{"id":66481,"date":"2016-06-27T06:45:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T10:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=66481"},"modified":"2016-06-27T06:19:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T10:19:47","slug":"enablers-perhaps-sometimes-theres-a-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=66481","title":{"rendered":"Enablers – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some weeks ago, Jonn wrote about the tool who claimed to have \u201ccreated the POW\/MIA logo\u201d<\/em><\/a> \u2013 the logo actually designed by World War II veteran Newt Heisley<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0I\u2019ll refer to that individual hereafter as \u201cLogo-boi\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLogo-boi\u201d even managed to get honored by both the IL State House (2013) and the US House of Representatives (2014) for \u201chis design for the POW\/MIA logo\u201d.\u00a0 However, those honors were false; \u201cLogo-boi\u201d wasn’t the one who designed it.\u00a0 And when when presented with definitive evidence that he wasn’t<\/span> the originator of the logo, \u201cLogo-boi\u201d \u00a0then backtracked his claim \u2013 kinda.<\/p>\n

While \u201cLogo-boi\u201d now acknowledges he did not create the POW\/MIA logo, he still claims to have \u201cindependently\u201d come up with the same design\u201d<\/a><\/em>, but at a later time \u2013 though he does now allow that his design was \u201cunknowingly inspired by the original POW\/MIA flag designed by Newton Heisley in 1971\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnknowingly?\u201d\u00a0 Yeah, right.\u00a0 Just like I\u2019m the last of the Romanovs – and therefore the rightful Tsar of all Russia.<\/p>\n

But “Logo-boi” isn’t really what this article\u2019s about.<\/p>\n

Predictably, the guy had his defenders and enablers.\u00a0 Fakes always do; Jonn\u2019s written an article about that as well<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Notable among “Logo-boi’s” defenders was Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, his representative in the Illinois State House of Representatives.\u00a0 She\u2019s also the one who rather foolishly introduced a resolution in the IL House commending the guy for \u201ccreating the POW\/MIA Logo\u201d when he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 That state resolution in turn resulted in a similar resolution erroneously praising “Logo-boi” for same being introduced in, and passed by, the US House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Rep. LaVia continued to support the guy<\/a><\/em> even after clear and convincing evidence was available that he was NOT the creator of the POW\/MIA Logo.\u00a0 Rep. LaVia \u2013 referred to in the last linked article as “a retired Army officer”, and chair of the Illinois House Veterans Affairs Committee \u2013 may well be supporting the guy to avoid admitting she screwed up.\u00a0 That\u2019s understandable; people hate to admit they\u2019ve been \u201chad\u201d. Or maybe she truly does believe him.<\/p>\n

But perhaps there\u2019s another reason.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Rep. LaVia\u2019s bio, taken from her official IL House website (click image for larger version).\u00a0 A PDF print of the webpage including this bio can be found here<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

In that bio, downloaded\/captured as of the morning of 23 June 2016, Rep. LaVia appears to claim she’s still serving as a member of the \u201cInactive Ready Reserve\u201d.\u00a0 That’s at odds with the article in which Rep. LaVia defends “Logo-boi”; it refers to her as a \u201cmilitary retiree\u201d.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s unclear where that article’s author got the word that Rep. LaVia was a “military retiree”; it might not have been from Rep. LaVia herself.<\/p>\n

Either way, it looks to me like Rep. LaVia needs to contact NPRC.\u00a0 Because it seems to me that her records on file there may be \u201cinaccurate or incomplete\u201d.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the service listed in NPRC’s records doesn\u2019t seem to match that in her official bio.\u00a0 Nor do those records seem to say she\u2019s a military retiree.<\/p>\n

It appears \u00a0Rep. LaVia\u2019s maiden name was very likely \u201cErlinda Chapa\u201d.\u00a0 Rep. LaVia’s bio indicates she graduated from East Aurora High School \u2013 and an individual by the name of “Erlinda Chapa” apparently graduated from East Aurora High School in 1984.\u00a0 Graduating from high school in 1984 is consistent with Rep LaVia’s published year of birth (1966).\u00a0 Graduating from high school in 1984 is also fully consistent with someone graduating from college and receiving a commission in 1988.<\/p>\n

The above dovetails nicely with Rep. LaVia’s official bio. Moreover, “Chapa” is also now her middle name – a not uncommon practice for many women who marry and elect to adopt their husband’s family name.\u00a0 Finally, it seems quite likely that her current first name “Linda” is a variant of “Erlinda”.<\/p>\n

If this “Erlinda Chapa” from 1984 is indeed today’s “Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia” – and I\u2019m fairly sure they’re the same person – here\u2019s what NPRC had to say about their military career.\u00a0 What follows was obtained pursuant to a FOIA request made using the name \u201cErlinda Chapa\u201d, Rep. LaVia\u2019s published DOB (from Wikipedia), and the place of birth of Aurora, IL.\u00a0\u00a0You can view the information below in PDF format here<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

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

Now, “discharged as a 1LT with 11 years 3 months total Reserve Component service” is indeed honorable (if unspectacular) service.\u00a0 But last time I checked, that generally was not the same as either being a current member of the IRR or being a military retiree.<\/p>\n

There are also other “disconnects”.\u00a0 NPRC says she served in the IL ARNG from 1988-1993 and in the USAR from 1993-1999.\u00a0 Her official bio says she served in the IL ARNG starting<\/em> in 1993, serving in the “US Army” before then – and doesn’t mention her 1999 discharge from the USAR at all.\u00a0 NPRC also shows no extended active duty other than for IET – something that Rep. LaVia’s biography IMO implies she did between 1988 and 1993, but doesn’t unambiguously claim.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is all due to a mistake on the part of NPRC.\u00a0 Maybe Rep. LaVia’s records there are not complete.\u00a0 Maybe her bio is simply wrong.\u00a0 Maybe the reporter who wrote that article that refers to Rep. LaVia as “a retired Army officer” misunderstood something she was told.<\/p>\n

Or maybe not.<\/p>\n

Hopefully Rep. LaVia or her staff can fill in the blanks here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some weeks ago, Jonn wrote about the tool who claimed to have \u201ccreated the POW\/MIA logo\u201d … Enablers – Part 2<\/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":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-who-knows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66481","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=66481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}