Marine Sergeant Major Kenneth Lovell relieved due to false claims
The Marine Corps Times reports that Sergeant Major Kenneth Lovell III, the sergeant major of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines has been removed from his position because of his false claims of three Combat Action Ribbons and that he was a Sniper School Honor Graduate.
At issue are two claims Lovell made in his official biography that critics say are undeserved: a third award of the Combat Action Ribbon they say could not be explained by his service record, and a claim to have been the honor graduate of his scout sniper basic course, 3-98, in 1998. In fact, sources say, the honor graduate was then-Cpl. Aaron Pine, a Marine who died in 2005 following an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps.
Our buddy, Chris Mark at Global Security, Privacy and Risk Management who has helped us on several previous busts, is the fellow who busted the sergeant major;
Sgt. Major Lovell also claimed to have 3 Combat Action Ribbons (CAR) (see pic to left). His original bio stated that he had : “…CAR3the Combat Action Ribbon with two gold stars in lieu of third award.” For those who are not in the Navy or Marine Corps, the CAR is a defining decoration. It is a ‘by name’ award that indicates that a Marine has been in combat. Only 1 CAR per theater can be earned. For any Marine, having 3 CARS would be an accomplishment. This raised some flags. When confronted, Sgt. Major Lovell amended his bio to include only 2 Combat Action Ribbon awards yet his picture shows him wearing 3. This is not a simple oversight or mistake. A CAR is a personal decoration and is coveted by Marines. This was clearly an attempt to assume an honor that was not awarded.
Chris says that the Marine Corps has further corrected Lovell’s records;
In addition to having falsely claimed a 3rd Combat Action Ribbon and Sniper School Honor Graduate, the USMC also corrected Lovell’s claims of service in Kosovo and with the Israeli Defense Force.
I guess being a sergeant major of Marines isn’t enough for some people.
Category: Marine Corps, Phony soldiers
I guess being a sergeant major of Marines isn’t enough for some people.
Sheesh! Two legitimate CARs and a graduate of the USMC sniper school? And he STILL felt a need to beef-up his CV?
Yeah, I guess you’re right … Being a Sergeant Major of Marines just wasn’t enough.
Hard to figure …. What a shame.
Yep.
That was my first thought, the very accomplishment of becoming an MSM should be more than enough for any person. Claiming the third CAR was bad, but claiming something that belonged to another person (honor graduate)? That’s beyond redemption in my book. Toss his ass, McDonald’s needs someone on the fryer.
A fine and honorable record, including combat service, and he has to p!ss all over it via unnecessarily embellishing same.
This type of case is the hardest one for me to understand. And yet, we see them all too often.
I just don’t get it.
ED or Small Penis?
Where I grew up they’d have called it “ate up with the dumbass”.
I cringe each time one of these stories pop up. Im still junior enlisted here and would only dream of a record of someone like him, extremely disappointing to see this type of act.
Youngster, it’s not just you. I’ve been retired a number of years after doing 30+ between active and Reserve. And I still cringe when I see sh!t like this.
Funny thing is how many times over your career you saw it, and it still goes on. I can remember being a young E-3 and seeing the MPs leading in a CSM fresh from Korea – black marketing and fooling around with a female E-3. 27 years pissed away, and he was crying like a baby.
Back in the 90’s the Ft. Sill Correction Center handled transfers from everything out west going to Leavenworth or other points East. I can’t tell you how many senior enlisted and officers came through there in the 2 years I was there.
The highest officer I saw was a full bird who was convicted of Child Molestation, and the highest enlisted I saw was 2 or 3 E-8s.
Had a Lt Col in the Air Force out here get busted for shoplifting. He had about $200 in his wallet and was busted with $20 in baseball cards that he was trying to lift.
He said he collected them.
Remember the Secretary of the Army who was shoplifting women’s clothes at the Fort Myers PX back in 1993?
Yeah … And the problem is?
I think that he was the Assistant Secretary of The Army, and it was ladies undergarments. He should have done his shopping at Frederick’s Of Fayetteville.
