Gabriel James Brown; that SF armed robber in Florida
A bunch of you folks have been sending us a link to an article about Gabriel James Brown who is facing trial in Florida for a series of armed robberies. His claim is that he was a former Special Forces soldier and he was driven by the adrenaline and he needed to rob stuff to recreate the thrill of being a special forces soldier. From Stars & Stripes;
A former Special Forces Green Beret, Brown won a Bronze Star for “exceptionally meritorious service” as a weapons sergeant in Afghanistan.
He saw friends killed in combat; he killed others, at least once under orders, he says, when he wasn’t so sure the man posed a threat. He saw civilians, including children, maimed and killed.
He says he still has nightmares about what happened.
When he left the military, Brown went to work for the contractor Blackwater, guarding CIA personnel in Afghanistan, where he again was in danger and fighting against threats seen and unseen.
He became, he says, an adrenaline junkie.
All of that may be true, but according to our friends at Professional Soldiers, Brown was indeed Special Forces qualified, but, they pulled his tab in 2004. It seems to indicate that he was a problem child while he wore a uniform.
I’ve ever seen a Bronze Star Medal for “exceptionally meritorious service”, they’re awarded for either valor (with a “V” device) or meritorious service. Period. I didn’t “win” mine, I earned it – well, my commander thought I did, anyway.
And if he really needed a adrenaline fix, last I checked, there’s still a war going on. He could have gone back, unless there was an administrative reason he couldn’t. Thousands of veterans who did the job he did don’t rob banks every day.
Category: Shitbags
I’ll wager he had one hell of a juvie record before he went in, too.
My BSM Certificate says Exceptionally Meritorious Service during operation Iraqi Freedom. Shit I must be a Phony hahahaha. He must have been a BIG Problem to have his Tab pulled, and we can all see why !
He smoked dope, cheated on his wife, stuck up at least one small store in which the poor clerk was at his mercy, and, of course, none of it was his fault. It was exciting to scare people, get high, and do other bad things. Not his fault. F him.
There is always an excuse for bad behavior, isn’t there? And we see all those excuses here, nearly every day, but they hold water the same as a sieve.
@1…back in the day you had to have a secret clearance before you started Training Group. No interims allowed. I remember one guy doing the duffel bag drag to Division because he had several speeding tickets. It is a lot “nicer” now.
“Excuses are like sphincters, everybody has one!” – Unknown
I’ve had the honor and pleasure of befriending a few REAL SF’s, they and their brethren don’t go robbing for adrenaline rushes, he’ll, the vast majority of Vets, period, don’t. Do the crime, do the time. His hand to hand skills might keep Bubba, Thor, & Company at bay for a while, but eventually…
So there I was, in a 5 week technical training program and someone makes a comment about jailhouse rot-gut. One guy says that all the prisoners take the sugar packets with them after each meal and proceeds to go into detail about how to ferment it and etc….. another guys says “no” the sugar packets aren’t left out on the tables just for that reason. So the response is , “Not when I was in!” And of course the rebuttal is , “Well that’s the way it was when I was in bro!” And yeah, both these losers had secret clearances, yet ironically they could not keep the fact that they did time… a secret. Behold the new era of tolerance.
“I don’t always rob banks. But when I do, I pretend I was part of the A-Team and blame it on my service.” Idiot.
This is local to me and I have read he is also claiming he has PTSD and that contributed… I’m sorry, but that’s a lame excuse. I have PTSD myself, and the only way you get any sympathy from me (or for me to even consider it a defense) is if you have a doctor saying “he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do in treatment for his condition” and it happened regardless. When it’s a lawyer coming out making the claims without proof there was any adherance to treatment recommendations, it only angers me. Anyways- dude is a scumbag
@6: My best friend just retired and is SF w/ a BSM for valor. I don’t see him robbing banks.
so how does one go about having their long tab “yanked”? does your SF unit issue orders revoking your 18 series MOS? I’m asking because the only ex-SF guys I have ever met were either retired, or had left SF for greener fields. My very first unit, one of our platoon leaders was prior enlisted SF, I met a Warrant Blackhawk pilot once during training that was SF, and the PA in my last unit was prior enlisted 18D.
