Raymond Harper; phony Vietnam Marine vet/POW

| December 19, 2014

Raymond Harper

Scotty sends us his work on this Ray Harper fellow who claims that he was a Marine and a POW in Vietnam. He tells his church group this fascinating story about how he found Jesus in a bamboo cage;

Raymond Harper POW Claims

Well DPMO, disagrees that he was a POW. There are two Harpers listed as Vietnam POWs, Ralph Lewis Harper (a Marine LCPL whose remains came home in 2006) and Richard K. Harper (an Army WO1 whose remains have not been returned). The National Personnel Records Center says that they can’t find a record of Marine Corps service for Mr. Harper. But they say he was in the Army from 1971 – 1974;

harper_raymond_FOIA

harper_raymond_2-1

The FOIA doesn’t mention his jump wings, but he has two airborne assignments one at Fort Bragg and another in Italy Germany – no Vietnam. But it looks like he was a POW, or rather just a prisoner for being AWOL at Fort Bragg.

Category: Phony soldiers

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ChipNASA

So he was AWOL from the end of July through the middle of September? (45 days?)

Maybe he was just trying to enjoy the end of the Summer.

Hondo

ChipNASA: the “effective date” is the start date. Looks to me like the man went AWOL on 14 Sep 72 and returned to military control on 19 Sep 72.

Combat Historian

Hey, being stationed in Vicenza is JUST LIKE being deployed in Vietnam; after all, both places start with a “V”…///

rb325th

He wasn’t in Vicenza, the 509th was still in Germany at the time, and it looks like he only lasted there 9 months before going/being sent to Leg Land.

SJ

Well, he does have a NDSM.

O-4E

It’s always a bamboo cage in a rice paddy.

None of these fucks have any originality

3E9

You can tell who watches Chuck Norris movies.

Andy11M

of course it was a bamboo cage. Because everyone knows it’s easier to put your prisoner in one of those and then carry him around in that cage.
I watched a documentary once about the prisoners of the Hanoi Hilton. One of them, a civilian missionary that was taken prisoner along with a woman ,missionary (their names escape me) told of the long FORCED MARCH the two of them did to get to North Vietnam. Never once did he mention being held in a bamboo cage.

NavyCWORet

His FOIA doesn’t show the wings, but his Record of Assignments shows Basic Airborne school in Sep 71. Would it normally also show his completion of the school prior to his next assignment ?

rb325th

Not that I recall, but he would not have gone to the 82d if he hadn’t graduated.

Hondo

Not sure about that, rb325th – especially if the guy got hurt during jump week and couldn’t complete the course for that reason. He could have been sent to Bragg anyway if he already had PCS orders. And if he ended up at Bragg as a new infantryman w/no secondary MOS, there wouldn’t really have been anywhere else to assign him. Pretty sure the 82nd was the only infantry unit on post by then.

It’s possible the unit took him as a leg given the circumstances, then sent him back to Benning TDY and return after he healed up because he looked to be a decent troop.

I’m guessing your correct, though, and the FOIA tech at NPRC missed entering his jump wings on the FOIA reply.

Hondo

No, the completion of the school would be listed elsewhere in his records – under military education and training.

Airborne School is a TDY/TAD school for anyone not stationed at Benning. So unless he went TDY and return from a unit elsewhere, attending jump school would show up as a separate assignment in his records.

This guy went to jump school TDY enroute to his PCS assignment at Bragg vice TDY and return for a unit, so that entry appears correct.

It’s possible the guy completed the course but the FOIA tech missed that fact when reviewing his records. It’s also theoretically possible he washed out during jump week, but got sent to Bragg and the 509th as a “leg” anyway. Not sure how common that would have been during the early 1970s, though – and consecutive assignments to jump units (325th, 509th) argues against it. He also might have been sent on to Bragg, but later returned and completed jump school.

My guess is the tech missed entering his jump wings on the FOIA reply.

Hondo

The guy is obviously living. So if his claims were true, he’d either have been returned alive at the end of the war or escaped from captivity and returned to US control.

For completeness, here are the DPMO lists of POWs returned alive and of those who escaped captivity in SEA.

http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnam/reports/pmsea_returnee.pdf

http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnam/reports/pmsea_escapee.pdf

There is no one with the last name “HARPER” on either of those lists.

Screw this lying bastard. Just screw him.

509Trooper

Based on his assignments he went to the 1-509th in Mainz, Germany, not Italy, in 1972. He would have been in the 1st Brigade of the 8th Infantry Division which had the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 509th. They were designated as Airborne/Mechanized. In 1973 one battalion was transferred to Vicenza and ultimately reflagged as the 1-509th. The 1st and 2nd Battalions were reflagged, one of them became the 1-87th and I don’t remember what the second one was reflagged as. His subsequent units shows the 1-28th Infantry so that would have been what the unit became. He didn’t transfer he was in the same unit which was part of the post-Vietnam version of musical chairs.

I will have to research the name but I still don’t understand why someone would lie about their service? Just not in my nature to do and no understanding or sympathy who do.

Green Thumb

It a “Phildoesque” quality that they have.

ArmyLady

Wow…holiday season really brings out a nest of faker’s! I guess they are getting a whole bunch of coal in their stockings!!

Hondo

Yep. As I recall, it was about this time last year a certain non-CPO first showed up.

3E9

Found a Ray Harper with a DOB a few days off in Illinois and a criminal record out of Illinois. Picture is questionable though so not sure if it’s the same one.

TheCloser

It’s not a lie if you believe it.
-George Costanza

Joins Marine Corps, August 1964… check
Sent to Vietnam, captured, escapes, returns to US… check
Graduates from Canton High School 1965… check
Joins US Army 1971… check
Escapes from US Army 1972… check

This guy is legit.

Hondo

TheCloser: good rundown. But I think you left out the “recaptured by Army”, “exiled to Germany as punishment”, and “returned from exile” parts. (smile)

TheCloser

1968- Plays Judge Fenton in Hang ‘Em High… check

jeffro

These dudes are so…tedious.

A Proud Infidel®™

It must be Dingleberry Season, we obviously have a bumper crop this year!!

GDContractor

The PI.
Where recently divorced middle aged men go to study “Church of Christ doctrine”. Yeah right. What a fucking idiot.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

well they go to study something….more likely the temptations of another kind of doctrine…

David

Yep, the One True Church. Or, as Mark Twain observed “And God so loved Man, that He gave him the one true faith – several of ’em.”

Old 1SG, US ARMY (retired)

His new MOS is: 1 delta 10 tango — 1D10T (idiot)

Hondo

I was thinking 1 delta mike foxtrot. But 1 delta 10 tango works too.

Green Thumb

What a fucking meatgazer this turd is.

Pretty low to have your BS written up in a church circular.

I wonder what the church will do? Forgive him or tell him to get the fuck out?

Curious.

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