{"id":56365,"date":"2014-11-11T10:21:35","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T15:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=56365"},"modified":"2014-11-11T10:21:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T15:21:35","slug":"delwin-r-barnett-phony-pow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=56365","title":{"rendered":"Delwin R. Barnett; phony POW"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

AverageNCO caught this article from Lawrence Journal World<\/a> on Saturday about some Vietnam veterans who gather at a local watering hole for some conversation and war story telling. One of the veterans is Delwin R. Barnett;<\/p>\n

For a good part of the conversation, Delwin Barnett simply was the quiet guy at the end of the bar room table who had a hard time hearing.<\/p>\n

But you know how quickly things can change around a bar room table. As casually as the fellows order another round of dollar draws at West Lawrence\u2019s 23rd Street Brewery, one of the guys asks Delwin the simplest of questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long was it for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFour years in combat and six months as a POW.\u201d<\/p>\n

The quiet guy at the end of the table is retired Capt. Delwin Barnett, and he has two Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Cross to his name.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I guess I\u2019m not supposed to be alive,\u201d Delwin says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

AverageNCO checked the DPMO list of POWs and Barnett isn’t there, so AverageNCO called the author of the story, Chad Lawhorn, with his concerns. Chad called Barnett<\/a> to ask him about the story;<\/p>\n

I contacted Barnett upon hearing that concern, and asked him to explain the discrepancies. Barnett continued to tell me that he was a Vietnam POW and had received the medals that he claimed. But I didn\u2019t find the assurances I was seeking. For example, I was unable to see his medals because he says he became involved in a dispute that involved someone setting his car on fire. The medals and many other possessions were in that car. He said a former colonel of his is working to get the medals reissued, but he couldn\u2019t provide me the name of the colonel.<\/p>\n

I could launch a more exhaustive investigation of Barnett\u2019s past, but I doubt that I will. I will leave it at this: I\u2019m not saying Barnett\u2019s claims are false, but I don\u2019t have the comfort level with the information that I require. I regret including the information in the article, and apologize that I didn\u2019t vet it better.<\/p>\n

Making false claims about a person\u2019s time in military service is the sort of thing that can enrage people, and understandably so. That\u2019s why I feel I also should say this: After talking with Barnett, I do believe he believes the things he told me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of, course, Chad has removed the original article, but when AverageNCO sent it to me yesterday, I saved the text anticipating that. Mary has filed for Barnett’s records and we’ll know the truth in a few weeks. <\/p>\n

But it looks like he took part in the Library of Congress’ Veterans’ History Project<\/a> three years ago and he wasn’t claiming to be a POW then, so it must be something new that he thought would be cool;<\/p>\n

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

Is it just me or does he look too young to have been in Vietnam?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AverageNCO caught this article from Lawrence Journal World on Saturday about some Vietnam veterans who gather … Delwin R. Barnett; phony POW<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-phony-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56365","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=56365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}