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

Category: Phony soldiers

  • Milwaukee disses Geezers for Sitting on Our Hands

    Every year, the Geezers for Sitting on Our Hands (in some circles known as Veterans For Peace) get mad because someone won’t let them march in a local parade on Veterans Day. This year it’s Milwaukee;

    Members of Veterans for Peace have again been barred from participation in Milwaukee’s Veterans Day Parade.

    Although the parade website says the event is “Honoring all Americans who have served,” it has refused to allow Veterans for Peace members – many of whom are combat veterans with Purple Hearts – from taking part in the observance on Saturday, Nov. 7.

    The parade committee said Veterans for Peace is “a politically motivated group,” and therefore not welcome to be in the parade.

    So much for “honoring all Americans who have served.”

    Yeah, I’m heartbroken. This is from the Milwaukee Veterans For Peace website (excuse the all caps – they’re a rowdy bunch, apparently);

    MILWAUKEE VFP MEMBERS PLEDGE TO RESTRAIN OUR GOVERNMENT FROM USING WAR AS A FOREIGN POLICY. THROUGH OUR COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE WE SEEK TO BRING A PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE REAL COSTS OF WAR. WITH JUSTICE AND HUMAN COMPASSION WE CAN LEARN TO LIVE IN A RESPONSIBLE AND NON-DESTRUCTIVE MANNER WITH OUR PLANET. OUR PURPOSE, GOALS AND WAY OF LIFE ARE DEDICATED TO ACHIEVING THIS.

    Now what that says to me is that they are necessarily a group that honors veterans, but rather a group of (dubious) veterans who want to use that status for political gain. Is that what Veterans Day is all about?

    According to reports, Chairman of the Milwaukee Veterans Day Committee, David Drent, answered VFP’s application for participation with this;

    “There is no doubt that your organization is a politically motivated group. One visit to the organization’s website makes your views perfectly clear.

    “We don’t make judgment on your purpose. End the war or escalate it carries the same weight with the board. A political statement is being made and there is no room in the parade for it.”

    “We thank you for your service in our Armed Forces, but our goal has always been to have a day of honor that is 100% politically free.”

    So VFP is outraged that other veterans groups are allowed to participate;

    Yet the Veterans of Foreign Wars is welcome to march in the parade, even though its commander, Thomas Tradewell of Sussex, WI, recently called on President Obama to “heed the assessment and advice of his military leaders” and send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, suggesting that as commander-in-chief Obama’s job is to do what the generals recommend.

    And politicians, some of whom are not even veterans, are invited to participate in the parade.

    Apparently the parade committee doesn’t consider pro-escalation positions or even politicians to be “political.” Veterans for Peace is in a class by itself.

    Yes, VFP is in a class by itself in this case. And that bonehead response proves it. The VFW commander doesn’t support the troops for political reasons – only VFP does that. The other VSOs that are participating in the parade support the troops using political means.

    VFP uses troops to support their politics. See the difference, Gomer?

    In addition to the official Veterans Day parade, a peace-focused event is being organized by Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Organizers say it will revive the traditional spirit of Veterans Day and the Armistice Day celebrations following World War I. The event will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 in the City Hall Rotunda.

    Then what the hell are you bitching about?

  • The injustice of the CIB

    Yesterday, (formerly LT) Nixon sent me a link to a campaign website for a Republican candidate for North Carolina’s 4th District named George Hutchins. We giggled about how busy the website looked and I joked that it sort of looked like Homer Simpson’s webpage. The multi-colored text, the irrelevant pictures of Teddy Roosevelt, John Wayne, the Alamo, not to mention the tourism pictures of Ol’ George at Windsor Castle and some odd relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh and Raleigh, NC in his district. Somehow his visit to Windsor Castle qualified him to be Congressman.

