Scott Brown opponents charge Stolen Valor in MA
Ya know, I’m always down with busting some stolen valor creeps in our government, but I ran across a link last night which charges Scott Brown, the Republican Senator who sits in the Teddy Kennedy seat these days, with Stolen Valor. I tried to be outraged about it, but I just couldn’t summon the bile. But here’s the story;
Apparently, Brown, a member of the Massachusetts National Guard, served his two-week drill this year in Afghanistan. I don’t know if he finagled the brief deployment with the state’s AG or what, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did, nor would it surprise me that he did it for purely political reasons.
Regardless, according to this blog on Cape Cod Today, Brown is now telling constituents that he served in Afghanistan. Well, technically, he did. And he’s a JAG officer, so, ya know, they rotate in and out of war zones as they need to – it’s the nature of their job. The author of the blog is outraged that Brown never saw combat, but that Brown claims that he “served in Afghanistan”. An awful lot of people go to Afghanistan and never see combat. That’s why so many come back without the award of a Combat Action Badge.
So, basically, this blogger and some of my friends are upset that Brown can say he “served in Afghanistan” and they charge that it’s stolen valor for him to say that. I don’t see it.
And then in the same breath, they defend Brown’s opponent, Fauxcahontas Elizabeth Warren’s claim that she’s a Native American;
Brown’s claim that he “served” in Afghanistan, directed to the electorate, is a far greater fraud than anything he’s tried to pin on Liz Warren for her claim to Native American ancestry.
She in fact has a good faith basis for believing she’s part Indian, whether it is factually correct or not, because it’s something she was told by her mother as a small child.
So, just because her mother lied to her, that makes it OK to take advantage of set-asides for real Native Americans – like phony veterans who take benefits meant for real veterans. Never mind that she could look in a mirror and see that her claim wasn’t true. But Scott Brown did actually “serve in Afghanistan”, and I’m pretty sure that his records will reflect that, no matter how hard the Democrats will wish otherwise.
Like I said, I tried to get exercised over Brown, I even tried to get TSO to get me exercised about him, but we just couldn’t summon the outrage. Maybe the Democrats would like to define how long we have to serve some place in order to say it out loud.
And they didn’t seem so upset when they discovered that Richard Blumenthal lied about his service in Vietnam. Blumenthal wasn’t even in Vietnam a day, but the Democrats elected him despite the fact that he was caught in a lie and refused to apologize for it. But Brown actually does go to Afghanistan, and they’re upset? Sounds like a double standard to me.
Category: 2012 election
as all know Doug & Pam Sterner ( Home Of The Heroes ) were behind SVA #1 … Dougs input. ( I’m kinda surprised he “endorsed” the dushbag.. other than .. he echoes what I stated.
“It sounds to me like we just got another Blumenthal Connecticut, Mark Kirk type things there,” said Vietnam veteran Doug Sterner, referring to exaggerated military claims two years ago by now-Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)
“I thought it was seriously misleading,” said Sterner, whose website outing heroes was the basis for Brown’s “Stolen Valor” bill. Sterner’s criticism echoes a Boston Globe editorial published Thursday morning.
“I think it does go to an issue of personal character and that concerns me,” added Sterner, who earlier this year broke with Brown and has endorsed Warren.
Sterner said it wasn’t that Brown’s service was with the National Guard that’s the problem. Scores of Guard members have been recipients of the Medal of Honor, he noted. Brown’s mistake, he said, was implying that his service in Afghanistan was a real tour of duty.
“I would be the last person to denigrate anybody’s National Guard service, but I thought the claim, putting himself on par with men and women who have done combat tours, often in excess of a year, 14 months, was a pretty cheesy thing to do,” Sterner said.
He allowed that Brown can legitimately claim spending time in Afghanistan. But he said he also thought it broke the spirit of what Brown tried to with the Stolen Valor Act, which Brown himself said was aimed at stopping people from benefiting by swiping the real glory from others.
“It is wrong and cowardly for people to make fraudulent statements in order to receive distinctions that they have not earned,” Brown said in July. “We need to ensure that no one can benefit from making false claims and steal the true valor of the courageous servicemen and women who selflessly defend our freedom.”
