Robert E. Brooks; NPRC calls shenanigans
We’ve discussed Robert E. Brooks back in March, here and here. For decades, some of his awards have been questioned by veterans, specifically, his three Distinguished Flying Crosses, his three Silver Star Medals and five Purple Hearts. His DD214 discharge reported that he had indeed earned those medals, but there was no supporting documentation anywhere.
Also questioned were his claims of being a POW and that he was tortured until he finally escaped, and that he had served in the Air Force and the Marine Corps.
Our friend, Barb Ickes at the Quad-City Times clears some of that up today;
Following the March story in the Times, a representative of the National Archives in St. Louis notified the reporter of an investigation into Brooks’ service record by the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. The results of those reviews indicate Brooks did not earn any Silver Stars, nor was he awarded any Purple Hearts.
His DD214, which is the Department of Defense document that records all veterans’ military service, has since been corrected, Navy spokeswoman Katie Suich said.
Asked in an email how the mistakes occurred, Suich replied, “Original letter from Army indicated he was entitled to the erroneous awards. A second letter from Army did not have the majority of the erroneous awards listed (e.g. Silver Star) but did have some erroneous awards listed; both of these letters were from the 1970s.
“A third and final letter from Army removed the remaining erroneous medals/awards.”
Suich said she is not sure how Brooks’ DD214 came to reflect so many non-existent awards.
“We assume that the activity generating his DD214 did not have access to the second letter from Army that removed some of the erroneous medals/awards.”
Well, that doesn’t really explain how the erroneous awards ended up in his DD214, maybe Mr. Brooks can clear it up;
“I did not falsify my DD214,” [Robert Brooks] said Wednesday. “I’ve never had control of my 214. I’m going on what I was told I was awarded.”
[…]
“Bill (Albracht) wants me to man up and come clean, but I never falsified any records as far as I know,” Brooks said. “Many others (veterans) say their records are screwed up, too. The personnel people made this stuff up, not me, and it was based on my records.”
We’ve seen a few cases that involved folks altering their records while they hand-carried the old paper-based 201 file from station-to-station while they were still in the military and more than likely, that’s what happened here. It’s very unlikely that a clerk actually added awards to Brook’s records.
Brooks did have one Distinguished Flying Cross, so I have no idea why he thought that he needed all of that bling. He had an enviable war record, he could be proud that he survived it, and now it all turns to sewage because he got greedy.
Category: Phony soldiers
57 Air Medals, wow.
Quite do-able in the 18 mo he spent in Vietnam, actually.
Monthly limit for flight was 100hrs. 24 “high intensity” hours were required for 1 AM in Vietnam, and each combat mission counted as 1 “high intensity” hour. He’d only need credit for 1,368 such flight hours – or 76 per month – for that number of AMs. That’s barely 3/4 of the limit.
If he flew 24 days a month, flew all high intensity missions, and flew 3 missions daily that would qualify him for 54 AMs. He’d only have to fly 1 additional combat mission per week to qualify for the remaining 3 AMs.
Some rotary-wing pilots in Vietnam were awarded over 100 AMs. Those guys flew a helluva lot.
Sadly, my guess is this guy won’t be prosecuted.
I’d still bet a sawbuck against a donut he had something to do with that first “erroneous letter” back in the 1970s that certified he’d been awarded all that bogus bling. But proving it 40+ years after the fact is almost certainly a NO GO – even if the statute of limitations hasn’t already expired.
I’d sure like to know if he’s received medical care from the VA as a “former POW”, though. If he has, that could well qualify as fraud. Sadly, I’m guessing that also will never be “run to ground” and prosecuted if it occurred.
Bullshyt! What does it cost? 20.00 to get a clerk typist to put whatever he wanted on the 214? No way the military, any branch is going to give some phony bas-ard a bunch of awards without documentation!!
Here it is, the telling line, the qualifier that only a bullshitter would use: “but I never falsified any records as far as I know.”
