Patrick Mandeville was not a Green Beret
Someone sent us this article from the Twin Cities, Pennsylvania Morning Times in which they report that a local group presented a “Quilt of Valor” to Patrick Mandeville for his service in Vietnam;
For 1969 Waverly High School graduate Patrick Mandeville — who served in Vietnam as a Green Beret — this honor came in the form of a patriotic quilt, made by Sharon Slater from Quilts of Valor Foundation (QOV)….[Annmarie] Allaire said Mandeville earned a Purple Heart, Silver Star and two Bronze Stars for his service, which lasted from 1969 to 1972.
Well, in my opinion, after looking at his records, he certainly deserves a “Quilt of Valor”, he did serve with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam from December 1970 – December 1971, he was assigned to Hotel Company Rangers after several months with 5/7th Cavalry. To be a “Green Beret”, he’d need at least some parachute training, but that’s not in the file. He does have an Arcom with a valor device and a single Bronze Star Medal, but no Purple Hearts or a Silver Star;
Do with this what you want – he didn’t make any claims directly in the story, but he didn’t correct the author, either. The ladies had to get that information from somewhere. I’m just correcting the historical record.
Category: Who knows
Barring evidence to the contrary, I’ll go with the presumption that the good ladies heard “Ranger” and thought “Green Beret”.
Glad they sought – however imperfectly – to honor Mr. Mandeville’s service.
I spotted a goof on his Official Record his first page says ACTIVE DUTY ENDS ON 20 JAN., 1976. BUT, his assignment sheet says he was separated on 20 Jan., 1972. Which is correct?
The clerks at St Louis don’t always provide the correct information.
Some of the FOIA I receive from them have spelling errors, wrong dates, wrong rank, wrong dates of service, misspelling of names.
If this guy went into the Reserves after leaving Active Duty, the clerk may have accidently put the
whole shabang under Active Duty on the cover sheet instead of listing his Reserve time ending in 1976.
The article states he got out of Active Duty in 1972, so am going with that info.
Mandeville should put on his big boy pants and tell the reporter they wrote some inaccurate info on him(that is, IF the clerks messed up his records as well on the PH and SS). Who knows…he might have called the newspaper to correct the mistake…and the newspaper did not want to be embarrassed by doing an update…or he might not wanted to embarrass those who gave him the quilt.
Someone, though, gave the newspaper the impression that he earned the PH and received the SS.
I’ll buy that. I was once mentioned by name and rank in my ancestral hometown’s newspaper; except they got the rank wrong. I called the newspaper and asked them to publish the correct info under errata. I might as well asked them to publish a map to the Holy Grail.
What is worse is when one spends time writing an obit, pays a newspaper over $200 to publish it and then a funeral home rewrites the obit and has it published. And the person who pays for the obit had to clean up the mess.
And yes, it happened to me. And no, I did not get reimbursed for that SNAFU, but I sure gave that funeral home and the newspaper hell…😈👿
You mean like the guy a couple of weeks ago who, according to his FOIA attended “Airbourne” school? 😉
🤣😂😅😁😆😄😀!!!!!
Believe I saw a OD-wrapped Mustang in the NW Houston area a while back with 82d stuff all over it but spelled “Airbourne”. Mayb his first name was Jason.
Yeah, and they listed my rank as SPC instead of SFC. That’s why we’ve developed back-up systems.
I remembered when you shared that with us, Jonn.
And the “P” is not even close to the “F” on the keyboard.
Guess they don’t teach typing anymore in school.⌨
“Airbourne” is that when a super secret agent from Treadstone or Blackbriar jumps from a plane and lands on you?
Interesting.
I’m willing to cut the guy some slack for actually enlisting, when most didn’t, and earning the BS.
I’ll just think that the PH and SS mix up was on somebody else, not him embellishing….
Sigh… hope I’m right.
They should downgrade that quilt to a placemat…
A couple of weeks ago I was at a company reunion, a couple of guys take care of the roster, both the living and dead. To my surprise I was listed on the Deceased Since Vietnam Roster, dead since 2012 and I didn’t even know it, guess that is the upside to living in CA.
I’m sorry…rest in peace…
Cpl/Major Mike: When you showed up and others looked at the roster and saw you, did they blanched…and shouted “A..
A..A…GHOST! Run and take cover, guys!!” 👻👻
Your story reminds me of a High School class reunion I
attended. A booklet that had a roster of our class was given to us, with a page dedicated to our deceased classmates, listing 10 names.
Good thing 9 out of the 10 “deceased” classmates had a good sense of humor, because they attended the reunion, alive and kicking.
Most of them used the famous quotation “I’m not dead yet!” and at the next reunion, the same 9 showed up, linked arms and chimed “Bring Out Your Dead!”
When you showed up and others looked at the roster and saw you, did they blanched…and shouted “A..
A..A…GHOST! Run and take cover, guys!!” 👻👻
Your story reminds me of a High School class reunion I
attended. A booklet that had a roster of our class was given to us, with a page dedicated to our deceased classmates, listing 10 names.
Good thing 9 out of the 10 “deceased” classmates had a good sense of humor, because they attended the reunion, alive and kicking.
Most of them used the famous quotation “I’m not dead yet!” and at the next reunion, the same 9 showed up, linked arms and chimed “Bring Out Your Dead!”
I’d suggest you NOT “rest easy”—-yer in CA.
Proves the point. Even you, a dead guy, types more accurately than most clerks.
Do you get a refund on the taxes you paid?
Guilty by omission for not correcting the record.