He was Acting SECARMY at the time, Hack. And the 5-Sided Asylum hired him back as a “consultant” getting the average of $85k a year (in 1993!) shortly thereafter.
http://articles.dailypress.com/1993-12-09/news/9312090049_1_army-secretary-john-w-shannon-pentagon
Young man. I’ve been retired from the Corps almost 30 years now. Even now, this is a sorrowful act. Only this Marine will ever understand the why of it.
I remember not too long ago. The MCRD PI SgtMaj was forced to retire after an ‘honorable’ altercation. This SgtMaj should tender his requet to retire. If not, it should be tendered for him.
Navy Captain base commander solicited a hooker, in uniform, in a GOV.
The Navy Captain was the HMFIC of Charleston. My bud works down there, and he said everyone was pleasantly surprised by the turn of events. If you were arrested for a DUI, but no trial yet, he had you barred from the base.
Seems those types are always that way, quick to drop the hammer on people when their shit stinks even worse.
Had a First Class like that in my squadron. Would write up anyone coming back to the barracks if they smelled of alcohol for conduct unbecoming and then he got drunk one night and did 120 mph on his bike into the base fence.
He spent six months in the hospital having skin grafted back on, but the skipper wouldn’t do anything to him saying “Well, he’s suffered enough.”
Guy was a damn ass kissing machine.
How much you want to bet he’s been “inflating” the truth little by little since the late 90’s? You can only pile bullshit so high before it falls over. Some people can just stack it a little higher before that happens like the Smaj here.
I was in the Army, so I’m not sure how things work in the Corps, but I also wonder if little embellishments here and there aren’t why he is currently E-9 instead of E-7 or E-8. Either way, it’s a shame.
He should be reduced to the last rank he honorably earned.
WTF! Havn’t the Marines had a searchable website for CARs for years?
He was my 1stSgt before being promoted, and the things he is claiming now, he claimed then as well. I didnt think much of it, as he actually was a pretty good 1stSgt.
Of course, I had a couple of other 1stSgt’s afterwards that did not have good things to say about him.
D’OH! (facepalm)
WTF Over???
So he threw it all away because of???
I think the head to neck ratio says it all with this turd!
*scrolls up and looks at the photo again*….
WHAT neck….???
😀 😀 😀
Good job Chip,
I have to report your comment because you have done it now …
You have offended the “no neck lobby”.
I can understand this self-aggrandisement in a phony, but this guy?
Is he really that insecure about himself?
WTF, over… SgtMaj of an Marine Infantry BN and rocks the lie? I wonder how long he’s been doing it? Sounds like when he gets back to Camp Lejeune (unit is over in Okinawa right now), he’s got a lot of answering to do to a few people wit stars on their collars… and if I were him I’d be praying that the Corps would be able to let me retire at E-9 pay when they are done with his sorry ass.
There is something much deeper here. I am a Marine infantry Mustang who reached the exalted rank of. Lance Criminal before I eas’d went to college and became an infantry officer.
I am extremely proud of my service but I do not have any heroic combat stories, or there I was stories. I just did my job the best I could. This shitbird, and yes he is a motherfucking shitbird in every sense of the word, had been lying and hiding behind better men his whole career. I have no doubt that he is a loser who rose on the shoulders of real heros and giants.
Exactly. I served in a peace time army.
This is insane…and I suspect we will see more of it. with records getting eaiser to checka and track we will see the ranks inflate thier records to compete when draw downs happen.
face it. with all that combat time out there it will be the litmus test that determines who moves on. I certainly don’t envy the junior officers and enlisted that come in with all this combat experiance around.
The worst I saw was a Medical Officer captain (non-MD type), forge his PT tests. His own LTs caught him and turned in him.
Pitiful. Wonder just how many folks he stepped on with his lies. For them, my ire is properly directed at this clown.
Ouch, when I see someone of this level tell the lies I am reminded of the following quote:
A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.
Baltasar Gracian
Or, one “aw shit” replaces a hundred (or a thousand) “atta boys”.
*like*
“In fact, sources say, the honor graduate was then-Cpl. Aaron Pine, a Marine who died in 2005 following an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps.” That part jumped off the page at me and, sure enough, that is what is behind this look-see into the awards. Sergeant Aaron Pine was honorably discharged and later died, while a civilian, on Sept 11 2005. Was Pine’s honor regarded as a safe claim by Lovell because of Pine’s passing? It certainly was convenient and, if true, that would be worthy of a flogging and a boot.
