Famous Embellishers of Military Service

Fabricated valor: 8 people who famously embellished their military service records
VA Sec. Robert McDonald latest to slip-up
WXYZ ABC Detroit
Clint Davis
Feb 24, 2015

There are few things as widely respected across America as a military veteran’s service record.

There are even fewer things as widely detested as lying about it.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald, a United States Army veteran, is being scrutinized after allegedly embellishing his service record during a CBS News report last month.

According to the Associated Press, McDonald claimed in the report that he had served in special forces during his time with the Army — a statement that is drawing ire. The Huffington Post reported this week that while McDonald did serve as part of the 82nd Airborne Division, that division is not considered to be special forces.

“I incorrectly stated that I had been in special forces,” McDonald said in a statement on Tuesday. “That was inaccurate and I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement.”

McDonald is hardly the first public figure to publically acknowledge embellishing their service record. Here were eight other infamous examples of fabricated valor:

Ronald Reagan
Tom Harkin
Timothy Poe
Mark Kirk
Brian Dennehy
Tom Mix
Matt Farmer
Walter Williams
read their stories here

And if you're in the mood for a list of famous veterans here they are from Biography.com

America wouldn't be what it is today without Hollywood, and it certainly wouldn't be the same without its armed forces. Military veterans make the ultimate contribution to society—they put their lives on the line for their country. Since the nation's founding, the dedication and bravery of soldiers has been the a key pillar on which the United States stands. From Revolutionary War heroes to Vietnam veterans, here's a look at famous military veterans.

Marine Robert Richards Life Remembered

Marine sniper saluted as more than the controversial video that defined him 
The Washington Post
By Greg Jaffe
Published: February 24, 2015

He was still recovering at Walter Reed when he learned that one of his Marines, Josh Desforges, had been killed.

"That was the only time I heard him crack," his mother said. "He was begging to go back to Afghanistan, even though he had a hole in his throat."

Edward Deptola, center, was Robert Richards's platoon sergeant. Deptola and others gathered to remember Richards on the night before his interment.
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — His three combat tours in Afghanistan had been boiled down to a 38-second video clip, played and replayed on YouTube more than a million times. In it, Rob Richards and three other Marine Corps snipers are seen urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters they had just killed.

"Total dismay" were the words then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used to describe the video when it surfaced on the Internet in January 2012. "Utterly deplorable," agreed then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Richards's career in the military was finished.

More than two years later — long after the rest of the country had moved on to other scandals — Richards, 28, died at home and alone from an accidental painkiller overdose.

Now an ammunition can carrying his cremated remains sat on the table of a hotel bar in Arlington, Va., as his family, friends and fellow Marines swirled around it.

Almost everything about war is complicated, messy or morally fraught; in this case even more so. A Marine vilified by his country's leaders and court-martialed for "bringing discredit to the armed forces" would soon be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the country's most hallowed ground. On this mid-February night before the funeral, dozens who knew Richards beyond those 38 seconds gathered to celebrate his life.
read more here

Fort Hood Soldier Kills 3, Self in Killeen Rampage

Shooter kills 3, self in Killeen rampage 
Killeen Daily Herald
Chris McGuinness Herald staff writer
February 24, 2015

Killeen police named a 30-year-old Fort Hood soldier as the person responsible for a deadly shooting rampage in a north Killeen neighborhood that left four dead and one seriously injured Sunday night.

Police said the suspect, Atase Giffa, opened fire on three people, killing two and injuring one before forcing his wife, 28-year-old Dawn Giffa, into another home, where he killed her and then himself.

Fort Hood did not immediately release Atase Giffa’s rank and unit.
read more here

Colorado Army National Guard Sued By Ranchers After Fire

Ranchers Sue National Guard, Federal and State Governments For $6.8 Million Over Damages From Fires
K2 Radio
By Tom Morton
February 23, 2015

Colorado Army National Guard troops training at Camp Guernsey in 2012 used ammunition and explosives that caused the 22-square-mile Sawmill Canyon Fire that also scorched thousands of acres of a nearby ranch.