Going to Afghanistan during your annual 2 week training period is “not for training” in my eyes. I don’t know too many folks who do their AT in a Combat Zone. Regardless, Brown is factually correct to say he Served in Afghanistan. Is there anything else in his claims that indicate he did anything more than what he actually did? No.
He did “serve in Afghanistan”. Same as my Zoomie buddies who may have only had to go there for a few days to fix a piece of equipment… they served in Afghanistan and unless they go claiming they were outside the wire doing point end of the spear shit then I have no issue with them either.
We have seen real examples of this bull shit and Scott Brown is not one of them.
I find Doug Sterner endorsing Lizzie Warren troubling. He is entitled to endorse who he likes, but this endorsement coupled with his own comments from above make me believe that this is much more personal for him than anything else. That his outrage at Sen Brown is based on a personal disagreement he has had with the Senator. So he now uses Stolen Valor to attack him…
John here’s what irritates me… I’m a navy reserve intelligence officer (information dominance warfare), so I’m all too familiar with mobs and the whole IA thing. We never deploy as a unit, rather, we go and fill IA billets generally with the marines or the army. This means that the mob experiences amongst us are as vast and different as the people and missions we support, however, the unifying factor is the mob/bog time: which is always just shy of a year (this excludes the mandatory work up and downs). Anyone in the Reserves post 9/11 understands the ebb and flow of mobs, and anyone from an IS3 all the way up to our Skipper can be mob’d to fill an IA billet. This process can happen suddenly (as during the surge) or it can be something that is semi-controlled. But in either case, it’s always the “needs of the Navy” first. Getting tapped as an IA as a reservist means leaving civilian careers, breaking leases, giving up promotions etc — in short the impact of a civillian putting their life on pause to go on active duty for a year with the intention of returning to that life after, can have long and far-reaching impacts on them. Furthermore, with the “withdrawl” of combat forces, the IA thing will continue on, and we have been told to expect to fill more billets from our active colleagues. So what does this have to do with the price of tea in china? Well as a reservist Brown has the opportunity to represent us uniquely in Congress. He could and should be an advocate for reservists and guardsmen. Furthermore, as a reservist, if he wanted to go to AFG, do so as an IA. Go fill a hard JAG billet like any of his colleagues or any other reservist. Going to AFG on 2 week AT is not only unheard of, it is insulting and paints a picture that reservists just pop in and out of Afghanistan (or any war zone) for a few hours. I’m not going to lie, much of what… Read more »
What is striking me is the criticism of him going at all. That he should have gone as a Senator not a Colonel. Well I don’t know, I guess he could have and made the trip completely political I suppose….
Bottom line what he did was not Stolen Valor and I find the labeling of his actions as such to be an insult to not just him but to what “Stolen Valor” is. He committed no crime, claimed no awards or decorations he did not earn, no heroics he did not accomplish… Nitpicking on what constitutes actual “Service” is beneath what Stolen valor should be about in my humble opinion.
Whatever happened to All gave some? Do we now distinguish ones service by their branch or whether they were active, guard or reserve? Whether they were Combat Arms or Support?
Those who claim to have been something they were not, those who claim awards they did not earn, those who never served and do any of the above… they are the ones stealing valor.
Scott Brown did none of those things. He served, and served his AT time in Afghanistan. You can question his motives on it I suppose, but to call it stolen valor is ust wrong.
@54 I agree with you and John this is not stolen valor. However, it is using his position to obtain something not available to fellow reservists: an AT in AFG. If he wanted to do it right he could’ve found an IA or at least some ADSW. But to make it sound like reservists just do 2 weeks in war zone is maddening. What gaining command did he support while there, hell, what did he do there? Basically he wanted to pad his resume before things wind down, so he pushed to do a 2 week AT, thus forgoing the normal year IA thing, the several months of mob prep and stand down. Hell with travel time he was probably only 9-10 days. Yes he was there and was there under orders, but how he got there and why is the part that he doesn’t get a pass for. Furthermore, I don’t know that AT counts as active duty, so technically if that’s the case he wasn’t there on active duty orders..
If you want to read about a real scumbag I hate to say it there are quite a few IDWO Navy folks in Congress, and the one who has lied about his record on the matter is Mark Kirk.