Brandon Garrison; that victimless stolen valor crime

We wrote about Brandon Garrison back in July. He was a fobbit in Afghanistan who hardly ever left his airconditioned office in the Korengal Valley back in 2007, but he played the wounded hero when he returned from that deployment. Even telling a Gold Star mother about the last minutes of her son’s life even though he was no where near the scene of his death. Stars & Stripes writes the long version of Garrison’s lies;

The TV news camera panned up the length of Garrison as he stood leaning on a cane in February 2015 near his home in the Kansas City area. A local nonprofit had rushed an Austrian Shepherd service dog named Taz to the disabled veteran’s side for emergency support to help him cope with his war injuries and the recent death of his father, who was also his caretaker.

The donation was part of the local outpouring for the young veteran. In 2014, Garrison stood in front of a crowd of 50,000 gathered for a Memorial Day celebration at Kansas City’s Union Station to accept the keys to a donated home. It was given through a program to house veterans called Roofs for Troops run by the nonprofit Nehemiah Community Reinvestment Fund, which did not return requests for comment.

He was handed a big paper key as a symbol of the community’s support for his military service.

“Remembering all the people who have lost their lives,” Garrison said at the time when asked by a local news crew what the day meant to him.

The dog, house and attention came as Garrison began speaking publicly about his PTSD and the raft of ailments he suffered following his return from Afghanistan, including TBI that caused bouts of vertigo.

It was the people who were there in the Korengal who busted Garrison for his lies, his supervisor, the folks who were actually with Chris Wilson when he died. They got tired of seeing Garrison in the media, on HBO specials, gathering up free stuff and attention that real combats had earned for him while he inventoried auto parts.

There was also the long friendship that Garrison had with Ilka Halliday, Chris Wilson’s mother who Garrison had approached with his story of holding Wilson in his arms when Wilson died. She came on TAH back in July and told us how Garrison lies have affected her. I just don’t have the words. But, you should read the whole S&S article – they did a good job of demonstrating how hunting these valor thieves isn’t just “exposing the latest fake Marine at the mall” as a renowned novelist told me just last night. It’s certainly not the victimless crime that the Supreme Court called it.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures