Paul Rieckhoff and needless embellishment
I’m sure you all know Paul Rieckhoff, the Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Paul and I have been sparring since they published their first “non-partisan” scorecard before the last Presidential election that was scored so that then-Senator Obama was a better friend of veterans than Senator McCain, you know, the veteran in the race. So there may be some personal bias in this particular bit of reportage, and I’ll readily admit to it.
But, anyway, I found this article taken from Rieckhoff’s alma mater newspaper at Amherst College, but here’s a screen shot of the part where he’s telling the reporter that he was going to Special Forces in the last paragraph of this shot;
Yeah, that’s no problem, really, and here’s the picture that accompanied the article;
Notice the Special Forces unit patch on his left shoulder, which would mean that he was assigned to a Special Forces unit, right? Well, I have a copy of all of his assignment orders and none of them assign him to a Special Forces unit…anywhere. Now stay with me. His orders indicate that he was assigned to A Co. of the 105th Infantry Battalion in Leeds, NY when that interview was done in April, 2004 and published in the summer. His next assignment was to A Co. 108th Infantry Battalion, the orders were dated January 2005 and effective November 2004 two months after the interview.
In this picture, Paul is wearing a Bronze Star Medal;
Actually, his BSM is on his DD214, but, unlike his other awards, I couldn’t find his citation or orders for the medal and it doesn’t show up in his 2-1, which doesn’t mean anything, really, because, unless you ride those clerks, stuff doesn’t get put in;
But, it makes me wonder how the BSM got on his DD214 without it being in his 2-1. It also doesn’t appear on his Report of Separation and Record of Service (NGB-22) which is dated June 30, 2010;
Now I did find his end-of-tour award for his service in Iraq. It was an Army Commendation Medal (ARCOM) and for service from April 2003 to January 2004 – the dates that match his deployment dates to Iraq according to his DD214. It seems strange to me that he’d get an ARCOM and a BSM for Merit for the same combat tour.
But, see this is all questions, and I don’t like unanswered questions. And since I don’t like doing anything behind anyone’s back, I sent all of my questions along with the accumulated documentation to Paul and asked him about the discrepancies I found and asked him to fill in the blanks.
He promptly replied, but his letter only made me have more unanswered questions;
He said in the letter that he intended to go to 19th SFG, but after talking with the commander they both decided that he shouldn’t. So who sews a unit patch on their uniform before they’re even assigned to the unit? I don’t think I ever changed patches until I signed in to a unit. Maybe that’s just me, though.
The DD214 does clearly say he has a Bronze Star Medal, but how did he get it? I asked him for orders, but he sent me the DD214 that I already had and then he claimed he never received the citation, but he doesn’t mention the orders. So did someone call him and tell him he had one, and he just pinned it on? And how did it get on his DD214 without orders or a citation? And he physically signed his DD214, so they didn’t have him digitally sign it from a distance. He was right there in the room with the clerk.
In his letter, he writes; “Since the photo in question, I have not worn or claimed the BSM—as you have noted.” Yeah, that’s the only photo I could find of him with the BSM, so if he’s so sure that he earned a BSM, why did he stop wearing it after that picture? See what I mean by more questions?
And, oh, yeah, if you want to get on my good side, Paul, you probably shouldn’t threaten me with lawyers in the first paragraph. Or the last paragraph. Or any of the paragraphs in between. Here at TAH we operate within the limits of the law and everything that we accumulated was done within those limits. I got the records from the usual source – Mary at POW Network. She’ll verify that. And there is no grand conspiracy against you, Paul, just little old me and my ten nimble fingers. And, oh, my lawyer.
Now, I don’t understand why Rieckhoff felt a need to dress up for his school newspaper. He has a CIB, a combat patch and a perfectly honorable combat tour in Iraq. I admire him for his service, but the rest of this stuff that he’s done since he’s come back kind of overshadows that stuff he did in Iraq.
July 13th, 2012 at 7:08 am
Birds of a feather… I’m sorry but WTF. I am confused as hell now about the BSM (the other stuff is obvious he was padding his photo shoot) Either you have orders for it, or the citation, or both, and they would presumably be on your 2-1. Now I am the first to say my 214′s are a total mess and I have not bothered to file for a 215, but I have the orders for every award or the certificate. I damned sure would hold onto the ones for a BSM if I had earned it…. I mean come on, that is a huge award even for merit.
“Since the photo in question, I have not worn or claimed the BSM—as you have noted.” WHY?? If you were awarded it, why haven’t you claimed it or worn it? That is a huge question mark.
July 13th, 2012 at 7:27 am
I have more awards than Rieckhoff and can produce the orders for each, including successive awards. It is not allowed to wear or claim any award or badge without the orders. Nobody has their gaining unit’s patch sewn on before signing into the unit. As I recall, soldiers are to wear the patch of their former unit until they sign in at the gaining unit. Rieckhoff is sometimes a little too eager.
July 13th, 2012 at 7:34 am
Not surprised he has a BSM, it seems to be a blanket award for higher enlisted and officers these days. One can pretty much assume in most cases a BSM from GWOT is a “blanket award” if it doesn’t have a V device on it.
As far as Dickoff’s SF patch, it seems like he just had his high speed, low drag SF boner and had the patch put on ahead a type so he could feel like an (un)certified bad ass.
Good catch, Jonn. Dickoff needs to be called out on his bullshit anytime, anywhere.
July 13th, 2012 at 7:35 am
*ahead of time, as in before actually reporting
July 13th, 2012 at 7:36 am
Hey, there were some SEALs that rode my boat a few times, does that mean I can put on a Trident in “anticipation” of going over to Coronado and watching the BUD/S students (studi?) carrying RIB’s around?
July 13th, 2012 at 7:54 am
Based on the information, I think this really needs to go to the “wait and see” pile. Passing judgement at this time is not a great idea.
1) We know there is some bias/animosity in this case, so lets slow down.
2) He has a DD214 with the BSM.
3) National Guard records (reserve component in general), particularly those from the mid 2000′s are generally really pretty bad. From personal experience, I can assure you stuff falls off or never gets entered (I can elaborate from personal experience if anyone really wants). It is MUCH better now but I have some stories.
