{"id":20592,"date":"2010-09-26T15:36:38","date_gmt":"2010-09-26T19:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=20592"},"modified":"2010-09-26T18:29:37","modified_gmt":"2010-09-26T22:29:37","slug":"more-stolen-valor-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=20592","title":{"rendered":"More Stolen Valor free speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doug Sterner sent us a series of links related to 42-year-old Kevin Grimsinger in Denver, CO who is a double amputee and advocate for medical marijuana. His credibilty is based on his story that he was injured in Afghanistan resulting from a land mine explosion while serving as a Special Forces medic. In the Denver Post’s words back in July<\/a>, Grimsinger has “become the Colorado poster child for PTSD and medical marijuana”.<\/p>\n

The 42-year-old former special-forces medic had served in Kosovo and Desert Storm before stepping on a land mine in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001. He lost parts of both legs, broke his back in 13 places, shattered a shoulder and ribs and suffered injuries to several internal organs.<\/p>\n

But by far, his toughest wounds are to his brain \u2014 textbook post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

That means flashbacks. It means struggling to sleep and thinking about suicide more often than he cares to admit. His nightmares are constant, he says. “They’re bloody, they’re noisy and they’re gory.”<\/p>\n

After two years in hospitals, Grimsinger was released addicted “to every pain medication known to man,” he tells me. It wasn’t until turning to therapeutic cannabis, along with other prescriptions, that he says he has been able to function.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While playing this part, he helped launch “The Budding Group” a veterans outreach program for medical marijuana. He was appointed to the Denver Mayor’s special commission, the Commission for People with Disabilities, he testified at a hearing of the state legislators and he was the quartermaster at his local VFW post, Post 1<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Here’s a video Grimsinger telling his tale and advocating weed;<\/p>\n

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Anyway, the Denver Post<\/a>, who seems to make a habit of having the wool pulled over their eyes, has finally checked on Grimsinger;<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the double-amputee didn’t serve in Afghanistan and wasn’t injured by a land mine, as he claimed. Records show his military service ended a decade before he said he was hurt fighting in Kandahar in 2001.<\/p>\n

He was, in fact, paralyzed as a civilian in a crash on a mountain road in Southern California where, as he now tells it, he was trying to kill himself.<\/p>\n

“OK, so I claimed one tour that I wasn’t there for. I wasn’t in Kandahar. I didn’t trigger a land mine,” he admitted Friday. “I’m not laying no guilt trip or anything. But it’s just another nail in my coffin. I probably won’t make it through this if you write this.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Poor baby makes a fool of the whole State of Colorado, but he might kill himself if you tell the truth about him.<\/p>\n

What’s worse was hearing him twist his story when asked about military records that show he’s not a combat veteran and recipient of two purple hearts.<\/p>\n

“I’m exactly who I said I am. Any man in green will stand right next to me and vouch for it,” he said at first.<\/p>\n

“I’m highly offended that all this nonsense is in my face right now.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not as offended as the rest of us, Kev. I think any “man in green” that would stand next to you has an alternate reason for being there. Don’t turn your back on him, ya weasel.<\/p>\n

The Denver Post writes;<\/p>\n

…he hoodwinked medical-marijuana advocates who were all too eager to wheel him forward as a valorous poster guy…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shades of Richard Strandlof, huh? Vote Vets and IVAW were more than willing to put Strandlof forward when he said the things they liked. I guess the hemp heads were happy to do the same with Grimsinger.<\/p>\n

Grimsinger at first denied being related to his mother, father, brother, aunt and uncles. Then he said they’re all dead. Later he clarified that they’re dead to him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m sure the feeling is mutual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doug Sterner sent us a series of links related to 42-year-old Kevin Grimsinger in Denver, CO … More Stolen Valor free speech<\/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":[87,6,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-whackos","category-media","category-phony-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20592","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=20592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}