{"id":29662,"date":"2012-04-24T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T12:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=29662"},"modified":"2012-04-24T08:30:24","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T12:30:24","slug":"to-stop-the-slap-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=29662","title":{"rendered":"To stop the slap fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those of you who may or may not have noticed there’s been a slap fight going on in the comment thread of this post <\/a>about a VFW post commander who was busted for stolen valor among other things. The slap fight was between two VFW members, one, Ray Strischek, accuses the other, Kevin Martin, of falsely claiming to be a Vietnam veteran.<\/p>\n

Hondo got tired of it and decided to do a FOIA on Martin and here’s that FOIA;<\/p>\n

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

Hondo summarizes;<\/p>\n

I have seen both Mr. Martin’s DD214 and the results of a FOIA request regarding his official records. His DD214 issued on 28 December 1973 apparently did not list all decorations to which Martin was entitled. Per Martin’s official records on file at NPRC, he is entitled to the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) – and is therefore entitled to call himself a Vietnam Veteran. <\/p>\n

Martin’s official records apparently show that he was assigned to the USS Butte<\/i> and made the late 1972-early 1973 cruise with the USS Butte<\/i> as he claimed. During this cruise, the crew of the USS Butte<\/i> qualified for the VSM. And his DD214 shows no lost time, so Martin apparently was not confined onshore during any part of that cruise. He thus must be presumed to have been physically present when the crew of the USS Butte qualified for the VSM, and is thus entitled to that decoration – and Vietnam Veteran status.<\/p>\n

We could debate the merits of recognizing those who only came within 100 NM or so of the Vietnamese coast during the period of eligibility for the VSM to qualify as Vietnam Veterans until the cows come home. But rules are rules. Under the rules in effect regarding the VSM at that time, apparently Mr. Martin qualifies.<\/p>\n

As to why his original DD214 wasn’t accurate: that’s not terribly uncommon. I know of one individual with 5 different DD214s – 4 of which required later correction via issue of a DD215. Errors sometime get overlooked at time of preparation, and personnel are often determined eligible for additional awards or decorations after discharge. An example: most who served in Korea since 28 July 1954 now qualify for the Korea Defense Service Medal (even those who went there TDY 30+ consecutive days or 60 days total qualify). However, the medal wasn’t authorized until 2002 – and issue of the medal didn’t begin until after the design was finalized in 2004.<\/p>\n

I’d personally recommend Mr. Martin request an updated DD214, or a DD215, reflecting his correct status to avoid future misunderstandings regarding whether or not he is a Vietnam Veteran. This link<\/a> may be helpful. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So maybe that will lay this to rest. Thanks, Hondo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of you who may or may not have noticed there’s been a slap fight … To stop the slap fight<\/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":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29662","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=29662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}