John James Lavoie; revisiting the phony Marine
Last month we talked about John James Lavoie, the retired Marine Master Sergeant who claimed to have some valor medals from Vietnam and some schooling that didn’t appear on his FOIA, as you can see in the picture above. So, unsurprisingly, Lavoie has started pushing back against his detractors. He has presented the media with these piecemeal pictures of a DD215 (the document that corrects a DD214);
Yeah, I can’t see much there either, except that the document edition is really old and the abbreviations for the medals are not like anything I’ve ever seen used in any branch of the military. So I have my doubts about it’s authenticity. It seems to me that if his records were indeed corrected, the clerks would have used the clearest terms on the DD215, not cryptic abbreviations. Like using “VMS” for Vietnam Service Medal.
But that’s the least of Lavoie’s problems. Mary sent us the FOIA that she got for the Florida Times;
The problem I see is that Lavoie enlisted in July 1972. The First Marine Division was the last Marine unit in Vietnam and they left June 28, 1971 more than a year before Lavoie joined the Marines. Nothing in his list of assignments indicates that he was ever near Vietnam, you know, even though the rest of the Marine Corps wasn’t near Vietnam either.
If the DD215 is legitimate, Lavoie should have some documentation that he presented to get the DD215 issued. Let’s see it. It’s really just that simple. Let’s see the whole DD215 instead of snippets of it in the media. I also have trouble believing that in 2015 the NPRC doesn’t have the 1993 DD215.
When the clerk was typing up my DD214 when I retired, I was sitting right across the desk from him and made sure he put everything in – and then I read the DD214 to make sure it was all correct before I signed it. Master Sergeant Lavoie didn’t notice that his wartime service wasn’t on the DD214 before he signed it? The NPRC takes their information from his records to put on the FOIA, if those awards aren’t in the FOIA, they also aren’t in his records. How many Senior NCOs out there don’t have their wartime medals in their records? The only awards that I have that aren’t in my DD214 are awards I got after I retired and one that was created after I retired.
Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures
You know it’s a bad photo editing job when you can see what appear to be the outlines of cut/paste boxes. And when there is at least one other easily visible problem that I won’t ID.
Yep, I’d love to see the entire photo of that purported “DD215” adding a bunch of stuff that got “omitted” from his DD214. Something tells me it would look quite . . . interesting.
He needs Forging Frank’s contact info.
Hondo, I bet he used a gluestick and photocopied it. probably can barely use a word processing program let alone PhotoShop
I really dig the use of multiple font types on a single document.
That right there shows just how much your personnel folks care about you. that they would take the time to make your DD215 “unique”, and special.
Just like the snowflake each of us really are….
First rule of a con – stick with the con and never break character. Die with the lie.
I might be an asshole but at least I am genuine.
The only SST that I’m familiar with is “supersonic transport” – it was a plane that was proposed by Boeing to compete with the Concorde, but was never built. I’ve never seen SST used as an abbreviation for the Silver Star.
I note also that the date of the purported DD 215 is three days before he retired. Does that raise any red flags to anyone? If the guy is still on active duty, wouldn’t they just prepare a complete 214 before he rolls out the door? Even if an incomplete 214 had been initially drafted – what master sergeant, who is retiring after a 20-plus year career, would ever sign a 214 that was missing the Silver Star, Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and other decorations that he knew he’d earned?
Well, Fort Bragg had an item in the late-1970s/early 1980s that used the acronym “SST”. But it wasn’t Boeing’s unbuilt supersonic transport. (smile)
The only SST I’m familiar with was piloted by Mr. Bluehands…
Well, if the “blue” came from Porta-Pots – yep, that’s the same SST. Or at least the same acronym being used for a newer model.
I understand that the function is contracted out today. It wasn’t in the late 70s/early 80s.
We’re on the same page here Hondo!
The date does seem odd.
A DD215 wouldn’t be needed unless there was an omission or error on the DD214. And yes, I’m reasonably certain that a USMC MSgt would indeed make sure all his awards and decorations were listed on his DD214 before signing it. One might possibly slip by – but 4, including Silver and Bronze Stars and 2 Purple Hearts, plus all other awards for service in Vietnam? Um, that doesn’t pass the “smell test”.
Further, I can’t speak for the USMC, but as I recall Army policy in the late 1980s was that the DD214 was held by personnel, then mailed to the address specified by the soldier being discharged or retired on the effective date of discharge/retirement. If the USMC did the same in the early 1990s, on the date that purported DD215 was issued to him he’d not yet have seen his final DD214. And since 25 Feb 1993 was a Thursday, it seems to me that it would have been possible to simply re-do his DD214 and mail it to him on Mon, 1 Mar 1993 instead of doing a DD215.
Make that a total of 4 obvious issues with the partial “DD215” pictures listed above – there are actually 2 other obvious ones I’ll refrain from mentioning in what’s shown besides the date and what appear to be text or cut/paste box outlines.
Hondo, Hondo, Hondo, I am surprised that you don’t get it. You see real war hero’s just have so much bling to pin on, its easy to miss a few things.
