so desperately needs. Yeah, but probably not. It’s never their fault, it’s always something that makes them ill, and it’s always something that the military didn’t treat.

    It’s no wonder that these peckerwoods think they can get away with this shit – no one wants to make them accountable for their actions. And the courts tell them that it’s their right. We can only hope that the lawyers from the NRA flay his fat ass.

    Thanks to AverageNCO for the link.

  • TAH bats 1000

    About our Leo Webb super sniper who saw half of his squadron wiped out. Kevin emailed the senior editor of the Perspectives project and warned him about Webb, to which Mark Trautwein responded;

    Mr. Webb has been subsequently placed in a VA live-in care facility specializing in PTSD so I’m unable to seek his response to your comment at this time.

    Oh, yeah? Really Mr. Trautwein? Then why does the link to Leo’s missive now sport this retraction;

    Editor’s Note: A commentary by Leo Webb, ”Returning veteran has few marketable skills,” prompted questions from listeners about Webb’s account of his service as an Army sniper in Iraq. A subsequent investigation found that the Army has no record of Webb. Webb also said he pitched for a Chicago Cubs minor-league team. Inquiries to the Cubs and to Minor League Baseball found no record of Webb. Marketplace has an obligation to provide accurate information. That was not met in this commentary. It has been retracted and the text and audio have been removed from the web site

    Yeah, so it’s nice that they came clean, but it’s work they should have done in advance. And telling Kevin that the douche was in a VA hospital for treating his PTSD was just bullshit deception. And then they wonder why we want to defund NPR with taxpayer dollars.

  • Cortez Journal pulls Truitt story

    The other day, we wrote about Jason Truitt, the beached, tattooed Manatee who claimed to be a Navy SEAL and got a Weatherby rifle and a free elk hunting trip for his trouble. On a day which will forever be known for TAH-inspired retractions, the Cortez Journal, which printed the original article, has retracted the story;

    An article in Saturday’s Cortez Journal contained a number of what appear to be false assertions by a man who claims to be a military veteran.

    The story about the annual Hunt for Heroes event featured a California man named Jason Truitt, who claimed to be a former U.S. Navy SEAL. Further, Truitt claimed that he served seven tours in Iraq and Afghanistan where he was wounded several times and also taken prisoner.

    Readers from outside the area who are familiar with Truitt, contacted the Journal to report the assertions were complete fabrications.

    But there’s a proviso;

    If Truitt’s claims are proven to be true, the original story will be re-posted.

    Yeah, fat chance. The NRA has sharpened their knives;

    Marc Steinke, a representative for the National Rifle Association, said that there are a lot of people in shock, and there will be consequences.

    “We’re getting it sorted out at NRA headquarters. It’s nobody’s fault but Truitt’s. There will be lawyers involved. Penalties will have to be paid,” he said.

    Of course you can’t get blood from a stone, neither will they be able to get money out of that derelict. The Journal complains that military records are too hard to verify for them, but ya know, it took us all of about ten minutes. Maybe they should reach out to military bloggers instead of treating us like third-class journalists. I’m sure they don’t do their own electric repairs in their offices or their own plumbing. And most of us would advise them for free. Apparently we just did.

  • S&S admits they were duped

    S&S admits they were duped

    Larry-Marquez-S-and-S1

    Stars & Stripes just published a follow up to the story we did yesterday about Larry Marquez who claimed to have served in Cambodia while he was 16.

    The word I’m getting from people in his unit is that when his first sergeant called him in, after word came down from the brigade commander after S&S’s inquiry, Marquez went all secret squirrel on the first sergeant and said he couldn’t talk about his time in Cambodia. Of course, the 1SG wasn’t hearing that shit and got Marquez to fess up to his deception.

    I’m glad that Stars & Stripes came around after being dickish yesterday. They made the story more about me than Marquez, which feeds my massive ego and makes me feel a little dickish myself. But S&S is off of my shit list now. Thanks to Martin Kuz, the author, for not blowing off my emails when I made the first inquiries.

  • Ebay yearbook scam

    Actually, this is pretty hilarious. Some dude was selling a Fort Jackson yearbook from 1994 on Ebay. In the back of the yearbook is a scrawled missive about the “75th Battalion, Ranger Division, Omega Team” which was apparently wiped out by the CIA and their biological warfare (against our own troops, mind you). And apparently all of these members of “Omega Team” came from the same Basic Training Company at Fort Jackson. the Ebay seller tells us that it’s a reminder of what these wars have cost us. Here’s the yearbook;

    And from the seller’s description;

    Pat, who sent me the screen shots tells me that she checked casualty lists from the war against terror and could find no one in the yearbook on those lists.

    The auction is closed now, but I thought it was a pretty funny story, what with the CIA involved in it. Actually, now that I think about it, Gordon Duff may know something about the Ranger Division.

  • Another poser gun dealer

    I don’t know why these guys think what they’ve done isn’t good enough to sell firearms. This one came to us from a reader of Blackfive who sent the story of a guy he met at a gun show;

    He was decked out in multicam, with an “infidel” and “sniper” tab, he also had a SEAL gold Trident pin on his tactical ball cap, his booth besides selling firearms offered tactical firearms training, and sniper training. …he claims “many years in special operations” but offers no unit or service records and only one grainy pic with no name tap or unit patches.

    So we find out the guy’s name is Darrel Tracht, and here’s his “about” page on his website;

    Many years in Special Operations, yup. We also found this picture of him;

    Now a SEAL Trident between an Army CIB and jump wings would probably set off bells with anyone with more than a minute on active duty. I know what he’s going to say when he gets confronted “I’m only wearing the Trident” to honor SEALs – well, that’s pretty hollow when he earned jump wings and a CIB. Here’s his FOIA;

    His actual awards;

    Nothing there to be ashamed of. His assignments to “special operations” units;

    I don’t see anything to be ashamed of in those records, so I have no idea why Tracht felt the need to embellish and wear stuff that didn’t earn. That’s not the kind of stuff that inspires customers’ confidence in a businessman.