Tim Kennedy stolen valor accusations
Tim Kennedy, from his X/Twitter profile
If you don’t know who Tim Kennedy is, you’re not the only one, I’d never heard of him. He’s an Army veteran who fought MMA professionally for several years. He is noted as being one of the rare cases where someone did MMA at the pro level while in the Army on active duty.
Tim’s bona fides are that, in addition to his MMA career (18 wins on 24 contests, including six by knockout and eight by submission), he had a highly admirable Army career. He enlisted in 2004 and went through the pipeline to become one of “America’s Best” as Barry Sadler sang. After graduating the Special Forces “Q” course, he also completed Ranger School. He served as a sniper and deployed several times to places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa. He holds a CIB and a Bronze Star Medal among the other usual awards.
Tim Kennedy also wrote a book on his life, 2022’s Scars and Stripes. It seems some of the stuff he wrote in his book has ruffled some feathers, and led to accusations of stolen valor. We’re ordering his records for ourselves, but the Army has not been forthcoming with such requests lately. We’re calling this the “Walz Effect”, so don’t expect to get anything for at least a month or two, if ever.
Tim Kennedy, a former UFC fighter and U.S. military veteran, is under fire for alleged embellishments in his military service narrative. His recent book, “Scars and Stripes,” faces scrutiny following a podcast episode that questions the veracity of his claims. Critics highlight inconsistencies, including false assertions about his rank and experiences during military missions, leading to accusations of stolen valor against him.
By the Numbers
- Kennedy claimed to be a distinguished honor graduate of Ranger School; records show he struggled and nearly failed.
- His DD-214 military record lists no Purple Heart despite claims of shrapnel injuries during combat.
Yes, But
Despite his wrestling and MMA achievements, the allegations significantly tarnish Kennedy’s legacy, raising questions about the importance of military accuracy in veteran narratives.
State of Play
- The Antihero Podcast episode titled “Tim Kennedy: The Book of Lies” sharply critiques his claims.
- Various veterans are coming forward to dispute Kennedy’s accounts, further intensifying the controversy.
What’s Next
Increased public scrutiny may lead to more veterans sharing their experiences, potentially resulting in a formal investigation into Kennedy’s claims of military achievements.
Bottom Line
The controversy surrounding Tim Kennedy illustrates the delicate balance between military pride and the obligations of truth in recounting service experiences, particularly in a world quick to honor veterans.
Here’s something from another Twitter post that goes over the same material;
Scars and Stripes or a story of stolen valor – Former UFC fighter Tim Kennedy faces allegations of fabricating military achievements, from exaggerated grenade tales to disputed shrapnel injuries. Critics call his book “a collection of Lies.” pic.twitter.com/j5Z5rREnZi
— Timothy Wheaton MMA (@TimWheatonMMA) December 3, 2024
For his part, here’s Kennedy’s response;
First, I wanna thank my teammates. Thank you for putting up with me. Thank you for helping shape a kid full of piss and vinegar. Thank you for doing your best to keep me out of trouble. Thank you for keeping me alive. To my superiors/commanders, I’m sorry for all you had to put… pic.twitter.com/dtq69H8tdy
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) December 3, 2024
My take? It sounds like Kennedy has nothing in his past that needs embellishment. He’s a graduate of the US Army’s toughest programs, and has been tested in combat. I hope some of his teammates or our friends over at the Guardians of the Green Beret can do their magic in the long tab community to bolster or debunk any claims. I don’t think Kennedy has made any claims with the intent to defraud, so he’s not violated any stolen valor statutes I can see. But it’s Tim Walz-levels of “I’m a knucklehead at times” to say that you carried 50 pounds of grenades into action regularly. Everybody’s got their favorite piece of kit, but that seems like a lot. It’s definitely something his teammates would remember him doing if true.
Category: Stolen Valor, Veterans in the news
“carried 50 pounds of grenades into action regularly”
Same ones or fresh batch each time?
Al Gore’s Amazing Internet says an American Hand Grenade weighs 14 ounces. 50 pounds would work out to 57.14 grenades. How do you get 14% of a hand grenade.
Al Gore’s Amazing Internet is wrong.
Hand Grenade weight is variable.
When you carry them, they weigh over 3 lbs. apiece.
When you throw them in training, about 1 lb.
When you throw them in combat, they are weightless.
Watching them go off is priceless. Getting push to the ground for doing that is painful. Being told “so you’re one of those guys” is embarrassing.
Maybe that is where that shrapnel came from that he was talking about?