4) He IS playing ball. He rapidly sent the DD214 and while the matter is in question will not wear the decoration. Lets take him at his word for now.
5) Yeah, the “anticipation” of being assigned to a unit is poor form and wrong, but is really a venial rather than a mortal sin unless carried to an extreme. The problem was also transitory. Why not accept a Mea Culpa on that one
With all of this, I think some more research and or time is kind of needed. The photos will last, what is the harm is letting it sit a while? Lets not make this Salem. There are plenty of real SV criminals out there without going off half cocked on this one. (Caveat, if he wore his SF unit patch after he learned he would not be joining the unit and/or really did not get the BSM -and knew it- then, yeah, burn him at the steak then. I’ve got some matches)
July 13th, 2012 at 8:08 am
Put on his SF flash in anticipation……yah, of a photoshoot. At best that’s just cheesy…
July 13th, 2012 at 8:09 am
I too have never seen anyone sew a unit patch on their Class As prior to reporting. That said, it does seem to be somewhat popular for new Soldiers to wear their gaining unit patch after training. I never saw it with the BCU, but the ACU’s Velcro makes it too easy to slap on and take back off if called out…
Maybe this was just an overzealous NG LT looI usually wait until it’s time for a DA Photo to swap out Class A patches–sometimes over a year after reporting (moot point now, as I will be buying the ASU soon).
July 13th, 2012 at 8:26 am
We had guys from my ARNG unit going to companies in the 19th and 20th group all the time in the 1990s. As I recall, they SUTA’d drills with the SF while assigned to our unit until they completed, at least up to and including, SFAS. Otherwise, it was a huge paperwork drill to ensure that the records of the 90% of the guys who came back to our unit in a year were properly changed. With that, none of those guys showed up to their first drill, with an SF unit patch.
There is also an implication in the article that personally makes me cringe, having lived with it before and during my college career, and is just as much a pint of embellishment – the notion that Amherst is an “Ivy League” school. Having attended a university down the road from Amherst, we all put up with the same BS claim from the Amherst and Smith students that they were attending Ivy League intuitions while those of us at the Massachusetts Agricultural College were just a bunch of dumb hicks. In reality, no matter how much they repeat it and emulate it, students at Smith and Amherst are no more attending an Ivy than those of us at the other side of the Common. Typically, the students there wish like hell that they had the grades or mommy and daddy had the political pull to send them into Cambridge or New Haven, but they had to settle by attending schools in Amherst or Northampton. It is the same pattern as throwing on the SF unit patch in anticipation of showing up to 19th Group or adding the BSM to the rack without actually seeing orders.
July 13th, 2012 at 8:48 am
Oh this is like an early birthday gift. I hate this guy…TSO knows I hate this idiot. The only thing Paul Rieckhoff cares about is Paul Rieckhoff. Who puts any patch on before they show up to the unit…unless of course its a SOF patch….and they don’t have a long tab and questioning their manhood or something. The easy cure was to do an interview in your A’s with the patch on. I’m sure the school newspaper knew exactly what it takes to be in SOF and about uniform standards. For a guy who acts like he took Baghdad…sure didn’t get rewarded like one.
July 13th, 2012 at 8:52 am
“My dd214 totally proves that I am authorized to wear a BSM that I don’t wear anymore.”
Ok, hoss, whatever you say.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:11 am
Oh how I love you, Jonn
July 13th, 2012 at 9:25 am
Got to give the guy credit. He created a vehicle for self-promotion in order to be a perpetual talking head/political shill for Democrats. Of course, the more that comes out about his elaborations and embellishment will only complicate his efforts.
Along those lines, do people still buy his whole benevolent military veteran speaking solely on behalf of veterans schtik? I mean, sending emails offering to send a few guys to a ball game and then promoting the need to do things for veterans in fancy commercials only goes so far when the “organization” does not actually do anything tangible to actually help veterans. It’s like a dog chasing its own tail type of “organization.” The only benefit I see is this guy getting his name diseminated to veterans through his emails, and then “serving” as a talking head where he espouses partisan rhetoric vice legitimate advocacy. And he achieves all this by alluding to the idea that he is backed by thousands of vets whom he counts as members based on online signups.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:26 am
The Bronze Star, even if it for merit and not valor, is one of those military phrases that most civilians understand. So it stands to reason that a guy who is the executive director of a vets organization would have a vested interest in listing the BSM on his bio and resume.
But it doesn’t seem reasonable that a guy who has been the head of a large vets group for several years now couldn’t track down the citation if he wanted to. The guy probably has congressmen on speed dial, and there aren’t many more cherished photo ops for a congressman than to present a missing award or medal to a soldier that his staff tracked down.
But I have to agree with #6 in that we don’t have enough info to say yet one way or another.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:53 am
According to his reply, he was NEVER in 19th SFG(A). He was “in the process” of getting a transfer, when the unit commander convinced him he wasn’t wanted.
Yeah, it says a lot when a unit commander tells you not to bother joining their unit.
I’ll give him a pass on not wearing an award that he doesn’t have proof of, anymore, but NOT for playing dress-up for the college “press” with awards he didn’t have proof of, wearing a patch of a unit he was never assigned to. There are many people walking around with tattoos of Ranger and Special Forces tabs, because they intended to go to the schools, and I won’t give them a pass either.
He clearly wished to sound and look better than he was, and it is not unlikely that that picture is the very reason why that commander told him he was unwelcome in Rhode Island. He was self-promoting, a skill he has learned well and succeeded at.
Frankly, there was no need for him to be in uniform for his interview, but if he wished to sport the SF patch, he should have waited the week to get transferred into 19th SFG(A), and it is not like he was going to have a need to wear his Class A’s anytime soon after he was transferred. He might have gone years with no need to wear it, officially.
He sure as hell should not have been wearing a BSM he had not earned. A BSM has to be signed by a General. It’s not a blanket campaign medal that merely fails to have your name added to it. He certainly needs to tell the story of how he thought he had one, but never received the orders awarding it. Hell, I still have the recommendation for the one that was denied for me.
July 13th, 2012 at 10:14 am
His book sucked.
