…and beer for my horses

The Stolen valor posse mounted up and rode after another bad guy again last night and it was a beautiful thing to behold. The article was here until the posse, including our buddies Doug Sterner and Don Shipley started questioning the article and the several details that made it unbelievable – things like earning eight Purple Hearts in the last year of ground combat in Vietnam, a low draft lottery number for a sixteen-year-old, a Purple Heart awarded by Ronald Reagan.

Needless to say Bob Duft was a phony, but the author of the article never checked with anyone before publishing the POS. I wish I’d had the foresight to screen shot it, but i did get the text of the article, so here it is for posterity;

Column: Decorated veteran served country on front lines

Friday is Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to honoring American veterans of all wars who served honorably in war or peacetime. Army Special Forces veteran Bob Duft, a Waldron resident since 1997, is a decorated serviceman of 22½ years. LuAnn Mason photo
Published: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 8:10 AM US/eastern
COMMUNITY TREASURES
BY LUANN MASON

Veteran’s Day is Friday: Just another day to many, maybe even an ordinary day to some veterans.

Until recently, highly decorated veteran Bob Duft of Waldron treated Nov. 11 no differently than any other day, knowing that the day was set aside to honor veterans who served honorably in war or peacetime. His granddaughter, however, changed that simply by handing him a homemade card.

“My granddaughter brought a better understanding to me when she brought me a card,” said 57-year-old Duft, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran.

*
His military service overseas spanned 22½ years, starting in 1971. As he spoke, emotions swelled and were difficult to hide. Duft’s lower lip quivered. His words were silenced. He looked away with tear-filled eyes, taking a moment to regain composure. “It said, ‘Thank You’ and had a big heart on it and a little star inside (the heart). Inside, it read: ‘… for keeping me safe at night.'”

That was two years ago. Cheyenne Tapp was 8 years old. Today she is a fourth-grader at Loper Elementary School in Shelbyville.

Duft was a sniper in the Special Forces, an elite, selective, special operations force also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear. Army Special Forces are tasked with missions in unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue and counter-terrorism.

Special Forces soldiers, according to references in encyclopedias, are specifically trained to conduct operations in an area under enemy or unfriendly control or politically sensitive environments to achieve military, diplomatic, and informational objectives of the United States.

“Special Forces are the first in for any situation. We’re intelligence gatherers, advisers. We go in covert; we don’t want anyone to know we are there,” Duft said. “We go in, get the job done, and get out without anyone knowing. Sometimes we stay behind enemy lines for months.”

He became a Green Beret in the early 1970s during the Vietnam War because of his precision in shooting firearms.

“I was taught by my grandfather. I could hit turkeys on the run with a 22 (-caliber rifle),” he said. “So, when I got into the Army and picked up a rifle, it was second nature to me. They needed shooters. In Vietnam, I was restricted combat. Special Forces is different than any other unit. I went on specific missions to take out specific people.”

That was his job description for his profession as a soldier.

“You open yourself to your country to do whatever is asked of you,” Daft said. “You go into the service to do your life’s work there. I would get up and put on a starched uniform every day and spit shine my boots even when I was going out into the field. I believed I would be the best that I could be everyday.”

He was in 39 countries during his military career, including Rhodesia, South Africa; Belfast, Ireland; and numerous South American counties.

Special Forces left its mark on Duft in various ways from his head to toe.

“I’ve been shot 21 times. Once was five times at one time,” he said.

Details of Duft’s life were unquestionably far beyond the norm. He looked back to when he was 6 weeks old.

“I was dropped off on the steps of the Kansas City Children’s Home,” he said, along with his 4-year-old sister and 6-year-old brother. He was adopted, but ran away from home when he was 13.

“I worked in a logging company. I sharpened axes for the loggers,” Duft said. “It was a rough bunch of guys, but they took me under their wings. I had 27 dads.” The cook taught him every day. “She was a former teacher. I got the second highest grades on my GED (high school diploma equivalency test). I was 15 years old.”

At age 16, Duft said he asked his foster father to sign his military enlistment papers.

“I saw a demonstration in Anaconda, Montana. I wanted that green beret something fierce. My draft number was 27 and I didn’t want to get stuck doing something I didn’t want,” he said. Well, his foster father said no. “He was a conscientious objector and he wouldn’t allow me to serve.”

Determined, Duft admitted he forged the signature, and in January 1971, he enlisted in the Army at age 16 and went to Fort Leavenworth, Mo., for basic training.

Duft’s military career is documented by nine Purple Hearts, awarded for suffering wounds from an enemy of the United States; two Bronze Stars, awarded for heroic or meritorious achievement of service in connection with military operations against an armed enemy; one Silver Star, the third-highest combat military decoration awarded for valor in the face of the enemy; a Distinguished Service Cross for heroism under fire for all those years in service; German Marksmanship Medal, Saudi Arabia Medal, Soldier Medal, Helping Hand Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, and Legion of Merit, awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.

“I got the first Purple Heart in Vietnam when I was 17-years-old,” he said. “That’s a heck of a way to grow up quick. I’ve seen things people my age never even thought about. I’ve seen life.”

According to Duft, his first Bronze Star was pinned onto his uniform by the late President Ronald Reagan, the second in the late 1970s by late President Richard Nixon earned in Korea when he saved a lieutenant’s life. Duft was recognized then for exhibiting meritorious courage while under enemy fire. The same type of action earned him the Silver Star.

“That was in 1972. I was in Vietnam. I got shot in the shoulder and hand and still carried a buddy out of enemy lines. He was my spotter. It was my job to help him and his job to help me,” he said. “It means so much for your heart because you know what you’ve done.”

Duft misses his military profession. “It’s the camaraderie. Civilians don’t understand that. Sure, you could have a few close friends, but, when your life depends on his life, and his on yours, you just can’t take it away.”

Freedom, he said, is not free. “It costs somebody — the soldiers. We put our uniform on every day, 365 days a year without question. We just do our job. The years I spent overseas in combat made me better understand that it wasn’t for the people like me or the military.”

It was for every person in the United States.

As military causalities continue to lace newspapers, radio and TV broadcasts, Duft said he cannot help but feel a twinge of gratitude that he got to come home.

Does he have any regrets? “Never. I would do it again. I can’t hear the National Anthem without crying. Veterans and soldiers shed blood for that flag and it means something for them,” he said. “I want the soldiers overseas to come home and to do it safely. It’s hard to do it. It’s hard to pull out and leave.”

[The author] Mason is the health and wellness coordinator and media specialist for Shelby Senior Services. She has lived in Shelbyville for 28 years. She is a 1977 graduate of Indiana University and has worked in numerous newspaper reporting positions.

Incidentally, the folks at POW Network have submitted a FOIA on Mr Duft, but in the interim, he doesn’t show up in their data base of Vietnam veterans…not surprisingly since he turned 18 the same year that ground forces were being withdrawn from Vietnam.

Yeah, it all happened late last night and I watched it in the emails. By daylight, the posse had strung up the perpetrators and the article had disappeared. But it remains on TAH as a cautionary tale for other journalists…the internet equivalence of heads on pikes along the road leading into town.

Category: Media, Phony soldiers