{"id":75412,"date":"2017-10-16T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T16:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=75412"},"modified":"2017-10-16T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T16:03:10","slug":"open-letter-to-chris-otero-ref-stolen-valor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=75412","title":{"rendered":"Open letter to Chris Otero; ref Stolen Valor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Otero writes an article in the Havok Journal entitled “Blue On Blue: Stolen Valor Fratricide<\/a>” in which he tries to make the case that stolen valor enforcement is not a worthwhile endeavor. <\/p>\n

My encounter ended well for me but it didn\u2019t end so well for Marine veteran Michael Deflin. This Fallujah vet couldn\u2019t produce an active duty CAC card on request from some Air Force dude and therefore he got the crap kicked out of him. He suffered a broken leg and jaw in the process. Prior to him and his friend beating Deflin down, the USAF guy accused him of \u2018Stolen Valor\u2019.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, we have now started conducting fratricide on our own.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Part of what makes this so laughable is that some of the loudest members of the mob are people who were FOB warriors downrange. They are the dudes you see at the PX or the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport wearing their absolutely pristine condition 400 dollar tactical packs with the \u2018Major League Infidel\u2019 patch, the always ridiculous camo cap with a subdued American flag on the velcro, and drinking a giant Monster while telling everyone who will listen about that \u2018one time in Iraq, I did xxxxxx and I\u2019m totally not making it up!\u2019<\/p>\n

The truth is they never left the wire on their one OIF\/OEF tour \u2013 but I sure as hell hear them lying\u2026oops, I mean exaggerating about what they have done downrange in the orderly rooms, at the PX food court, on social media, and in the customs line at Ali al Salim Air Base. Come on, guys, you don\u2019t think we notice? You don\u2019t think we haven\u2019t heard multiple variations of the same story our entire career?<\/p>\n

For many of you out there in the mob, I would say check your own shot group before you starting calling out others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know who he’s talking about. I don’t know anyone in our community that fits that description. While I sympathize with Michael Deflin, no one I associate with confronts valor thieves in such a way. <\/p>\n

There was a time when mine was the only blog on the social media conducting stolen valor investigations, and it was a more gentlemanly endeavor.<\/p>\n

In fact, I can name a few dozen people who we’ve busted who are cooling their heels in prison, some with sentences measured in decades, because of our efforts and research, as well as our law enforcement contacts. We’re more responsible than most of the stolen valor vigilantes who troll airports and coffee shops on the lookout for someone trying to scam a free scone.<\/p>\n

I don’t normally wear pins or badges in public, but if I do, I have a DD214 on my phone to show doubters. My records are posted for the whole world to see on the internet. I have been “outside the wire” on occasion. I’ve lost friends to enemy fire. Many of the people with whom I associate fit that description.<\/p>\n

So, choke down on your shot group, Mr Otero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Otero writes an article in the Havok Journal entitled “Blue On Blue: Stolen Valor Fratricide” … Open letter to Chris Otero; ref Stolen Valor<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stolen-valor-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75412","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=75412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}