Richard Ruffert; busted by CJ
We’ve got a bunch of phonies at the National Personnel Records Center, so I’ve taken to stealing others’ busts. This one, Richard Ruffert, was busted by our buddy, CJ Grisham, fellow milkook;
The FACT is that Ruffert has NEVER been in combat.
I work with many people and many agencies that seek to verify claims made publicly by veterans. Many times, those claims are true and there is never a mention that anyone was even looking into their background. However, too often we find that the claims being made publicly are false. Such was the case when the group investigated Ruffert through the Freedom of Information Act. I have access to Ruffert’s driver [license] information, divorce records, criminal records, and official military records that are publicly available. All information was legally obtained through FOIA. Here is what came back relating to his deployment “experience.”
Ruffert claimed that he was in combat, but during the 1st Gulf War, he only got as far as Saudi Arabia, he also claimed that he was a Master Sergeant, when his records show he was a Sergeant First Class (WTF is wrong with being an SFC, dingus?). he goes on to claim the legion of Merit and a Bronze Star, but his records show a Meritorious Service Medal as his highest award. And, oh, yeah, he’s a Ranger. Does this face say Ranger to you?
I don’t see what his MOS was but if he spent a year TDY in Saudi through Desert Storm and has 4 MSMs, he’s not infantry. But he signs his letters RLTW (Rangers Lead The Way). If you click over to CJ’s place, and look at his records, the guy has a whole shit load of medals and decorations. I don’t know why he had to make shit up.
Category: Phony soldiers
With as many AAMs and ARCOMS, it seems that he was a PAC clerk with mad skills. Something is wrong here.
his mother should have swallowed.
Turd.
Mad skills? Perhaps. My first inclination is “Naw, he was the ‘Awards Honcho’, and likely close enough to his own service record to alter them.
My first inclination is “Naw, he was the ‘Awards Honcho’, and likely close enough to his own service record to alter them.”
How is it even POSSIBLE to get 9 AAM’s, 7 ARCOM’s and 4 MSM’s anyway? (Or did I read that wrong?)
Absolutly nothing wrong with being an E-7. That’s what I will be retiring as when I drop my packet here shortly.
Pathetic. I guess he memorized Army Values for his promotion board questions, but never learned to live them.
Per CJ’s article, the guy was apparently an AGR (TAR for the Navy and USMC; believe the USAFR calls them AGR also).
Let’s just say it’s my impression some USAR and ARNG units were . . . rather free with respect to giving out awards, particularly to those who were favorites and who were serving full-time.
I’d love to see the complete FOIA that CJ got back. That might answer quite a few questions.
Legion of Merit? Wow.
You don’t here that one claimed very often.
I might be wrong, but I though that was primarly for Senior Field Grade and Officers and such.
@9, The only time I have seen those awarded have been at retirement ceremonies.
@10.
I think your right.
I have only seen two awarded and they were both to retiring 0-6’s.
Twist, GT: generally correct. From what I’ve seen, the LOMs go mostly to retiring O6s, occasionally to a retiring LTC or CSM, sometimes to a BG who’s PCSing. Pretty rare otherwise.
@12.
With that being said, this guy qualifies (among his other nefarious claims) for my “Green Turd” award.
@8 – I can corroborate. I’m ANG now after 5 years active in the USMC and the amount of awards handed out here (and amongst our Active Duty AF counterparts) is pretty ridiculous. I came in one drill to find a printed out, multi-page document in my mailbox on how to write for awards. Almost every exercise gives away a ton of awards, so it’s not even that there are inflated state awards (which you can only wear under certain circumstances).
It’s pretty sad, but I know several people who write and submit their own awards packages (with supervisor approval). This may be because I am coming from a different service component, but it just feels wrong to put yourself up for any type of award. I suppose you’re going to find people in every branch who have feel the need to validate their service with awards, but for many (like myself) they are just something that I put on my uniform because I am required to. For me, service is the reward.
15 years of service and deployed a total of 13 months. How the hell can you rack up that many awards with non deployment time like that?
He must’ve traded some of his ARCOM or AAM’s in for an upgrade to a single Legion of Merit? (end SARC)
He was a fuel specialist for a while and a PAC clerk for awhile, both heavily recruited into the ranks of Badassery!
I updated the page to include a link to the FOIA results. Or you can download them from here: http://asp.militarygear.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ruffert_richard_howard_nprc.pdf
It looks like he was busted to E6 before he retired. And who would have got out in Nov. 2001? I was trying to get back in.
“WTF is wrong with being an SFC, dingus?”
When you find out, would you let me know? I’m a mere PH2/E-5. I never did anything exciting, but I have a lot of ribbons from showing horses and cat shows. I have mountains of images I’ve shot over the last 75,000 years. I don’t have an exciting life, but I’m still a happy camper.
Why don’t these wannabes try writing 1st-person books instead of trying to scam people?