A prick 25 weighs 14 lbs so that’s the equivalent of 3.5
radios strapped to the RTO. Not to mention his frag or two.
I read he claimed he carried fifty grenades vs fifty pounds of them. I supposed it would be possible, if one was carrying the V42 mini-grenades. But what if what he actually said he carried “fifty pounds of ammo and grenades.”
Correction: That mini-grenade is the V-40. It was/is a little smaller than a golf ball, and it weighs about .15 kilogram. I used to carry about six of them in an M-14 magazine pouch on my STABO rig’s web belt.
As an infantry company XO I did have two boxes of grenades for resupply that stayed in my HMMWV (I think that’s right.) It really made me uneasy with those boxes in my proximity during rocket and mortar attacks and at the times I actually got to sleep but I never carried more than 2 on me at any time, if I carried them at all. One piece of kit I really liked was my old style M7 bayonet. I did not like the M9.
So did he take them out of the cardboard? That would be a really bulky bag, not to mention heavy. If he did take them out of the cardboard, that would be very dangerous that a spoon comes in contact with a safety and next thing you know you get a pin pulled. Not to mention that bag would be awkward. With heavy metal things banging around on you. Maybe if it was a gym bag style, with dividers (like a case of beer bottles) to keep them separated! “You got to keep ’em separated!”
The way he explains it, 50 was a random number that was big but not too big, and the editor though shit-ton was too much!!
He must have a pretty big back pack to carry 2 cases of the M-67, of course one case would be light 10 grenades. He must have used his Radio Flyer Wagon.
I’ve watched a few videos on this subject and read through the comments. Kennedy’s video seems to be more CYA than anything else. For what it’s worth, a lot of the YouTube SOF channels seem to be against his claims.
I’ll just go with what I know, as well as my opinion. Kennedy is a bona fide bad ass in both a military and combat sports sense. He’s a legitimate Ranger-qualified Green Beret and has fought at the highest levels of MMA. However, he’s also a self-promoting quasi-celebrity who–like too many others with a bloated ego–thinks that his star should shine brighter than those of others, and that as such, his opinion is the one that matters above all else.
A while back, he caught a bunch of heat with his statements supporting red flag laws and other gun control measures. When it blew up throughout the 2A community, he backtracked a little, reminding everyone that [paraphrasing] “no one has fought harder for the 2A than he has”. Now, he’s being called out for claiming combat wounds that, if treated and properly documented by any medical professional, would have resulted in a Purple Heart citation. He’s gone on record stating that he has valor devices on some awards, and a lot of his online bios list the BSM/V, but there’s no record that I can see of him ever receiving such honors.
I get that the days of the “Quiet Professional” are long gone, and that many former and current Special Operations guys now capitalize on their service and experiences. Tim Kennedy is a co-owner of Ranger Up and other companies, well known for his tenure in MMA (especially UFC), and rubs elbows with some of the biggest “GunTubers” on the internet (incidentally, many of whom live in the greater San Antonio region). He has no need to embellish his service, and excuses about things slipping past the editing process or being misinterpreted in his book are questionable at best.
“…and the truth shall set thee free…” Certified bad ass turned certifiable liar? Don’t take but one “Aw sh*t” to wipe away 100 “Attaboys!”
Certified bad ass turned certifiable
liarass?It’s the poet in me.
Exactly. Unless he can somehow prove his claims, he’s reduced himself to just another embellishing phony. We all know that sometimes things are overlooked by editors and publishers, and that occasionally incorrect things are said by authors and journalists. This book has Kennedy as the author, though, making it his responsibility to ensure full accuracy.
point. His name on the binding.
fm2176 – thanks for that, now I remember from where I know this guy … Ranger Up and the San Antonio connection. It’s been driving me nuts since I first heard about this … “why do I know this guy/this guy’s name?!?!”
Overall I agree with the assessment. A true badass, been there done that got the t-shirt guy. Not a bad guy, big ego but basically decent and pleasant.
Let’s hope this turns out to be just another instance of fishermen tales or the 21st Century version of barstool bragging. I, too, miss the days of the Quiet Professional. The real issue is, each time one of these guys … exaggerates…, they do real damage to the veteran community as a whole.
50 grenades? Pfffftt… go away.
Come back when you’re ready to play.
Smells like Teddy Daniels,
who in 5+ years of wearing and displaying unearned medals,
repeatedly telling (and growing) impossibly false Rambo tales,
and using all of the above,
plus lying about his (bad) career in police and law enforcement,
to try to become a Congressman,
then a state / commonwealth’s Lt. Governor,
then a podcaster (bragging he’ll be the next Tucker Carlson,
and promising 10-15 million viewers AND Ted Nugent),
then and in the present an online peddler of fear with books,
food buckets, and crap….
