Debra sends this reply by way of Facebook;
Category: Phony soldiers
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More flag burning reaction
IVAW's Matthis Chiroux, Robyn Murray and MFSO's Elaine Brower burn the US flag "This is not my country!" -
Matthis: Ya know who I remind me of?
Matthis Chiroux of the IVAW burns an American flag in Lafayette Park, DC We’ve heard from several of the IVAW members on what they think of Matthis and his flag burning antics over the last few weeks but this is the height of conceit. Matthis Chiroux tells us “I’m not like Martin Luther King, Junior, but ya know who is like Martin Luther King? Me!
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SGM John Letuli: info request
We received this last night through various dependable channels. The Sergeant Major in the middle of these Sergeants Major pictured above is SGM John Letuli. He’s wearing a Special Forces combat patch in this picture. According to the folks at Professional Soldiers, they’ve contacted the Special Warfare Center and he’s never served with a Special Forces unit. Letuli is currently an operations sergeant in the North Carolina National Guard.
According to the people who emailed us yesterday, several investigations into this sergeant’s background have begun, but the various commands involved seem to want to sweep this under the rug. Apparently they won’t even respond to an Army Times reporter.
Of course, because he’s currently in the service, we won’t be able to get his OMPF through our usual channels in order to set the record straight, so we’re asking you guys for any information you can provide us. Someone out there knows this guy and can verify or refute his claims. You can contact anonymously with the form at the “Contact Us” link in our header our at the email address.
ADDED: I am aware of all of the possibilities that might have led to the SGM wearing an SF combat patch, I, myself, am authorized to wear either the 1st ID or 2AD patch for the same combat tour. Apparently these possibilities have all been negated by the folks at Professional Soldier, the SWC and the SOCOM CSM.
2nd ADDED:Seems that is not only the thing that is in question.
Besides the SF tab, he’s wearing the Soldier’s Medal and the Purple Heart.
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Solidarity with Matthis
IVAW's Matthis Chiroux, Robyn Murray and MFSO's Elaine Brower burn the US flag "This is not my country!" Surprise! Another IVAW member who didn’t deploy to the War Against Terror supports Matthis’ flag-burning exploits on the public pages of IVAW. This one is Carl Davison who enlisted not once but twice – in the Marines and the Army. I’ll republish his rant, but don’t expect anything too coherent;
Some have said that burning a flag is an aggressive act of war, I agree, By supporting resistance to these wars and the conduct of the US government we are fighting a form of social war on them, not a war with arms, we are putting ourselves in an adversarial position to them and true we do not all agree one each others chosen methods of bringing change but are we going to require every member to police themselves and tame her or his passion just because some it might be seen as bad, there are plenty of active duty soldiers and veterans who are supportive of burning the flag and there are those very against it, We can only speak for ourselves when we are out in public.
I went to jail for refusing to deploy to Iraq after more than 7 years in the military because I finally realized that to separate thought and verbal support from acts, what you actually do is essentially hypocrisy…if you feel something is right, do it, dont talk about supporting the action (Im not talking about supporting ones right to do it Im talking about supporting the act) and to say that one of us can represent all of us is ridiculous. As long as someone’s actions are for ending these wars and dont cause death are serious injury. I support those actions. But that is just me not everyone in this organization, Its not just Matthis, here are more vets out there who support the act of burning the flag, and have burnt flags before (I have myself). If a member is getting threats like Matthis (I dont know about Robyn or Elaine) we should have their back, because there were just expressing their views as free human beings. Personally I think flags are symbols of divisions and pain and yes, “flag burning is cool”, Break that which breaks you! In solidarity with Matthis!
I don’t know anyone who has threatened Matthis, but the “flag burning is cool” line is lifted directly from one of my posts on the subject. Disagreeing with Matthis isn’t “threatening” him, you drama queen. You can manufacture any excuse you want to support Chiroux, but don’t use me as your impetus, needledick.
The only threats I’ve seen against Matthis is IF he decides to enter Texas and none of those threats were made on this blog. It’s funny how most of the people who support Matthis’ theater never fired a shot in the war. I’m just sayin’.
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Message vs. Messenger
Someone sent me a link to a discussion at the Democratic Underground started because some guy’s daughter called him a tool. But the real story starts when this guy who calls himself David West interjects himself into the conversation.
West claims he’s a Ranger, that he was in the service for two years. Then he strokes all of the DUers with his tales of blood-thirsty rangers who can’t stop themselves from killing, and advocates for a part-time military instead of a standing army.
And the DUers eat it up with a spoon.
Well, there is a David West on AKO who is assigned to the 3/75th Rangers. His address is in Oregon, but last I checked, 3/75th is in Georgia – that’s quite a commute, isn’t it? He’s a 13Fox – Indirect Fire Support Coordinator – an E-1. If he spent 2 years in the Ranger Battalions, his must’ve had a very unproductive career.
But, is that the kind of people a serious intellectual seeking answers about the military should embrace as source? Am I the only one who has noticed that many of these soldiers and Marines who speak out have some sort of malfeasance in their recent past before they turn to the Left?
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The hyperbole of flag burning
Yes, there is a lot of drama over Matthis’ flag burning adventure last weekend. A good number of IVAW members oppose the utterly pointless demonstration by Matthis, Robyn Murray and Elaine Brower. You can hear Elaine Brower, whose Marine Corps son has completed at least three tours of the War Against Terror, screech “That’s what we think of this country!” while Matthis stomps on the burning flag in this video;
And yet, I’ll bet she’s still in the US this morning.
The third person in the video, Robyn Murray starred in one of our posts a couple of years back when she was captured in a video interview. Her only real complaint about her time in Iraq was the fact that she was 19.