July 13th, 2012 at 10:15 am
I’m curious, Jonn. Here’s what I see Rieckhoff wearing in the photo:
CIB
Ribbons (listed viewer’s L-R)
Top Row: BSM, ARCOM, ARCAM
2nd Row: NDSM, GOWTEM, GWOTSM
3rd Row: AFSM, AFRM w/M Device, ASR
Bottom Row: OSR, ARCOTR, ???? (state award, maybe)
How many of those are on his DD214? I’m certainly not finding some of them on his NGB document. In particular, I don’t see the BSM, GWOTEM, GWOTSM, and AFSM listed on his NGB document.
July 13th, 2012 at 10:23 am
“His book sucked.”
Eat, Pray, Sew the SF patch on: The Paul Rieckhoff Story.
My life looking like an uncircumcised Penis.
Fifty shades of Douchie
The Paulbook
Zen and the Art of Patch Sewing….
July 13th, 2012 at 11:32 am
That SF patch makes him a cheesedick, but the rest of it is fine, as far I’m concerned. The BSM is not out of the ordinary for someone of his rank, and given how fucked up my own paperwork is, I can definitely see this guy having stuff on his 214 that’s not on his 2-1, because my 2-1 barely has anything on it. When my unit came back from Iraq it was a shitshow. Guys were ETSing, PCSing, left and right. In such circumstances paperwork does tend to lag like cheesedick claims. I know I was put in for another Arcom for my ETS award and I’m about 99.9% sure it would have gotten approved, even if it didn’t it would have at least been downgraded to an AAM. But I was never awarded one before I got out and my unit never sent it to me after. I can’t imagine that I’m alone in that either. Anyway, outside of conversations like this I’ve never claimed that additional Arcom, even though I’m certain I have it, maybe dickcheese feels the same way about his BSM, although it is weird that he would considering it’s on his 214.
July 13th, 2012 at 11:44 am
As additional issues:
1. Hey, LT, where are your DUI and your Regimental affiliation crest? Maybe that’s a dumb 2LT mistake, but as a 1LT you should have been in long enough to know about AR 670-1. And get with the program and start wearing your ASU (then you won’t have to worry about the pesky nitpicking patch police… or DUI, for that matter). Oh, and PLEASE learn how to tie your necktie so it doesn’t show a gap at the top like you’re some 14 year-old kid wearing his brother’s suit at a wedding…
2. Army Presidential and Meritorious Unit Citations? I’m not familiar with the 19th SFG(A) lineage, but I’m pretty sure neither the 105th or 108th Infantry have those… and he didn’t get them in the GWOT as a unit member when so awarded. So either he’s wearing them based on his claim to be in the 19th Group, or he’s just wrong again.
3. BTW, I noted above references in the main story to the “105th Infantry Battalion” and the “108th Infantry Battalion.” Should read “X Bn-105th Infantry,” etc… Just in the interest of accuracy. Battalions may have different lineages (and unit citations), and there are no separately numbered Infantry Battalions in US force structure.
July 13th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
A couple of things I question – not claming to be an expert on Special Forces. According to my son, who graduated Special Forces in May of this year, all enlisted are at the rank of Sgt and all Officers are Captains -only – there were 2 or 3 of higher rank in his graduating class but, they had special permission to go thru the SF course as they are medical officers treating SF soldiers.
And whats up with the Infantry Blue braid – it should be Green like his beret.
July 13th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Why is it always SF? I don’t even wear my SF “combat” patch because I was only OPCONed to help train IA and would feel like a tool. That is one of my pet peeves, to see people wear that “combat” patch because they pulled security or whatever. It makes them look like d-bags. Sorry I went off on a tangent.
July 13th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
What a homo.
July 13th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
Does not surprise me about fucked up records. I was a Long time member of C-1/105th IN NYARNG till I transferred prior to 9-11. the PAC was a bunch of chimps who regularly lost award documents school documents, added other persons documents to your 201 file, etc.
For some reason no one from any Company of the Bn down in NYC got promoted for 4 years above the rank of Sgt. While all the Leeds and Schnectady men got the NCOES and promotions. Had the CSM tell the NCO’s of B.co (Manhattan, NY) and C.co (Queens NY) to our faces we were criminals while at dix in 2000 and thats when I left.
Add to that the enormous shuffling of men to fill the 2/108 for OIF II, the 258FA for OIFII and the 69th INF for OIF III. We had dismounted Tankers from 210 Armor and 101Cav, Engineers from 152 CE filling 11B slots.
Doesnt surprise me someone like Reickhof became a PL during that time frame as another PL from the deployment is now claiming for a Purple Heart and No one remembers him hurt/injured. Corruption in NYARNG is horrific MG Taluto’s son was the saleman for the SIPC Emergency tents the state purchased
July 13th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
I love the site, guys, but I don’t think you have this story yet.
July 13th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
I had contacted IAVA after seeing a commercial requesting their assistance in typical veterans services matters, but one issue was pertaining to women and how they plan on aiding women veterans, what they’re doing now, etc. NO ONE got back to me at all until the documentary “Lioness” came out a year later, in which I received some pithy e-mail from Dickoff stating that he “supports” my efforts – although he didn’t state what they were – and to donate money to IAVA. Also, the producers of Lioness had requested assistance in spreading the word on the film in which IAVA replied that they wanted CREDIT for the film, otherwise, they wouldn’t speak on it. Yep, Dickoff is actually thanked in the credits for a film he had no hand in creating whatsoever. It’s like pissing your initials on a Monet and calling it yours. I met him in person and asked the same questions and he had a list of autopilot responses à la MSNBC when Rachel Maddow was swinging from his nutsack. Bottom line: Rieckhoff is a self-promoting dickhead aspiring spineless/soulless politician who runs an organization with all the substance of an empty warehouse+flashy signs+a philanthropist financing his megalomania.
July 13th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
(I have NOT yet, read any comments here, just Jonn’s post.)
Thank you, Mr. Lilyea, for a great summary — hard work well done (I hope you don’t mind sincere compliments) .
July 13th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
I did not switch my patches on duty uniform until my new unit gave me one. Did not change patch or anything for that matter on class-A until that once or twice a year when unit told me I was wearing that itchy green suit.
