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

Category: Phony soldiers

  • Stolen Valor or Lazy Reporting?

    In the past couple of years, many veterans have gotten involved in professional mixed martial arts (MMA). Former Marine Staff Sergeant Kenneth Alexander is one of those veterans who has been able to find some success and publicity as a professional fighter. Part of the attention that he gotten has been based on the belief that he is a former “Recon Sniper”. Here is an excerpt from an article about Alexander (who is fighting at Camp Pendleton tonight) from an ABC News affiliate in California:

    Alexander served as a recon sniper in the U.S. Marine Corps until 2004, spending time in the Middle East and Africa on missions he says are still classified almost a decade later.

    “You don’t send special forces in for peacekeeping missions,” said Alexander. “Basically, my job was to go in, and go undetected and if we got the ‘green light,’ we were pulling triggers.”

    Yeah, like we haven’t heard that before. Of course thats all a bunch of BS and the Marine Corps Times confronted him about it:

    Reached by phone two days before the fight, Alexander acknowledged that he never put boots on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia, though he had done one deployment each to Kuwait and Kyrgyzstan before the left the Corps in 2004.

    According to the Marine Corps Times article, he was an intelligence specialist who appears to have spent most of his career attached to Marine Corps Air Wing units and was never a sniper or Recon Marine. However, despite the fact these claims have appeared more than once in the media, Alexander pleads ignorance:

    He claimed not to know how the information about Special Forces and his stint as a sniper made it into the articles, though he surmised his brief attachment to a division headquarters intelligence section may have led to some confusion.

    To be perfectly honest, if this were a one time thing, I would have given Alexander the benefit of the doubt. We all know the media likes to exaggerate stuff like this and when it comes to reporting on the military and war, the media is extremely lazy in many regards. Regardless, Alexander quite clearly made no effort to correct these lies in multiple printed articles (including a 2008 write-up in the Marine Corps Times) and appears to have gone along with the lies in the above ABC article. Maybe as a result of being knocked around so much, this intelligence specialist doesn’t seem to have a lot of intelligence left (yeah that last bit is corny but I couldn’t resist…)

    Like Jonn says all the time, they never claim to be pogues.

  • Dude! A little restraint!

    7555381-1273164527-600x450

    This is Michael Delos Hamilton – the story was sent to us by a local reporter who has a sudden interest in phony soldiers. Everyone wants to get into the business suddenly. But Michael Delos Hamilton claims he went from private to colonel in just nine years – a regular human rocket.

    “His resume says that from ‘61 to ‘69 he went from private to colonel … unheard of,” said [Sgt. Major Joe Houle]. “(To have) two Navy crosses and eight Purple Hearts and 16 Combat Action ribbons is (also) unheard of.”

    Dude! Well, he must’ve had some kind of career, right?

    Court records indicate Hamilton served nine months and 12 days on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, was transferred to the temporary disability retired list in 1962 and was discharged in July 1967.

    His highest rank was private first class and his only award was a Rifle Qualification Badge, according to court documents.

    But he gave veterans’ organization speeches, talks with high school kids, gave memorial talks with all kinds of civics groups. They all were duped by his audacity. But it’s a victimless crime, right?

  • Billy Elvin Shelton; phony soldier

    Billy Elvin Shelton; phony soldier

    I’m sure you’ve read the book “Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10“, the story of Navy SEAL Marcus Lattrell and his fateful mission in Afghanistan in 2005. You might remember this passage from page 57 of the book;

    lone-survivor-page-57

    Well, it adds a nice dimension to the story, but unfortunately, Billy Shelton had been lying to the Luttrell brothers – he’d never been in the Special Forces. According to records, Specialist Five Shelton was a truck driver and a general’s chauffeur at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

