Reitzell told AL.com that he pinned the badge on Brooks’ lapel at a senate candidate forum at the Huntsville Botanical Garden on June 20.<\/p>\n
“I have this little lapel pin I want to pin on you as a reminder to all of us that there are very few lengths you will not go to to protect us,” Reitzell said he told Brooks.<\/p>\n
Reitzell served 28 years in the Army, reaching the rank of colonel. He was twice injured in the Vietnam War and is a member of the Madison County Hall of Heroes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, Clayton Hinchman, an Iraq veteran who sacrificed a leg in the Global War On Terror who is planning on running against Brooks in the midterm elections next year decided to make the CIB a stolen valor issue;<\/p>\n
Clayton Hinchman, a veteran of the war in Iraq who lost a leg while on a nighttime raid to captured or kill Al Qaeda, issued the press release Monday night. The press release said Hinchman was “expressing his outrage” at Brooks for wearing the pin.<\/p>\n
“As someone who has seen brave men and women hurt in combat when answering the bold call to go to serve their country in the military, I understand the frustration of the many veterans who have come to my campaign upset to see their congressman wearing a badge he was not awarded,” Hinchman said in the press release.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Colonel Reitzell defends Brooks saying that the CIB is only a replica and that he pinned it on Brooks right lapel, instead of the left, to notify everyone that Brooks wasn’t claiming to have earned it. <\/p>\n
Well, as someone who earned a CIB, and as someone who wears the miniature CIB on my lapel when I’m dressed in business wear, I kind of agree with Hinchman – Brooks should take it off. Reitzell can give anything he wants to anyone he wants, but when Brook wore it after the presentation, he stepped outside the bounds of acceptable protocol. I don’t like “my” CIB being used as a political statement, either, Mr Hinchman.<\/p>\n
Hinchman said Tuesday afternoon that he stood behind the press release. He said supporters said they wanted Brooks charged with stolen valor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I doubt Mr Hinchman would press as hard to have Dick Blumenthal charged with stolen valor for his claims that he served in Vietnam. <\/p>\n
The CIB is actually one of the military accouterments covered by the Stolen Valor Act of 2013 if used for some sort of “tangible benefit”. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last month, after Republican Congressman Mo Brooks helped wounded congressmen at that baseball practice in Alexandria, … Mo Brooks’ CIB<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stolen-valor-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73481","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=73481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Mo-Brooks-262x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n