July 13th, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Jason Van Steenwyk: possibly. But the fact that Rieckhoff (1) can’t produce orders or the certificate for his BSM, and (2) no longer wears it is rather damaging to his credibility regarding the award. We’ve seen folks claim a BSM for a while, then abruptly quit doing so. Ain’t that right, Wittgenfeld?
I also wonder about that apparent AFSM he’s wearing (innermost ribbon, next to bottom row). Per his bio, Rieckhoff served as a USAR MP for somewhat less than 2 years, starting in Sep 1998, then went to OCS and got a NY ARNG commission. That means Joint Forge, Haiti (1995-2000), Haiti (2010 earthquake relief), Jump Start, Unified Response, and Katrina/Rita relief are the only operations for which he could have been awarded the AFSM. I don’t see any of those in his NGB separation document, nor do I see the AFSM. He could well have served in one of those operations, but I have to say it would be a stretch – Haiti as a member of his USAR MP unit or Katrina/Rita relief seem to be the only realistic possibilities. The timing for the rest don’t seem to work out, especially considering his relative lack of RC participation since returning from Iraq (he only had 5 years qualifying for Reserve Retirement, which would include his 1 year tour in Iraq and all his active duty for training – e.g., basic/AIT/OCS/predeployment training).
July 13th, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Its simple.
In my case I have the NDSM and KDSM. BUT because I have to get my records fixed I cannot add them to jack shit. I can say I have them all day long but until I have orders it doesn’t mean anything. In the case of the KDSM there doesn’t appear to be any record of my orders sending me there for 5 months for Foal Eagle ’99. So I may be out of luck there. Still…do I get to claim it?
Rieckhoff knows this. As an officer we are TOLD this in OBC. It’s basic care of the uniform. He also knows that you aren’t assigned to that unit until you have orders. THAT is when you change you patches. So that when you show up you are in the right uniform.
Fucking liar.
July 13th, 2012 at 6:38 pm
I read some of the other comments. Since he says he was trying to get into a Reserve SF unit they can place bodies against positions without being SF qualified. It doesn’t mean they are SF, get the tab, or even can deploy. They don’t even get the 18 series MOS nor training. It’s temporary until he passes SFAS and the Q Course.
On that note I think there is something fishy with his deployments. Jonn can you check this?
In the interview you linked to he claims to have been with the 4ID (which pisses me off….TF Iron Horse was my outfit….the shame is deep) YET his Wikipedia entry says he deployed with the 3ID in 2003.
Soooo…was he really with the 4th then once on the ground reassigned with the 3ID? Or is that an attempt to make it sound like he was in the lead element the whole time when he really got to theater a couple years later? The shit was still hot but….I don’t think he was with the 4th.
I don’t know…mouse turds? Maybe…but the facts don’t line up to me with the minimum data I have.
July 13th, 2012 at 6:38 pm
@ 20 Mike3727, if I may ask, how does the Army identify battalions? My paternal side has been Marine since Korea. My maternal side was mostly zoomies with a couple of squids and more than a few who didn’t serve. Our companies are ‘lettered’ with battalions and regiments ‘numbered’. My older brother was with Fox Co., 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment or Fox 2/5. Now my out fit was a bit different. I was combat arms. I was with Charlie Co.,3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion or Charlie, 3rd Tracs. Any information would be helpful, I’m really trying to learn. Thanks!
July 13th, 2012 at 7:10 pm
#31 Steadfast & Loyal; His ARCOM says he was assigned to B Co. 3/124th which was apparently part of the 124th Infantry Regiment. The only thing I can find about them comes from Wiki;
On 26 Dec 2002, the 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry, was ordered into active federal service in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Ordered into active Federal service 2–16 January 2003 at home stations; On the night of 19 March 2003, Soldiers of C Company, 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry, positioned in Jordan and A Company, 3rd Battalion, 124th Infantry, positioned in Kuwait, were among the first U.S. soldiers to cross into Iraq. Released 11 April – 21 May 2004 from active Federal service and reverted to state control. The regiment was reorganized on 1 September 2007 to consist of the 1st and 2d Battalions, elements of the 53d Infantry Brigade Combat Team (3d Battalion hereafter separate lineage).
It says C Co. attacked from Jordan and A Co. from Kuwait (I’m guessing with the 3ID) but it doesn’t mention where B Co. (Rieckhoff’s company) was during the initial attack. So your guess is as good as mine. But an educated guess, since his DD214 and ARCOM say Rieckhoff was in Iraq from April 5, 2003 until January 28th, 2004, I’m guessing he was with the 4th ID since they didn’t deploy into Iraq from Kuwait until April 2003 a month after 3ID.
Further research indicates that 3/124th was attached to 1st Armored Division in May 2003.
July 13th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
Steadfast&Loyal: for campaign, expeditionary, and service medals, per AR 600-8-22, para 1-26.b. no orders are issued; these are awarded administratively. The individual’s qualification for those awards can therefore be determined from other official documentation in the individual’s OMPF. Often units issue memos for placement in official personnel records to document campaign/expeditionary/service medals. But that doesn’t always happen. It didn’t for me for the KDSM, GWOTSM, and NDSM. It did for the ACM and ICM.
For the NDSM, all you need to do is demonstrate the requisite active duty and/or SELRES service during specified periods. Evals and/or unit assignment orders should suffice for that.
Same is true for the KDSM, albeit different documentation is required. If you have TDY voucher and/or an eval that documents your service of 30 days consecutive/60 days nonconsecutive in Korea, you should be able to get that added to your OPMF. TDY and/or AD orders alone might or might not work, since those only document you were scheduled to perform the duty – not that you actually did (orders can be revoked). Ditto for pay vouchers unless they explicitly show your location in Korea.
If you’re retired reserve (think you said once before you were a RC soldier), HRC should still have access to your files. They might be willing to assist in getting you a DD215 adding those. They did for me with a couple of awards I rated after I retired from the USAR.
If you’re still in the USAR or ARNG, your unit PAC or S1 should be able to assist.
July 13th, 2012 at 8:19 pm
Yat Yas 1833: I’ll take a stab at this. Mike3727, please chime in if I’m inaccurate; I don’t claim to be an expert here.
