Dillard “Carnivore” Johnson (UPDATED)
Several folk sent us the records of Dillard Jay Johnson, the deadliest man in the history of the world, or something. The records seem to be missing a couple of years, and his Silver Star;
His FOIA shows that he served until 2006, but his 2-1, or whatever they call it these days, seems to stop in 2004;
But he is listed on the DoD website as a recipient of the Silver Star;
Oddly enough, his kills aren’t listed in his records. I know this won’t clear up any of that discussion, but there it is for what’s it’s worth.
This is from a Christian Science Monitor interview with Johnson;
I spoke to Mr. Johnson after this story was first published. He says his new book doesn’t claim that he killed 2,746 enemy combatants or that he has 121 sniper kills. He says while those numbers are on the book jacket, and in HarperCollins’ publicity for the book, that the claim is never made in the text of the book and that it is inaccurate. He says he is not responsible for the publisher’s writing. The 2,746 number he says is his battlefield estimate of those killed by both him and the men he was fighting with. Johnson says the he did kill 121 enemy combatants on his second deployment to Iraq, with M4 and M14 rifles, and that the choice of the term “sniper” was because average readers don’t understand the difference between a marksman and a sniper. He says that Mr. Spaid could not have read the book, that Spaid’s claim that dismounts were extremely rare during the invasion are inaccurate, and that Spaid wasn’t in a position to speak to what Johnson witnessed and experienced. Johnson says that while he once gave an estimate that he’d perhaps fired 7,000 depleted uranium rounds from his Bradley during the invasion of Iraq that he gave that estimate to an interviewer while wounded and at Walter Reed hospital in 2003 and that it was only an estimate. He is uncertain about how many rounds were fired.
Yeah, OK. He goes on to say that the story about cutting the wire is true, and he regrets that he didn’t correct the Fox & Friends interview about the number of “kills” he had. Whatever, dude.
Category: Who knows
The database also shows NMI for No Middle Initial. All his other records show a middle name of Jay. I find it hard to believe the new awards databse would not have that level of detail. Just an observation.
It does show his lack of “sniper school”. Or is that classified?
It really angers me as an oif1 vet of the bullshit hes been trying to pass. The fact that he retired pisses me off even more.
FYI, the Army replaced the old 2-1 by the Enlisted Record Brief (ERB) or Officer Record Brief (ORB), as appropriate.
Also 2-1 files ive noticed are as accurate as your company clerk puts paperwork in and div doesnt lose it…..my2-1 was almost blank as was my 214… But i was dying to leave so fast that eventhough i noticed the omissions i signed it anyway….took me a bit of time to correct it
4…. I remember then replacing the nomeclature to erb but i also remember the file itself still said 2-1…but i also got out in 05…which feels like a lifetime ago
If your battalion S-1 shop isn’t worth a damn they’ll forget to forward award orders to HRC for posting in your records. It’s happened to me, but I find it VERY hard to believe that would happen with a Silver Star.
If I had a DA638 for a Silver Star I’d put the damn thing in a fireproof safe.
@6 I think that the Army consolidated the 2A and 2-1 into the ERB/ORB about 2006. I just pulled up my ORB and it is actually a DA Form 4037 as listed on the bottom left of the form and titled “Officer Record Brief” across the top.
@5, Yeah the ERB can be unreliable. At one point all of my civilian education fell off, 5 of my AAMs fell off, I ended up with a secondary MOS of 72Y even though I’m an 11B, and had a tour in Aruba. It took me a while to correct it.
Jonn, the ERB only reflects the “FROM” date of assignments, which explains the 2004 date. The “Brief Date” at the upper left is the date the record was pulled from online, and I don’t think (though I’m not 100%) that veterans still have access to their ERBs. The ERB/ORB and OMPF are outstanding tools–the former for a summarized record of personnel data and the latter for scanned copies of original documents–but neither is automatically updated (though a proactive S1 shop or schoolhouse can make it seem so) except for in a few areas.
I raised the question in the other thread of his Good Conduct Medals. Enlisted ranks receive one every three years unless thay are flagged on their eligibility date or have received UCMJ or other adverse action during the eligibility period (sometimes this goes unnoticed, though). Johnson has at least fifteen years from his PLDC date through the date his ERB was pulled, yet his ERB reflects only three AGCMs for nine good years of service. Given the fact that the ERB has it’s own block to track AGCM eligibility, and that the AGCM is one of the few awards which seem to be automatically updated on the ERB, this tells me that Johnson had some kind of less-than-stellar service.
