![\"Gabriel](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Gabriel-James-Brown-240x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nA bunch of you folks have been sending us a link to an article about Gabriel James Brown who is facing trial in Florida for a series of armed robberies. His claim is that he was a former Special Forces soldier and he was driven by the adrenaline and he needed to rob stuff to recreate the thrill of being a special forces soldier. From Stars & Stripes<\/a>;<\/p>\n A former Special Forces Green Beret, Brown won a Bronze Star for \u201cexceptionally meritorious service\u201d as a weapons sergeant in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n He saw friends killed in combat; he killed others, at least once under orders, he says, when he wasn\u2019t so sure the man posed a threat. He saw civilians, including children, maimed and killed.<\/p>\n He says he still has nightmares about what happened.<\/p>\n When he left the military, Brown went to work for the contractor Blackwater, guarding CIA personnel in Afghanistan, where he again was in danger and fighting against threats seen and unseen.<\/p>\n He became, he says, an adrenaline junkie.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n All of that may be true, but according to our friends at Professional Soldiers, Brown was indeed Special Forces qualified, but, they pulled his tab in 2004. It seems to indicate that he was a problem child while he wore a uniform. <\/p>\n I’ve ever seen a Bronze Star Medal for “exceptionally meritorious service”, they’re awarded for either valor (with a “V” device) or meritorious service. Period. I didn’t “win” mine, I earned it – well, my commander thought I did, anyway.<\/p>\n And if he really needed a adrenaline fix, last I checked, there’s still a war going on. He could have gone back, unless there was an administrative reason he couldn’t. Thousands of veterans who did the job he did don’t rob banks every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"