Vets vs. Vets in Florida
So there are these two guys in Florida who call themselves the Stolen Valor Task Force. Their names are Chuck Winn and Ed Maxwell, and as near as I can tell they’re the only two guys in the SVTF. I’ve emailed with them and they’re the only two who answer at the email address.
Somehow they got the idea that I want to join them, so they asked me for my DD214 and I sent it to them with a request that they send me theirs. After stalling for a few days, they finally did that and they are who they say they are. They sent me links to newspaper articles to prove that they are a legitimate Stolen Valor organization and they claim they outed eight phonies. But their main focus these days seem to be thwarting Republican Mike McCalister’s run at a Florida Senate seat.
As I’ve written before, McCalister was a colonel at SOCOM – that part is indisputable. But somehow, that’s crime enough for retired Colonel Chuck Winn and former Captain Ed Maxwell to pester the living shit out of McCalister for petty-ass bullshit. Last time it was because he wore his uniform to a Republican Party dinner. When I showed Winn that he was completely authorized to wear his uniform to the function, it was as if I was writing to a retarded child. Winn sent the same quotes to prove I was wrong.
Well, today i read that Ed Maxwell is making the allegation that McCalister joined the National Guard to avoid the draft and Vietnam – the same old shit they tried to use against Dan Quayle;
I can not conclusively prove Mike’s actual motives for initially joining the Guard in 1971, but I can offer some strong evidence to base conclusions on. The facts are that in 1971, Guard units were extremely unlikely to be activated and sent to Vietnam. Joining the Guard gained exemption from the draft. After 4 to 6 months of active duty, a Reservist or Guardsman returned to their communities as part-time soldiers and resumed their normal lives. During the draft lottery, Selective Service drafted young men who drew lottery numbers, based on birth dates. Mike McCalister’s number gave him a very high probability of being drafted, at about the same time he joined the Guard.
Of course, the Miami Herald is more than willing to give Maxwell and Winn a platform from which they can launch these specious attacks. But, I can’t let this bullshit go unanswered. If joining the National Guard was such a good place to hide from service in Vietnam, it didn’t work for 6,140 Guardsmen who served in the country, and it certainly backfired on the 101 who were killed. And hiding out in the Reserves didn’t work for the 5,977 Reservists who were killed in that war.
Winn wrote that he couldn’t “conclusively prove Mike’s actual motives for initially joining the Guard”, but that doesn’t stop him from shooting off his big mouth about shit he couldn’t prove.
Maxwell and Winn, both Vietnam veterans, should give up their vendetta against another veteran and instead work to help get someone from our team in the Capitol. I know this will just start another flurry of emails telling me how illiterate I am, but it’s not anything I’m not accustomed to.
Category: Veterans in politics, Veterans Issues
Why do you hate America and her veterans?
This entire thing is a tempest in a thimble.
Goes back to the question: how truthful does the truth have to be?
No matter how much some folks explain their careers, folks (civvies and vets) are going to misunderstand, or throw the BS flag.
I’m less concerned with why someone put on the uniform as I am with what they did while wearing it. My own motives were not exactly unadulterated altruism.
Jonn, have them come on here and post their stuff. Or, post their e-mails. They shouldn’t have any trouble posting why they’re doing what they’re doing, for vets, to vets.
Or, are they like the VFW PAC?