There are many things about this guy that don’t add up. He is a Silver Star recipient, which is vetted by his former driver yet is not in his records. He is a retired senior NCO whose records are jacked up worse than some Private’s; that ERB wouldn’t get someone past SSG in today’s Army and could explain why he retired as an E-7. He claims combat exploits that rival many MOH recipients’, yet lacks some of the basic gimme awards that every Soldier gets.
And the backpedaling begins….
Whatever the number, it’s puny compared to Tom Ferebee’s total. And he used only one hand, one time, on one button (or was it a toggle switch?)
Colonel Ferebee was the bombadier on the Enola Gay.
I wasn’t in 3ID during the invasion, but prior to the invasion we were told the division lacked dismounts. My battalion (3/187) was attached to 3ID during the Battle of Baghdad, and elements of 325th (from the 82nd) arrived in April to provide further Light Infantry assets to the division. 3ID units cleared the airport grounds but we were brought in to clear the terminal and some outlying buildings.
My NCOIC was with 3ID back then and tells me that his unit didn’t necessarily lack dismounts so much as the ones they had lacked the training and experience to conduct dismounted ops on urban terrain. Same difference if you ask me…
The only thing Dillard regrets is having his bullshit exposed at a national level. If not for places like this website, Dirty Fuckstick would happily continue to cash in on the valor and sacrifice of those who were unfortunate enough to serve with him.
My, my, what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive…
I know for a fact he only killed 2,744 people and not the 2,746 that he claims.
@13, I was with 3/7 Inf 3ID for the invasion and was a dismount team leader. We were maxed out on dismounts well before the invasion back at Stewart. Someone somewhere knew the war was coming and we got a lot of replacements before Christmas block leave (shoulda seen it coming). As far as us being “weak” on mout, well, we didn’t do it a lot, but we did just fine when we did have to push into built up areas on the push North, but our main job anyway was to seize the key terrain of the airport. A day or two before we pushed across the berm we got a drop of about 5 individual replacement soldiers that had been pulled from state side units. One guy was from one of the RTBs. I think they thought we were going to get run through the meat grinder since we were lead task force. No room in any of the Brads so these guys rode with HQ plt, we got to the airport, they got a slap on the ass, a good game, and got sent home. I think Johnson keeps talking about dismounting because a Brad in a Cav unit has the three man crew and two loaders/dismounts. I don’t know how that really works in a Cav unit, but in a Mech Inf Plt the only Brad commander that dismounts is the PL. When he hits the ground, the PSG takes over the mounted section.
I fully concede to your greatness Jonn.
2,746 kills? Maybe cans of beer?
You could do that over 20 years of time in the Army, couldn’t you?
I calculated two cans of beer a day consistently for 20 years, and it comes to 14,600.
It adds up.
another thing, I watched Johnsons interview on Fox, and while I’m no expert, his body language and voice set off my spider sense. He spent most of the interview talking in a low voice, and a lot of time looking down at the table and hade a rather blank look on his face. By contrast if you ever watch a interview with SSG David Bellavia, he is more open, expressive and talks with in a clear firm voice, and this is a man that laid on top of another man smashing his face in with a Kevlar, and when that wouldn’t kill him, stabbed him in the throat.
@16. The two you’re missing died from a hospital infections. They wouldn’t have been there but for their Johnson-inflicted wounds, so he gets kill credit.
Can we add a little to his name, like “Dillard the Dildo Carnivore” … Its a little more colorful ..
@22, I like what his former Blackwater team members called him, “Cock Juggler”
Back in the day I thought your Army personnel file was called a ‘201’ file? I copied everything before ETS. I even have a microfiche film. Anyhoo, a liar is a liar. Kinda like someone telling me they were Adm. Zumwalt’s daughter’s protector…
Next stop for this ass-clown is the cross bar hotel !
“Oddly enough, his kills aren’t listed in his records.”
C’mon, Jonn, everybody knows that confirmed kills are documented in the separate 201-K file.
