Category: Real Soldiers

Gamble and Shipley go over some of the specifics of the Papini case;

Parts one, two, three and four.

Part three of the seven part series. Parts one and two.

Don Shipley continues his discussion with Cameron Gamble about the charges that Gamble lied about his military career, in Part Two of the videos;

You might remember the story of Sherri Papini’s kidnapping in November. She was released mostly because of the efforts of Cameron Gamble, an Air Force veteran who was hired by an anonymous donor to secure her release. He gave them a time frame in which they could accept a large cash payment in exchange for Sheri. When they didn’t respond in an appropriate amount of time, Cameron took the offer off of the table and told the criminals that he was coming for them. Within hours, Papini was found alongside a country road and unharmed, mostly.

In the aftermath, the amateur phony hunters came out of the woodwork questioning Gamble’s experience and training. Like Katie Zavadski and Kelly Weill at the Daily Beast.

For years, Gamble sold anti-abduction courses, touting his alleged military training. Gamble advertised himself as a specialist in kidnapping-prevention training, although his actual record in that field, and as a hostage negotiator, is vague at best. According to military service records, he enlisted in the Air Force 2002 and was discharged in July 2005. He was a Senior Airman when he was discharged, a rank just above Airman First Class, assigned to work as a vehicle operations apprentice. The Air Force could not provide the terms of his discharge, but bankruptcy filings show he received disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

He often cites his Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training in online biographies, and the Air Force confirmed that he has completed a Combat Survival Training Course—as do all aircrew members. He also claims to have trained special forces soldiers at Fort Rucker in Alabama, but the Army post did not respond to requests by The Daily Beast to confirm Gamble’s claim.

After leaving the Air Force, Gamble founded multiple companies with military-sounding names including the Catalyst Advanced Training Group and Project TAKEN.

Even I have trouble with the records of folks who have served in special warfare units, which is why I have friends in the various branches that help me sort through the stuff. The Daily Beast and others haven’t bothered with the experts. Cameron went to Don Shipley to clear his name.

Don called today and asked us to help get the story out there. He has promised several other iterations of his interviews with Gamble. Here’s his introduction. Language warning;

Bobo sends us a link to the story of three servicemen, Sergeant Mario Ratto, Specialist Sandy Rushing and Private First Class Jonathan Fish, who happened on a scene during a break in an exercise between US and Japan Ground Self Defense Force.

“We ran over there and saw an elderly Japanese man lying face down on the road,” said Rushing. “There was blood on the ground and he was just lying there face down. It looked like he was dead. He was not moving at all – I thought the guy was dead.”
“Private Fish was right behind me and I had him check for any additional injuries before we turned him over,” said Rushing. “We kind of tag teamed it and log rolled him over onto his back while keeping his C-spine stable.”
“There was so much blood on his face and broken teeth in his mouth,” said Fish who had only recently completed Advanced Individual Training.
“We then saw that his airway was obstructed – he had fallen on his face and broken some teeth and had quite a bit of blood everywhere,” said Rushing. “We repositioned his airway and cleared his airway pulling broken teeth out of his mouth.”
That’s when the elderly man started regaining consciousness.

Read the rest at the link.

A number of folks have asked us to look into the claims of this David Shumock fellow when he appeared in a Fox News article about him and his time fighting with the peshmerga in Iraq;

One soldier manning the post was David Shumock, a 62-year-old Floridian and former U.S. Air Forces pararescueman. The American fights side-by-side with the Kurdish Peshmerga, and serves as medic and trainer to his comrades, as well.

Shumock has called the dusty, makeshift, camp surrounded on three sides by ISIS, for a year. When he and his fellow fighters arrived, ISIS had only just been ousted from Sinjar city. Their first effort was to rebuild the forward base by hand – fixing roofs, and ringing it with lookouts posts.

From this base, the men, part of the Kurdish quick reaction force, support a 500-mile long line, responding to attacks wherever and whenever they come. Often, it’s their base under attack from artillery.

Our partners filed a request for his military records and the National Personnel Records Center confirm that he was indeed an Air Force pararescueman;

Our friends at the PJs also confirm that he’s the real deal. They tell us that they’ve been trying to get equipment to him, since he’s entirely self-funded, but they’ve had trouble trying to get through the layers of red tape.

Average NCO sends us a link to the story of the latest heroism displayed by former Army Staff Sergeant James Takes. He extinguished a woman’s car fire.

“Can’t imagine starting your day out with your car on fire,” said Takes.

So when James saw flames he jumped into action. He got out of his company car and grabbed his fire extinguisher.

A witness from across the street took a photo. In her Facebook post, she’s thanking the good Samaritan of Brothers.

“If my wife’s car was on fire and someone had a fire extinguisher I’d hope they’d put it out,” said Takes.

James was one of two people who stopped to help. Had it gotten worse the car could’ve exploded.

Takes was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in Afghanistan in November, 2007;

Staff Sergeant Takes and his team were traversing a narrow path surrounded by mountainous, rocky terrain when they were ambushed by enemy forces stationed on elevated positions. Pinned against a steep mountain face, Staff Sergeant Takes and his men were totally exposed to enemy fire. Staff Sergeant Takes immediately began to provide suppressive fire for his men, allowing them to slide down the mountain in search of better cover. After being hit in the arm with small arms fire, Staff Sergeant Takes began to move down the mountain in order to link up with the others. As he did so, he noticed a fellow Soldier, Specialist Albert, lying wounded in an exposed position. Without hesitation, Staff Sergeant Takes sprinted towards his injured comrade, completely exposing himself to enemy fire. As he began to drag Specialist Albert back up the slope, he was shot in the other arm. Unable to move Specialist Albert further, Staff Sergeant Takes knelt and began to render aid to his wounded comrade. Noticing that Specialist Albert had lost his helmet, Staff Sergeant Takes gave him his own. He then moved to the Casualty Collection Point to assist his squad leader. He continued to provide aid and pull security until helicopters arrived. Staff Sergeant Takes was the last Soldier to be lifted out.