The man is obviously too humble to even put the Silver Star on all the time. I am sure he knows how intimidating those Scuba and Wing insignia’s are.
He just likes to humbly blend into the crowd. He just isn’t the kind of guy to run around with a stupid looking hat full of patches, badges, and pins.
If this guy is legit I will turn fag first thing in the morning.
Dave..a sorry buddy will be good enough
DOE used to have semi’s that hauled certain things known as Super Secure Transports if I remember correctly.
Clown + Clown Suit = Clown in Clown Suit!
That is all!
WORD!
When I was getting out of the Corps the poor Corporal that typed my DD214 did it haste. I had already lost two weeks terminal leave and was not in the mood to stand there. The poor Lt. sensed this SNCO was not in the mood for his shit either.
Had I realized all I needed to do was fill out a DD215 and put whatever I wanted on it, I would have never bothered with all those deployments. They were somewhat inconvenient.
He is “angry”, well that is one hell of a war face he put on there. At least he manned up enough to choke back the tears. Poor little fella.
Not only does he double down on stupid, he lacks the balls to do it with gusto. He is just an all round disgrace to the EGA. If he gets around to checking at the base of his flaccid little wiener he might find to little bumps that used to be balls.
Pinch those little bumps Jimmy and see if there is enough left in them to make you man up.
Balance, I need to find balance. If I turn off the auto correct thingy I write like Mike Tyson doing poetry. If I turn the damn thing on I dont think their is any way there will be correct grammer there’re. One would think someone around here would come up with an auto correct for Jarheads.
Well, over in the Air Force, we have programs to Army-proof things; but I think there’s a cash reward for anyone who can make a spellchecker for Marines. …Far as I know, the reward is still unclaimed. You do the math.
So that’s why the F35 is taking so long and costing so much – it’s being made “Army proof”! (To wit: incapable of performing adequately in a ground support role, thus ensuring that it will never be used in that role.)
I’ve had troopies that could break a sledgehammer. Not the handle… broke the steel head. Army proof that!
NOTHING can be made “Joe-proof”, ’nuff said!
AMEN! In my infantry support commo units, there was always the belief that if you wanted to make anything break proof, give it to the infantry for test.
We were never disappointed in the inventive ways the infantry could speedily destroy ANYTHING!
Army proofing is slow because it takes extra time to draw the thought balloons in over the characters.
I’m the spellchecker for Marines. Their shit piled up so high in my inbox that I sent it all back labeled ‘illegible’ and took permanent leave from that position.
They only know how to spell words that are profane, profound, and proscribed, so why do they need a spellchecker?
I have important things to do, which don’t include babysitting their literacy.
Oh ya, well I can still field strip a 1911 in the dark. So their or there’re or whatever.
“there”
It’s not the Marine commenters that have problem discerning there, their and they’re. I guess that recognizing homonyms is not an innate ability of certain types of sperm.
Ex-PH2…Will you PLEASE pardon us for our inability to talk like a bunch of fourth grade virgins in a convent? You see, it’s all the fault of those nasty, vile, cuss word tossing drill instructors we had in boot camp! Did no one ever explain to you how filthy the cadences were they actually made us repeat while marching? You probably never knew that the pressure they put on us to make the grade on the rifle range. Now that is where we were exposed to some of the most reprehensible gutter language ever imagined! If that were not enough they sent to the head of the chow line in boot camp all who could utter a minimum of 30 (yep, count ’em, thirty) examples of superb profanity in less than two minutes. Oh the horrors of such depravity! On leave home after boot camp & ITR, my friends were astonished at how I had increased my vocabulary. Until now I had always wondered why prostitutes, cattle rustlers, and street people had suddenly become my close associates during my first leave. When attending church during that visit home, our preacher asked me to get up and tell the members what all I had learned while away at boot camp.
Three ladies passed out, one had a coronary event, a couple actually wet their seats….and low & behold, the town “punch board” acted strangely and suddenly smitten with me. What can I say? The rest of my leave often found me in a horizontal position with many of the girls who had earlier been out of reach for me.
Four letter words became the norm for me right then & there! They are just so much easier to spell.
ALL RIGHT,there, their, they’re, it all ok now?
It would be nice to see things like, I don’t know, the name of the DD-215 recipient. For all we know, this thing is Chesty Puller’s DD-215. There is a reason why the whole form isn’t shown, and I’m guess that it’s a good reason.
Yeah. It’s not that hard to (1) photocopy the document, (2) take a black marker and redact the SSN, (3) scan the redacted copy to PDF, and (4) send the result to Jonn. But that would show the whole document, wouldn’t it?
Just checked with a buddy of mine who said the correct abbreviation for the Silver Star on a DD214/15 is SSM. He cited the Marine Corps Individual Records Administration Manual (IRAM), Marine Corps Order P1070.12_.
“…inside there’s a room dedicated to everything related to his service.”
A friggin ROOM? Damn.
We usually just call it the head.
everything related to his service should be on a roll next to the head
More specifically, the shitter….