One of the Austin, TX IVAW crowd, Bobby Whittenburg wrote a bit about the flag burning yesterday at his blog Veter(A)narchy using hyperbole as a weapon;
Matthis has received threats of violence, rape, and death. Such threats truly show the character of people loyal to the American flag and the American government.
Actually it does show character – I scoured your comments and couldn’t find not one threat of violence, rape or death in the several responses to the posts. I can’t imagine anyone threatening to rape Matthis in the first place and a threat is just childish any-damn-way without the opportunity to act on the threat. I think they’re disappointed that no one threatened them, so they make shit up to ratchet up the drama.
Personally, if I were a member of IVAW, I’d take a long look at myself in regards to the message that IVAW is trying to convey. It took them a year of waffling on Carl Webb before they finally tossed his punk ass to the curb. Geof Millard, the president of the board of directors wears unearned awards on his uniform. Jose Vasquez, the Executive Director of IRAQ VETERANS Against the War has never set foot outside of the US in uniform. Now Vasquez thinks his Puerto Rican heritage excuses his lack of an”affinity” for the US flag – irrespective of his years of service as an NCO in the US Army – and all of thospay checks he got. Vasquez replaced Alex Bacon, who went AWOL from the Coast Guard while stationed in Hawaii patrolling fisheries (no shit, really).
And then there’s Matthis who claimed for the longest time that he was an Afghanistan veteran when the only two places he’s ever been stationed is Japan and Germany. He claims he has PTSD from interviewing real combat veterans. He apologized to Malalai Joya for occupying the corner booth at Baskin Robbins on Bagram Air Base for six days.
There are countless examples of reasons to leave the dorks at IVAW behind. I’m thinking all of these doofuses are making money from their antics, why else would they work so hard at being caricatures of anti-war assholes? Folks like Bobby Whittenberg – an honest to goodness Purple Heart wearing hero – are being manipulated by the accolades he gets from cowards like Doug Zachary and Matthis Chiroux. And it’s a cryin’-ass shame that he doesn’t see it.
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IVAW’s Executive Director on burning the flag
Matthis Chiroux of the IVAW burns an American flag in Lafayette Park, DC The IVAW’s Executive Director, Jose Vasquez, has issued a statement in regards to Matthis Chiroux’s flag burning antics last Saturday in Lafayette Park. Apparently it has become a bone of contention among the remaining members of the organization and once again, Vasquez punts the issue rather than make an actual decision. (I know you can’t get to IVAW from that link – they block us. Just copy the link and paste it in your browser).
In his statement, Vasquez admits what I told you yesterday – there has been a grievance filed with the IVAW. It might surprise you that the grievance was filed by Geoffrey “Stolen Valor” Millard, the president of IVAW’s Board of Directors. Regardless, Vasquez seems unable to make a real decision about Chiroux – also a Board member.
The message Matthis chose to convey represents his views and those of some other members in IVAW. It does not, however represent the position of all members nor the official position of the organization. While we endorsed the ANSWER march, there was no official endorsement of the message Matthis conveyed. Nor was official endorsement sought. Matthis represented his personal views which resonate with some but not all members. Our messaging is important and in the future we should all make an effort to reach consensus with those we organize with in an open way about how we represent IVAW.
But here’s the part of Jose’s message that I don’t understand;
I personally have no particular affinity to the flag (especially having Puerto Rican ancestry)….
I have Swedish ancestry and I was born in Florida, so I’m wondering what the Hell Vasquez is trying to say. I know one particular member of IVAW has ancestry in a REAL Central American nation and detests the Matthis incident without equivocating . I’m pretty sure Puerto Ricans are born Americans, too. But, we’re talking about a guy who calls himself an Iraq veteran without setting foot in Iraq. A guy, who last year said he would have served in Afghanistan if the Army had given him a choice, but now leads an organization committed to ending the war in Afghanistan.
Oh, I keep posting the picture of Matthis burning the flag because the ISO members of IVAW tried to keep the photo out of the public domain, because they were a little bit ashamed of it, except among themselves until TAH got a hold of it and put it up for the world to see. Expect to see it often.
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I guess we all have PTSD, then
IVAW member, Jeremy Bergren, has a blog post up on the IVAW website in which he defends his bout with PTSD. Like most of the IVAW members, Bergren never deployed. His unit deployed, but he was legally absent – and that, apparently is the source of his PTSD;
I will not get too much into the guilt and shame that goes through a marine’s, or probably any servicemember’s, heart and head in a situation like this, but it is at a disturbing level to be stuck stateside while your friends, your peers, and unit are gone. Throughout my unit’s deployment I had a difficult time sleeping, had nightmares about what they were doing, but this made me feel more alienated so I never talked about it and just bid my time and got out as soon as my contract allowed me to.
Yeah, his unit was a mortuary unit, so I’m guessing his nightmares were somehow related to ninja zombie mutant robots. If his unit was infantry, or engineer, I might understand crediting his discomfort to survivor’s guilt, but they were pogues in the rear with the gear.
I don’t usually comment about others’ PTSD, but let’s recount what IVAW members think cause their PTSD. We had one, whose name slips my mind for the moment, who got PTSD while guarding a gate at 8th and Eye in DC in the weeks following 9-11. We have Matthis Chiroux who claims his PTSD stems from listening to others tell war stories in the barracks and finally, Bergren, who claims he suffers PTSD because he DIDN’T deploy – he got it from his dreams and imagination.
I guess that about covers everything, doesn’t it? Everyone who ever put on a uniform for more than a day suffers from PTSD. Hell, I pulled gate guard while I was at the reception station at Fort Polk on day four of my active duty time. All of the prior service guys at the reception station were Vietnam vets in 1974, and they loved to tell us their war stories – shit, I guess I had PTSD right from the get-go.