My understanding is that Lovell was Sgt. Pine’s spotter in Scout Sniper school.
If true, that is sickening.
Another Marine SgtMaj who was probably okay with Marines taking a pay cut.
Just saying…
Word.
Another senior turd who will likely be able to quietly retire at least E-9 pay.
He’s pulled down his LinkedIn page. Probably cleaning up his mess.
Honor, Courage, Commitment? Nah…let’s just make stuff up.
Knob.
When I was a young private (Army), 1SGs, SGMs and CSMs were almost God-like and they had an intrigue about them.
27 years later as an O3 (22 yrs enlisted/ NCO), a big number of them are an embarrassment . The BN CSM during my 2011-12 deployment was relieved because he was an incompetent waste. I witnessed another beg a unit, beg is a nice way to put it, for the “honor” of getting their SSIFWTS or combat patch. That was what he was worried about while we had troops in the field. What patch he was going to get to show off.
I’m not sure what it will take to fix this issue,or if it can be fixed. It is a damn shame.
We’re still reaping the benefits of the Post-Cold War drawdown, both in the Officer and NCO Corps.
Some day…
A lot of folk, some good, some natural born domestic enemy, go on and on about how the battle fronts in Iraq and Afghan were “destroying our military!”
In my more cynical moments, I believe it didn’t stress the military enough. The military never did fully shake out of garritrooper mode and it came no where close to cleaning out the chaff, slackers and scumbags in both the upper enlisted and officer ranks.
Roger!
When we would have to bring the Soldiers back to garrison from the field on Friday nights, only to roll back out to the field Monday morning due to “no weekend training” rules, or needing the permission of an O6 to stay past 1730 to put a part on a dead-lined truck, I knew things were getting ready to suck.
Funny how things change with bad guys shooting at you.
In the early part of my career we would have needed the BDE cdr signature if we wanted to let folks go home at 1730 without hanging the part. And….there was hell to pay for letting a high demand assets such as a tank range sit idle on a weekend.
Different times.
Yep. I once got called into a BN Commander’s office and told there was no room in his Battalion for my “old Army way of thinking” because I re-did a TA-50 inspection on a Saturday that my squad failed Friday.
Three months later I’m a PSG (in the same BN) and he’s off teaching ROTC in Stephenville TX.
I got the better deal but it was one of my last…
HEAR, HEAR! I don’t know enough about the other services to say, but I sure see that in the Air Force!!
Sitting in Afghan with my platoon commander, and my SgtMaj comes by. We start having a conversation, talking about the war, deployment, back home etc. Eventually, we get on the topic of post war Marine Corps. I will never forget what he said:
“I can’t wait for these wars to get over, so we can go back to the real Marine Corps.”
I just looked at my Plt Cmdr, and he looked at me. Both of us had a dumbfounded look on our face. After he left, my Lt said “I thought the whole purpose of a Marine Corps was to fight wars?” I could only reply with “Yep.”
There are too many senior enlisted running around with the same damn mentality, the “real Marine Corps” is drill, ceremonies and looking pretty. While all those things are important to a military organization, I think many of them, after spending so many years at peace lost sight of the bigger picture. Once war broke out, they were wholly unprepared for what that would entail, and they stuck to what they knew. You could see this at any major base in theater, Marines being yelled at for not having a fresh shave coming in through the gate after being on a 9 day patrol, Marines being denied access to the chow hall for uniforms being dirty, not having fresh haircuts, the list goes on.
I thank god every day that I was out in little PB’s during the entirety of my 4 combat deployments and was able to completely avoid the fobbit life, even if I didnt get to experience luxuries they provided.
Rerun0369, I witnessed the same type of senior NCOs. The CSM that was relieved told me one day that he liked going to the Boardwalk (Kandahar Airfield), getting a cup of coffee and sitting around making uniform corrections. He even tried correcting civilians. This guy was a complete laughing stock. I was actually embarrassed for him, as he was too dumb to be embarrassed for himself? Silly me, I thought that it was just about the dumbest thing I ever heard of considering that there was a war going on on the other side of the fence. However, he never knew it. If I ever ended up at the DFAC at the same time as he did, I would sit so that nobody could see that we wore the same patch .