He has a font problem, much like Dan Rather did. There wasn’t a Calibri font utilized by preparers of separation documents in 1993.
To clarify, Calibri was created in 2004, and didn’t show up in Microsoft Word until Office 2007.
Zing. Well done, sir.
The font in the body also doesn’t match the font in the authorized representative’s signature block. I’m sure that they had a bunch that were typed out with CWO2 TorresRamos’ name so anyone could randomly sign them.
I knew PN’s and YN’s that would have shit bricks if they saw a 214 or a 215 with two different fonts… and JJ the assclown is passing that shit off as “the real deal”?
CWO2 T. Torresramos became a CWO4 in Jan of 1998, and then went on to bigger and better things. I wonder what his critique of this “document” might be?
http://www.secnav.navy.mil/donhr/About/Senior-Executives/Biographies/TorresRamos,%20T.pdf
Hot Day-yumm!! From CWO4 to SES???? For those who do not know, Senior Executive Service grades begin at the brigadier general level equivalency.
I wonder who is going to send this link to Chief TorresRamos and ask opinion?
To clarify, he made CWO4 in 1998. I do not know what he did or achieved between CWO4 and SES. Sorry for the confusing way I constructed my statement.
His civilian bio seems to indicate somewhere around 12 years as a Federal civilian. I’m guessing he moved from HR CW4 to GS-something Federal civilian HR either when or a couple of years after he retired from the USMC.
The only thing that didn’t make it onto my DD214 is my MSM. I didn’t have orders for it yet, but I do now. I just need to get off my fourth point of contact and get it fixed.
Good point, I’m lacking one on mine too
see those lines above and below the awards on the 215? can you say cut and paste and photocopy kids?
WTF is “Nuclear Chemical Warfare Biological Defense Course?” I’ve never seen it written like that.
He’s grimacing like he’s an hour late for his last shit and he doesn’t have any change for the pay toilet!
This clown is digging the hole deeper.
He likes digging holes. Two holes, that is.
Yep. They make you sit there as they type it up to this day.
I only have two awards not on my 214. The all important National Defense Service (it was given dates after I got out) and the Korean Defense Medal (the dates and qualifications was changed and my Foal Eagle rotation qualified).
I haven’t corrected the 214. Just doesn’t seem important. They aren’t valor medals and I did what everyone else did.
I served. That’s what is important to me.
Luv the differences in fonts, way to go stay classy Marine Corps lololool, and what was he doing in Vietfuckingnam when all the Marines had already left, guess the fly boys needed his God like wrench skills on their birds, what a total dick, see this is why we can’t have nice things.
Who is the American Legion officer sticking up for him in the article? Ernie Walton, in the Jacksonville FL Legion Post 88, District 5 Judge Advocate 14/15:
http://al5thdistrictfl.org/officers2014-5.htm
A member of American Legion 88, he met with the Judge Advocate of the Legion, Ernie Walton.
“It appears to me to be very legitimate,” said Walton.” It looks authentic.”
The DD 214 and DD 215 are the documents veterans use to prove their service history. But why there’s a difference between what’s recorded in the archives and what’s documented on Lavoie’s DD 214/215 is puzzling.
“The whole thing has become a nightmare,” said Walton.
Forging Frank will be sending Walton his creations for endorsement.
Hmm. So, the Legion’s District JAG is from the same post, eh?
Now, seems to me it would be very . . . convenient for Lavoie if they just “happened” to be good buddies, too. And as insular as some posts reputedly are, that wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
If anyone has the necessary info on this “Ernie Walton” (firstname/middlename/lastname plus DOB plus POB plus service and rough dates), I’ll be happy to file a FOIA on him and see what we can see.
Haven’t we heard the “It appears to me to be very legitimate,” line before from a few other recent SV cases? I wonder how many of these “individuals” actually know how to go about vetting someone service, or are they too damn lazy to do the work and use the “He’s a buddy and he’s the real deal” bullshit line?
I’d run a FOIA on Walton – he’s probably a bullshitter like his buddy JJ…
I know i have all of my copies of my DD214 covered in pencil marks too…….I keep my secret squirrel missions hidden under there.
All that paperwork and still no scuba bubble or jump wings listed on anything. I’m sure that those will be on the next DD-215.
My usual for this ass, again is, SHITBAG!
I see your SHITBAG and raise you a DIPSHIT
There is one correct entry on that 215: BS with V. Bullshit with Vagina
But the question still remains; is he All Points Logistics material?
In 1969 I left the USMC after four years. My memory may not be what it once was, but if this poser is wearing a USMC uniform, I’m the King of Quantico and he’s the Dicktator of Camp Lejune.
Jarhead,
He is wearing some variation of a VFW Uniform. Most Veterans organizations have some type of common uniform shirt and hat they wear. They then wear decorations from their actual service on it.
***************NSFW*******************
Apparently Lavoie has been accused of other things as well… Tell me this guy don’t look like him,,,
“…started pushing back from detractors…”
How about Forgery of a Federal Document?
Shot out…fire for effect.