William Clark Bradford; that former West Point professor
We talked about that fellow, William Bradford, last month when his article was published in the National Security Law Review, then pulled for being over-the-top. Then someone sent us the article from the IndyStar in 2005 which called him out on his supposed military career. He had claimed that he was a major and that he’d seen combat in Desert Storm and Bosnia and he wore a Silver Star around campus. I wasn’t comfortable just quoting a news source, so I asked Mary to get us a FOIA on him;
There is no active duty service for anything other than training, he was commissioned four years after Desert Storm, and no deployment to Bosnia. No, not even a National Defense Service Medal, and it looks like there’s no Army Service Ribbon and he was discharged as a 2d Lieutenant – no promotions.
The question remains; why did West Point hire this guy, especially after he was busted for lying about his service? And who were the dumbass shitheads that lost this position to him during the hiring process. How bad did they have to be?
Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures
It certainly looks like someone at USMA “got some ‘splainin’ to do” regarding hiring this guy. That’s true whether or not you agree with his positions regarding the GWOT and radical Islam.
Word.
Just to show everyone, you’re hired for who you know and not on if you’re the best person for the job. This goes on all over the place.
It looks like he got there because of “who he knew and blew”, NOT his real life and work experience.
Not necessarily. And it doesn’t necessarily mean the other candidates for the job were losers, either.
He may have had a strong curriculum vitae on paper and simply “knocked ’em dead” at the interview. That happens sometimes; some people are simply excellent at sizing up others and telling them exactly what they want to hear during an interview.
However, there is absolutely no excuse for HR not vetting this guy’s record thoroughly – including his claims of military service – before he was hired. And any HR office recruiting for a high-profile position that doesn’t spend a while conducting an Internet search for derogatory info on a candidate for such a position before making a binding offer is IMO just not doing it’s job properly.
Being an Instructor or Associate Professor at West Point would seem to me to qualify as a “high profile position”. But maybe that’s just me.
Yup, he knocked them dead all right… with his phony Army Service Ribbon citation. They were like, “You were so baddazz, they couldn’t just enter it into your records, they gave you a citation? Welcome to the team, work starts in 3 weeks.”
He bullshitted his way into this one. 
I thought I kinda said that with the “on paper” and “excellent at sizing up others and telling them exactly what they want to hear” parts of my comment. (smile)
I know. I was building on what you said.
Yep. The VA is a great example of this. People in leadership roles with NO certifications for their positions. One big reason professionals are leaving in droves.
Yep. A Major in the Army.
(Drum Major in the Salvation Army band)
That or he could have been a CADET Major in ROTC!
Or a Major Shitbag in the Army of None.
You might be surprised at the vetting one has to go through (or at least used to have to go through) to become an officer in the Salvation Army. It heightened my respect for that organization.
He looks like he’s either about to sneeze or blow it out the other end in that photo.
Chuzpah to lie about your service at USMA!
(And a really good interviewee?)
Gee Whiz…the SECOND MI Officer who claimed/claims to be a Major in the USAR…(1st one is running for office in Virginia..)
Of course he could have been hired by the civilian side of the Department of the Army. There the resume and interview could have blinded a GS-whatever HR type during the computer and individual sort. So a full chance that since he wasn’t filing a spot for a uniformed instructor spot, so the background check wasn’t much more than verified that the dude was in the service and was a citizen. Beyond that they didn’t scratch much harder. Also, hate to say this but for most folks Desert Storm and Bosnia is now the equivalent of Hue and Khe Shan was to most that joined in the 80s or 90s. As in classical history. So how do you verify when you don’t know anyone who did those deployments?
I thought promotions to O-2 and O-3 were automatic for officers? How did he get 6 years and no promotion? You’d think if he was an under-performer they would have released him sooner? Any ideas?
