{"id":36199,"date":"2013-06-13T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T10:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=36199"},"modified":"2013-06-13T11:24:03","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T15:24:03","slug":"about-that-proverbial-bag-of-ass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=36199","title":{"rendered":"About That Proverbial \u201cBag of Ass\u201d . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Most regular TAH readers probably remember this guy \u2013 based on his rather hosed-up uniform, our proverbial \u201cbag of ass\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center> <\/p>\n

NPRC found his records.\u00a0\u00a0 Here\u2019s the unredacted photo.
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center> <\/p>\n

His name is Kenneth Ray Braden.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the FOIA reply concerning his official military records<\/a> from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in Saint Louis, MO.<\/p>\n

Turns out the guy did actually serve.\u00a0 He was in the TN ARNG; he was a tank crewman and MP.<\/p>\n

Braden did in fact deploy to Iraq.\u00a0 He did see action and receive a CAB.\u00a0 Braden was combat wounded and received the Purple Heart. \u00a0He did receive a personal decoration (an ARCOM), presumably as an EOT award for his tour in Iraq \u2013 along with the NDSM, the GWOTEM, the GWOTSM, the AFRM w\/\u201dM\u201d-device, and the ASR.<\/p>\n

Braden’s records also state he has the “Army Overseas Training Ribbon”. That’s obviously an error – there is no such award – but I think that’s a typo for something else.\u00a0 That entry could be referring to the “Army Reserve Components Overseas Training Ribbon”, or ARCOTR – a Reserve-Component-specific, ribbon-only award.\u00a0 Per AR 600-8-22, para 5-3, that would require Braden to have done an AT (or a period of ADT) outside the US (operational deployments do not qualify<\/span>).\u00a0 That’s possible, but IMO unlikely.\u00a0 However, that entry could also refer refer to the OSR; if so, that’s legit.\u00a0 Braden should rate an OSR for his tour in Iraq per current Army policy.\u00a0 My guess is that the entry in question is supposed to refer to the OSR.<\/p>\n

OK, that\u2019s the good news.\u00a0 He in fact served.\u00a0 Now, the bad news.<\/p>\n

Per NPRC, Braden has no Silver Star and no BSM w\/OLC.\u00a0 \u00a0He has no ICM.\u00a0 He has no MFO Medal.<\/del>\u00a0 And he has no CIB.\u00a0 He appears to be wearing all of those in the photos above. (Author’s note: as pointed out in the comments, the top inboard ribbon may well be the NDSM. I’ll give Braden the benefit of the doubt on that one, assume it is in fact the NDSM, and that my aging eyes had drifted out of calibration when I identified it originally as the MFO Medal.)<\/em><\/p>\n

In short, he\u2019s indeed MSU (Making S#!t Up).<\/p>\n

To me, this is the type of stolen valor case that\u2019s just frustrating as hell.\u00a0 Braden served in combat, and apparently served in combat honorably and well.\u00a0 He received an ARCOM for a tour in the \u201csandbox\u201d as a very junior soldier (less than 2 years total duty at end of tour). He saw action, was wounded, and received the Purple Heart.<\/p>\n

In short: his service while on active duty was honorable, competent, and worthy of praise. What he actually did is pretty damn impressive. He had no good reason to lie about it.<\/p>\n

But, like someone else we know (hello, Dallas!), that just wasn\u2019t good enough for him.\u00a0 Braden just had to take a trip down Route MSU and turn himself into some kind of “Great American Hero” – a hero his records say he really wasn’t.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s sad.\u00a0 Just freaking sad.<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t say I\u2019m shocked, though.\u00a0 Turns out there are some other pictures out in Internet-land that appear to provide second-source confirmation of the guy\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, they\u2019re mugshots<\/a>.\u00a0 And there are more than one<\/a> of them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s even sadder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most regular TAH readers probably remember this guy \u2013 based on his rather hosed-up uniform, our … About That Proverbial \u201cBag of Ass\u201d . . .<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36199","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\/36199","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\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}