I hate to hear that the Marines had/have the same problem. I worked very closely with the Marines in Afghanistan and have nothing but respect for them. The groups that I worked with were absolutely 100% professional. I still have a flag that they had flown in a Harrier for me. I still stay in touch with many of them.
Fat fingered, I don’t know why there is a ? Following himself.
Some things never change. In ’68 the 82nd had been in the boondocks around Phu Bai. Nasty place. No creature comforts. The AF base in Saigon kept getting rocketed so they moved the BDE there to stop it. Trouble began. AF and Army REMF’s wouldn’t let our nasty vehicles and nasty uniforms on base or at the PX. Vehicles had sand bags on the floors; mine looked like a colander from shrapnel holes. And they wanted to store our weapons. Troopers that had been in the Au Shau valley for almost a year didn’t take kindly to that so some starched REMF uniforms got blood and Phu Bai dirt on them.
I’ve heard it said a lot of ways over the years, in regards to the differences between MSgt/MGySgt and 1stSgt/SgtMajor but let me share one of the most recent ones…
You win wars with rifles and bombs, not diamonds and stars. **You have to know USMC rank to get that one.
I’ve known a lot of really good senior enlisted during my time and a lot of bad ones as well. it breaks down to the individual. The good ones never forget where they came from.
Regardless of their branch of service, my classification for critters like that is 8TFU! Not everyone can serve in the US Military period, let alone make it to Senior NCO rank and status, embellishers like him need to be made an example of, what he did is a slap and a spit in the face of any and every NCO that worked honestly to get where they did!
Back in 1962, the USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN (CVS 30) and the USS ESSEX (CVS 9) were homeported in Quonset Point, RI. I was on liberty with some young swabs from the ESSEX and they were wearing ribbons from WW2. Upon being challenged, they claimed that they were told they could wear the ribbons that the ship had earned. There were E3’s with 3 rows of ribbons. I knew this was wrong. Has anyone else every heard of this?
The Army is a bit different, but the Navy probably follows the same guideline:
The difference is that the Army wears Unit Awards above the right breast pocket, whereas the Navy wears them over the left, like individual awards.
The USS Essex (decommissioned 1969) had the following Unit Awards:
o Presidential Unit Citation
o Navy Unit Commendation
o Meritorious Unit Commendation
o Navy Expeditionary Medal (two awards)
o Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 13 battle stars
o World War II Victory Medal
o Navy Occupation Medal with “ASIA” clasp
o China Service Medal
o National Defense Service Medal with star (two awards)
o Korean Service Medal with four battle stars
o Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with two stars (three awards)
o Philippine Presidential Unit Citation
o Philippine Liberation Medal
United Nations Service Medal
Sooooooo ….. would a young sailor actually be allowed to wear all that fruit-salad? That’s 3-1/3 rows!!
No. When I went from Navy to Army, one of the most ridiculous things that I had to do was pin on stuff that the battalion had earned in WW II. In the Navy, the PUC, MUC, NUC, or Battle “E” represented work that you had done to help the unit receive the award. Just because you were a nonrated seaman recruit assigned to the USS New Jersey in 1986 didn’t mean that you were allowed to throw on a bunch of ribbons from three wars.
When I went home on leave the first time, I got called out by some Marines in the Savannah, Georgia airport for wearing too many medals for an E-2 – they didn’t like the five unit awards I wore on my Khakis and not even an NDSM over my left pocket.
And yet, some former Soldiers never seem to remember to remove those unit awards they were only authorized to wear temporarily after they sign out.
http://valorguardians.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/enhanched-ribbons-awards-1.png
Hondo, something I’ve wondered about for years: almost forty years after I got out, I learned that my unit, 2d Bn, 327th Airborne Infantry was given a second award of the Presidential Unit Citation for a battle in which I actively participated. At the same time I discovered that the battalion had also earned a Valorous Unit Award and a Meritorious Unit Commendation for the period in which I had served with it.
Am I authorized to include those three awards in my military CV since I served in the unit during the time for which the awards were issued?
If you were in a unit when they were awarded the PUC, the VUC, the MUC, those are your permanent awards, too. But they should be on your DD214, so you need a VSO to help you get a DD215 to correct your DD214.
