Bob Curtis; phony POW on Veterans’ Day
Average NCO found this guy, Bob Curtis, in the Lebanon Democrat. He was to speak at a Veterans’ Day parade for Wilson County, Tennessee;
Principal speaker for the day will be Spc. Bob Curtis, who was a prisoner of war of the Vietnamese for a year, spending his time carrying a 4-feet-by-4-feet bamboo crate he was locked in at night and also at the so-called “Hanoi Hilton.” He escaped twice but was recaptured both times. Curtis, a graduate of Lebanon High School, joined the Army on Sept. 7, 1966. He was attached as a medic to many units, but mainly as part of a long-range patrol team with the 4th Infantry Division.
He is not listed at DPMO as a Vietnam War POW, and actual POW Captain Mike McGrath who was held by the North Vietnamese for nearly 6 years tells us that he wasn’t a POW with him at the Hanoi Hilton;
No man named Bob Curtis was ever with any one of us, the real surviving 662 POWs who came back from the Vietnam War, nor is he known by the Department of Defense in this regard. The official U.S. Government listing of all 3,887 MIAs (to include all POWs) is at this official web site: http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/ Mr. Curtis is not listed. He is a phony POW.
Curtis was actually a Vietnam veteran and a medic. It looks like he did more than 18 months in Vietnam as an aidman and an ambulance driver with an artillery unit. But there’s nothing in his records that indicate that he was a POW;
There is sufficient evidence that he was extraordinary without the story of being a POW and carrying a cage around for whatever reason and his two failed escapes. And those are some really shiny boots and a really sharp crease in those drawers in that picture.
As far as we know, the event went off as planned, but I’ve emailed the editorial staff of the Lebanon Democrat. If I don’t hear from them, I’ll call.
Update: So, the reporter went back to him and Curtis showed him a VA POW card and *surprise* part of his records were destroyed in the 1973 fire. Now he’s saying that he wasn’t held at the Hanoi Hilton, but he was in Cambodia and Laos traipsing around with Viet Cong. He has also reduced his time as a POW from a year to four months.
Category: Phony soldiers
I normally stay out of these threads. The phonies that take/steal money are simply frauds and worse. Like most criminals they either have some half-assed excuse and/or only care if they are caught.
But guys like this are a genuine puzzle to me. I never know whether to be angry, or feel pity.
Some embellishment of a “There I was” story over a beer or ten in a bar is kinda creative, but taking it public is beyond my ability to comprehend.
I think I see starch. I’m having flashbacks.
“I think I see starch.” ROTFLMAO Richard! Thanks brother.
Looks like Derpmancometh has new best bud.
How does one get “Bob” from Elmer Robin Curtis? And his dates of AD service appear to be in the negative, serving from Sept ’66 to July ’66.
I’d guess that Bob derives from Robin, which is close enough to Rob or Robert.
If your given names were “Elmer” and “Robin” wouldn’t you want to go by something else?
Bob Fudd. Bob Gantry. Bob Hood. Bob Redbreast. I am trying to get there.
Doesn’t work with Elmer, and I didn’t mean to suggest that it did. But, if I were unfortunate enough to have been named Robin, I imagine I’d go by Rob. And I’m speculating that Rob can morph into Bob pretty easily. Lots of ways that people can acquire nicknames. But, if I had a name like that, I’d definitely want to go by something else. “Bill, or George, or anything but Sue!”
MrBill…Thanks for the Johnny Cash reference!
Well technically it’s a Shel Silverstein reference…
Considering what medics do on a regular bass….why in the hell tell bullshit stories??
This really stumps me….an honorable term of service and he shit on it.
Exactly. Medics are a grunt’s best friend. When I was a PSG in Iraq that guy stayed at my hip pocket. Those guys do amazing things and this guyjust ccapped all over them.
Twist,
I was a medical PSG with 1st Cav in Iraq; my line medics got pretty attached to their 11B platoons….didn’t want to leave them.
You guys took damn good care of them.
Word.
+100!
I was Navy. We had Corpsmen and those with the Marines and our SpecWar were some of the bravest men I’ve ever seen. I retired in 96. What is a PSG? I don’t know it but would like to know. Thanks.
PSG = Platoon Sergeant.
PSG= Platoon Sergeant.
Oops,Proud,duplicate entry.We must have typing at the same time.Disregard.
This guy is a pathetic dump. I don’t get this, either. The medics got shot and killed, just like everybody else, and his job was as hairy as you can get.
So he has to go and ruin all of that with BS?
He REALLY needs to talk to someboby about his self-esteem.
He claimed LRP, that fits him with a certain character, and maybe he’ll claim it’s his First Amendment right to say what he wants, then “lawer up” with someone in the PNW. He had a career with all kinds of bragging rights as is, WHY the embellishment? But hey, everyone else wonders the same thing.
You forgot that he looks like he could eat 7 lbs of cheese at one sitting.
A Proud Infidel®™…Well since he claims he was a LRRP, I wonder if he and Dullass know each other. “The LRRPS Cometh”…I guess they still are anyway.
sLRRP! Ahhhhhh. . . . .
Speakin’ of which, I see that the comments are now closed on that WIAT SV thread, they must have gotten sick and tired of some other previously busted SV turd or two running their yaps and posting in another language!
Actually, Sparky got tired of Bernath posting Sparky’s address and phone number all over the place and called their legal department. The only person who has posted Bernath’s address and phone number here is Bernath.
