Frederick “Rick” Mulanix; phony wounded Vietnam veteran

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Frederick “Rick” Mulanix, who told a journalist at West Hawaii Today the story of his time in Vietnam;

When he was 17 years old, Rick Mulanix served the first of his two tours of duty in Vietnam. Mulanix fought valiantly for his country and made tremendous sacrifices while in Vietnam. For his valor, he received four Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars, two Silver Stars, a combat infantry badge and an Air Force accommodation.

[…]

Mulanix was a member of the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry Second Platoon under Lt. Co, Harold G Moore. He was involved in the infamous battle of Landing Zone X-Ray on November 15, 1965, in the Ia Drang Valley, Central Highlands, Vietnam. It was the first major battle between the United States Army and the North Vietnamese Army — recently documented on the PBS special “Vietnam,” and written about in the critically acclaimed book We Were Soldiers Once… And Young.

Mulanix fought bravely for his country and three days before his second tour ended, he was sent to Da Nang to be cleared and sent home. While in Da Nang, the Viet Cong were on the perimeter of the airport and Mulanix was sent out on a search and destroy mission. The Viet Cong were waiting for the Americans, and a major firefight ensued. Air support was called in on the radio, and tragically the wrong coordinates placed the air attack directly on top of Mulanix and fellow American soldiers. The friendly fire killed several Americans and gravely wounded Mulanix.

During the firefight and airstrike, Mulanix suffered injuries to both legs, his shoulder and had a head wound from being shot. While the young soldier recovered from these traumatic, easily identifiable wounds, he did not know at the time that he would later suffer internally from massive chemical exposure.

During his two tours, Mulanix spent much of his time in dense jungle regions. The triple canopy jungle prevented enemy supply lines and troop aggregations from being seen for the air. Millions of gallons of the herbicide and defoliant Agent Orange were sprayed by aircraft to defoliate and clear the jungle. Mulanix and thousands of others were consistently exposed to this poison. He still remembers the day a Dow Company representative came into camp and told the soldiers that the chemical was perfectly harmless to humans, and he remembers being covered by it multiple times.

In case the article disappears, here are the screen shots.

Mr Mulanix claims that he was with 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry Second Platoon under Lt. Co, Harold G Moore and involved in the infamous battle of Landing Zone X-Ray on November 15, 1965, in the Ia Drang Valley. According to the National Personnel Records Center, Mr Mulanix was in the Air Force and he was a security guard at Torrejon Air Base in Spain on November 15th, 1965.

In fact, he never went to Vietnam, he never earned two Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars, two Bronze Star Medals, a Combat Infantryman Badge. He didn’t even earn the Air Force Commendation Medal that he claimed to have in the article.

He was stationed in Maine, in Spain and in Germany. He was in the Air Force, not in the Army and certainly not in Vietnam. Mulanix wasn’t exposed to Agent Orange, someone at the VAOIG should check on that.

While we sympathize with him, that he lost his leg to cancer (supposedly), he didn’t get cancer from Agent Orange resulting from his service in Vietnam, that much is clear.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures