Kicking ass the Old Media won’t

You’ve probably already seen this doofus on the countless other blogs and forums like our friends at Blackfive and SOCNET. Zero sent me the link last night and the first thing I did was send it to the folks at POW Network. Mary mailed back to expect a retraction and here it is. But the guy just got greedy.

What the hell use is 54 ARCOMs and AAMs? You’d think that after 12 or so, they’d let him trade them up for an MSM or something. Over the period of my career, I got three of each…I had twelve years in before I got my first ARCOM – and I always got them for stupid shit like running the 3ID’s EIB test site or being TAC NCO of a platoon of cadets who won honor platoon at 1st Region’s summer camp at Bragg. The closer you work to the flag pole, the more likely you’re going to get an ARCOM or an AAM – especially if you’re an infantryman.

But Jeff “Rock” Harris, the “executive security specialist” who works at a company which installs alarm systems (not the kind of security where he actually protects executives like he wants you to believe) also wants you think that he has 316 confirmed sniper kills in the last three years of his service – isn’t that like one every third day? No wonder Clinton’s military was running out of ammo.

He also gives Christians a reason to want him bruised and bloody in an ass kicking;

Medical experts still aren’t completely sure how he overcame his paralysis, but Harris, a member of Grace Fellowship Baptist Church, credits it all to God.

“The day I left Walter Reed (Army Medical Center), they said I would have maybe an 8 percent chance (to walk again),” Harris said. “I never accepted that. … I’m a very blessed guy.”

The guy gave the “journalist” enough fodder to check and she didn’t.

“I don’t pass a soldier without saying ‘thank you,’ ” he said. “I don’t tell them who I am. I just tell him ‘thank you.’ ”

Yeah, I’d keep not telling them who you are after this little bit fame you’ve earned on the internet. This kind of horseshit is the reason that real soldiers don’t tell their stories. Most of those medals that he claimed could have been verified on the internet if the “journalist” hadn’t been in such a hurry to rush her stupid story to cover the front of her paper.

Thanks to all of the folks who sent me the link today. I was waiting for the FOIA, but I guess you folks want to talk about it. It pisses me off mightily that they dragged my friend’s name into it, too.

The whole article is below the jump;

Decorated ex-Ranger sniper reflects on his career

By Jane Moon
The Free Press

KINSTON – Jeff “Rock” Harris refuses to display his medals and honors in his Kinston home.

He tries to keep the awards – three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, 23 Army Commendation Medals, 31 Army Achievement Medals, six Overseas Service ribbons for combat, an award from the emperor of Saudi Arabia, along with several dozen others, he acquired during his time as a U.S. Army Ranger – packed away. However, those around him refuse to let him forget how important his time in the military was.

Harris – an executive security specialist at Down East Protection Systems in Kinston, personal trainer, self-defense instructor and a bodybuilding judge – doesn’t want credit for the bravery and valor he exhibited serving his country.

In fact, he didn’t even want to have any part of a big-budget, Hollywood movie that recounted one of his most eventful and memorable days in the Army.
Hollywood

“Black Hawk Down,” based on the Mark Bowden’s book by the same name, was nominated for four Academy Awards, won two and grossed nearly $173 million worldwide after its release in late 2001.

The movie, based on true events from Operation Restore Hope, takes place Oct. 3, 1993, when American troops were sent into Bakara Market in Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to capture warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s officers to stop his regime from starving the nation’s people.

U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers were sent on Black Hawk helicopters and Humvees on a mission expected to only take a couple of hours. They ended up fighting what seemed like the entire city into the next day, losing 19 U.S. soldiers in the process.

Harris, a sniper with the Rangers, came close to being one of the casualties of Mogadishu.

Harris found out about the movie when Ridley Scott, co-producer and director, and his production company started hounding him for his account of the bloody day. But he refused to contribute.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to talk about it (but) it’s a sore spot for a lot of us,” Harris said. “It’s not just because we were losing people and the whole horror of it – that was the third time I went to combat, so it wasn’t a surprise for me. It was just the way it happened, what went down. … A lot of guys got out (of the Army) after that who otherwise wouldn’t have.”

Though Scott’s company kept asking for his input, Harris answered every time with a resounding “no.” Scott nonetheless promised the movie would ring true to the day’s events, be more like a documentary – and most importantly – would honor the soldiers lost in Somalia.