The problem with the 201-K is that because it contains all the ears and teeth that soldiers take as proof of their kills, it gets all gooey and smelly so the PAC clerks keep it outside, where it often gets carried away by coyotes or wild dogs.
That’s why Dillard’s “confirmed kills” record got lost.
Two CABs? Someone’s S-1 didn’t read the regs very clearly.
What happened to the four Purple Hearts and the CIB?
2,746 kills? I must have been slacking since I don’t have near that many. I know it is a rhetorical question, but how could a person count them? Whenever we killed someone we had to take pictures and document everything (I know it was different during the invasion) and even then we usually didn’t know who was the one that fired the fatal shot.
In the other thread I commented that I was withholding judgment until more facts came to light. Given some of his comments during his retraction, it sounds like he’s taking a page from the John Gidduck playbook: “I never said those things. Others said them.”
His failure to correct the mistakes early on and only attempt to correct them after he’s called out gives me all the info I need…What a shame, the guy had a good career and combat record then effed it all up because of hubris and arrogance.
Someone posted on a different post:
2,746 kills?
Rookie.
#26. Ha! Awesome.
And #27. I was curious about that CAB discrepancy as well. Maybe he got one for Iraq and the other for single-handedly clearing LV 426 of aliens during his stint as a Colonial Marine.
Here’s Yahoo’s post of a Christian Science Monitor article in which the author sounds, to be polite, sceptical:
http://news.yahoo.com/americas-deadliest-soldier-stolen-valor-212237661.html
@24 – You are correct sir. That’s what they were called in the 1960’s, for sure… “201 files”.
@24 and 34: The 201` file as you knew it (and as I did when I entered active duty in 1982) was done away with several years ago. They kept a version of it, but it only contained a few documents which were considered temporary in nature (orders placing you on jump status, requests for ID cards, stuff like that) and they were maintained at the Personnel Services Battalion. All of the permanent records went into an on-line system called “iPERMS” on the Human Resources Command website. I retired last March; I can still access my records on iPERM, but if I try and access my ORB, I get a message saying it is not maintained for reserve soldiers–although I had 29 and change years of active duty, I’m now officially in the retired reserves, so no ORB.
If the ERB is inaccurate, it’s his own darn fault. With the current automated systems, the clerk at the PSB can enter information in most fields (a very few are controlled centrally at DA), and can even print a copy of the ERB/ORB showing you that the change “took.” If something is not listed, it’s because he was either very lazy, or didn’t have documentation.
And when I was issued my DD-214 last February, all my awards and schools were pulled straight off of my ORB electronically. If it’s not on the ERB/ORB, it won’t show up on the DD-214, either.
You can’t hold a jacked up ERB against the guy. Mine went years without being updated despite multiple combat deployments and awards. Valor awards like Silver Stars sometimes take years to go throught he valor boards process, this was especially true early on in the war when no one really knew how to process them correctly.
That being said, he needs to make a very public apology for his obviously bullshit claims. Then he may regain some of the credibility he has lost.
http://breakingdefense.com/2013/06/26/is-this-americas-deadliest-soldier/
I served with this cat during this time. He was my PSG in A Trp, 3/7 Cav before moving over to C Trp. If memory serves me correctly, he was initially dismissed from ANCOC for wearing Jump Wings but not going to the Airborne school. Everything about this guy smells like S@#$T! I call BS! I never had time to count how many flies were on my MRE much less anyone that I had even shot at!It frustrates me when people like this do and say these kinds of things and makes a great unit like “Gary Owen”! Anyone who praises and glotes on “kills” continuously exagerates the numbers. Maby he just meant 247point6. that would be reasonable but still inflated!
Based on the testimony of a majority those who have served with him, that we’ve heard from so far, this butt nugget sounds too much like some of the truly horrible and self aggrandizing NCOs I had the misfortune to work with during my career. Forgive me for not thinking too highly of him, even in light of any legitimate badassery he might have possessed/performed.
Sheesh, gotta slow down my typing. Jacobite, not Jacobit. Lol
[…] “the deadliest US soldier on record with 2,746 kills.” I’ve seen posts at other milblogs about this guy and the outrageous claims being made. I’ve also seen news items, like this one […]
Senior wings with a lack of jumpmaster also rings hollow, so i call BS