Army combat arms units are typically denoted in the form Letter/Number/Number Branch. The Letter is the company designation (A, B, C, etc . . . ). The first number is the battalion (typically 1st, 2nd, 3rd). The third number and branch denote historical regimental affiliation (325th Infantry, 68th Armor, etc . . . ).
It gets a bit more complicated in non-combat arms units. I some branches (SC, MI) have a branch “regiment” (I don’t know that this is universally true). For units of those branches, the regimental affiliation is typically denoted by the branch abbreviation (e.g., A/304th Sig).
Brigade HQs are typically administrative, and if I recall correctly in the combat arms may share units from multiple regiments. I could be wrong about that, however.
There are also some company-size units that don’t have a parent battalion. These are typically non-combat-arms units and have branch regimental affiliation. They’re typically numbered (e.g., 314th Ord Co).
Divisions are transient HQs vice permanent, and may be task-organized or augmented from available forces as required. For divisions with long lineage (82nd, 1st Inf, 101st Airborne, 3rd Infantry), these task-organizations tend to change rather slowly over time. But they may be augmented as the tactical situation requires with other active/reserve units.
Why? Dunno. Tradition and history would be my guess.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:05 pm
You guys are really putting to much thought into this…
This guy is a NG dude that went to a very good liberal arts school. And he is using it for personal and professional gratification.
He is dancing and looking for anything he can get.
While I believe that he could have a BSM as it is a blanket award for company grade officers and senior NCO’s, my question is…Where is the Tab?
No IN officer that I know would take a pic (minus DA photo) without it.
Turd.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:24 pm
He’s the first leg Infantry officer I’ve ever seen.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:34 pm
@37. My point exactly.
July 13th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
There appears to be no regimental affiliation on those cross rifles.
NG all the way.
July 14th, 2012 at 12:06 am
Check roger. I was all jacked up on time lines.
July 14th, 2012 at 12:18 am
Dirty, filthy leg…
July 14th, 2012 at 12:28 am
Oh this is to much…….he’s such a douche. Please don’t let this one go. He’s done nothing for anybody but him. This made my week. Why did this take so long……..
July 14th, 2012 at 12:41 am
35 Hondo,
I was combat arms. Cco, 1-8 Cav. Charlie co. 1st battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division was the full designation.
July 14th, 2012 at 5:00 am
@22 Twist…It’s always SF… or Ranger or SEAL. That is how “they” is play it out 98% of the time. Maddening.
In this clown’s Q@A he staes that he transferred to 19th Group… “Special Forces is the next challenge.” Really?
July 14th, 2012 at 5:33 am
HONDO, the ribbon is the reserve medal. Blue and white. M device for title 10 mobilization. It is not an AF svc ribon.
July 14th, 2012 at 5:47 am
Man, what is with these A-holes? How the Fu€k don’t they think they’re not going to get busted? As others have mentioned, why would he stop wearing something he’s earned? Can everyone say “fishy”? To me the kicker is he’s an officer! A broked1ck Pvt or a Terminal Lance, yeah I could see them lying their ^sses off but an officer?
July 14th, 2012 at 5:59 am
@ 35 Hondo thanks! You guys aren’t so different from us. Man, I’ve learned more about the Army than I ever thought I would!?
Shoot, I’ve learned so much about Army uniforms I think I could make a pretty good poser!? 
Before long I’ll know enough about units to be able to BS with the best of ‘em. Hell, I’m even getting pretty good at acronyms! Just kidding, I have way more pride than that and I would never be that disrespectful to my Army brethren.
July 14th, 2012 at 9:08 am
@36 Green Thumb, SF Groups have support units that are not 18 series. So it is legitimatly possible to have the patch without the tab. Please do not take this as me defending this ass hat.
July 14th, 2012 at 9:45 am
Anonymous: I’m not talking about his AFRM, or any Air Force decoration. His AFRM is the middle ribbon on the next to bottom row – the blue and white thing with what looks like a brown (bronze) blob in the middle (that would be the M device). Rieckhoff rates that. I’m talking about the ribbon immediately inboard of that. That one appears to be the ribbon for the Armed Forces Service Medal (AFSM), and comes before the AFRM in order of precedence. The AFSM is a DoD service medal created in 1996 and has been awarded for multiple operations since then – mostly for various operations in the Balkans, but also for 2 Haiti operations and 2 CONUS operations.
The ribbon looks like this:
I could be wrong on the ID, but that’s the only one I can find at the Army Institute of Heraldry page that’s even close. (The blue stripe in the center of the ribbon in question Rieckhoff’s wearing rules out the MOVSM.)
Rieckhoff seems to have managed to get his ribbons in the correct order. And he’s wearing the ribbon in question in the order of precedence where a US decoration would belong, so it pretty much has to be a DoD/Army/sister service ribbon. It’s not a state ribbon, since all of those go after the last US decoration or ribbon.
July 14th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Long time listener, first time caller.
As an Amherst College graduate (and a graduate of the UMASS ROTC program) who has also been a Regular Army combat arms officer for the last 18 years, I may be the only person on this discussion who read the article when he got it in the mail a few years back.
@#9 Bobo- If you were in the UMASS ROTC program in the early 1990s, then you know exactly who I am as there was only one guy from Amherst (“silent ‘h’, don’t you know old boy?” in my best Judge Smails voice). And while Amherst is not in the Ivy League , it is in the top 2-3 liberal arts colleges in America and the admissions standards are the same as the top half of the Ivy League. Don’t be a hater (and don’t lump us in with Smith College, either)
When I read the article back then, I thought the SF Patch was a bit weird, but assumed that he had been assigned to one of the SF Group support units in preparation for SFAS and the Q Course. I know a few of loggies (the BEST loggies I know, in fact) who are not SF but wear the patch and subsequently the combat patch as they deployed to support them. A good Logistics guy, as we all know, is worth his weight in gold, and my datapoints suggest the SF community recognizes this. Mr. Lilyea’s digging and R-hoff’s response casts a much harsher light on this.