Kevin and Susan Rothschild, who have owned the 5,000-acre Bulls Bend Ranch, LLLP, for 20 years, are demanding nearly $6.8 million in damages from the National Guard and other defendants, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Monday.

“The Defendants were further negligent, irresponsible, reckless, and acted without regard to plaintiff’s property by not having any fire extinguishing equipment or other controls in place to control and minimize the risk of fire from their activities,” according to the complaint filed by the Cheyenne law firm the Kuker Group, which represents the Rothschilds.
read more here

Fake Wounded Veteran Tried to Pay Bar Bill With Rock

Landscaper pretending to be a wounded veteran 'threatened to blow up a Florida bar after employees would not let him pay his tab with a ROCK'
Jared Simpson, 23, from Maine, charged with making false bomb threats, petty theft and disorderly conduct Told people he arrived in Tallahassee, Florida, to party with Rainbow People in national forest
He walked into 4th Quarter Bar and Grill on crutches, which he later ditched and was seen doing handstands on the sidewalk
Witnesses say Simpson placed a briefcase on a table and said, 'Anyone touch this, they will die'
Arrest affidavit states Simpson told police the briefcase contained 'maybe a bomb or a baby' before breaking into a song
By SNEJANA FARBEROV FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
23 February 2015

But when his new acquaintance, who turned out to be a veteran, inquired which military branch he had served in, the 23-year-old replied, 'if I tell you, I have to kill you,' the court documents stated.

Bizarre behavior: The 23-year-old landscaper was overheard 'speaking in tongues' and singing a song to a police officer about how he was a 'rainbow man'

Jared Simpson has learned first-hand what it means to be between a rock and a hard place when he landed behind bars for allegedly trying to pay his bar tab with a pebble – and then threatening to blow up the bar.

Simpson, 23, of North Waterford, Maine, was taken into custody in Tallahassee February 18 on charges of making false bomb threats, petty theft and disorderly conduct.

According to investigators, the bizarre incident unfolded at around 4pm last Wednesday when Simpson tottered into the bar on crutches, ordered a Bud Light beer and then offered the bartender a rock to cover his $10 tab.
read more here

PTSD? Stop Chasing Your Tale, Start Leading Your Future

My dog isn't the smartest dog on the block. He gets really confused. If I tell him to run, he chases his tail, catches it after 20 times going in circles, then he walks sideways with his tail in his mouth as if he just accomplished something amazing, he wants a treat for doing it. Yep, that's my boy!

We all go around in circles in our own lives but instead of chasing a tail, we're really chasing our own tales. The stuff that happened in our lives that goes into making us who are are and where we are in life. Sometimes we've got really good memories that make us smile even though they happened years ago. Other times there are memories that happened years ago that make us feel the same pain as if it just happened all over again.

For veterans, you have all the same stuff the rest of us deal with. The tragedies we think we're never going to get over as well as great times we hope to never forget. Yet for you, your tales come with a lot of events we're never going to have to experience because you went into combat and we didn't.

Don't expect us to understand any of that. We're just not capable of coming close to knowing what it was like. Even when you talk to other military folks, if they didn't go into combat, no matter what war, they won't get it either.

I wouldn't expect a civilian wife to understand what it is like to live with a Vietnam veteran anymore than they should expect me to understand what is like to live with live with a famous actor. Not that they would know what that's like either but you get the idea. I also don't know what it is like for a current military wife worrying about their husbands deployed into combat. I met mine long after he was back.

What I do understand is trauma and what it can do to someone. Aside from coming close to death several times, knowing how hard the next moment it is to relax, I can assure you that it is more than possible. It is probable if you work at it. It ain't easy but it is a hell of lot easier than going through it in the first place.

You just have to decide to stop chasing your tales and start leading your life.

There is nothing you cannot defeat after surviving whatever it was that almost won your life. Think about that for a second. The event tried to kill you. If an IED wasn't blowing up someone you knew, you were worried about it happening. If you weren't worried about the bullet coming for you, you were aiming at someone else. In other words, it was traumatic even when it wasn't happening because you knew at any moment it could have. But you survived all of it.