You can start with this: http://tinyurl.com/3h6pdoj Then read the statement below and follow the link in the statement. This is only a small part of it. From: STOLEN VALOR TASK FORCE [mailto:svtfsf@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2011 7:54 PM To: svtfsf@gmail.com Subject: SVTF Response to 6 Sep 2011 Tea Party McCalister Statement The non partisan Stolen Valor Task Force (SVTF) of South Florida Steering Committee has his reviewed the Tea Party Press Release dated September 6, 2011, regarding retired Army Reserve Colonel Mike McCalister. The Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA) Human Resources Command (HRC) is the repository of retired Army records, not USSOCOM. The SVTF has received his Missouri Army National Guard (MO ARNG )records for the first 24 years of service and we anticipate receiving the FOIA response from HQDA HRC for his final ten years in the Army Reserve within a week so. Your attention is invited to quotes in the 27 August Miami Herald article from retired Army Lieutenant General W.P. Tagney, who said about McCalister false claim about Congressional testimony: “He could’ve been in the back of the room someplace holding a brief case. There were no ‘bright lights’… it’s a gross embellishment and exaggeration, if he was indeed even there,” Tangney said. He said McCalister’s statement “sounds like he had a position of prominence and importance. And he didn’t.” This article also noted “Army Major Gen. Eldon Bargewell and Army Lieutenant Gen. Bryan D. Brown who also said they barely recall McCalister, who cited snippets of their praise in the press release. Like Tangney, they said, they didn’t directly supervise McCalister.” These quotes from general officers certainly do not indicate they ever believed that McCalister was general officer material. The 27 August Miami Herald article revealed the following additional information about McCalister’s service at USSOCOM. “Tangney said he heard McCalister’s name about a week-and-a-half ago when a high-level officer in Tampa who served under the general told him that there was “this flake… apparently claiming he had done things that didn’t ring true with people in the community.” For instance, McCalister has repeatedly said… Read more »
I don’t agree with you on this one Brother, that said I’d still fight by your side.
McCalister is friggin lucky I didn’t catch him first.
David Oh is not so lucky, neither is Willaim Hillar, National Guard SGM John Letuli and many others. (Hillar will be sharing a federal jail cell with bubba very soon.)
I don’t ask or care what party they are in when I go after a Special Forces fraud.
If you fraudulently use our reputation for personal or political gain pray I don’t find out.
Good job Ed Maxwell and Chuck Winn.
De Oppresso Liber,
Jeff Hinton
MSG, SF (ret)
They kind of lost me at “retired Army Reserve Colonel” and it went down hill from there. Is that supposed to be a rank? What?
If someone is filing a critical assessment of another vet (or really anyone), shouldn’t there be some effort made to at least use accurate terminology? Maybe a bit of simple logic applied as well?
Let’s say he is guilty of having enlisted in one service to avoid another. Uhhhh. Guess everyone who enlisted in the Navy to avoid the Army, or vice versa, is also guilty of whatever that crime might be?
I have long since lost all patience with anyone (including vets) who denigrates the military service of another. Calling anyone who served honorably in any military service of this country a “draft dodger” is beyond reprehensible.
That said, can we get back to our usual tipping a few while we poke at each other about our assorted branches of service? Teasing is part of what we do. Attacking each other is quite another thing.
To give you an idea of what a bunch of crackpots these “Stolen Valor Task Force” guys are, they’re now accusing me of sending them a “redacted” DD214. The only thing “redacted” was my social security number, but they’re claiming that I’m hiding shit from them. In other words, they hate veterans and they have no problem making shit up to disparage veterans.
I’m going to have to go with Maxwell on this one. The guy’s story is being misrepresented.
You think that’s bad, I got kicked out of the 501st Stormtrooper Legion because they say I lied about my participation at the battle of Endor…I mean c’mon, I’m allergic to fucking Ewoks, ok?
I have to say that I am beginning to believe that these two fellows in Florida are really leftists who are trying to work to get Stolen Valor overturned.
I mean, the amount of nit-picking these two guys are doing is simply making them look foolish. They obviously have a vendetta, for whatever reason, against McCalister, and their constant picking at this little sore is irritating.
With all of the poseurs out there, they pick this battle to fight?
Judging from the sheer amount of writing these two are doing, it’s as if they were imitating the Paultards with their verbosity, like word count somehow equals a winning argument.
Let it go. Some battles aren’t worth the fight. Ask Pyrrus how his name got associated with winning the battle and losing the war.
So, there basic claim is he embellished his record to get elected. Jesus, you don’t see that every day, huh?
I’d be more inclined to accept the premise of their argument if I hadn’t seen the jackass emails they sent Jonn. The paulbot analogy is exactly right. Even when Paul is right now i assume he’s full of shit just because his followers are such assmonkeys.