If there is something about R-hoff that I find annoying, it is that he seems to be a shameless self-promoter who will leverage 8 months of his life (an experience that many on this list have done 2,3, or 4 times) into a political career while at the same time representing himself to the American people as an expert. In 20 years, if he does not go into political office, he will be still be trotted out by CNN and etc. as the “expert” on military matters and veterans affairs. Because of where he falls on the political spectrum, he is a comfortable choice. And he is, I think, taking advantage of a public who doesn’t know much about the military. Remember that the article in question was meant to be read by only by Amherst alumni who are to put it nicely, vastly underrepresented in the Army (in the late 1990s, an AG friend of mine was tasked to test a new personnel computer database and one of the queries she ran was “how many Amherst College graduates are in the Regular Army?”. The answer was 6 Medical Doctors, 1 Chaplain, and yours truly).
Finally, while I am proud of my Amherst diploma (sorry Bobo), I am probably more proud of the lumps and lessons I received while earning my commission, and the great people I have served with since. R-Hoff, I feel, is leveraging our and his service to portray himself as something he is not.
July 14th, 2012 at 10:29 am
@48. I understand but how many have IN officers (no 11V status) in support roles?
Not many I would think.
July 14th, 2012 at 3:37 pm
OtherAmherstArmyOfficer: I’m a bit unclear. Are you saying you read the article when you got it in the mail – or that Rieckhoff somewhere claimed “he got it in the mail” about his BSM?
July 14th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
@52 Hondo: I apologize for the confusion. It should be when I got it, it being the Amherst Alumni magazine, in the mail. The article was in the Amherst Alumni magazine sometime around 2004 or so.
July 14th, 2012 at 4:28 pm
OtherAmherstArmyOfficer: thanks for the clarification. Originally I interpreted it one way, but on re-reading your comment I realized there was an alternate interpretation and I might be wrong.
July 15th, 2012 at 6:54 am
ALCON,
Look, for those who hate R and for those who are just new to the game (of exposing fakes) let me make a few points from somebody who has been dealing with actual fakes and frauds for the better part of a decade and a half…
This dog don’t hunt. By which I mean, there is nothing to this “controversy.” And yes, I say this as an expert.
I’ve exposed fakes, hell, a man even went to federal prison because I exposed his Korean War record(s) to be a fraud by doing archival research and then writing a book about it. I learned from the best, BG Burkett (author of the original book, _Stolen Valor_), and he helped my in my own subsequent research, and let me tell you, this is all too clearly a tempest in a teapot. Too easy to Google: check my name, Ed Daily, and No Gun Ri. Just so that we can establish that I know whereof I speak.
Unless there is another academically-educated-former-West-Point-professor-and-career(still serving)-infantry-officer-with-multiple-combat-tours-who-has-exposed-fakes-who-were-claiming-more-than-they-earned-so-that-they-went-to-prison commentator here, let us assume that I know more than the average bear, shall we?
First, on the patches…I’m a Regular Army officer, and have been since the late 1980s, and I am here to catagorically state that I *always* showed up, as a professional officer, with the correct patches of my gaining unit ALREADY SEWN ON. The way my first SGM taught me, even as a cadet back in ’85, was that to show up without your new unit’s patch already sewn on was a mark against you and showed a lack of professionalism in an officer. (Enlisted are different, but officers, so SGM Leo Brown taught me, are supposed to be already squared away the day they show up.) So that seems to be moot.
Second, during my first 15 years in the infantry, having your regimental affiliation on your crossed rifles was not only contrary to regulations, but was so uncommon as to be seen as the purview purely of those senior enough to special order such things. (Remember folks, most of that was pre-intertubes. Customized rifles were just not available for all regiments.) So, the Battalion Commander might, I say again, *might* have them, but almost none of us company grades would. (Exception: More widely available in 82nd and 1st CAV, even back then, but not until you got to Bragg or Hood.) So *that* isn’t an issue.
Third, the issue of the DD214 not being immediately backed up w/ copies of orders from the man you are asking is moot until you do a LOT more archival research on your own. Bottom line, I have never myself given a rat’s ass about any of my medals/awards, primarily because the system is so random as to render them meaningless in my opinion. I myself have the medals, pictures of the award ceremonies, and the citations (suitable for framing, 1 ea.) for a whole chestload of awards and decorations, but could probably only substanstiate about 80% based upon paper/hardcopy I keep in a manila folder somewhere in the basement. Prior to the age of electronic record-keeping, which now makes things better, a lot of us kept our own hard-copies of EVERYTHING, for just the reasons you note: Clerks, especially overworked clerks, often fail to file things. Think about it, how many among us have noted that the 5 day leave we took off-cycle was not noted in our LES the next month, or the next, and were thankful for that little bit of blessing that a clerk’s screw-up (or sometimes benificience) gave us?
No, you need a lot more homework on this before you start posting stuff like the de facto accusations put out here. Particularly since, seriously, the dude could have a major legal suit option (slander and libel, though tough to say which at this point) even though you’re “just asking questions.” See, because the scale of your readership turns you into a “media” source, and therefore the standards that apply to any publisher probably now apply to you. (Though this sort of stuff is still being hashed out in US courts.)
I’m feeling lazy, so copying freely from Wikipedia: “Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander (for transitory statements), and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. This can be also any disparaging statement made by one person about another, which is communicated or published, whether true or false, depending on legal state. In Common Law it is usually a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).[1]”
Now note, because you are a “publisher”, and this is an openly public statement over which you have control, and you already admitted that you’re hostile, the “malice” element of US libel laws (as per New York Times v. Sullivan, sometime in the ’60s), is already there. Seriously.
I look forward to reading comments from anyone who is willing to identify themselves IN their comments. I find anonymity leads to cowardice. Especially on comment boards. So I tend to ignore those who have not the moral courage to use their real names.
~ Bob Bateman
July 15th, 2012 at 7:19 am
Ignore this… But for everyone else, there is no “malice” in this case. Absolutely none at all. Although Bateman goes to great lengths to espouse his military credentials, his Wikipedia-based legal education should be left to others.
As for the patch issue, and speaking as an officer, Bateman is correct that one shows upat the gaining unit wearing the correct patches. However, officers typically have orders to said gaining unit prior to sewing the patch on. Here, R apparently only talked about joining a SF unit and thought it a good idea to pose for a photo op without having any official gaining unit. I don’t know who would actually do that… I’m sure the PAO would have been thrilled… Speaking of, I wonder if R had permission to conduct an interview in his military capacity (with photo op).