You defeated combat but you're willing to sacrifice your future for your past?

Everything you needed to be strong enough to survive combat is still in you but you have it trapped behind painful memories. The cause of PTSD happened while you were deployed but you don't seem to get the fact that no matter how much pain it caused you, you still did everything humanly possible so that you could take care of your brothers.

So not only were you in a lot of pain, you refused to stop fighting. Why stop now? Why give up now? Because it is hard? Because it is just too damn painful? How is it more painful now than when it happened?

The word trauma actually means "wound"

Emotional shock following a stressful event or a physical injury, which may be associated with physical shock and sometimes leads to long-term neurosis.

The event tried to claim your physical life but it didn't quit there. It tried to claim your existence. It wanted to end what makes you who you are.

In a way, it does achieve that. How much it changes you for the worst or better, depends on you and what you allow.

I hate talking about this because it brings back pain but it is necessary for you to understand what I'm trying to say here.

I was married before. It lasted about 18 months. My ex-husband came home from work one night and tried to kill me. I fought back and survived with the help of my landlady calling the police and banging on our door until he understood his hands were on my throat.

He tried to kill my body but the next moment, the event tried to kill me. It tried to take away everything I believe in from what love was to where God was. Betrayal is hard by itself but then when you add in someone you loved trying to kill you, that is about as hard as it gets to move on.

It wasn't easy but then again, being chased throughout the apartment and fighting for my life wasn't easy either. I had to come to terms with the facts as they were and then decide what I was going to do with it. I took the same will to fight him and fight the wound from infecting my future.

By the time I met my current husband over 30 years ago, I was healed emotionally. What I didn't fully understand is that I was also spiritually healed enough so that when his mild PTSD sent him into the abyss, I was strong enough to pull him up.

I've written about this a lot but back in 2008, it was on our 24th anniversary and pretty much sums up what you need to know about all this.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

In 2006 the Sun Journal piece "Shattering of the Soul" there was this,

Maj. Gen. Bill Libby, Maine's adjutant general, issued orders this year for every National Guard member who returns from Iraq or Afghanistan to talk one on one with a counselor.

"We are all Type A's," Libby said. "Lots of us don't like talking about our feelings. We'd rather do something."

However, Libby knows the emotional healing needs to happen.

"These men and women have been forever changed by their experiences," said Libby, a veteran of the Vietnam War. "Thirty-eight years later, I am still struggling with my experiences."

We can pretend that this is all new and then it makes it easier to accept what has been happening with the rise in suicides but the truth is, it is far from new and hardly improved enough. So here is the news you need to know that you may not have heard before. It has to be fought with all you've got inside your skin. Your mind with whatever therapy works best for you, your body because you need to teach it to relax instead of just going in circles and your spirit so that you can heal the best part of what makes you "you" only better.

We all walk away from trauma either believing God was taking care of us or doing it to us. In 2011 there was actually a study about this.

Positive beliefs included trusting God was watching over them and cared about their lives. Anxiety significantly increased for those who believed just the opposite, that God was indifferent or even out to punish them.

When my ex tried to kill me I could have lost faith and sight of the fact that there was still good in this world. It started with my landlady doing whatever she could to save me. It transferred onto my family and friends and all the support they gave me. (Ok, it also helped that they got me out of the apartment every night to go to our favorite bar.) I kept finding what I was looking for. I wanted to see the goodness and found it.

So can you. Even during combat those moments were there when you were seeing something else instead of someone doing something out of kindness with compassion. For those two qualities to survive in the hell of combat, that says something about God. LORD my God has given me rest on every side

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

International Positive Psychology Association did a study back in 2011 finding that after trauma you can actually be better. This part they got right!

"We were sort of surprised by the themes that kept coming up that the grief experience had, in some ways, forced them to become different people and ... that the new person was better than the old one,"

The rest, well, not so much but that part is absolutely correct.  You can't heal PTSD but you can heal the rest of your life.  Stop chasing your tale and make peace with what is grieving you.  On the other side of this darkness is all that you can't notice now.  You do matter now and will matter even more when you're healing enough to help someone else heal too.