I wasn’t all that happy about it, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let this clown post this stuff and claim I’m the one who did it.
Who other than Daniel A. Bernath has posted his address, email addy, and phone number as well as that of others here and elsewhere? Oh that’s right the *SLUUUURP*mess, I mean “Man”, he posted that of the wrong Men on Lars Larson’s website when they accused the first two wrong men of being me!!
CRAP, I hit the “Post” button too soon. Yeah, I don’t blame you one bit, but as it’s been said before, critters like Daniel A. Bernath and his ilk “…are the reason we can’t have nice things”!
Just another “no one appreciates me” maggot.
Sad, just sad.
Dipshit
One of two things are going on with that photo of him.
1. It’s his first day in country and he’s a FNG.
2. He’s a ambulance driver.
Those boots he’s wearing have never seen the bush. If your a grunt or were with the grunts in the bush, those boots would have zero polish on them. Those boots scream of in the rear with the gear!
The background in that photo doesn’t look like any photos I’ve seen of Vietnam – and it does look like desert mountains in the background. Per his record of assignments, the guy was stationed at Irwin as a Battery Aidman in 1967 for a few months before his unit was PCSed to Vietnam. I’m guessing that photo was taken at Irwin.
Guys like this I just don’t understand. Served honorably, in combat, as a medic; was there for Tet 1968. And it still just wasn’t enough for him, so he had to lie about what he did with fake LRP and POW cock-and-bull stories.
SaD – jUsT fReAkInG sAd As HeLl.
Whoa, slow down there, fellas!
Those are jungle boots, part leather and part nylon mesh uppers, with breathing holes in the arch of the foot.
It used to be that you could buy jungle boots at an Army-Navy Surplus store. I had a pair for hiking in the bush with a camera. They didn’t require breaking in the way paratrooper’s boots did and were quite comfortable.
He must have hung onto his greens (pickle suit) from them there in-country days, because he looks like he’s my age in that photo. But starch?
Oh, please! I can dig up all kinds of footage of guys going in to the bush, going on patrol with the sleeves cut off their shirts.
I’m guessing, but I’d say he got the greens at a surplus store, too, probably from Pvt. Pyle.
EX———Yes they certainly are jungle boots. However, guys who never went outside the wire, had mamma san Polish the leather part to a high gloss.
If you were a grunt or operating with grunts, for any length of time. The black would be almost totally gone. Worn off by bad terrain
Yeah, kinda like the picture of Al Gore Jr. in Vietnam standing ramrod straight with a rucksack on his back and his M16 slung over his shoulder sans a magazine in it!
I’m just mystified by this. There is plenty of stuff someone can dig up to disprove enhanced war stories, or wannabe delusions.
Hondo’s right: this is just frakking sad.
So, the reporter went back to him and Curtis showed him a VA POW card and *surprise* part of his records were destroyed in the 1973 fire. Now he’s saying that he wasn’t held at the Hanoi Hilton, but he was in Cambodia and Laos traipsing around with Viet Cong. He has also reduced his time as a POW from a year to four months.
It’s a shame the bottom half of his 2-1 burned up. It would probably document all of his exploits with no gaps right up to his discharge. Damn fire!
Well shit then, I got to go with legit. I mean he has a card and everything. I need to rinse my mind out with some real honor:
Well there you have it, he’s totally legit. After all, he’s got a POW card and his records were burnt up in the 73 fire.
Works for me, call off the TAH witch unit!
Listen up Curtis, you dumbass. Before telling stories, might do a little homework. There is no way the VC were going to cart a enlisted around the countryside of Laos, and Cambodia. Across the board, the number of EMs and NCOs that were held prisoner was quite small. They would offed you on scene and moved out.
POW, My ass
Not only that…..Curtis states that one day they just LET HIM GO. No prisoner exchange, no ransom, nothing. I guess Bob was so likable that they just thought he should be allowed to go back to his unit so he could continue to fight them. Those VC’s, what a bunch of sweethearts.
Average…….I guess the VC in Laos and Cambodia were a more warm and fuzzy version than the ones in South Vietnam! (Smile)
WTF is a POW Card?? No such thing as far as I know. Though, I do believe there is an epedemic of phony POWs in the VA system, they aren’t issued a specific card to my knowledge stating POW.
When we created Paper medical records, on the folder would be affixed stickers denoting service connection, former POW, PH, etc… But the cards are uniform, and only difference would be a Service Connection annotation on the card.
Sounds like the VAOIG should take a look at this guy, but given the track record…
Records destroyed in the fire, eh? Bullsh!t. Army records for those discharged after 1 January 1960 were NOT affected by the 1973 NPRC Records Fire.
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/fire-1973.html
This tool is a LSoS who’s been “rockin’ the lie” for a long time – probably years, and possibly decades. And
he’smay have conned the VA into enhanced benefits for former POWs (and possibly additional $$$ as well) based on that lie.Former combat medic or not: f**k him.
This “my records got burned up in the fire” excuse is getting on my nerves! Yeah, there was a fire, yes, it did significant damage. But one of the big lessons from that fire is that document redundancy is good.
Having several family members whose official records actually were stored in that building and parts of same were adversely impacted by the fire, nearly complete reconstruction was possible. Between the remaining pieces not burned or water damaged, the copies of records stored elsewhere, and documents in the veterans’ possession, the most significant parts of those “destroyed” records were reconstructed.
Still, that excuse is not as bad as claims of POW and/or Purple Heart status, but it’s gaining ground.