July 15th, 2012 at 8:17 am
Do you mean the same LTC Robert Bateman who writes at Media Matters for America, that liberal organization which in it’s own words is “A non-profit progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S”? That Bob Bateman? The same Bob Bateman who tried to disparage Victor Davis Hanson and failed miserably?
Yeah, Bobbie, that’s my real name as the author of the post, so I don’t what you’re talking about in that regard. Go give Rieckhoff a hug, and don’t wade into this conversation so I don’t have to tear you to itty-bitty pieces.
Rieckhoff didn’t have assignment orders for the special forces unit, and did you notice that the BSM would be the second merit award for his single tour in Iraq?
You need to explain to me how publishing publicly available documents is slander. You’re out of your “progressive” depth here. Go back to bragging to George Soros how smart you are.
July 15th, 2012 at 8:26 am
Bateman: you served part of your career in the day of paper records. By and large, that era ended about a decade ago.
My service predates your by a few years, and lasted until fairly recently (I retired less than 5 years ago). I have copies of some form of paper documentation for every personal decoration I have – e.g., orders, certificates, or both – not 80% of them. They’re all in my digital files, too.
I can also back qualification for all of my administratively awarded medals and ribbons (service and campaign medals, ASR, OSR, etc . . . ) with other documentation in my now-retired OPMF. That was true in 2004 as well.
So Rieckhoff gets NO pass from me for wearing a personal decoration – the BSM – he can’t fully substantiate and about which he apparently also has questions (by his own admission he’s quit wearing or claiming it). He also gets no pass for apparently wearing a service medal, the AFSM, that doesn’t appear in his records. He may well rate the latter, but I’d love to hear his explanation as to how he does. The apparent timeline of his career argues against it.
Bottom line: in wearing at least one questionable personal decoration (the BSM) and possibly also one questionable service medal (the AFSM), Rieckhoff’s acted in a way that invites questions about his veracity. Jonn’s correct to point that out and ask him for an explanation.
And in case you missed it: Jonn’s also “outed” a few military phonies – as have others who write here. Just ask a recent former candidate for Congress from NW Arkansas. Or a certain recent “America’s Got Talent” contestant. Both of those individuals were first exposed at this site. Search the site for “Aden” and “Poe” for details.
July 15th, 2012 at 8:52 am
Not a fan of IAVA. With that, I can see how an incorrect award got on his 214 without a certificate or 638. I’ll share my recent DEMOB experience and how awards were added to our DD214s: Our S1 provided a spreadsheet to the DEMOB station with each Soldier and what new awards they received. My tour award and service medals were added to my DD214 with no other documentation except for that spreadsheet. In fact the spreadsheet was wrong for me and was going to incorrectly award me with a good conduct medal even though I was an officer.
July 15th, 2012 at 9:58 am
YO: Jonn Lilyea
You talk a lot of smack about how you’d cut Bateman to shreds, but you never actually get around to it. Why not?
Bateman laid out his argument and all you have to offer in reply is “don’t make me take off my belt?”
For now, YOU LOSE. Care to try again?
July 15th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Wonder if “TruConserv” might be someone with a direct, personal interest in this matter?
July 15th, 2012 at 10:33 am
TruConserv…
Jonn DID lay out his argument…perhaps reading comprehension isn’t one of your strong points.
July 15th, 2012 at 10:42 am
@55.
You are correct to some extent, but times change and so do rules and regs.
R’s army (NG) is and was a lot diffrent than yours.
On a persoanl note, you appear to be very high on yourself.
July 15th, 2012 at 12:40 pm
“so I don’t have to tear you to itty-bitty pieces.” – Jonn Lilyea
Is this a joke? I’ve met both Bateman and Lilyea. Bateman looks like an infantry officer – big, strong and bald. Lilyea is a sad little troll. It took longer to type this out than any “match” would last. Stick to the big bad Internet, troll.
Sonny Lo and Behold
July 15th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
This really seems like an insignificant one-off mistake that could easily be explained away … until you consider who is involved. Paul is a public figure, and that opens him up to greater scrutiny. He also built his post-military career on his military experience and presents himself as a subject matter expert in veterans issues. In my opinion, he must fully answer Jonn’s questions for the sake of his professional credibility.
July 15th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Nattering nabobs always think they have the upper scoop on someone until proved otherwise. This article really is much ado about nothing. Mr. Rieckhoff has served our country and has not misrepresented himself or his service.
July 15th, 2012 at 1:39 pm
dog1net: that remains to be seen. Most people would consider a military officer wearing 2 decorations for which he doesn’t have proper documentation as “misrepresenting himself or his service”. Rieckhoff himself admits he has neither orders nor a certificate for his BSM. And as far as I know, he hasn’t addressed the question I raised about what appears to be an AFRM he’s wearing 2 ribbons below his BSM.
July 15th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
@ 55, Look everybody a pro ring knocker has come to spread THE WORD to us poor unwashed. STFU Joe
July 15th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
@68 Having simply followed a thread of stories to here, I have no side to take, but Bateman makes a very strong argument. In contrast Lilyea and you simply resort to ad hominem.
I love a good stolen valor expose and respect the hell out of the legitimate work done by many in bringing those stories to light.
That said, this story seems like a pissing match between two guys, one of whom (Lilyea) decided to take it from cold war to hot.
This will not end well for anyone, except perhaps Yon the media-whore, and I think we all oppose that.
July 15th, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Yeah, well if you read the whole history of posts here on Rieckhoff, whenever we uncover something about him or IAVA that he doesn’t like, he sends someone in to fight his battles for him, because he doesn’t have the guts to fight his own battles. You can bet that Bateman was the latest proxy warrior. Aside from being a complete phony, Rieckhoff is a coward. As I said in the body of this post, I didn’t sneak around behind his back with this information and I gave him an opportunity to come clean, he tossed that opportunity aside and now he sends in some leftist hitman that they dredge up. This fits both Bateman and Rieckhoff’s MO, and yeah, I went ugly early, but only because I hate dealing with cowards.
July 15th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
@66 Hi Scot Cunningham.
So, ask your son how he would feel about someone wearing his units patch if he never served in that unit. Much ado about nothing is I am certain exactly what he will say.