PT: Jonn’s advice is sound. If you need backup, the following links might come in helpful:
For Unit Awards Prior to Vietnam – DA Pam 672-1, July 1961, w/Changes 1-4:
http://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/pdf/p672_1.pdf
For Unit Awards from 1961 thru 1987 – DA Pam 672-3, 29 Jan 1988:
http://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/pdf/p672_3.pdf
For later Unit Awards – see:
https://www.hrc.army.mil/TAGD/Unit%20Awards
You might also have to run down a copy of the DAGO announcing the award. The HRC page somewhere (one of the “previous award” spreadsheets, I think) gives a link for where to do that. No guarantee the source provides a complete list of DAGOs, but it beats having to find them in the archives. (smile)
Thanks for the link, Hondo. I just discovered that I’m also eligible to wear the RVN Gallantry Cross with Palm, awarded for that same battle at Trung Luong.
Found the General Order, Hondo. Thanks.
If he’s married, can we rag on his wife without getting into trouble???
Pretty much indicative of the shape of the entire upper echelon of admin in Pentagon & the rest of the gov’t too, all led by ovomit.
A fish rots from the head down…
This entire admin stinks like a half dozen dead carp on the pier on a hot August Texas afternoon…
Trust me on that one boys and girls, it stinks !!!
Unfortunately every branch will turn up a poor excuse for an E-9 at the command-level. My last first-hand encounter with such a dirtbag (probably 94′ was at Dugway Proving Ground when now retired CSM Doris XXXXXXXX, had his name put on the CSM quarters plaque although he never resided inside of it because it was being renovated when he arrived. Explain that to your Salt Lake City ROTC students Doris.
Doris? And I thought a boy named Sue was bad…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Miller
R1480 No such rule. We wear what we earn. My msg was that extremely young sailors were wearing the ribbons that were painted on the ship itself. My question still stands.
He is a babe in the woods compared to the shit pulled by Larry Gugle ( Marine 1st Sgt) who changed his SRB to add 2 years to his entry date, combat service in Vietnam with 1/9 and awards for valor.
Gugle was busted to E-7 (Gunny), fined and retired at 20. A few years later he popped up claiming to be a retired Sgt Major,,, with the same bs stories that got him kicked out. He actually was vice president of the 1/9 veterans association until they outed him as well.
Yeah this guy justs needs to get his pecker slapped and told to put his papers in.
He wont get any other disciplinary action.
The thing is that there are probably a shit ton of officers and Senoir NCOs that have gotten awards they don’t rate because they had connections. They will never be held to task because they are “legit”.
Try 90% of all BSM’s awarded. They have turned into a damn participation award.
That’s true. I saw a lot more action and actually did things to earn a BSM in Iraq 03-05 and had the award downgraded to an ARCOM.
In Afghanistan I received a BSM and I’m sure that rank had something to do with it.
I feel like I did more to earn my ARCOM my first tour than I did my BSM for my second. The main difference is I got promoted between the two.
When my Company was in Baghdad in 2008, the leadership from E-6 and above were given the BSM, regardless if they deserved it or not. I’m looking at you Captain, let me pin myself one day, Major.
I did 2-3 times the work of that individual and all I got was an Arcom because I was a lowly E-4.
This was in the Reserves mind you.
A lot of units did the same thing after Desert Storm. We started looking at those as just meaningless “service” awards unless there was a “V” attached to it.
This brings up a question I have had for awhile. Say that a Marine earns a BSM for valor and he is awarded the “V” device and later is given another BSM as an end of tour award but without a “V” device. His ribbon with the V now has a star added. It is confusing when observed because you don’t know how many valor awards he actually has.
I know a reserve sub Navy captain that claims eight Navy Com medals with no “V” device. I guess he gets one every summer for his two weeks cruise.
Nothing new. VN: Bronze Star for Company Grade Officers; ARCOM for Enlisted.
Hell, when I did A-stan, EM’s got ARCOMs for end of your awards while E7 and up got BSMs. Yeah, there were Lieutenants that almost never left the wire receiving BSMs for meeping coffee in the pot and making sure the A/C was running!
Shitbags gonna shitbag. The Corps is full of them. No marine is really surprised by this.
Get fucked asshole.