@ several comments: Yes, AGR’s are called AGR’s in the ANG. And yes, they got a lot more awards than did the regular members of the unit, at least back in the day. Air technicians got more than the traditional guardmen, but generally fewer than the AGR’s.
Yes, members of the ANG were often ordered to write their own award citations. Was so ordered a couple of times. (Refused, by the way, and ended up doing it once.) It seems to be something which cycles in and out of popularity depending upon who is in change and perhaps the phases of the moon.
When working a mixture of guardsmen and active duty, the active duty folks will get the big awards because it “means more to their careers.” Not right, but it happens.
Off topic: The one I relented on was because my CO, a good guy, really wanted me to get an award. He added some stuff to what I had written and was ticked off when it was not awarded. That was more thanks, as far as I was concerned, than if I had gotten the award. He really tried to keep it professional when he told me, but his disappointment came through. And the fact that he told me himself meant a lot.
Back on topic: Appears to just be one more lying piece of worthless scum. Any respect he might have earned for his service is now gone.
I got a whopping 2 NAM’s in 12 years in, and for Navy, especially nukes or bubbleheads (if you’re not a Yeoman or buttsnorkeling the CO) that’s pretty decent.
He had all that and felt the need to claim more? At what point does the bullshit flag get raised anymore?
CJ: many thanks. I wonder why NPRC blanked out the DMOS and Principal Duty Assignment for all his assignments? That’s not the norm; those are usually included. And none of that is classified, particularly in those types of units.
Jonn: I noticed that too. In fairness, his records seem to stop in late 2001, but per the 1st page of his FOIA he actually didn’t leave active duty until mid-2004. I think NPRC failed to send CJ a page (e.g., a continuation page for assignments) they should have redacted and sent.
I guess it’s possible the action reducing him was later found to be invalid, or was due to revocation of a conditional promotion for not having required professional education, he later met the requirement, and was re-promoted Or it’s also possible the NPRC records tech missed the reduction and put down the highest rank he saw vice his final rank.
I’ll send in a FOIA and see if they send me anything they didn’t send CJ. Sometimes different techs send more or less info.
For what it’s worth: those last three duty positions from 1999-2001 in Ruffert’s FOIA? They were at AR-PERSCOM at St Louis. That’s the organization which managed USAR personnel actions for the Army, much like PERSCOM in Alexandria did at the time for the RC. I can’t remember which specific office within AR-PERSCOM ARPC-PAR-F was, though. I seem to recall it was one of the larger offices there, but I’m not sure which one.
AR-PERSCOM at Saint Louis also physically maintained the personnel files for USAR soldiers in the AGR program. Ruffert was therefore working at the same place his official records were located.
Dunno where he was from late 2001 to mid-2004, but I’d guess the same place. If I recall correctly, the AGR program didn’t tend to move folks all that often.
This asshat is currently running scared. He’s off the grid in many respects and according to my perusal of his FB page Through-Our-Eyes-and-Hearts he has removed all remarks posted by myself and a friend regarding when he is going to answer the questions CJ asked on his blog. Perhaps some of you gents would care to find his page and ask that very same question many times so he will get the hint.
I almost forgot…
If I am not mistaken the USAR no longer has Combat Arms units thus why would he need to attend Ranger School? All Reserve Component Combat Arms units are now in the ARNG I believe and those would be the first to have a shot at Ranger School not some Fuel Operations or PAC Clerk ass nugget like Ricky the Rabbit.
addendum to the above comment…
there are exceptions to the USAR having Combat Arms with the USAR SF units coming to mind.
OEF_Veteran: if I recall correctly, while the USAR has been largely combat support and service support since the post-Vietnam reorganization, until the 1990s there were still a fair number of exceptions – e.g., some combat arms units. An additional reorg between the ARNG and USAR took place in the 1990s, and most of the remaining combat arms units were transitioned from the USAR to the ARNG (and some CS/CSS units in the ARNG transitioned to the USAR).
Don’t remember the precise year, as it’s been nearly 20 years, and my memory could be wrong. But I don’t think so – I was in the USAR at the time and kept track of things like that fairly closely.
#2, rb325th, I think the best part of him ran down his Momma’s leg that night, and he should have been a blowjob!
I was RA from 91 to 94, I came back in to the NG in 03 when I found out that would get me deployed, and I’ve done so twice since. I’ve yet to see any Reserve Unit that wasn’t support, and there are plenty of Combat Arms Guard units.
As for Ruffert, eh, just another wannabe poser bitchboy!!
Hondo the 100th/442d is the only Infantry unit left in the USAR and even that unit’s higher HQ would be the Hawaii NG from what I have read. I have not seen any other Combat Arms units (i.e. Infantry, Armor, F/A) in the USAR. It may be possible there are some around but I haven’t seen any in my travels.
Two-hole Ranger, indeed.
Does his face say ‘ranger’ to me? No, it does not. It says he sells cinnamon roasted pecans in the summertime at the Renaissance Faire; in the fall, winter and spring, he clips coupons and shops online to avoid sales taxes; and every morning, he makes waffles.
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