{"id":126609,"date":"2022-06-08T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T13:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=126609"},"modified":"2022-06-08T09:00:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T13:00:54","slug":"marty-saffel-pow-mia-vietnam-veteran-not-so-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=126609","title":{"rendered":"Marty Saffel – POW-MIA Vietnam Veteran… Not So Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

CBS14 \/ FOX44 Siouxland News published a video and story about a Vietnam Veteran who says he was a POW-MIA.<\/p>\n

Someone who is an esteemed member of the VG\/TAH community sensed that something was amiss. They wrote to the news station and the media outlet published an “update.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Veteran shares story of survival in Vietnam<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

by Taylor Deckert\u00a0 | Sunday June 5th, 2022<\/p>\n

\n
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Siouxland News) \u2014 UPDATE: After the airing of US Navy Veteran Marty Saffel’s story, a viewer questioned The Midwest Honor Flight about Saffel’s POW status.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Siouxland News reached out to The Midwest Honor Flight for a statement, “Out of the 84 Veterans on flight, one Veteran had shared a story of being captured and kept in a POW camp during Vietnam. According to sources, he did serve during Vietnam but was not recorded as a POW surviving Veteran. Before Veterans are given the chance to fly with us, they are required to submit an application with a copy of their DD-214,\u201d said Aaron Van Beek, Midwest Honor Flight President. \u201cFrom this document, we verify the Veteran\u2019s name, DOB, branch of service, and the dates of service to ensure that they were honorably discharged and that they qualify for an Honor Flight. We do not look at ranks, time spent in country, or what campaign ribbons they received. We believe that all Veterans, whether they served in country or were stationed somewhere else, deserve the chance to visit their memorials. Once their information is verified, they are added to our waitlist for a future flight – some have been on there for 3 years or more. We apologize as an organization to all those who are verified POWs and have steps in place to ensure that this does not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous Story:<\/em><\/p>\n

Siouxland News is honored to share the story and experience of a Vietnam veteran from Sioux Falls who says he is a Prisoner of War, and who went on Mission 10 to Washington D.C. with Midwest Honor Flight.<\/p>\n

US Navy Veteran Marty Saffel says he was in a Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron flying all over southeast Asia, from 1971 to 1974.<\/p>\n

Until one day when his helicopter and team were shot down, he was captured by the enemy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the video, Staffel stated…<\/p>\n

“I got away, but not after six weeks, but I’m here. I’m alive.<\/p>\n

I’m just happy I’m here.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then, he stated later in the video…<\/p>\n

“I was in a cage, in a hole, at night. They threw rocks on plywood or stuff to hold us down. Keep us awake all night.<\/p>\n

They would beat us. I lost my toenails. When they questioned us, they used bamboo slivers underneath the toenails and stuff like that to get our answers. fingernails.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was not on the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA<\/a>) list of POWs that escaped, nor was he on the list of POWs that were eventually released.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
POW Escapees from Vietnam (DPAA)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
POWs released from Vietnam (DPAA)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The problem is that Midwest Honor Flights gave him a free ride to Washington DC, which is something of value.\u00a0 So if his claims prove to be false, he had received something of value, not to mention all the attention and accolades bestowed upon him.<\/p>\n

Many thanks to our very own ninja for staying on top of this and helping to set the record straight.\u00a0 Hopefully the news organization will do a bit more to highlight the problem of stolen valor, if it turns out to be the case here.\u00a0 We will file a FOIA for Saffel’s military records, but in the meantime this seems newsworthy to put out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CBS14 \/ FOX44 Siouxland News published a video and story about a Vietnam Veteran who says … Marty Saffel – POW-MIA Vietnam Veteran… Not So Fast<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":126610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,408,183,446],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pow","category-stolen-valor","category-stolen-valor-act","category-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126609","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\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/126610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}