Jim Calhoun; fakery costs WO2 his job

Kevin sends us a link from the Army Times “Warrant officer separated after claiming unearned rank, badges” (I guess I don’t have access to the Times, because I can’t find the link, maybe you guys with a subscription can find it – it’s scheduled for the July 21, 2014 edition) about CWO2 Jim Calhoun who pissed off readers and the Army Times when he claimed that in spite of regulations to the contrary, he was still rolling his sleeves up (yeah, a real hot issue in the realm of national defense). Oh, yeah, of course he claimed awards that he didn’t earn.

Calhoun told Army Times last month that he was a Re­serve chief warrant 3 working with Special Operations Command. Calhoun, 52, of Saint Petersburg, Florida, said he was a reservist on detached duty with Spec Ops with plans to exit service in October. His comments were part of a June 30 story with the headline “This CW3 is still rolling.”

Calhoun had initially answered a call from Army Times when the publication asked readers for feed­ back about whether soldiers should be allowed to roll sleeves in their Army Combat Uniform, Cal­houn claimed to be rolling the sleeves of his uniform, despite the rule against it.

Well, the truth of the story is that he was actually a CWO2 and he had been separated from the reserves for wearing awards that he didn’t earn. And, oh, by the way, he wasn’t ever working with Special Operations.

The administrative elimination board found Calhoun wrongly wore the rank of Chief Warrant Of­ficer 3, and unspecified “unauthorized” badges and ribbons, according to the documentation, which included Calhoun’s dis­charge papers, a personnel memorandum authorizing his separation and the findings and recommendations of the board.

The board also found he submit­ted a falsified DD 214 in 2008 be­fore returning to service and went AWOL nine moths later; he had falsified a mobilization order as well.

The board also found Calhoun failed a qualification course for the UH-60 Black Hawk, according to Army records. He was a UH-l pilot. It cleared him of allegations of conduct unbecoming an officer and failure to maintain a valid se­curity clearance.

Reminiscent of a certain phony lawyer in Oregon who is about to have a bad day, Calhoun likes to tell folks about the rank he never earned;

In Calhoun’s voicemail, he still refers to himself as a CW3.

“Hi. You’ve reached Chief War­rant Officer 3 Jim Calhoun;” his message stated as of July 11.”I’m out flying, or in a meeting or out making the world a safer place. Your call is very important to me, so please leave your name and number and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Have a great day.”

It really is a disease. I don’t know if it’s treatable, but it’s certainly identifiable with recognizable behavior patterns.

Category: Phony soldiers