David Shumock; Air Force PJ with peshmerga
A number of folks have asked us to look into the claims of this David Shumock fellow when he appeared in a Fox News article about him and his time fighting with the peshmerga in Iraq;
One soldier manning the post was David Shumock, a 62-year-old Floridian and former U.S. Air Forces pararescueman. The American fights side-by-side with the Kurdish Peshmerga, and serves as medic and trainer to his comrades, as well.
Shumock has called the dusty, makeshift, camp surrounded on three sides by ISIS, for a year. When he and his fellow fighters arrived, ISIS had only just been ousted from Sinjar city. Their first effort was to rebuild the forward base by hand – fixing roofs, and ringing it with lookouts posts.
From this base, the men, part of the Kurdish quick reaction force, support a 500-mile long line, responding to attacks wherever and whenever they come. Often, it’s their base under attack from artillery.
Our partners filed a request for his military records and the National Personnel Records Center confirm that he was indeed an Air Force pararescueman;
Our friends at the PJs also confirm that he’s the real deal. They tell us that they’ve been trying to get equipment to him, since he’s entirely self-funded, but they’ve had trouble trying to get through the layers of red tape.
Category: Real Soldiers
Good luck to him.
Something doesn’t jibe….he was only in for a year and one month….and the article says he was in peshmerga for a year? it also says “Frank David Schumock III”…different man?
It is indeed a pleasure to read of someone being “the real deal”. It is a shame that so many posers create an instant doubting. Keep up the good work David. God be with you.
62? Real Deal? PJ?
He can just use his junk and balls as cover and weapons apparently.
/HFS
13 months of service? Huh? Basic and the pararescue training would have accounted for all of that. Luthy! Splain this!
That has to be a typo on his FIOA.
amall arms?
If there’s one typo then possibly two although he was discharged as Airman First Class which at the time I believe was E-4 non NCO.
No, his service dates only have him in for 13 months, yet he rates a gcm which requires three years of service.
AR 600-8-22 allows for award of the fist GCM for “less than three years, but more than one” (para. 4-5 c)
That’s for the Army, but maybe the Air Force had a similar requirement at the time.
That would be Senior Airman, Non-NCO. (Not a Buck Sergeant, although that was still a thing at the time.)
The DD214 has him in on 3 July 1972 and out on 22 August 1973. A typo in the year (a single digit, maybe two) I get but the 3 July to 22 August? Not so much.
I was both….and yes, I was in the last group that had “Buck Sergeant”.
In 1972-1973 time frame Senior Airman didn’t exist yet. (1976 to 1991)
1968 to 1973
E-1 Was Airman
E-2 was Airman Third Class
E-3 was Airman Second Class and
E-4 was Airman First Class.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/62735472/United-States-Air-Force-Grade-Insignia-Since-1947
and specifically here
Fair enough, I didnt see the year there. [/derp]
Yeah, it’s all good.
SMSgt
I was in the USAF 74-80
my promotions, which were in the average time, went like this:
E-1 airman basic, no stripe for 6 months then promoted to E-2 airman, mosquito wing at 6th month in the enlistment, when I achieved this rank originally it had a white star center,
promotion to E-3 A1C, airman 1st class, 2 stripes at 1 year…and was this rank for(evere) about 26 months then was promoted to E-4 senior airmen 3 stripes with a blue star center, but you could test for E-5 after 6 months time & grade and did the NCO PME courses and after 1 year promoted to E-4 buck sergeant NCO status with a white center star….after that promotion went by test scores based on AFSC, UCMJ, USAF reg & history knowledge + time in grade and certain awards points
I was about 4 years behind you and then same, I had college out of Basic I got Airman, then A1C then SrA, then I got a blue Sharpie and colored in the star when I made Buck Sergeant about 1988.
LOL
I served 1973-1996. I enlisted for six years and sewed on A1C (E-3) the day I completed BMT. One year and six month later I sewed on Sgt (E-4). I completed NCO leadership School (before it became a mandatory requirement and when slots were hard to get) a few months later.
AFR 39-36 on 19 October 1967 renamed Airman Third Class, Airman Second Class and Airman First Class to Airman, Airman First Class and Sergeant respectively. This returned Sergeant to the rank structure as the first step in the NCO tier. No changes to the respective insignias were made.
In for one year and makes E-4? Even the Air Farce isn’t that screwed up?
A1C is and always been E-3. E-4 during that period was Sgt. The Air Force split the E-4 pay grade into Senior Airman/Sergeant effective 30 December 1975. The termination of the AF E-4 NCO status was approved 19 March 1991 and became effective 2 May 1991.
God be with you good sir.
I recognize the name, but could not put a face to it. His time of service puts him PJ training just before me.
There was a helicopter crash, during training, June/July 1973 that injured two newly graduated PJs. One from my class, who was able to stay in the service and one from the class ahead of me who ended up being medically retired. Dave could have been that PJ.
One thing that also points this way is that his separation base, Richards-Gerbaur, was not a PJ base. So I could see him been sent there for medical care and separation.
At that time after graduation and being awarded the Beret the young PJ if they were going to a helicopter unit, which was most of us, stayed at Hill AFB for another 6 to 8 weeks for Helicopter qualification. You were a PJ; but you needed to get qualified in the helicopter that you were going to working on. Besides us young pups there were other PJs who were PCSing to another unit and a different type of helicopter who also received their training at Hill. It was nice because you had the instructors, but you also had a mentor that had just come from the “Real world” to help you out.
Now there was times when “technique” from the “Real world’ would conflict with training, but those were always worked out; sometimes over many beers.
Now all of the above is conjecture on my part and this Dave could be someone else; but he is a PJ and this has been talked about by PJs.
In old flight logs they were referred to as “PJ” or para jumpers….
I, as referred to above, have come to believe that the initials P.J. should be considered or may be referring to as meaning the following….
Prodigious
[pruh-dij-uh s]
adjective
1. extraordinary in size, amount, extent, degree, force, etc.:
a prodigious research grant.
2. wonderful or marvelous:
a prodigious feat.
3. abnormal; monstrous.
Urban Dictionary….
“Junk”
Obvious reference to The male genitalia.
/end
I think it would be a good idea for him to have his DD 214 updated. To show, things like jump school, qualification badges like Aircrew wings etc. Just sayin….
Not to mention the correct dates of service–IF they are wrong.
I wish this gentleman well, and hope that he not only does good things, but also makes it back here safely.
You have NO IDEA who this person is and I can assure you he is NOT who he appears to be. Has anyone conducted a criminal background check on this so called Hero???????
You must be the only person on this site with some common sense. You question his Authenticity then question if the facts you find are authentic?
If it quacks and looks like a duck …….
As far as the good conduct medal, there is a priviso that certain services can waive the three year requirement if a service member meets all the conduct prerequsites and has served a year and id discharged for medical reasons.
It’s nice not to see a poser.
Good luck David.
I know him personally. He was a PJ and he’s legit. I would be the first on this if he wasn’t.
Well, if we knew you personally, your vouching for him would make sense. Did you serve with him as a PJ? If so, when?
Not that it means much, but I can vouch for Fly2eat. He is the Don Shipley of PJ’s without the hair.
If a POS claims PJ Fly2eat is on it.
While I do not know the person this thread is about, I can vouch for Fly2eat being a PJ as we served together on a mobile training team during 1984 and 1985.
USAF Ret. That’s good enough for me. Thanks.
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