![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Anthony-Kolat-272x300.png\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nLast week, we wrote about Anthony Kolat<\/a> a former Marine who claimed that he had earned a Purple Heart for Merit at the Beirut Barracks bombing in 1983, you know, even though he had left the active force more than a year prior to the tragedy. Well today the news from his local media<\/a> is that he’s backed off from the Purple Heart claim, with the proviso that he’s still looking for the paperwork – surprisingly, his copy of the orders may have been lost in a house fire. I swear, fire just hates military records;<\/p>\n \u201cI refuse to take credit for receiving a Purple Heart until I can prove it,\u201d Kolat said.<\/p>\n However, his retraction comes with a caveat.<\/p>\n Kolat, trained as a combat engineer, claims he received the necessary Purple Heart documentation and is searching through his own records for the necessary documents, some of which he says may have been lost in a house fire. He is also seeking help from veterans organizations and the National Archives and Records Administration regional facility in Kansas City, Mo., to find the documents that he says would clear his name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You’d have thought that if he didn’t want to take credit for his Purple Heart before he had proof, he wouldn’t have been spouting off about it six years ago – or he would have at least begun his search for proof at about that time.<\/p>\n Well, the VFW doesn’t believe him because they’ve removed him from his position as the Post 2799 chaplain and he’s no longer a member. <\/p>\n Damned old house fires are just ruining people across the country, between house fires and floods, military records just aren’t safe. You’d think that in the age of computers there’d be a way to protect records better, wouldn’t you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"