Drill time? As in not enough for the promotion. Had a family friend who was an aviator in the Navy that got hosed like this. Due to an error on personnel’s side (I know, be still your beating heart an error by personnel), he was shy by about 2 months and 2 days of having enough time in service and grade to make the promotion from O3 to O4. Even though he had made 5 out of a 10 month deployment to gap a billet and lost time in his civilian job as an airline pilot. Because of needs of the Navy and he wanted to help a friend who was the XO of that squadron with nothing but nuggets. Took a while to get everything squared away with pay stubs and counters and nasty letters and such. Two years later he finally got the retroactive promotion and then the fight for pay due him began. The joys of a weekend warrior.
Rock: promotion from O1 to O2 isn’t automatic; as I recall, it requires educational qual and GO-level approval (no board).
Generally, no significant derog info plus ed qual was a virtual guarantee that an officer would make O2. O3 was a different story; that required a central promo board. But the selection rate there was pretty high – 95% or higher, if I recall correctly.
Still, it was possible for a real “winner” to manage to get nonselected. Knew one guy in the early 1980s who managed to do that for 1LT. He was a real piece of work.
For educational qual, completion of an OBC is required for promo to O2. If the guy never successfully completed his OBC, that could easily explain his still being an O1 when they finally got around to discharging him. His FOIA doesn’t indicate he did much while he was in the USAR – many in the USAR control group don’t do much at all, and he was in that for 4 of his 6 years.
Hondo’s quite correct about OBC – a couple of reserve guys I knew in IOBC had been fearing not making O-2 for a long while.
There’s also the unpleasantly common factor of RIF/drawdown. I didn’t make O-3 on active duty (“active” Reserve commission, so I didn’t expect to stay) – but I remember getting off the bus in Benning & being greeted by, “if you want to separate, go stand in that line”!
There were a LOT of RIF’s from Bush/Clinton that would have been retained otherwise. I knew at least 2 supposedly top-shelf O-2’s that were tossed out w/ the trash. Plus, 3 quality O-3’s (friends though only 1 from Infantry) who all told me what a dolt I was for expecting a RIF… took the separation money & ran when they saw the writing on the wall.
There’s lots of combat in Forest Park, GA, but none that will get you a Silver Star.
Is that sword fighting or Submarine races?
I spent two years at ARCENT when they were at Ft. McPherson, just a little north of Forest Park. I heard almost as many shots fired in anger just outside the gate there as I did in Afghanistan.
Yeah, McPherson was in a not-so-nice part of the Atlanta metro area (vic East Point). However, the Forrest Part area (adjacent to Gillem) was 5 or 6 miles away, and didn’t seem nearly as bad. The latter two (FP/Gillem) are outside the beltway rather than almost in central Atlanta and are also just east of Hartsfield.
I don’t know why, but this phony guy Bradford, totally reminds me of this Phony Guy Simms.
http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=32636
Twin brothers from different mothers?
It has been a few months since we have heard from Sims. I wonder what rank he is now… probably Bird COL. is my guess.
You would’ve had to be a serious shitbag in the Reserves to be kicked out after 9/11, even 45 days after.
Probably non-participant or APFT/ ht/wt.
He possibly could’ve lost his clearance (or not even done the EQIP for it on time).
Where’s that National Defense Service Medal???
The first one or the second one.
Why does the FOIA document say, “Court Martial Transcript Not in File” instead of N/A? Was he Court Martialed or is the form mismarked?
Jonn,
MOS 35G is Geospatial Intel Imagery Analyst and is only open to Enlisted personnel. I think he OCS’d to 2LT and never made it through his O training. You are not going to get that automatic promotion if you bolo the schools.
Duty station list?
Not to disagree or nothin’, but where is the enlisted paperwork if he went OCS–that’s not a separate DD-214 is it (and now I see this isn’t actually a DD-214 but a National Archives Form) or could this have been an MOS / Career Speciality that got renumber back in the ’90s? For example, my MOS went from 76Y to 92Y while I was at AIT; there was something about it was to make the numbers line up with the officers better. In other words, could MOS 35 G have been an officer MOS back then?
The USMA is quietly shredding his CV that presented with his application as we speak…..