….. and now totally out of politics,
blackballed and banned by the Trump campaign
(after being caught using AI fake voice of Donald Trump
and Joe Rogan in his fearmongering salespitch videos),
reduced to moving from state to new state twice in 14 months,
and now living in a rural mountain cabin in southeast West Virginny.
His name is increasingly synonymous with Klee Irwin,
who gained a bit of old late night TV commercial and infomercial fame
selling colon cleanse.
Assuming FOIA eventually rolls in for multiple requestors,
this does not end well for Kennedy,
who went a long way with his charisma and bullshit abilities,
as many other liars, embellishers, and outright phonies in the past,
but soon no more.
Especially when zero Purple Hearts
and 1st hand accounts from fellow soldiers show up.
But for those who still hitch their wagons
to the likes of CT Senator Dick Blumenthal,
Kennedy will still have blind followers even after blatantly exposed.
NOTE – This is NOT a comparison to Blumenthal.
It’s a comparison of the FOLLOWERS.
Blumenthal has many.
Daniels has only a small few left.
Kennedy has many,
and that number will drop, but who knows yet how much of a drop.
He ain’t skeered of playing rough. Needs to fess’up, correct his own records and revisit his sense of self awareness.
I remember the good old days when people thought we were fucking morons for signing up and no one thanked us for our service or thought we were special, well they thought we were a different kind of “special”….
Nobody was making bullshit claims because nobody fucking cared that you served…you weren’t special you were a dipshit…and I was fine being a dipshit…
I like some of what Tim Kennedy has said in the past, he’s a charismatic speaker to be sure…it would be a shame to discover he felt the need to embellish an amazing military career with extraneous nonsense…
But such is our world today where success is measure in social media follower count which then translates into actual money…the temptation to “create content” afflicts everyone it seems…
You couldn’t get a job if you marked on your application / resume that you had been in the service in 76. I applied at a business and didn’t mark down my service time on my 2nd application at the same business a week after My first application was tossed in the garbage while I was leaving. I was hired on the spot 2nd time around. Never mentioned any service time on an application again. That was terrible the way the public treated veterans back then. No one bragged about being a veteran. Now it seems to get people free shit for making a claim of being a veteran. I guess we were kinda morons for doing the right thing for our country.
Agree. Except the lawyer who hired me as a law clerk in 1976 was a retired chief warrant officer. So, he was pleased to hire a law student who was a veteran.
A chief warrant Officer turned lawer. That’s a very scary combination but I’d damn sure hire him.
Is looking for a CWO turned lawer where the coffee pot is located considered “hunting over a baited field”? Be brief with your answer.
Plus, his specialty was signal crypto. He later became a judge and served over ten years on the bench. He was my mentor for three years when I was his law clerk.
Amen, Brother.
Now that I’m retired, I think I’ll write a book about how boring 35 years and two months of service as an enlisted infantryman and commissioned tanker can be. Despite two no-notice deployments to Kuwait back when Saddam regularly acted stupid, and deployments to Kosovo, Macedonia and three to Iraq (and one to Israel), there will be no need for FOIA requests. It will sell at least three copies.
My book is due out soon – “Confessions of a Floor Buffer”
My last one did well – “Sandbags -n- S#itters – Welcome to the Suck”
(get it on Amazon)
I was thinking about writing a book on the “ Art of stripping cigarettes butts”. Could be a handy guide to newbies.
Yeah, when I tell my war story of when I was in the Persian Gulf it starts out “The alarm sounded at 530am. I reached over and hit the button to shut it off. Then I climbed out of my nice warm bunk, took a hot shower, got dressed, ate a hot breakfast. Then that evening we launched tomahawk missiles at Iraq.”
For some reason the guys that served on the ground in Iraq tell me to entertain myself in ways that are physically impossible. And why bring a horse into it?
Especially, since you didn’t ride in on it. My Airedale dad tried to convince me to go Navy but i
…wanted to sleep on ground, carry a rifle and a ruck, cuz I was determined to become an infantry officer.
My older brother was Army. He asked why I didn’t go Army like him. I told him that I wanted to go camping on my OWN terms.
My book: Confessions of a turd chaser or Are all girls on the beach in Barcelona topless?
The madcap, laugh-riot story of a young sailors’ stories from when you don’t close off solid waste riser going officer’s country to playing frisbee with topless girls on a Barcelona beach…at least that’s the way i remember it.