    SHELTON BILLY E

    SERVICE: A

    RANK: E05

    DOB: 461102

    EDLEV: 12

    HOMEREC: TX

    PMOS: 0064B2O

    SMOS: 0064C2O

    STOP: 700702

    TAFMS: 033

    YOS_SEP: 03

    64B

    DISPATCHER

    HEAVY VEHICLE CREWMAN

    HEAVY VEHICLE DRIVER

    64C

    CHAUFFEUR

    DOCUMENTATION SERGEANT

    DRIVER TEST SERGEANT

    Shelton has begun writing a book about his career, reportedly with a six-figure advance from the publisher. The book was supposed to be released the last week of January, but it seems to have hit a snag. Probably because the publisher found out that Shelton didn’t do three tours of Vietnam as a Special Forces operator

    Shelton was in Vietnam from May 68 until Feb 69 according to his records;

    shelton-2-1

    As you can see, he was a truck driver while he was stationed in Vietnam, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it doesn’t give him the right to lie to teenagers. There was a single tour of Vietnam, not the three tours he’s bragged about.

    Here are his awards and education;

    shelton-foia

    No Special Operations training, no jump school, not even a CIB.

    I wrote this particular phony soldier story months ago, but I’ve sat on it until now because it was not meant to embarrass anyone except Billy Shelton and to prevent his fake story from going any further than it has gone. In the event that anyone else gets the idea of helping Shelton make a buck on his deceit, this is will be on Google to prevent that check from clearing.

    They never pretend to be cooks or clerks…or a truck driver.

  • Dave Airhart; Oldie but goodie phony

    This guy has been on the loose for at least five years, but the NPRC finally answered a POW Net FOIA request over three years old on Dave Airhart. His main claim to fame while a student at Kent State was quoted in this reprint of a Stan Goff (CounterPunch) article;

    I spent 4 months in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and 6 months in Iraq and 7 months in Afghanistan, so I have a pretty well rounded perspective of everything that’s going on in this war on terror.

    In another interview with Counterpunch, Airhart said;

    I was in the Marine Corps Infantry. I learned absolutely nothing of value in the rest of the world. I learned how to shoot guns and how to get yelled at a lot.

    Well, not according to the NPRC;
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  • Brett Paul Broussard; Oathkeeper phony

    Brett Paul Broussard
    Photo added 12/1/14 from mugshot.

    On it’s surface, the Oathkeepers organization seems like a worthwhile association for first responders and military members. However, This Ain’t Hell has uncovered some of it’s seamier side. Like when founder, Stuart Rhodes, contemplated welcoming IVAW members into his organization, and finally relented. And the time that Bev Pearlson discovered a Kokesh connection to the Oath Keepers.

    Well, apparently they’re mirroring IVAW in another manner – failing to verify their members’ profiles. Take Brett Paul Broussard, for example. He’s in charge of the Lousiana chapter in Region 2. A couple of members have contacted me about Broussard’s story line – that he claims he was in “Lebanon in the Kohbar Towers incident while serving as a Petty Officer”. Well, the Khobar Towers and Lebanon are two different places separated by a lot of sand, for one thing.

    It would have been difficult to be a petty officer in either incident according to his records;
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  • More Victimless Stolen Valor

    I just got an email from our friends at POW Net about some doofus named James Becker, who POW Net folks were familiar with when he lived in Florida. Apparently he was calling himself a USMC General when he lived in Punta Gorda. Now he’s expanded his horizons (I’ve redacted the names);
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  • Taco and Diabo

    Taco Bell at The Sandgram took on a poseur who had more holes in his story than TSO’s “pocket toy”. Then Bell proceeded to run his young ass out of town. You can watch the story unfold in this video;

    I found the story at Mudville Gazette.

    We’ve got a stack of phony soldier stories in the closet, just waiting on documentation. I guess everyone is getting into the business these days and it’s slowing down response time from NPRC…so keep standing by.

  • IVAW Flag-burning still an issue

    IVAW's Matthis Chiroux, Robyn Murray and MFSO's Elaine Brower burn the US flag "This is not my country!"

    I know I haven’t mentioned the IVAW’s flag burning last month in a while, but it’s time has come again. It seems that there is still an internal discussion going on and some of it leaks out through the cracks in IVAW’s leaky security. Most recently, one member of the Los Angeles Chapter sent out a missive on the subject (all of the spelling, grammar and lack of Caps is from the original);
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