Faux warriors steal the honor of real heroes

This is what like about the cyberworld... while the the dinosaur news media is trying to find out whose cocaine Lindsay had in her pants pocket, our network of "citizen reporters" has already filed the story and an opinion piece to go with it.here for he TNR clarification.

Yesterday I posted regarding the minor, week-long controversy of "Scott Thomas"; supposedly a solider in Iraq who was writing absurdist stories right out of the anti-war left's propaganda handbook for leftie pub -- The New Republic. The magazine's editor was quoted as saying her had met this "Thomas" and "he had reason to believe he was a soldier.

Here are the updates:

Turns out he is Scott Thomas Beauchamp -- a solider (though he remains at the lowest possible rank in the army), serving with  a A Co., 1/18 Infantry, Second Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division. Click

Here is what we know.. .which is far more than TNR is willing to admit:

• Beauchamp may be engaged to a New Republic staffer... presumably a female New Republic staffer.
• In his pre-enlistment blog he wrote that he enlisted in the army, not to serve his country be to serve himself; he joined for the express purpose of becoming a writer.
• His pre-deployment blog also revels he was writing crude, horror-dripping war stories long before he put on the uniform.
• There is no reason to believe that he ceased writing fiction went he finally ended up over in The Sandbox. Here's an example:

"We spent a few weeks constructing a combat outpost, and, in the process, we did a lot of digging. Then we dug deeper and found children’s clothes: sandals, sweatpants, sweaters. Like a strange archaeological dig of the recent past, the deeper we went, the more personal the objects we discovered. And, eventually, we reached the bones. All children’s bones: tiny cracked tibias and shoulder blades. We found pieces of hands and fingers. We found skull fragments. No one cared to speculate what, exactly, had happened here, but it was clearly a Saddam-era dumping ground of some sort."

Sounds horrible, no?

Problem is... what he thought might be an Iraq/American atrocity ala Mai Li was in fact the relocation of a children's rural graveyard. Command was in the process of relocating the remains to a proper cemetery. Read here.

I don't need to go on... Beauchamp is not new... Anthony Swofford (left) did the same thing with his book, "Jarhead" which was translated to an even-worse movie; and in my war, it was Ron Kovic, (right) another Marine who gave us "Born on the Forth of July"... another piece of crap fabrication, turned into an even greater fabrication by Oliver Stone... yet another "art student" combat veteran.

A little more about Kovic some time... I first met him in '69 when I was a patient at Long Beach Naval Hospital and he was at a nearby VA hospital.

The point is... The New Republic's far left agenda is glaringly obvious... out of 160,000 troops in Iraq; against all odds, TNR came up with "Scott Thomas".

I rest our case.

At the bottom of the barrel are those--and there are multitudes--who simply completely fabricate combat experience.

Why would highly-regarded military historian and author Shelby Stanton claim two tours of duty in Vietnam when he never served there?

Martial artist Frank Dux (right) even had a movie made about him and his exploits as a Marine on clandestine operations in southeast Asia. In reality, Dux never served overseas.

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B.G. Burkett author of "Stolen Valor"--a must for any Vietnam library : "I think it's happened after every war. I don't care if we're talking the Greeks, the Romans, and the Peloponnesian War. I think that men who didn't serve will claim they did."

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When Brian Dennehy played in "Rambo," his role was enhanced by the actor's official biography - Vietnam vet, wounded in action. Never happened. Years later, Dennehy apologized.l\

Burkett: "Dennehy was a struggling young actor and he started telling stories about being there, being wounded there, being a heroic Marine - and he wasn't. He worked in a gym in Okinawa handing out footballs and basketballs."At least an actor deals in "fantasy." A Pulitzer prize-winning historian works with "fact." Yet author Joseph Ellis had to admit that his claims of marching in the Civil Rights movement, serving in Vietnam, and later protesting the war - were all false.

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The former manager of Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays is one of the few who lied about Vietnam and publicly talked about it.k

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Tim Johnson, (left) former Major League Manager: "It's been tough, it's been tough. There's a lot of guilt in yourself when you do this."

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What Johnson did was claim combat experience as a Marine in Vietnam when he actually spent the war stateside.k

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Tim Johnson: "I was not in Vietnam, but maybe it was the guilt for not being there and having so many tremendous friends killed, wounded or missing in action. There's part of you that maybe you should have been there and feel you should have been there because of so many friends."k

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For some, military service means giving everything. Fortunately, the dead make up a small percentage of those who wear the uniform.l

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Still, any service - whether military, missionary, or social justice, such as the Civil Rights movement - any service involves some level of personal sacrifice. It is wrong for a person who did not make that sacrifice to try to claim it.

One little story about the Army can grow and grow, until the claims progress from mundane to grandiose.

Ten-fold more men claim to have been awarded the Medal of Honor than actually have... a despicable story for another day.

Comments

[Susan Keating]

Just saw the post from Shelby Stanton. I am the journalist who wrote the Stanton expose referenced in Burkett's book. Stanton accused me of libel, also - even sued the Washington Times, where I was working when I published "Solder of Fiction." Stanton withdrew his suit when it emerged that everything I wrote was fully documented.
~Susan Katz Keating

[Shelby Stanton]

I am Shelby Stanton. You are publishing incorrect information based on a libelous and undocumented source. Please take note of the correct facts of this matter.

First, I served in Vietnam. The FBI investigation, which was given to Burkett illegally and which he himself cites in his references, makes full recognition of this fact. Thus, he was fully aware of the actual facts of my Vietnam service when he decided to print falsehoods because of the prospects for monetary profit and fame stemming from personal destruction of a fellow Vietnam veteran. You should be able to obtain both the FBI report and my DD-214, just as Burkett did. Perhaps he would provide you with his copy?

Secondly, I never claimed serving two tours in Vietnam. Burkett put this quote in his book without any evidentiary footnote to support it. Since I've never talked to Burkett, and he never interviewed me for his libelous tirade, I don't know how he invented this complete falsehood. Again, you should ask him for clear proof of my statement to this effect.

I realize that you are writing to benefit honorable war veterans, like myself, who served their country valiantly in wartime. However, perhaps you are enough of man (hopefully) to print this correction and do justice for soldiers who've made a significant contribution both in wartime service and toward preserving our national military legacy.

I trust you are a fair-minded individual who would never deliberately steal the honor of real veterans, once made aware of a mistake from a libelous source.

Shelby L. Stanton
Captain, United States Army, Retired
B.S., M.Ed., J.D.

[Big White Hat]

The big question to me is, "Why?" There aint a damn spec of shame in serving without being called to battle. Being willing to fight has honor in itself. Why would somebody discard that honor by lying?

It just goes to show you, it is easier to stay out of trouble than get out of it. There aint nothing these fellas can do to get their honor back. I guess it wasn't important to them.