Or the sequel – “See the World, They Said”
The only Purple hearts I have are the 4 books of Purple Heart Stamps I bought from thr Post Office to get out the Christmas/Chanukah cards. Used to books and the remaing are for my bill paying and mail order items that I buy
I’m waiting for the Chlamydia, Dengue, Jungle Rot and Agent Orange commemorative, limited-edition series to come out.
I already received my metal. 16 staples in the chest with a nice scar. CABGx5 Agent Orange Award. And I received an all expenses paid vacation to the oncology ward for free chemo sessions. And they provided snacks and drinks free. Bless there heart for providing such a wonderful opportunity. This might seem like sarcasm, and it is. LOL.
The Tim Sheehy Effect.
Met him once in Texas. Pretty cool guy. I hope this isnt true.
We never carried grenades in the P-3. Too dangerous.
What’s the hand saw hanging on the wall for?
Oh oh. Who wants to run with this one???
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is now in the news
about the public debate over Pete Hegseth,
is being described in news as a “combat veteran”.
Here it is, on her own webpage… “As a combat veteran”.
https://www.ernst.senate.gov/priorities/veterans
Ernst does have a GWOT-E,
for her 1 year in Kuwait as the commander
of a deployed Iowa Army National Guard transportation unit.
Where is the “combat”?
She’s definitely pushing the definition of “combat vet”. I served in Desert Storm, Somalia, Afghanistan, and over 3 years in Iraq. I’m Signal, I don’t consider myself a “combat vet”. Try again, Joni.
In my Army and later the Utah National Guard, I was taught that the combat branches were Infantry, Armor, Artillery, combat engineers, and now Special Forces. Never considered a transportation battalion a combat unit.
Beans and bullets.
See now the media looks at combat differently. If you go to an area of combat operations, then your a combat vet. Even though you are delivering water, food etc. That is not what veterans think combat is. Actually fighting would be a combat veteran.
Jimbojszz, SFC D, rgr769, and Sapper3307,
Flashback to 2022. Remember when Ohio’s
JR Majewski was claiming to be an “Air Force combat veteran”??
By the way…. Where’s JR at these days?
[ WASHINGTON (AP) —
Campaigning for a northwestern Ohio congressional seat,
Republican J.R. Majewski presents himself as an Air Force combat veteran who deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, once describing “tough” conditions including a lack of running water that forced him to go more than 40 days without a shower.]
https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-afghanistan-ohio-campaigns-e75d2566635f11f49332bd1c46711999
40 days without showering! Doesn’t mean he didn’t clean up another way. Did anyone ask him about that specifically?
Air Force didn’t issue combat action ribbons or medals until recently. So it’s possible he served in a combat operation and does not have the award. During Vietnam the USAF had no CAB awards for ground operations. They occasionally issued Airmen’s Medals for something’s. Or PH if you died, etc.
Jimbojszz,
No.
It’s all over the (old) news.
JR served an important support role,
loading aircraft in Qatar.
He lied, and lied, and lied,
about Afghanistan and combat,
got a few phony vouches,
claimed “classifed”, and more,
and never produced a single verified vouch
that he ever set foot in, or even flew over, or landed in, Afghanistan.
Worse, he has since claimed “vindication”,
for recently receiving an updated DD-215
and receiving a belated GWOT-E,
but NOT the Afghanistan Campaign Medal
(requested and denied).
IIRC, because he was a cargo handler for transport aircraft. If he did accompany a load into A-Stan, he was likely only on the ground Lon enough to unload the cargo bay on a C-17.
It use to be the USAF like to award medals to the pilots, and crews. It was difficult to prove you were on flights in a support role. But others on the flight could vouch for you if your name got missed. Doesn’t sound like anybody remembers him being there.
requested and denied. If you spend one minute in an AOR you qualify. So it definitely sounds like he never set foot in Afghanistan. It sounds like the GWOT-E is awarded for taking part in the operation without always actually being in country. Support role from another location. Not to disparage those that received that award, but the criteria is different than a campaign medal.
Jimbojszz,
Correct.
Dozens of countries, areas, and named Operations quality for the GWOT-E.
It’s the opposite of “vindication”,
the latest of JR’s LIES.
That bitch ain’t a combat veteran. She was a fobbit/REMF.
If you went to Ranger School and graduated with the Tab, you likely “struggled.” Every day was a struggle except for the last one when we were handed our certificates of graduation and ordered to pack up our stuff and sign out.