SV wife-murderer to get Arlington plot
According to Associated Press, 83-year-old Raymond Sawyer, who at some point in his life claimed to have been awarded the Navy Cross and also murdered his wife in Arizona in 1983, died in prison and is now looking at being interred at the Arlington National Cemetery.
In order to build goodwill with the veteran community, Sawyer’s daughter released this statement to build bridges;
His daughter, Mary Sawyer, told KUSA-TV in Denver that the choice of her father’s gravesite was a family matter.
“It’s not the public’s decision,” Sawyer said. “Other people should mind their own business.”
I’d submit to Mary that it’s the public’s decision, since it’s our cemetery and we’ll be paying for it.
But, AP writes that there’s nothing to prevent Sawyer from being planted there since public law only prevents perpetrators of capital crimes from being buried at Arlington and Sawyer was convicted of second-degree murder.
Category: Phony soldiers
Here’s a simple question–has his claim been verified?
Actually, just looked:
http://www.ww2awards.com/award/235/S
The only WW2 veteran with the last name Sawyer to receive the Navy Cross was a Navy Ensign. So no, dear family, he did NOT receive a Navy Cross.
Oh, and the S&S story says he wants to be buried at Fort Logan Cemetery in Denver. Either way, however, this isn’t a good thing. Kudos to the group which refused to provide a color guard for him.
Eh, cremate him and flush his ashes down the latrine.
“It disgraces the Marine Corps and it dishonors the Marine Corps” to bury Sawyer at Fort Logan, said Joe Ryan, a former Marine from Denver who is part of a color guard made up of veterans who carry the U.S. and Marine Corps flags at veterans’ services.
Ryan said his group refused a request made through the Marine Corps to participate in Sawyer’s interment service. Marines spokesman Greg Gordon said he couldn’t immediately comment on whether any active-duty Marines will attend.
Good for them, I wouldn’t want to be part of that Color Guard either…
In 2006 Sawyer submitted a bogus Navy Cross citation to the Legion of Valor, and it wa spublished with his photo in the January 2007 issue of their magazine. A scan of that page is available at the POW Website at http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies336.htm. Also of note is the article published in his old home town (back East) newspaper afer his admission to the LOV (scan at the bottom of the Schantag’s page referenced above), including some additional incredulous claims. Sawyer was to have been the FIRST bust under the New Stolen Valor Act but, one week before FBI Agents arrived to interview him, the AZ Cold Case detectives obtained his confession to his wife’s murder. The man was a total sleeze.
Well, considering how things have become so effed up and mismanaged at Arlington, I’d be surprised if they even buried the right guy under his headstone. I am so frikkin’ pissed about what’s happened at Arlington that I try not to even think about it anymore. It’s an absolute disgrace.
The sorriest part of this is that the family is guilty of stolen valor, too. They are playing off the fact that there are people out there with more honor and decency than they have. They will parasite the system, to bask in the light of an honor they should never receive, either.