I just don’t understand. I can *sorta* get the wannabes and the ones who washed/medicaled out of boot camp. They wanted it and couldn’t have it, so they pretend. But someone with an honorable, even high-speed career isn’t satisfied? And knows better? And on active duty (where he’s most likely to get caught), to boot? Makes my head hurt just trying to figure it out.
It happens way more than you’d expect. There is a certain class of O’s and E’s that butt-shark their way into positions of leadership based on the story they can tell, not the life they lived.
I would say that in the last 20-25 years, they are the rule, rather than the exception. We, at least in the Navy, live in a zero-defect environment. I’ve seen folks get promoted not because of what they did, but for pointing out supposed defects in others. Navy Medicine is far and away the worst example in the Navy for this. When you have a Surgeon General with a 50″ waist, you know it’s true.
I retired in ’12 after 37 years. I didn’t get out fast enough not to be horribly bitter.
And Fat Boy’s predecessor had credential problems of his own:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Arthur
Lying and bullshitting in the Corps is as common as breathing.
You don’t reach the highest in that group without knowing how to do it well. From the very beginning Marines are basically groomed to be great liars. If you aren’t you get shit on very fast.
This guy knows the game. He got caught and there are consequences for this type.
Uhhh….we must have had very different experiences in the Corps.
ok, I have seen Sailors with 4 and 5 stars on their CAR, and have heard it explained that for each visit to Vietnam with a ship that was awarded the ribbon the sailor was entitled? So if on the USS Blue Ridge in 1971 and the Duluth in 1972, and on the St Louis in 1971, that would be 3 awards for the sailor and one award for each ship.?? Can anyone validate this.
I thought as a Marine that you got the first award for Vietnam, a second might be for Being at Koh Tang? or was that considered Vietnam, or Beirut might be 3,the Gulf war, maybe another for number 3or4. I understand how the Marines get the award, but not the Navy? Can any one explain? Thank you
No. Others can explain it better, but the award is for having served during a specific time frame without regard to how many ties one might be in and out of theater.
Not a Marine, not a sailor, not a soldier, just a lowly retired airman here, so will leave it to the experts to confirm. But, your question has been discussed many times and my understanding is that you either earned it or not, and that the only way to have earned it more than once is to have served in the required conditions during another conflict.
Under current Navy awards policy, it would appear those individuals were . . . well, I’ll be charitable and say they were “misguided”.
SECNAVINST 1650.1H, Appendix E to Chapter 2, specifically states that only 1 CAR per “defined operation” is to be awarded. The list there is not all-inclusive, and both OIF and OND (not listed) have ended since the reg was published.
The “defined operation” for SEA has dates of 1 Mar 61 to 15 Aug 73, plus the Operations Frequent Wind (29 to 30 Apr 75 – no ships qualified) and Mayaguez (15 May 75 – no ships qualified). So anyone serving in or offshore in Vietnam during the Vietnam War between 1 Mar 61 and 15 Aug 1973 would appear to rate precisely one (1) CAR, regardless of how many times they deployed or personally came under fire. Only those participating in either Frequent Wind or the Mayaguez rescue could have more than one, and I’m pretty sure the maximum would be 2 (I don’t believe there were any USN/USMC personnel who participated in both operations and qualified for a CAR in each).
http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/SecNavInst%201650.1H.pdf
http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/messages/Documents/ALNAVS/ALN2012/ALN12068.txt
Remember Admiral Boorda?
After being exposed for improperly wearing unearned decorations, he later killed himself
The Naval Home in Gulfport, Mississippi has a street named after him.
Remember Colonel Hackworth, who had numerous legitimate military decorations for valor in combat?
He was also caught up in that stolen valor scandal, claiming to have been a ranger.
Oddly, he never awarded decorations to his enlisted troops, wanting them to feel that the unusual reputation of his unit was sufficient recognition for his troops.
Then, there was the international embarrassment of several Army sergeant majors involved in illegal something when managing NCO Clubs around the world.
Hackworth’s response:
http://www.wnd.com/1998/03/4994/
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/1998/03/4994/#B2fr3BzFjDsPWZd5.99
Hackworth… I still wonder how he got his master jump wings so fast. Never saw a pic of him wearing a Ranger Tab. Always right side shots…(good profile?). Something fishy.
