Larry the Liar Fitgerald, Reaper 6 BS
Team Sergeant at Professional Soldiers sends us his research on Larry FitzGerald who is supposed to be the subject of Andrew Rafkin’s book “Reaper 6“;
A Top Secret Story of Unparalleled Heroism… Staff Sergeant Larry FitzGerald, aka “Reaper 6,” of the U.S. Army Special Forces, led a special Black Ops team deployed to Vietnam in 1965. He reported to only two men: General Westmoreland and General Abrams, who were in command of the U.S. Armed Forces. His first assignment-a suicidal mission to assassinate four enemy generals in Laos who were planning the 1967 Tet invasion-was never disclosed to the media or the public. General Westmoreland stated that Sergeant FitzGerald deserved the Medal of Honor, and nine additional Purple Hearts, but unfortunately, most of his missions were conducted across the fence of South Vietnam, in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. In fact, all of his missions were classified, clandestine, and denied. They have not been disclosed until now. Reaper 6 is the only biography of this extraordinary soldier’s life, capturing the very sights, sounds, and smells of the Vietnam War. Today, Larry is the proverbial “last man standing” of 89 souls who went where lesser soldiers shouldn’t dare.
Well, according to the FOIA, all that BS is true, except for the service dates, FitzGerald’s rank, and instead of being special forces, he was an MP;
Yeah, he was in Vietnam and had an honorable career and then shit all over himself for a couple of bucks. Mr. Rafkin has been told that his “true story” is total horseshit and doesn’t seem to care, the folks at PS figured that the TAH crowd could convince him to care. Two people involved in this stolen valor case – one making up a story, and another selling his tripe to the masses knowing it’s false.
Category: Phony soldiers
@50…..hondo, pretty spot on. Your right about the vcm and the stars. Every outfit has there screwup troopers. I saw 30 year old PFC’s . Guys that I saw get busted down in rank, and there weren’t many,usually happened because of booze,drugs, sleeping on guard. Getting promoted to pfc and spc-4 during my time was just a shuffle of paperwork. SGT. E-5 was taking a written test then going before a board of officers and senior NCOs’ as far as going into Saigon and raising hell would be a really dumb move almost like being stateside. The guys I saw get into trouble were usually support troops. Bored , usually stuck at basecamp. I think that’s where alot of the drug problems happened. Because of what my jobs were you had to be somewhat sharp every day. If we caught one of our own doing drugs ect. We got rid of them. In saying all this don’t get me wrong, I could drink with the best of them. I certainly wasn’t a nun. As for this guy, he was a mp what do you expect?(smile)
3/17 air cav: thanks for the feedback, amigo. Glad to see my rapidly-aging memory isn’t failing me yet. (smile)
— break —
Ex-PH2: I always heard the Army equivalent of “Sea Stories” referred to as “War Stories” (polite company) or “No-Shit Stories” (more common). The latter name was because most of them started out, “No shit – there I was . . . . “
Okay, Hondo: so I’ve got this: No Shit – There I Was: Doorgunnerz On Patrol
In order for an official US Navy, USMC and or USCG Sea Story to be legit, it must be preceded by, “this is a no shitter, it really happened.”
Without that statement, it ain’t a Sea Story!
LOL!! Roger that, shipmate!
“No shit…. there I was…”
🙂
I’m on it!
Ex,we aircrew do not have to make up sea stories. Our stories if and when we feel safe to them. The stories can make you laugh,cry or wonder about this crazy person talking to you. Joe PS. We generally only tell the funny ones.
Joe Williams, the best stories ARE the funny ones.
@57…….Joe, right on…….no shit joe there we were operating out of phu loi, when from our slick we saw a deer……oh well maybe another time I’ll finish the story.
@1aircav & hondo…….. This has been a great day for me. Talking the talk and interacting with you guys with similar backgrounds. Believe it or not up until 2 years ago I could not remember my infantry unit or my air cav unit. When I came home from the nam I threw almost everything away pretty much put everything in the closet and forgot about it. I had to contact a couple of my vet friends to refresh my memory. Usually I have a memory 2nd to none. Again, thanks for a great day…….steve
Below is the Youtube promo for the book. Fitzgerald is at the end…long hair, beard. Looks like a whack job.
Fitzgerald’s MOS shows 11E (door gunner) and he leaves Nam as a SP4 and appears to get busted to PFC at Fort Hood. In the book he claims he was a E6 and slugged Officer at Fort Hood who told him to take off his Green Beret. There is a Green Beret group that has a complete list of all Special Forces Green Berets and surprise surprise…They do not have him no their list.
The Green Beret group has a list of all Green Berets that served in NAM and Larry is not listed.
Just checked Amazon, and the ebook’s sales rank is #29,418. Sad to say, that’s about where it was before.
It’s just a few per day, but that’s a lot more than it should be.
Here’s another lie. In the book he said he grew up with a Navy father that retired as a E-10, the highest enlisted rank in the Navy. Did some Internet checking. Did find his father. He was an E-9 which is impressive, but not a E-10. There have been very few E-10s (Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy ). Growing up with a Navy father and he and the author can’t even get this right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Chief_Petty_Officer_of_the_Navy
Sad
@62, 63, that reminds me of a quote I read in an article about posers, (Mary Schantag if I’m correct) said “Only about 500 Navy SEALs served in Vietnam, and we’ve investigated all 30,000 of them.” I wonder what the poser/Real Thing ratio is with Green Berets, I’m sure it’s parallel with SEALs, Recons, and Rangers. I’m waiting for the day when we see a 42A or 92Y poser!!