“I didn’t even care if my name was even mentioned,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure the people who did the most there, those who gave up the most, were shown the most honor.”

The timeline of the movie strayed from the day’s actual events, and some character-switching, including his own, stood out, too.
Man down

In a bloody scene in the middle of the movie, a young soldier’s leg is blown off, opening his femoral artery. In pain and bleeding heavily, the young man’s strained face relaxes and he dies.

“That would have been me,” Harris said. “I got shot, and cut my femoral artery, but we got out the next morning. I lived, but that wouldn’t have been as good of a story line.”

Though Harris still has both legs, he sustained a scar on his leg after a bullet punctured his shin, traveled up his leg, cut his artery and hit his spine, earning him his third Purple Heart, and almost ending his mobility.

“(The bullet is) still in my spine – it’s still in my lower back,” Harris said. “I wasn’t supposed to walk again. I was paralyzed for almost 20 months.”

Medical experts still aren’t completely sure how he overcame his paralysis, but Harris credits it all to God.

“The day I left Walter Reed (Army Medical Center), they said I would have maybe an 8 percent chance (to walk again),” Harris said. “I never accepted that. … I’m a very blessed guy.”

Harris earned his two other Purple Hearts after being shot in Panama trying to capture Manuel Noriega and after being shot again in Desert Storm.

“It’s different every time (someone shoots at you),” Harris said. “It’s just as scary every time. You don’t ever get used to it.”
Aim, fire

Harris wasn’t always on the receiving end of the bullet, something that makes him uncomfortable to this day.

“I have 316 confirmed kills as a sniper, and that’s only in that last three years I was in the Army,” Harris said. “Every one of those horrifies me regularly because they were somebody’s children, somebody’s husband or father.”

He still feels conflicted about what he had to do, but in the end, he knew it was his duty as a sworn soldier.

“They’re bad people and they’ve done bad things, but who am I to take that away from them?” he asked. “But it was my job to do. Lives were safer because of that – but it’s never easy.”
Leave no man behind

James Murphy served in the Army as a Ranger with Harris and said he wouldn’t be alive if not for Harris’ heroic actions. Murphy recalled after he and another soldier were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Mogadishu, Harris ran to their position and carried both of them a half-mile away “not knowing if we were alive or not.” He drove them to safety in a burning vehicle and returned to continue to fight.

“If you know him, you are privileged,” Murphy said. “If you served with him, you were in the presence of a true American patriot. If he is your friend, you should be honored. He gives hope to humanity that there are still decent, amazing people all around you.”
Just a regular guy

Harris said despite everything he has seen and the blessings he has received, he considers himself a down-to-earth person.

“I’m just as normal, laid back a person as there is. I’ve just had extraordinary experiences,” he said. “I’ve got a great wife (Amanda), and I’m alive. I’m healthy, and probably much more healthy than I should be at 46.”

Harris is especially lucky after having several medical scares, including having prostate cancer four times in the past six years and a brain tumor.

Harris, who is in remission from cancer, said he doesn’t mind talking about his past illnesses, but he doesn’t publicize it because of the way people treat him after finding out.

“They look at you like you’re already dead. … My overall personality is doing for other people rather than myself,” Harris said. “That’s part of my military (background). That’s the thing that it teaches you. You don’t want to be a hero, you don’t want to get credit all the time. A lot of people know me, and a lot of people know where I come from, but a lot of people don’t know my whole story, because I don’t advertise that.”
Say thanks

Harris said he takes every opportunity to thank those who have ever donned a uniform, from friends and veterans Jerry Core, Klebear Northrup and James Anthony to Joseph Seabright, a co-worker who is deploying next week.

“I don’t pass a soldier without saying ‘thank you,’ ” he said. “I don’t tell them who I am. I just tell him ‘thank you.’ ”

Every military holiday, Harris remembers and recognizes the soldiers who fought by his side, especially the 64 in his units who lost their lives.

“I will always, as long as I’m able to, recognize those guys first,” he said. “I don’t have problems talking about the stuff I’ve experienced. I think it’s good therapy for me.”

Harris said thanking a soldier and showing him or her support is a simple gesture that goes a long way.

“It’s unbelievably important … just to go say thank you,” he said. “Put yourself in their position. Just a ‘thank you’ is tremendous.”

Category: Phony soldiers