Interesting story about Hackworth and awards. Back around 200, I sent him an email about something he’d written. Because I had served in his sister battalion in Vietnam (he was 1st/327th and I was 2d/327th)he answered me with a very nice response.
We continued to exchange occasional emails until the 2004 election campaign when I began writing in support of the Swift Boat vets. When I asked Hack his position on a piece I’d written about them, he slammed them as liars and phonies trying to do in a true war hero.
I then sent him an email asking him how he, a man with so many legitimate awards, could support such an obvious manipulator of the system like Kerry, who was now using those Purple Hearts for political purposes. He cut me off and I never heard from him again.
I’ve often thought that his becoming a journalist and his marriage to a New York/Hollywood movie industry type had to have influenced him enough to blind him to Kerry’s obvious Stolen Valor. I also wondered if the cancer wasn’t affecting his brain by that time because he died just a few months later. I guess we’ll never know.
Back around “2000”.
Hackworth was a hero of mine when I was a kid. I read most of his books and I think he had a column in Soldier of Fortune magazine.
I started loosing respect for him when he and Michael Durant got into it after Durant was released from his captors.
It’s like a punch to gut when your heroes disappoint you.
I still wonder how he got his master jump wings so fast.
Maybe he qualified already for them when they first came out? My dad was in the 505th since 1947; he said when the Senior & Master Parachutist badges came out in 1950 he was automatically qualified due to his jumps.
[The senior and master parachutist’s badges were authorized by Headquarters, Department of the Army in 1949 and were announced by Change 4, Army Regulation 600-70, dated 24 January 1950.]
What a shame he has to lie. Remember U.S. Navy Admiral Jeremy Boorda who committed suicide a few years back when it was found that he wore his Navy commendation ribbon with a bronze V, indicating it was a combat-related award, and in fact even though he had the commendation ribbon, it had not been combat earned? My dad got the same award for action at Guadalcanal in Nov. 1942, but he earned the bronze V, and also the purple heart that same night.
Semper Phoney?
Don’t forget former Marine Commandant Hagee. Another phoney-liar.
Wow! Just freaking wow is all I’m thinking other than, this numbnuts had to have started this shit after he made something like E6, maybe? Way to flush yourself down the toilet…
You know I am not helping this moderation thing by NOT spelling my handle correctly.
Sorry, Jonn.
You mean we’re also supposed to be checking spelling? Dang! Will there be a specialty badge for that?
Nope. But it might get you an ARCOM if it prevents you from saying something that’s bothersome to those easily offended. (smile)
I’m tempted to report your comment with the new report comment button so no PRC E8s get offended…
Ok. Embarrassing moment time.
When I was a young 2LT i was all hard core and shit.
I decided out unit needed a webpage. Now mind you this was before any Army policy regarding webpages. Hell no one even thought of hte dangers we know today. The internet was still laregly coded by hand…and I mean coded you youngins. None of this Joomla and WordPress crap…none of that existed. You had to HTML it all the way.
So i did that…had a nice unit history, FRG site…everything. Spinning digital logos. really nice looking site.
Totaly impressed my chain of command…..who then gave me an ARCOM for it.
yes. I got an ARCOM for setting up a webpage. Most embarrassing thing of my life. To this day I look at the certificate in my file and cringe.
These days in the military, Spelling should be a specialty badge. Its not just because of the public schools either.
I was in the USMC 1981-94, and in 3/2 1983-85.
There is a culture of falsification and embellishment from the top down. There is no surprise here because most everyone I knew lied or cheated in some form or another, and yes I did it also. I did falsify maintenance records, doctored up training attendance rosters, critiqued classes never given, but all because I had no practical choice.
SgtMaj Lovell simply did what everyone else does, in some form or another, he just got caught. What really surprises me is that he graduated sniper school and had 2 CARs, impressive enough. I have one CAR from 1991 and graduated radio technician at 29 Palms, and have no desire to embellish.
Open question. My DD214 states I received three Navy Achievement Awards. I think it should be Navy Unit Citation. Can I still wear the NAMs?
I’d suggest you request a DD215 correcting the error(s) on your DD214. Gather your docs together and see a local VSO; they should be able to help.
No such thing as Navy Achievment Award. However, there is a Navy Achievement Medal.
No. It is unlawful to wear decorations that you have not earned.
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