Austin Eugene Constuble; phony PTSD

Chief Tango sends us a link to the story of Austin Eugene Constuble who was arrested by Washington County Sheriff’s Department for Cultivation of a Controlled Substance – Marijuana. According to NewsOK, Constuble told the judge that he needed pot to deal with his PTSD resulting from his deployment to Iraq.

Austin Eugene Constuble, 31, told Oklahoma Vice he was forced to kill a special-needs child who insurgents strapped with an artillery shell in Iraq. He said he rescued bleeding children from a bombed out school. He also claimed he had been shot at and was injured by a roadside bomb.

None of those things are true.

[…]

At trial, Constuble testified on his own behalf, again making claims he was shot at, injured by an IED and that he rescued children from a bombed school in Iraq. Constuble has a service dog he claims helps with his PTSD. The dog accompanied him to the witness stand.

The Kansas National Guard sergeant major drove three hours to testify at Constuble’s trial;

On the witness stand, [Sgt. Maj. Jared] Worley testified that Constuble spent less than two months in Iraq before he was found unfit for service and was sent home.

“I could care less if he smokes weed,” Worley said. “It’s the lying about his service, or his lack of service I guess.”

Constuble never saw combat and in reality, spent much of his time in Iraq doing menial tasks, inside the fence of a military base, two veterans who served with him told Oklahoma Vice.

Dallas resident Chris Elder, another Kansas National Guard veteran who served in Southern Iraq with Constuble in 2005 said that as far has he knows, Constuble only went outside of the fence of the military base once. The base was far from Baghdad and Constuble never saw combat, Elder said.

“His story of having combat time and being a combat veteran is misinformation,” Elder said. “That never occurred.”

Worley claimed that he thought it was important for his testimony for the memory of the two soldiers in his unit who died and the two others who were injured by IEDs after Constuble left Iraq in disgrace.

The assistant district attorney says that he offered Constuble an eight year suspended sentence, but he went to trial instead, now he’s looking at three years hard time. Sentencing is in November.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures