Stolen Valor charges in Pacific, WA
Nucsnipe sent us a link yesterday about Cy Sun who won a contentious election last November for the office of mayor in his hometown of Pacific, Washington as a write-in candidate. Now it seems his opponents are trying to make questions about his military service and claims a reason to keep him from being in office;
Sun’s campaign literature said he earned a Purple Heart — a distinguished service medal — and an extremely rare Croix de Guerre, a French medal given to only a few Americans, including generals Patton and Eisenhower.
“(The claims) seemed outlandish. And somebody with the awards that he has claimed would be fairly well recognized in this state and in the veteran’s community. Nobody knows him,” said Hulsey.
Today we read that our buddy Doug Sterner is on the case;
Sun earned a Silver Star – the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a U.S. soldier – while serving in the Korean War, according to research by Doug Sterner, a curator for the Military Times Hall of Valor in Alexandria, Va.
The U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division – Sun’s outfit – doesn’t list anyone with his name as a Silver Star recipient, Sterner pointed out, although he is listed by the Korean War Veterans Association.
Sterner’s database also shows a “Hebert Cy Sun” was awarded two Purple Hearts in Korea. Sun was wounded in action – Feb. 1, 1951, and Sept. 18, 1951, while he was with the Army’s 23rd Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division.
Maybe we should all just keep our medals out of politics if they’re going to be used against us. Having said that, Sun should be working overtime to drag out the documents and quell the debate immediately. He claims that the paperwork is all boxed up, he should unbox it ASAP instead of making excuses. If you’re going to make your military service a matter of political debate, be ready to prove it.
Category: Veterans in politics
I don’t know, I’d say it’s not all that outlandish. The Croix de Guerre is often worn as unit decoration, including in the 2nd ID. Considering the sub-par reporting that goes on at the municipal level of politics it could easily be a misunderstanding.
“paperwork all boxed up”? His Silver Star citation? Practically every Silver Star recipient I know, gets a copy of their Silver Star citation… off the wall from their home office/den. I’m calling BS on this one.
Seems plausible that he did wear the French award at one time since it can be awarded to units and worn by members while they are part of that unit:
In the United States military, the Croix de guerre was authorized as a foreign decoration. In the modern age, however, it remains one of the most difficult foreign awards to verify entitlement. This is because the Croix de guerre was often presented with original orders only and rarely entered into a permanent service record. The unit award was virtually never entered into U.S. records, especially since in most cases it was considered a temporary decoration which was surrendered when an individual departed a unit. An added complication is that the 1973 National Archives Fire destroyed a large number of World War II personnel records, meaning that there are very few sources from which to verify a veteran’s entitlement to the Croix de guerre.
In World War II, the 440th AAA AW Battalion (Anti-Aircraft Artillery – Automatic Weapons) of the U.S. Army received the French Croix de guerre Unit Citation for stopping the German Ardennes counter-offensive in holding the town of Gouvy, Belgium for 4 1/2 days at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge on December 16, 1944. Gouvy is midway between St. Vith and Bastogne. Commanding Officer of the unit, Lt. Col. Robert O. Stone, and Pfc. Joseph P. Regis of the unit, received the Croix de guerre Avec Palme.
Today, members of United States 5th Marine Regiment and 6th Marine Regiment, the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, the Army’s 3rd Squadron – 4th Cavalry Regiment, and the Army’s 1st Battalion – 28th Infantry Regiment, are authorized to wear a fourragère signifying that brigade’s award of three Croix de guerre during the World War I, but only while that individual is assigned to the unit. The wearing of the decoration is considered ceremonial and the fourragère is not entered as an official military award in permanent service records.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croix_de_guerre
Ever been to Pacific? That would explain a lot if you had.
Not sure if you were referring to me.. but no, I have not.
I tried to find info on this guy while he was running and found nothing. That by itself means nothing especially when you take into consideration the warehouse fire of ’73 and the fact that during the war he served in there was often no real record of who received the Purple Heart. Often times it was simply pinned to their pillow while asleep.
The thing that made me question his claims involved the Croix de guerre. He was going around my neighborhood dropping papers at our doors with his accomplishments and accusations. On the paper it said he had been awarded the Croix de geurre and only three? other Americans had ever been awarded this. I found a list of over 100 soldiers that had been individually awarded.
Maybe it means something and maybe it doesn’t.
The Croix de Guerre is possible. The 23rd Infantry had a French volunteer battalion attached to it for most of the war in Korea, and at least 75 American soldiers in the 23rd Infantry received some grade of the CdG during the war. http://www.koreanwar2.org/kwp2/usa/2id/003/USA_2ID_070018_1151.pdf (see page 8) As for the idea that only three other Americans received the honor, he could be referring to the grade of the decoration. Only four American soldiers in the 23rd Infantry received the CdG (Order of the Army), two posthumous. Unfortunately, the document at the link does not list recipients by name.
I have no idea how the emoticon got in post 7. I meant to type see page 8.
Kyle@ 6: If I remember correctly the archive fire only affected records from WW2. Since he served in Korea and Vietnam the records should still be on file.
And Kyle–all records are also backed up elsewhere. If anyone gives you the, “St. Louis records fire” excuse, it’s about a 999 out of 1000 chance their claims are bullshit.
