{"id":10884,"date":"2009-05-25T13:25:20","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T18:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=10884"},"modified":"2009-05-28T14:42:49","modified_gmt":"2009-05-28T19:42:49","slug":"phony-pow-in-mad-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=10884","title":{"rendered":"Phony POW in Madison County, Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got this article about twelve times in my inbox this morning and although it was meant for Uncle Jimbo, I figured I’d write a little something. The Madison Press<\/a>‘ Sarah Thompson tries to write a touching tribute to veterans on Memorial Day, but she ends up getting scammed by a pretender named Eugene Reed;<\/p>\n

As he described his experiences to me, I observed Reed\u2019s mannerisms. His hand would tremble slightly when he mentioned a particularly uncomfortable subject. His eyes would brim with tears, and yet, he continued in detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did\u2019t used to be able to talk about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Reed said the conventional wisdom was if a soldier survived through the first 30 days of combat, \u201cyou\u2019d be OK.\u201d Most men didn\u2019t make it through the first 10 if they were brand new. He said if a soldier survived with three months left in his time of service, they would likely make it home.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people got killed with only two or three days left,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

His description of the war reminded me of the board game Clue. He wasn\u2019t sure who he could trust \u2014 including women and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have a little kid come up and throw up a hand grenade. That made him a hero to kill two or three GIs. You learned not to trust anyone that approached you when you were in a group,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had people walk up on us with grenades or kill you when they shine your shoe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed also spent time as a prisoner of war. His account was frightening and captivating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a prisoner of war for thee months,\u201d he said softly. \u201cI was 20 and we went into Cambodia. We were up in a tree. We\u2019d followed Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Regulars, gathering information.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the sudden, I felt something cold in my ear. It was a P-10 pistol. Now, I speak fluently North and South Vietnamese. He told me, \u2018You can either killroy (surrender) or I\u2019ll blow your brains out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed pantomimed raising his hands in the air, laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Yes, sir.\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWe were on an ounce of rice a day. We had to drink nasty water. They had 13 guards on us and they was moving us north. Every night we\u2019d go in and they\u2019d tie us to a tree. They sat around the camp fire and take their AKs and click them at you. You didn\u2019t know if it was going to be a real thing or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe night we escaped, I heard them talking. They were going to kill us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Reed devised a plan. When the guards released him to relieve himself, Reed waited until the guard turned his back. Then, he sprang into action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grabbed him and broke his neck; grabbed his AK-47 and killed the rest of them. One of them got away,\u201d Reed said. \u201cWe were on the run for 10 days through the jungle without our boots.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they made their way to the Marine stronghold in Pleiku, Vietnam, Reed and his friend were nearly killed by their fellow Americans. There was some confusion because the two men were not wearing dog tags.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a top secret clearance for 14 years. I was not allowed to wear dog tags because if I got caught, I wasn\u2019t there,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The first thing that I caught reading this story was how the enemy soldier told him to “killroy”. I never spent a day in Vietnam, but I know the term for surrender was “chu-hoy”, not fricken “kilroy<\/a>“. And I know the term because I hung out with REAL Vietnam veterans. <\/p>\n

And if he was on a recon, hiding in the jungle and he was some kind of super soldier, how was his first sense of another soldier a cold pistol barrel at his neck? Were the Viet Cong ninjas or ghosts?<\/p>\n

Not allowed to wear dog tags, huh? In Vietnam? While we were fighting a war there? Why? Because the Army was afraid the Vietnamese might discover we have troops there? Dumbass.<\/p>\n

The media needs to start checking itself – it’s criminal the way they let themselves be scammed. That Baum fella who responded to TSO<\/a> the other day claimed that it’s not their fault because they’re just babes in the woods – are they blaming us then? If we can’t trust them to check on few old story-telling fools, how can we trust them to report on presidential candidates or healthcare issues or a whole litany of other things we depend on them to report to us?<\/p>\n

This is Journalism 101 – make sure your sources are who they say they are, f’pete’s sake.<\/p>\n

Our friends at POW Net<\/a> have verified the clown was never a POW. If the Madison Press takes the article down, POW Net has a .pdf copy<\/a> of it here. I’m sure someone is tracking down Reed’s military records now to see if the buffoon was even in the service.<\/p>\n

Thanks to everyone who sent me a copy of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got this article about twelve times in my inbox this morning and although it was … Phony POW in Madison County, Ohio<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phony-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}