{"id":72151,"date":"2017-05-19T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=72151"},"modified":"2022-01-23T22:48:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T03:48:40","slug":"stephen-holloway-needless-embellishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=72151","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Holloway; needless embellishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/center>AvergeNCO found this fellow, Stephen Holloway in the Chattanooga Times Free Press<\/a> as they prepared to dedicate a veterans’ park in Pikeville, Tennessee last year.<\/p>\n

Keynote speaker Stephen Holloway, a 68-year-old Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war who received 57 medals, said the park represents not just the soldiers but, more importantly, their sacrifices and why they made them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pretty impressive, huh? 57 medals. But Stephen isn’t done;<\/p>\n

After 27 months of combat with the U.S. Army Special Forces 101st Airborne and two years in a prisoner-of-war camp, Holloway is proud to speak about his fellow veterans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wait, wait, he’s not done;<\/p>\n

Holloway \u2014 awarded the Bronze Star, two Silver Stars, three Army Commendation medals, air medals, three Presidential Unit Citations and a long list of others \u2014 was injured repeatedly during the Tet Offensive, earning four Purple Hearts in two tours in Vietnam. After recovering, he got 20 days leave at home before he was sent back to the 101st Airborne.<\/p>\n

Back in Vietnam, Holloway and other soldiers were aboard a helicopter when it was hit, killing the pilot. The helicopter was about 600 feet in the air.<\/p>\n

“I tried to land the helicopter but I crashed it,” he said. “But I got it on the ground and didn’t kill anybody.”<\/p>\n

Despite artificial parts in his arms and legs, surgically rebuilt hands and a long rehabilitation, Holloway has no regrets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, let’s get the POW claims out of the way first. He’s not listed by the DPAA;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/center>Now the copies of his DD214s are barely legible and what you can read is confusing;<\/p>\n

These are the two, they are both for the same January 1967 – January 1971 time period. Both list the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. Both DD214s agree that he was a 76A supply clerk and that he was discharged as an E-1. Both DD214s agree that he was discharged from the 71st Transportation Battalion in Vietnam. So we can reasonably assume that he was indeed a Vietnam veteran. But there are not 57 medals.<\/p>\n

In neither discharge does it indicate that he was Airborne or Special Forces qualified. There are no Air Medals or Presidential Unit Citations.<\/p>\n

Where the two discharges diverge is in the awards column where one shows that he earned nine Purple Heart Medals, one Bronze Star Medal, one Silver Star Medal and one Army Commendation Medal for valor. The other discharge, for the same period, doesn’t list any of those awards. Both DD214s came from the National Personnel Records Center, but both are vastly different.<\/p>\n

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

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

So, Stephen here wasn’t a POW, he wasn’t special forces, he doesn’t have 57 medals. He was a supply clerk, so I don’t know how he would have to fly a helicopter 600 feet to the ground. I don’t think he realizes how high 600 feet is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AvergeNCO found this fellow, Stephen Holloway in the Chattanooga Times Free Press as they prepared to … Stephen Holloway; needless embellishment<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-phony-soldiers","category-valorvultures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72151","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=72151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}