    Then I went to read his bio – lo and behold, he was claiming that he was in the same unit as COB6 and I in Desert Storm. The Second Armored Division (Forward) of Garlstedt, Germany.

    hutchins-bio

    Hutchins made a big deal about his SWAT medal and it’s THREE BRONZE STARS (which only means that he was in the theater before Jan 15th and after Feb. 28th, 1991) and his TWO Kuwait Liberation Medals (actually, ONE Kuwait Liberation Medal and ONE Saudi Arabia Defense Medal). But then he wrote some drivel about how the Army treated him unjustly and didn’t award him a Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) – because he was a 12B Engineer. So he joined the Marine Corps and convinced them to award him a Combat Action Ribbon (CAR) for his service in the Army.

    I checked the Navy regs and they will award the CAR for people who earned the CIB or Combat Medics Badge (CMB) – but Hutchins had neither. So I emailed him and told me that he’d told the Marines that his combat engineers had been assigned as “mechanized infantry” in our portion of Desert Storm – that his job had been to ride behind the Bradleys and protect them from Iraqi infantry. As if our coax machine guns and 25mm main guns couldn’t.

    Well, because of my questions, Hutchins put his DD214s on his website last night, and he did indeed get the Marines to award him a CAR. That’s y’all Marines’ problem. The guy degraded your CAR and our CIB’s reputation remains intact. If the Marines want to roll over for a legal specialist’s claims to combat service, that ain’t my problem. For the six months that I spent with that unit after Desert Storm, I had to listen to all kinds of complaints from tankers and clerks and cooks who thought they deserved a CIB, too.

    If you folks want a CIB, join the infantry. The only time anyone wants to be an infantryman is when the awards are being handed out. George also took down some language last night that he had used about the Marines correcting the “injustice” of the Army’s failure to award him a CIB.

    Here’s my engineer story from Desert Storm; our squad of engineers rode behind us with our company trains. About a thousand meters into Iraq after crossing the berm, our engineers had to go back to Saudi Arabia because one of their 12Bs had forgotten his M203. I asked Ol’ George if that had been him, but he didn’t answer.

    I wouldn’t have mentioned this whole if George hadn’t been such a dick in his emails and on the phone when I called him. And I was curious as to why he made such a big deal out of;

    The Main Attack Launched against SADDAM HUSSEIN’S elite Republican Guard Armored Forces in Southern IRAQ and KUWAIT, {February 24 – 28, 1991}, was spear-headed on the second day of the ground battle, by GEORGE HUTCHINS’ unit, which became known as OPERATION DESERT STORM.

    That narrative doesn’t include the fact that “GEORGE HUTCHINS’ unit” went into Iraq more than a week before the ground war and fought a three day counter-reconnaissance armor/artillery battle in Iraq. So I still wonder if George was in 2AD (FWD). He got pretty defensive with me and finally hung up on me, so I have my doubts.

    You can be proud of your service without embellishing and being a dick about it. If I lived in NC’s 4th District, I think I’d vote for someone else.

  • US attorney pursues Stolen Valor case in NV

    It looks like Federal prosecutors are finally getting off their cushy chairs and prosecuting some Stolen Valor cases. This one was sent to me by 1stCavRVN11B;

    A Veterans Affairs employee from Las Vegas was indicted this week in a case of stolen valor and stolen benefits.

    The case against David M. Perelman, who claimed to have received a Purple Heart medal, is the first known prosecution in Nevada under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which outlawed false claims of military honor. According to the indictment, Perelman claimed he had been wounded in combat in Vietnam, when in fact he had been wounded by a self-inflicted gunshot in 1991.

    Of course, it helps that he also defrauded the government of $180,000 in stolen benefits over the last fourteen years. It’s probably what motivated the prosecutor, but whatever it takes.

    “I’m glad that finally Mr. Bogden is going to prosecute a stolen valor case,” said retired Army Lt. Col. Bill Anton, president of Special Forces Association Chapter 51. “Veterans are happy that he is finally addressing this, and we support him totally.”

    Anton spent a year trying to persuade Bogden to pursue a stolen valor case against another veteran, Jacob Cruze.

