Marvin Whiteacre – The Updated FOIA Reply

Remember Marvin Whiteacre? The guy in Florida who made all kinds of outrageous claims (including being an “off-the-books SEAL” even though he was a Marine) and wore a bunch of badges and combat decorations until Don Shipley nailed him?
I filed a FOIA and got a summary of his military records from NPRC about 6 months ago; Jonn posted it in this follow-up article. But as commenters noted at the time, the FOIA reply seemed incomplete. So I said I’d file a second FOIA asking for the missing info.
It took quite a while, but NPRC finally “answered the mail”. The new FOIA reply appears to be reasonably complete, and it fills in the gaps.
It’s a number of pages, so I’m not going to post a bunch of screen captures. A PDF version of the FOIA reply can be found here; you’ll need either Adobe Reader or Acrobat to view it. Yeah, it’s dated 3 September – but it wasn’t postmarked until 31 October for some reason. Go figure.
Turns out the guy actually had a reasonable career. He did serve honorably in Desert Storm; he even served in combat (CAR); and he participated in relief efforts following with Hurricane Andrew (HSM). He doesn’t seem to have been a sh!tbag, either; he got 2 or 3 Meritorious Masts and best I can tell seems to have received 4 GCMs in 13 ½ years. I’m not terribly good with “Marine-speak” for awards, but it looks like he might have a couple of NAMs as well. He also has 3 or 4 unit awards plus some routine campaign/service medals and ribbons associated with his assignments and service. They’re on the last 2 pages of the FOIA reply.
All in all, the guy had an honorable if maybe unspectacular career.
But no – best I can tell, no Force Recon; no SEAL training; no BSM; no Drill Sergeant assignment; no Purple Heart. Just a “plain vanilla” career.
My guess after looking at what seems to be his complete record of assignments and awards is that he was a career Sergeant, and got caught up in the mid-1990s reductions. It looks to me like he never made Staff Sergeant, hit HYT (RCP for us Army-types) for Sergeant, and got discharged after serving a few days over 13 years 6 months. At that point, it looks as if he transitioned to the IRR for about 3 more years, then was discharged. But I could easily be wrong.
Guys like this perplex the hell out of me. He had an honorable if unspectacular career, served his nation in combat – then had to go and p!ss all over that honorable career by lying through his teeth about his service, apparently in an attempt to make people think he was some kind of Rambo character. I’lL nEvEr UnDeRsTaNd WhY sOmE iGnOrAnT dIpStIcKs Do S!Ht LiKe ThAt.
Still, to Whiteacre’s credit he did actually come clean and own up to his sh!tbaggery when Shipley nailed him; that’s more than you can say about most. And he does seem to have stayed clean since – even though it’s only been about 6 months. Let’s hope he stays clean.
I just wanted to post this update for completeness.
. . .
PS: Completely different subject. To all who’re reading this who’ve been or are in uniform, regardless of where or when – a very happy Veterans Day from the road, my brothers- and sisters-in-arms.
Category: Phony soldiers
Be happy who you are and what you accomplished…no more, no less…
True words to live by…
Thanks Hondo. Happy Veteran’s Day to you and all my brothers and sisters here in my TAH family.
Marvin Whiteacre served 13 years? I became more of a real fake American hero spinning my 58 days of grueling US militay service than this Bernath-Come-Lately could spin with 13 years of honorable service.
Of course, I also did the smart thing and became a Shipley-proof no-database havin’ Spetsnaz anti-SEAL instructor.
http://thetruthaboutsocnetlies.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/likely-itar-violations.pdf
As proof, you can see me performing anti-SEAL training in Russia at the top of page 25 of the link. It may appear to be three old guys taking PADI training in any old pool but the Spetsnaz candidates are just out of view.
Ignore the stuff about funding child soldiers and ITAR violations. Pretend it’s like a Playboy magazine except you’ll be enjoying it for the photos and not the high quality writing.
It’d also be great if the link wasn;t shared with Federal law enforcement.
sincerely
John “Faker 6” Giduck
I
Hondo, that last part: Coffee, meet screen.
The key word in all of that is “unspectacular”.
There are thousands upon thousands of veterans who had unspectacular careers. Granted, for most just to have served is enough (for them and for us).
In his case, he wanted to tell stories that made his career not seem unspectacular.
Happy Vets Day Back.
Still a Turd.
Hmmm. I, for one, am quite pleased that my military career was unspectacular. But, all during that career I kept myself and my folks as prepared as possible in case some spectacularity crossed our paths.
Why would he do this? He had a very honorable career…
I just don’t get it some times.