I guess I’m lost on this one, to be honest, because I have no idea why a retired O-6 would engage a retired E-7 in such a manner. We’re all on the same team and when we start fighting amongst ourselves, it lessens the credibility of everything that is trying to be accomplished for all concerned.
Did McCalister’s embellishment go farther than that Air Force chick that would wear a ribbon rack full of purchased ribbons on civilian attire while campaigning? Did it go as high as that doofus that claimed to be a Vietnam Vet, rather than a Vietnam Era Vet? Can’t we all just get along?
Sounds like some major butt-hurt coming out of Flori-DUH. Jesus, if that’s all it takes for some people to stand there with mouth agape and scream, “J’ACCUSE!!!!” then count me out.
So what’s next for SV accusations? The guy telling sea stories? “No shit, there I was, walking over Shit River Bridge…”
@NHSparky: The Flori-DUH stuff is getting old. I wish people would stop using it, as they have since the 2000 elections.
Do a Google search on the Florida papers and some of the shit that goes on down there.
I rest my case.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it many times again: I’ll act nicer when they act smarter.
It seems to me that if you 2 have so much time that you can chase down jackasses who embellish their individual military records then you have way to much time on your hands. There are many more important Stolen Valor issues out there than one or 2 who may have done nothing more than simply overstated something about their military career. It’s quite possible that McAlister never even said what is being attributed to him but someone merely took it upon themselves to embellish the story to make Grandpa, Dad, Uncle etc look more the hero than he actually was. Whatever the case is what he did is not Stolen Valor in the sense of the Law from what I can tell. He has not gained monetarily from these statements and his embellishments are nothing different than what other Politicians who have served in the military have not also done.
One last bit of advice for you two doorknobs and that is if you wish to start redirecting your incoming fire onto Jonn or TSO be prepared to have return fire impacting in your AO in short order. Stick to your lanes and what you know before the entire state of FloriDUH finds out what tools you 2 really are.
“The paulbot analogy is exactly right. Even when Paul is right now i assume he’s full of shit just because his followers are such assmonkeys.”. I agree, if Ronpaul or his cult told me tonight that the sun will rise tomorrow, I wouldn’t believe him, or them.
Um, Ed? “why they’re doing what they’re doing”. Seemed like a simple request. And, I look forward to your next expose’ of someone who got a trip to Vegas from Glock, or benefitted monetarily from stolen valor.
@Jonn Lilyea,
LOL,
I hear ya brother. I guess we can call these individuals a bit overzealous… I did laugh when I read their organization name; “Stolen Valor Task Force of South Florida Steering Committee”.
And that they “stood-up” this org to go after one guy? “non partisan Stolen Valor Task Force” really…. no political agenda? LOL
I’m guessing they just wanted their 15 minutes……
Keep on blogging Brother. We’re in overwatch.
Jeff
Oh, and memo to Ed: Must be nice having that much fucking time on your hands worrying about something that’s at best a non-issue. Did the guy claim to be a special operator? Not from where I sit. Did he claim any awards not earned? Nope. Has he received any renumeration, recognition, or special consideration from any claims he may have made? Yeah, good luck with that one.
Sand. Vagina. Commence removal process.
For anyone reading this, I will absolutely rent out my service record for free firearms.
“The non partisan Stolen Valor Task Force (SVTF) of South Florida Steering Committee”. LOL
Non-partisan? Seriously, these clowns have attacked every single candidate that ran against their own candidates.
And Chuckie can deny it all he wants, too many people have it and seen the email where he called Marco Rubio a “wet back”.
Disturbing behavior coming from someone who served.
Chuck and Ed need a TRUE inquiry by the REAL Stolen Valor group. This way we will find out their true motives of trashing McCalister. Dumb and Dumber simply need to step away and stop insulting our honorable veterans.
[…] here’s another question, why wasn’t the Stolen Valor Task Force of Florida, Chuck Winn and Ed Maxwell all over this guy? It couldn’t be because he’s not a […]