    With the Strandlof case resulting in his arrest, who knows, we might finally be able to send a message from veterans to these phonies. Another George W. Bush legacy.

  • MacBeth perpetuates the myth

    We all remember Jessie MacBeth, the only person on the planet who we dislike as much as IVAW members dislike him. Well, I caught this conversation in my internet travels on his YouTube channel. Apparently, he has a group of defenders (or sockpuppets) who have no problem making the excuse for him that his stories are true but the government is persecuting him and falsifying his records to keep him quiet;

    macbeth-youtube-retardation

    As a reminder, this is the DD214 with which he “fooled” IVAW leadership and this is his actual DD214.

    If MacBeth’s defenders are to be believed, the DD214 we believe is false, is his actual DD214 and the Army spells the word “qualifyed”.

  • Budwah gets 18 months

    About half of you have been sending me links to articles about David Budwah, the actual Marine who tried to establish credentials as a combat veteran, even though his actual duty stations were in Murtha-Iraq (Okinawa) and at Quantico at the PX. Apparently, duty at the PX is harder in the Marines than anywhere else because he started riding profiles, claimed PTSD and stomach cancer.

    Budwah told the court he was sorry for his actions and that he never meant to cause anyone harm. He said he wanted to remain at hospital, where he felt part of a larger community, until he could be medically discharged from the Corps.

    Boo-f’n-hoo. He talked to school children and apparently did interviews with Australian newspapers;

    He acknowledged having lied during an interview with a journalist from the Herald-Mail newspaper, in which he claimed to have been injured in Afghanistan “by a hand grenade filled with glass, nails and other debris.”

    “I dove on a buddy to shield him from the blast, and the blast damaged half my face,” he said.

    Wait’ll Budwah’s cell mate dives on him to shield him from a blast.

    He even finagled a laptop from Valour-IT, but the Soldiers’ Angels has assured me that they’ve got preventative measures in place to avoid being conned like this again.

    Anyway, he got sentenced to five years, a $25,000 fine, reduction to E-1 and a dishonorable discharge. However he had a plea agreement before the trial which limited his jail time to 18 months.

    He’s lucky he didn’t have James Branum for an attorney – he’d have probably got a firing squad after a televised prison rape.

    Thanks to everyone who has been sending me this article for almost two weeks.

  • John Kerry: Too early for surge

    john-kerry-crawl

    Fox News Channel writes that John Kerry, (who, by the way served in Vietnam, in case you hadn’t heard) has drawn on his vast experience as a combat commander and decided that the generals and planners on the ground in Afghanistan are wrong and it’s too soon to send more troops as those generals and planners have requested;

    In taped remarks to air Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kerry said it would be misguided to have a troop buildup to achieve a mission of “good governance” when the election is not yet finished.

    Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was in Kabul on Saturday.

    The Hill and CNN quote Kerry a bit differently;

    It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country

    John Kerry, while serving as a lieutenant in Vietnam, reportedly fired a 40-mike-mike grenade into a bag of rice which, in turn, propelled a few kernels into the fleeing young lieutenant’s buttocks which resulted in the award of one of his three Silver Stars Purple Hearts.

    And that’s the guy telling us how to deploy our forces these days.

    When would be a better time, Kerry? After next Fall’s election, maybe so your base doesn’t fall apart on you and the Republicans use your inability to make decisions in a timely manner against y’all?

    Who wants to be the last to die for John Kerry’s latest lies?

  • The irony of IVAW (Updated)

    The IRAQ VETERANS Against the War issued a press release last week about their opposition to increasing troop strength in Afghanistan. In the press release, they quoted two members, Jose Vasquez, the Executive Director and Donna Perdue. Vasquez’ quote;

    “We’re entering our seventh year of war in Afghanistan,” said Jose Vasquez, IVAW’s executive director. “Casualties among the Afghan people are rising while U.S. and Coalition forces are facing their deadliest year since the invasion. This war dehumanizes the Afghan people and denies them their right to self-determination. We have members who serve in Iraq and in Afghanistan and we believe it’s time for them all to come home.”

