{"id":78936,"date":"2018-04-17T10:57:26","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T14:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=78936"},"modified":"2022-01-23T22:45:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T03:45:48","slug":"san-diego-media-battles-over-randy-voepels-valor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=78936","title":{"rendered":"San Diego media battles over Randy Voepel’s valor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Times of San Diego<\/a> lays out the case against Randy Voepel’s claims that he earned a Combat Action Ribbon while stationed off the shores of Viet Nam;<\/p>\n

In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Hoey said he suspects that the copy of Voepel\u2019s discharge form \u2014 called a DD214 \u2014 is from the National Archives and may have been altered. He called on Voepel to release his own personal copy of the form.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe counted no less than 15 errors on that DD214 \u2014 significant errors \u2014 including redactions and corrections in the areas where they are not permitted,\u201d Hoey said. \u2018We need to find the original. \u2026 Now it\u2019s up to the press to look into that. My job is done here.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Herron did not respond to a request for Voepel\u2019s version of the DD214.)<\/p>\n

A Freedom of Information Act request by Hoey led to a document that lists Voepel as receiving the \u201cRepublic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device\u201d but not the \u201cVietnam Campaign Medal Combat Action Ribbon.\u201d In that DD214, COMBAT ACTION RIBBON is typed above a series of X\u2019s, which might originally have stood for WITH DEVICE (an addendum badge). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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I have never seen a legitimate DD214 that had a strike-through like the DD214 above. A clerk would be forced to start typing a new one to compensate for an error on the form.<\/p>\n

Anyway, NBC7<\/a> consider the stolen valor allegations false;<\/p>\n

In an email, Voepel\u2019s Chief of Staff sent us this statement on behalf of the Assemblyman, \u201cI am proud of my military service and my advocacy in Sacramento on behalf of veterans. Hollow political attacks are typical during campaign season. They won’t distract me from continuing to serve my constituents.” <\/p>\n

As further proof, Voepel\u2019s office released to NBC 7 Investigates a copy of the Assemblyman\u2019s service discharge paperwork, called a DD-214.<\/p>\n

Hoey and Wilske responded to the document by insisting it is phony since it is poorly typed and has several sections crossed out. Both told us they sent the DD-214 to other experts from stolen valor cases and those experts agreed with their findings. NBC 7 Investigates asked for the names of those experts but we haven\u2019t received them yet. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve also never seen a legitimate awardee of the Combat Action Ribbon wear it upside down. I’ve seen plenty of phonies wear it upside down, though;<\/p>\n

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The Times of San Diego lays out the case against Randy Voepel’s claims that he earned … San Diego media battles over Randy Voepel’s valor<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78936","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\/78936","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=78936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/78844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}