News Station Facebook Page Saved Suicidal Veteran

Part two: Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD 
KATC News
By Akeam Ashford
February 25, 2015

"It's like I was so far gone," Thomas said. "I lost all hope in life because I wasn't getting the treatment that I needed."

After coming home from Iraq, it didn't take long for the signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, to show up in Lance Thomas' life.

The U.S. Army National Guardsman began taking medication for other diagnoses in 2012, but was first diagnosed with PTSD in 2013.

Thomas said he was put on various prescription medications to deal with PTSD, but he said the disorder left him a shell of who he once was.

"It's like I was so far gone," Thomas said. "I lost all hope in life because I wasn't getting the treatment that I needed."

According to the the federal Veteran's Affairs Office, between 10 and 18 percent of veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to have PTSD and suicidal thoughts after they return home from war.

Feeling as though he was fighting a losing battle alone, Thomas' thoughts turned to suicide. He made a desperate plea for help through KATC'S Facebook page.

Thomas said he sat on a Lafayette bridge, where he'd planned to jump for hours, but he was unable to bring himself to jump into the water because he was a good swimmer and didn't want to fight death.
read more here

Texas Jury Finds Routh Guilty

Man convicted in deaths of 'American Sniper' author, friend 
Feb 24th 2015

A forensic psychologist testified for prosecutors that Routh was not legally insane and suggested he may have gotten some of his ideas from television.

STEPHENVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A former Marine was convicted Tuesday in the deaths of the "American Sniper" author and another man at a shooting range two years ago, as jurors rejected defense arguments that he was insane and suffered from psychosis.

The trial of Eddie Ray Routh has drawn intense interest, in part because of the blockbuster film based on former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's memoir about his four tours in Iraq.

Since prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty in the capital murder case, the 27-year-old receives an automatic life sentence without parole in the deaths of Kyle and Kyle's friend, Chad Littlefield.

The prosecution painted Routh as a troubled drug user who knew right from wrong, despite any mental illnesses.

While trial testimony and evidence often included Routh making odd statements and referring to insanity, he also confessed several times, apologized for the crimes and tried to evade police. read more here

Montel Williams Fighting For Medical Marijuana in Missouri

Montel Williams to speak for Missouri medical marijuana bill
By The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 24, 2015

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) — Medical marijuana access in Missouri would become a reality under a bill sponsored by a Republican representative and supported by television personality Montel Williams.

Williams will testify in support of a bill to allow limited medical marijuana access for patients through a state-monitored distribution program at a House committee hearing Monday.

The measure would set up a process for patients to register for access to marijuana for cancer, HIV, post-traumatic stress disorder and other medical conditions.

Williams said the legislation could be a model for the rest of the country to allow access to medical marijuana. Williams, who starred in the syndicated talk show “The Montel Williams Show,” has multiple sclerosis and uses marijuana to treat some of his symptoms. He lives in New York and has advocated for medical marijuana across the country.
read more here

Iraq Veteran Returns to Fight for Assyrian Christians

Iraq Vet Joins Fight Against ISIS 
Video report from ABC News
He is fighting for Iraq's Assyrian Christians
World News Videos | US News Videos

ISIS abducts scores of Christians in northeastern Syria, groups say
CNN
By Greg Botelho and Gul Tuysuz
February 24, 2015

CNN)Assyrians in northeastern Syria villages awoke Tuesday to ISIS militants at their doors, with the Islamist extremists abducting scores from the Christian group and forcing hundreds more to run for their lives, an advocate said.

The ISIS fighters burst past a few men guarding the village of Tal Shamiram at about 4 a.m. (9 p.m. ET Monday) and abducted children, women and the elderly, said Usama Edward, founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network.

Talking to CNN from Stockholm, Sweden, Edward said that between 70 and 100 people were kidnapped in that village and others in the same cluster near Tal Tamer.
read more here