My Dad retired in 1956 and his records were destroyed in that fire. Yes, there was enough stuff elsewhere to confirm that what he had in his possession was correct, but had he not had what he did, he would have been SOL. And, of course, following that fire much more care was taken to duplicate storage of official personnel records.
Who cares? He won the election. Why don’t these guys just go watch football or something. Smells like somebody lost or is going to lose some money here. I am sure the other candidate told the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
None of this is about medals. That’s just a diversion from the poor loser Richard Hildreth EX MAYOR. Hildreth has no life and being mayor was his entire identity. Hildreth is a name dropping wanna be who got into office with a bunch of BS promises. Then he takes all this emergency management stuff so he can claim the “town’s not safe” unless he’s mayor. Heads up the flood that destroyed homes happened before Hildreth ever took a class and all the classes in the world couldn’t have prevented the flood as it was man made due to the Army Core of Engineers releasing the water. No one died by the way. Hildreth is a babbbling baby who’d rather claim the voters are too stupid and had to have booted him from office from voter ignorance rather than admit that he – Hildreth – is just an ego manic ass who the voters got tired off. Voter’s simply didn’t want Hildreth anymore. 8 years of Hildreth BS was finally enough, so the voter’s elected a write in rather than Hildreth or anyone who sat on the council with that Ego maniac. When you have an 8 year mayor – Hildreth who can’t even set an example of paying his damb water bill on time what can you expect? Hildreth claims it’s all little stuff and maybe it is, but that’s the point isn’t it? You had a mayor who couldn’t pay his water bill on time over 50 late payments in a few years, too stupid to know you can’t use the city credit card for your wife’s ticket to ANYWHERE, not to mention the previous mayor Hildreth was having his mayoral pay garnished. Hildreth is an embarrasment and the more he and his supporters go after new Mayor Cy Sun the more childish bullies they prove themselves to be. Get a life, and Hildreth get a JOB
@13 Really who cares, at this site it’s the politics don’t mean a damn thing, at least not politics at the local level. Here it IS about the medals and honor. I did six years in the Marine Corps and when I got out I had a whopping two medals, two ribbons (one was retroactive) and two marksmanship badges. Not much, huh? What matters is they were EARNED! Any one who served honorably in any branch is ok in my book until you try to make your service more than it was.
What THIS is about is a man of honor who served honorably and received every dam medal he says he did. Anyone questioning the honor of Cy Sun is in for a big surprise because this is not a man who will just fall in line to placate the idiots who are trying to claim he didn’t earn his medals. This is a man who will wait, let the fools make fools of themselved and then and only then will Cy Sun prove them the fools that they are. Cy Sun never tried to make his service more than it was – he earned every medal he stated. He is just not a man who will let bullies and sore losers question his service or his honor. Sure it would be easy to show the fools, but much better to let the fools swim around for awhile and then let them drown in their own foolish ignorance. That’s one tough soldier, let them drown themselves. All in good time. The strategy of a soldier
Oh, great. Now we who expect this guy to observe the same rules that the rest of us observe are fools.
Whatever.
Dear OWB
This isn’t about rules or anyone on this forum being a fool. Certainly not! Mr. Sun never claimed he didn’t have the documentation AND the medals. That’s gossip and claims by others. Mr. Sun never spoke on the record to “any” reporter about this politically motivated controversy. He simply noted what he’d honorably earned in the military in his campaign literature as proud an honorable man. It’s about what’s right and wrong. If you were approached by some jackass who “claimed” you didn’t have the medals you have and told to be at this jackasses house at 8 the next morning to prove it – like a child bully on the playground. I don’t think you’d go running on over. Would you? You’d likely tell the jackass to go straight to hell knowing you’d earned what you had and the last person or persons you’d be “demanded” to prove yourself to would be a bunch of punks.
I think all the bully’s should stand up an say there sorry. Let the man do his job and support him and stop bullying. What he wrote where not lies it was the truth.
Update: On Friday February 17th Mayor Sun held a meeting to display his medals and gave a talk over an hour long describing how he earned them. If you would like to view the talk it is posted on youtube. Just search the name Cy Sun. It was also interesting to hear the letter of apology sent from the VFW apologizing for the conduct of Gary Hulsey (the man who made the accusations). If you’re wondering if Gary Hulsey was man enough to stand up and publicly apologize I can tell you that he was not. I knew with all my heart that Mayor Sun had earned every medal he claimed. I’m glad he was able to prove it.
[…] Sun on his military service February 22nd, 2012 Last month, based on media reports, we briefly discussed the case of Cy Sun, the veteran who won a write-in campaign against the incumbent mayor of Pacific, CA, against whom […]
Thanks to a friend and fellow researcher…Merry Helm, today I received the General Orders for Cy Sun’s Silver Star. As Merry noted in her email to me (on the heels of this weeks hearing on Congress on the need for a database) “it points out the importance of having that database – not just to identify guys who are breaking the rules, but also to protect men like Mr. Sun from harassment and embarrassment. When I was looking at reader comments below one of the newspaper stories, I learned Mr. Sun was forced to talk about his terrible ordeal on Heartbreak Ridge, and he broke down in public. He also had to show the scars from his wounds to prove he actually deserved his Purple Hearts, etc.
“Had Cy Sun been able to tap into the much-needed database, that awful incident could have been avoided. So, I think it’s important to add that argument to your “reasons why” this database is so necessary.”