Um, let’s see a show of hands on this. How many of you who, if clearly shown that awards and honors on your DD214 weren’t earned by you, would say that as far as you knew, you never falsified your records?
Dammit, GDC. Put your hand down. (There always has to be one in every class!)
Ouch! Fuck you!
That line smacks of “It depends on what the meaning of the word is is.”
Master Chief beat me to it: It’s a non-false statement that would cover “I paid someone else to falsify my records.” No idea whether he did or didn’t [pay someone off], but geez.
I’m torn on this one……… NOT…… LMAO ! ! ! !
What really p!sses me off about this guy is his false claims to multiple Silver Stars and Purple Hearts.
I have a relative buried in Arlington. He had one of each – earned legitimately.
What p!sses me off even more than that is his false POW story. In Vietnam, POWs went thru hell. This guy was trading on their suffering to garner sympathy from strangers – and possibly using that bogus claim to get free stuff from the VA as well.
Screw him.
Your Honor, “as far as I know, I may have not knowingly, by mistake or not, with or without malice or forethought, forged my DD-214 or paid a freckled faced dumb ass clerk cash (equivalent to short lap dance from a fat stripper) in order to pad my record or not”.
“I have never successfully drank piss from a dead dog’s bladder, that I know of.”
For 10,901 Obamaf9ne minutes, who said it?
Mistakes happen.
Plain and simple. I get it. But one must be proactive.
But I have to tell you, you should know when you have been awarded a SS, PH, etc.
This turd is delusional and hiding behind bullshit. He is under the impression that IF they (awards) are on there (DD214), then he EARNED them. I guess he pulled a SS out of guard duty by opening the door for the Commander’s wife and a PH when he later fell asleep and banged his head on the CQ desk. When he later got caught sleeping on duty they punished him by restricting him to his quarters. That must be were the POW time came from.
What a sack of shit. And to make it worse, he, as pointed out, had quite the career.
Fuck him, finding that you have multiple erroneous awards for valor on your DD-214 is like finding a wallet with 1,000 bucks and your nieghbors ID in it.
You dont say anything you are a fucking thief.
He got all of those “awards” due to his sekrit skwerrl ops as a buttsekks warrior and a pee oooh dubleyoo sucking down all of that cream of sum yung guy soup that “Charlie” fed him…
Mistakes can happen but give me a break. How many people do you know who received a Silver Star Medal that was not pinned on them? I can envision the AM’s showing up in the mail, and maybe even a Purple Heart catching up to the recipient, but this dip stick knows he is lying.
Well, excluding those awarded posthumously . . . I’d guess not too damn many.
“Hey everybody! My DD214 says I got awarded a bunch of Purple Hearts. I don’t remember getting shot, but by golly if the Army says I got shot, I musta got shot.”
What a fukbag.
“I did not falsify my DD214,” [Robert Brooks] said Wednesday. “I’ve never had control of my 214. I’m going on what I was told I was awarded.”
[…]
“Bill (Albracht) wants me to man up and come clean, but I never falsified any records as far as I know,” Brooks said
Bullshit. You would know if you earned 5 Purple Hearts. You would know if you were awarded 3 DFCs. Fuck you
Word.
Hell, I still remember sticking a pencil in my thumb in 7th grade; I think I would know if I was wounded on five separate occasions. DIPSHIT
This is a no brainer.
If you check your bank account and see that the bank mistakenly credited you with a million dollars, well….I don’t remember earning a million dollars but the bank say’s I have it, so I spent it.
Sooner or later it’s going to bite you in the ass.
I get that records can get screwed up. At one point my ERB said that I had a tour in Aruba and a secondary MOS as a 92Y. There is no way that you could possibly not know your records were screwed up when it shows 5 Purple Hearts and 3 Silver Stars. Earning those would be pretty memorable events.
I get the feeling that he’s fixing to have a “memorable event”.