    And Perdue’s quote;

    IVAW member Donna Perdue said she believes the war in Afghanistan is threatening our national security.

    “The war becomes larger and more destructive, the number of necessary American forces will further increase, and the cycle will continue to rage on,” said Perdue. “This cycle will continue to strain the struggling economy and the already over-taxed military. It’s imperative that the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan end.”

    The irony, of course, is that neither of the members have been to the war on terror. We’ve already discussed Jose Vasquez a 14-year veteran who suddenly became a conscientious objector when he had to go to war. So who is the Perdue chick? Here’s her profile at IVAW;

    perdue-ivaw-profile

    Perdue’s duty stations over 22 years of service; Albany, GA; Iwakuni, Japan; Indianapolis, IN; Camp Lejeune, NC; New Orleans, LA; Camp Pendleton, CA; Kansas City, MO; Baltimore, MD; Quantico, VA; Vienna, OH; Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Uganda, Eritrea, Bahrain, Somalia, Tanzania, Sudan. She retired in 2006 yet still missed the war against terror and thinks she has some moral authority to influence US policy in the war.

    Combined, Perdue and Vasquez have 36 years of military experience and neither have heard a shot fired in anger, yet that’s who IVAW quotes in their press releases. It makes me wonder if they have any iraq Veterans left in the IRAQ VETERANS Against the War.

    The resolution states “there is no battlefield solution to terrorism, and any escalation of the war in Afghanistan will only serve to exacerbate the plight of the Afghan people, destabilize the region, and further the breakdown of our military.”

    Says who? A bunch of COs and pogues?

    By the way, I’ve got some conflicting information on Perdue and her career. What i have says she was an E-6 – can some of you guys who can get to Marine On Line check on that? Screen capture it and send it to me if you can. I keep a record of that stuff.

    UPDATE: Thanks to CplUSMC93 who pulled her MOL file, we now know that Donna Perdue isn’t a Gunnery Sergeant like she claims. She retired as a Staff Sergeant.

    donna1

    It’s like they can’t help it.

    Yes, Donna, I’ve now started a file on you, too.

  • Strandlof still at large

    As TSO wrote yesterday, Richard Strandlof aka Rick Duncan, our favorite VoteVets, IVAW member, is about to be arrested, but he remains at large. But all of the local news sources are putting his face out there. The feds shouldn’t have let him go, then they wouldn’t have to look for his goofy ass.

    From the Denver Post;

    Strandlof will be charged with one count of making false claims about receipt of military decorations or medals, a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail and a $250,000 fine.

    CBS Channel 4 finds a World Can’t Wait connection;

    Besides Duncan, Strandlof also used the alias of Rick Pierson, according to the arrest affidavit. Strandloff was a war protester in Reno, Nev., and coordinator for the anti-war group the World Can’t Wait. While in Reno, Slater was part of an effort to bring a Grand Prix race there, according to the arrest affidavit.

    A woman who answered a phone for a number listed for Strandlof in Incline Village, Nev., near Reno said it was a wrong number. No number was listed in Colorado Springs.

    The Vail Daily writes that at least as an imposter he was worried about appearances;

    When asked at one fundraiser why he wasn’t wearing his medals, Strandlof said wearing them “would appear egotistical,” according to the affidavit.

    The Colorado Springs Gazette

    KRDO Channel 13

    Our friends at KKTV Channel 11 have a video up of the story (but I can’t embed it here)

    Here’s a picture of Strandlof from that video. I want the image burned into the brains of some of our Strandlof deniers;

    strandlof-winter-soldier1a

    Yeah, you might have joined after Jesse MacBeth, but you didn’t join after Rick Duncan.

    Maybe they can get James Branum to defend him with the fake-but-accurate defense. Or maybe he can blame the Marine Corps for not giving classes on how to be a fake Marine with a reattached finger.