As for this guys adrenaline junkie claims, maybe he should have bought a crotch rocket, taken up drag racing or got a job with a PMC.
Andy: From AR 600-8-22 (11 Dec 2006):
1–31. Revocation of badges, Ranger Tab, Special Forces Tab, and Sapper Tab
. . .
c. Award of badges may be revoked under any of the following conditions:
. . .
(9) Special Forces Tab. Special Forces Tab may be revoked by the awarding authority (Commander, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center) if the recipient—
(a) Has his or her Parachutist Badge revoked.
(b) Initiates action which results in termination or withdrawal of the Special Forces specialty or branch code prior to completing 36 months of Special Forces duty. Requests for advanced schooling which may lead to another specialty or branch code being awarded instead of Special Forces will not be used as a basis for revocation of the tab.
(c) Has become permanently medically disqualified from performing Special Forces duty and was found to have become disqualified not in the line of duty.
(d) Has been convicted at a trial by courts-martial or has committed offenses which demonstrate severe professional misconduct, incompetence, or willful dereliction in the performance of Special Forces duties.
(e) Has committed any misconduct which is the subject of an administrative elimination action under the provisions of AR 635–200 or AR 600–8–24.
(f) Has committed any act or engaged in any conduct inconsistent with the integrity, professionalism, and conduct ofa Special Forces Soldier, as determined by the Commander, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.
(g) The SF Tab for Active and Reserve Component Soldiers will be reinstated by the Commander, U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), Fort Bragg, NC, when fully justified. Veterans, retirees, or next of kin should submit request for reinstatement of the SF Tab to the Commander, USA HRC, ATTN: AHRC–PDO–PA, Alexandria, VA 22332–0471, final review.
I believe that reg is still the current one, even if HRC has now moved from Alexandria to Fort Knox.
Durring the onset of the Snowden ‘thing’ some Senator was wondering how a non-college grad had a secret clearance. I had to wonder wtf higher education had to do with secret-keeping… Like attending some course will teach moral code. I get it, some folks are vetted thru their actions and accomplishments BUT just because you go to school doesn’t mean you can’t revert to a state of dumbassery.
I woulda cut off a nut to attend SFAS.
Regardless, f this guy.
Sad that this man’s life came to this.
This guy is really blaming his training on making him rob shit? Really? Well, I was an armorer, but I don’t go around building illegal weapons. I was sent to the 11-Bodybag 2-week course before deployment, but I don’t go around shooting people. I was a combat lifesaver, but I don’t go around… oh, wait, that last one is actually useful in the real world.
Point is, the guy was trouble while he was in and got his tab yanked. When he got out, he decided to use his service as an excuse to continue his bad behavior.
His blank numbnuts stare looks a lot like one Charles Lattuca III. Except this guy actually served. Then blew a lot of credibility by using PTSD as an excuse to be a thief.
@16 Sparks….
“He gots the googly eyes”….
Sort of agree.
Before you rip my head off though I don’t condone his actions of committing crimes because he was bored. I was bored as shit when I came back. The most alive I’ve ever felt was on deployment knowing there was a target on my back and stepping out not knowing if it was my last.
you rob stores and banks to obtain money. In the process, you sacre innocent people and maybe hurt them. If it was just the adrenaline rush with risk that he like, Russian roulette, with or without another player springs to mind, as does many forms of chicken. He is a criminal and that’s all. oh, and I would add that he failed at that, too. He got caught.
I was actually in the same unit as Brown. This man went through a lot that you would never know. I’m not sticking up for him for his crimes but PTSD is real. If you KILL for a living it effects you. Everyone might not walk a straight line after killing many people going back to civilian life. Everyone deals with PTSD differently so everyone needs to chill and support this war veteran.
What Unit was that? The one he was in when they revoked his Long Tab?
PTS is not an excuse to break the law! Those using it as an excuse for theirs or someone elses actions are doing a great disservice to the thousands of others who never rob banks, kill people, or any other violation of the law because they “caught the PTS”.
P.S. it sounds like he has a personality disorder, not PTSD.