This book just gets too funnier:
The hero claims that he went to Fort Gordon and in 1 month of training got: MP training, Weapons training (US & 3rd World) Signal Training, Medic training and Jump School…All in 1 month (there is no jump school at Fort Gordon). There those that passed are told they have earned the right to wear the Green Beret and will go to Fort Polk for 7 more weeks of intense training. They are told by a red headed Colonel known as Mr. Red who was one of the first Rangers ever trained.
He doesn’t even know that Green Berets where trained at Fort Bragg, and that Jump School was at Fort Benning nor does he even mention what it was like at Jump School.
I think he better belly up to the bar and have another round and remember another secret mission.
I had 16 weeks of intense training at Fort Polk – it was called Basic & AIT.
From the book: The Army needed a new glorified name for the elite Special Forces, and came up with Green Berets who were originally trained by Rangers like Big Red.
Geeeeee. I thought the unit was called Special Forces and they wore the Green Beret which was authorized by President Kennedy.
Col Red: “Gentlemen. A month ago we started with 120 AIT trainees. Ninety didn’t make it. . . I’m proud to announce that you have completed all the AIT training required and the thirty of you will be transferred to Fort Polk to complete your Special Forces training.
He was a big-ass Irishman, about 6’ 6”, weighed around 250 to 260 pounds, had fire-red hair, and a big red handlebar mustache. He reminded me of Yosemite Sam, and I thought he was seriously old. We never knew his real name , but later called him Big Red. One of our guards said he was around 40 years old, was one of the first trained Rangers, and was seriously a mean motherfucker.
No mention of Fort Bragg. If someone is going to make up a story and least get some of the fact straight by looking them up.
Col Red “At ease. Men, you not only completed the Special Forces training at the top of your class(Fort Gordon), you excelled in jump school, MP school, psychological testing, medical training , and graduated from Signal Corps School. You are all expert marksmen, and becoming a well-oiled combat team. “That’s why the thirty of you have been picked to form an elite Special Forces Black Ops Team”
Rafkin, Andrew J. (2013-02-21). Reaper 6 (Kindle Locations 560-563). Outskirts Press, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
@65–MCPON wears three stars on his sleeve/collar devices, but he is NOT, repeat NOT, an “E-10”.
Maybe the Colonel’s name was Redd. I was in the Marine Corps with a guy named Redd.
Couldn’t he have just looked at the Colonel’s name tape on his uniform, or read the name on the graduation certificate?
Hack, maybe this “Red” was so high speed that even his name tape was redacted.
He sounds like one of the plank owners of the Space Shuttle Gunnery School.
Chapter 1 of Hack Stone’s memoirs from radio repair school in the Marine Corps, titled “Comm Puke-6”.
CWO Crank “At ease. Men, you not only completed the MCCES bullshit working parties at the top of your holding platoon(29 Palms), you excelled in mess duty, guard duty, washing vehicles, policing the golf course, shoveling shit in the horse stables and graduated from being hazed from the old Corps Marines, by which I mean Marines that have been in three months longer than you. You are all expert beer drinkers, and becoming a well-oiled combat team. That’s enough oil. Cool it with the oil, already. It’s starting to get a bit homo-erotic with all that oil. That shit won’t be cool for another 35 years. That’s why the thirty of you have been picked to form an elite platoon to start Week 1 of Basic Electronics Course. What, you guys just got here? Okay, you thirty guys get to start Math Week”
Our mission was to assassinate four generals: a Russian, Chinese, NVA, and Khmer Rouge, who were meeting together to plan the Tet Offensive that could potentially wipe out the majority of our troops then deployed to Vietnam. My commanding officers (General William Westmoreland, and second in command, General Creighton Abrams) were the only two people I reported to, and they had told me that it was imperative to complete this mission, implying that we were expendable.
Rafkin, Andrew J. (2013-02-21). Reaper 6 (Kindle Locations 164-170). Outskirts Press, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
This was supposedly in 1966. Problem: Gen Abrams wasn’t in NAM then.
from the book: My mother had to be strong ; her husband was a hard-core Navy man who retired as one of ten sailors to reach the paygrade of E10, making him the highest non-commissioned officer and chief bosun’s mate.
Rafkin, Andrew J. (2013-02-21). Reaper 6 (Kindle Locations 229-230). Outskirts Press, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
Sorry NHSparky, meant as an update to your comment in # 73. I put you name on wrong line so it looks like you posted it.
That COL might have benn none other than “Panama Red” himself, but *OOP!* that’s classified too! *SSSSHHHH*!
I believe “COL Red” must have had the last name Foxx. (smile)
More like Red Buttons.
@72
“That’s why the thirty of you have been picked to form an elite Special Forces Black Ops Team”
Larry the Liar must have served with Wolfgang Hammersmith in the same “Black Ops Unit!!!
The author has apparently sent a letter/e-mail to those that wrote him questioning the story in his book: ” This notice is in response to the flagrant and misguided attacks on Amazon reviews, Green Beret web page, and a couple of internet marketing sites.”
Did I miss something? Flagrant & misguided attacks? He wrote a true story that isn’t true. Made a guy a super hero at his post and elsewhere when he really wasn’t. Integrity. There’s an old saying ” Inspect what you Expect”. If your writing a true story, make sure its true before you start. The author states He is stating that he has the utmost respect for Veterans and Special Forces. That cool, but you honor them by writing real stories that are real. He states he is going to re-publish the book as Fiction.