Korean War Vet’s Board of Directors; Thomas Martin McHugh

So the larger article about James Ferris from the Syracuse Post-Standard came out this afternoon and the Board decided that they want a pretender representing their organization in this the year of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the ceasefire in Korea;

“We are totally supportive of Jim Ferris,” said Larry Kinard, of Midland, Texas, the group’s first vice president. “We feel that he has been wronged. Jim Ferris has been a very qualified and outstanding president of our organization, and the board supports him totally.

“In this case, we don’t think it meets the definition of stolen valor. He was simply honoring his brother’s wishes,” Kinard said.

Yeah, he was wronged. Why is it that we’re just hearing that those were his brother’s medal now after it’s become national news. And I’ll remind everyone that his initial reaction to the reporters’ questions was that I was wrong.

So, I guess you’re wondering how this could happen. Well, maybe it’s because the leadership of the KWVA is shot through with phonies. Like Thomas McHugh;

I wrote to Mr. McHugh a few weeks ago to ask him about the discrepancies in his record. I almost went deaf from the sound of crickets – well, if I wasn’t deaf already. Look at the size of that rack he’s sporting. It hardly compares to his records;

His highest award in the picture is the Meritorious Service Medal. None in his records. The rest are too blurry to make out, except the Army Acheivement medal and Good Conduct medal on the top row. I see a NCOPD Ribbon, a National Defense Service Medal, an Army Service Ribbon and an Overseas Service Ribbon. All petty stuff, but almost none of it is in his records. But I don’t see any overseas tours in his thirty years of Reservist annual training stints;

Yeah, it’s all minor BS, but I guess there are degrees of Stolen Valor at KWVA. They’re willing to accept Ferris’ hijinx because, I’m guessing that they’re all hiding something. I have another couple that I’ll be rolling out unless the little club fixes this bullshit.

Correction: I mistakenly called the Syracuse Post-Standard the Syracuse Herald in the original. I wasn’t aware that the Herald had been out of publication since I left. The Herald and Post-Standard were interchangeable in those olden days.

Category: Phony soldiers