July 15th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
TruConserv: Bateman’s argument is weak. Army regulations prescribe that orders are issued to announce personal decorations. No orders documenting a personal decoration means you don’t have authority to wear that personal decoration.
Further: contrary to Bateman’s implication above, it’s simply not that hard to get missing personal decorations put into your files. For about 10 years (15+ in the USAR), that’s actually been pretty easy. On the USAR or ARNG side, all it generally takes is photocopying missing award orders and/or certificate and (maybe) drafting a memo to PAC or S1 requesting they be put in your personnel files – then following up a couple of months later to see whether or not it’s been filed properly. Particularly in the USAR, verifying is easy – the records have been available on-line since the mid 1990s. (I can’t speak for the ARNG from personal experience – but I’m not certain Bateman can, either.)
Rieckhoff’s DD214 apparently says he has a BSM. But that BSM doesn’t seem to be otherwise documented in his records, and it’s also not on his 2010 NG separation documents. (Neither is the AFSM he appears to be wearing 2 rows below his BSM, either. However, also missing are his GWOTEM and GWOTSM – again demonstrating that separation documents are not always 100% accurate.) Rieckhoff has also admitted he doesn’t have orders or a certificate for his BSM.
What this all tells me is Rieckhoff saw the BSM on his DD214 and should have questioned it then, but did not. Rather, he signed his DD214 anyway, then used that questionable DD214 as authority to start wearing the BSM – sans orders or presentation.
That may not be flat-out illegal – but it’s unethical as hell. And one would expect much better than that from a commissioned officer with nearly 5 1/2 years in the military.
July 15th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Rieckhoff is in crisis mode and doesn’t know what to do. How do we know? Because he hasn’t tweeted in 20 hours. And for anyone defending him, did you forget that he is the same guy who publicly blasts the Sec of VA? And every company or organization that he doesn’t agree with. Rieckhoff uses a take no pity approach on anyone and everyone else….and now the tables have turned. He earned an ARCOM for his deployment’s end of tour award, so there is no way he earned a BSM unless there is a “V” fpr Valor attached to it. Which there isn’t. It’s a pretty clear case from how it stands right now (pending further clarification from Rieckhoff): He never earned a BSM yet wore one on his uniform, to include in media pictures. That isn’t a mistake—it’s something that he does very well and that is intentionally misleading people. It isn’t an IAVA job fair, but you wouldn’t know that if you listened to Rieckhoff. So until Rieckhoff goes on the record to clarify this, he is losing credibility with anyone who matters. And for most of those people who matter, that credibility was lost a long time ago. This is just the nail in the coffin.
July 15th, 2012 at 7:20 pm
I understand that that BSM for merit is, well, a fucking joke, but regardless, if you were legitimately awarded it and it was your highest award, I think you’d unfuck that paper work instead of just “stop wearing it.”
That dog seems to be hunting something, and it ain’t duck. It smells more like a severe lack of integrity.
July 15th, 2012 at 7:37 pm
[...] fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); The boys over at This Ain’t Hell have outed another fraud. However, this isn’t your average, run-of-the-mill fraud that you [...]
July 15th, 2012 at 8:20 pm
I think you guys are starting to get to big for your britches… and your using clear Political Bias (even admitting it) in your attacks on some of these guys. Clearly he states that he hasn’t worn the BSM since that photo shoot, maybe because he was unsure if he was actually ever awarded it or not. Saw many posts on here about guys having every single award they have on their dd214′s original citations… well it don’t work out that way for all of us high speeds. I served two combat tours as an infantryman. I do not have a citation for my CIB, never received one, not the first tour and not the second tour. However I have the CIB on my dd214, and considering it was awarded to my entire unit the first tour, and I got blown up and lost a leg and do have my purple heart citation, I think I can safely say that my CIB was indeed earned. But going by your criteria, you might as well slap the SV label on me and jump start the band wagon on getting me called out. Far as his SF patch goes, really think he’s working hard to look cool? I think if that where the case he would have sewn on the SF tab. Guard and Reserve units are a bit different, to join the medical reserve unit that I joined in Kingsport Tn as a medical supply sgt between my two active duty tours, I went into the First Sergeants office and asked him if I could join his unit. Now I didn’t get all excited when he said yes and told me where he could put me and then go sew on my new unit patch (honestly as an infantryman pretending to be a medical supply guy, which i never went to AIT for because I was only in the unit 10months before returning to active duty, never really excited me and I never needed to sew the patch on) but, I could see how this would excite Paul and how, just like one does when preparing for a PCS move, sewed it on, even if it was because he would be taking a school picture with it… whats it mean to have that patch on without the tab… nothing, your not SF until you earn that tab. I think this one is a witch hunt, and mainly because you don’t agree with the mans politics. Michael Yaaaawwwnnn I have no love loss for, i hope you burn his site to the ground as I am also blocked from his Facebook wall. But this grudge against Paul, in my eyes is politically motivated and I think he sounds to me like he was pretty forthright in his answer to you in that email.
July 16th, 2012 at 3:10 am
ALCON,
For the record, I do not know Rieckoff. I read about the brou-haha on a message Loop that I am in and came over to look at it out of curiousity.
Now, as for myself, you’ll note that I’m also the Bob Bateman written favorably about by that liberal site Newsbusters (http://newsbusters.org/node/9689) and that horrific liberal Michelle Malkin (http://michellemalkin.com/2006/12/08/ap-still-not-off-the-hookplus-the-question/ ) and who writes in the New York Post and the Washington Examiner, and also for that well-known liberal site Small Wars Journal (http://newsbusters.org/node/9689), USNI Proceedings, Parameters, Military Review, Armor, Infantry, Marine Corps Gazette, the Journal of Military History, and a dozen others.
In short, get over it Paul. I have never written a political word yet. I’ve written for conservative sites, and liberal sites, and professional military sites, and academic sites, and commercial military history magazines, but I am not writing about politics. Different sides like to use my materials for exactly that reason. Nobody, not even my wife and daughters, know which political party I might support, nor whom I have ever voted for.
I attacked Hanson not because he’s conservative, but because once he leaves the ancient world, he’s a crappy historian. Crappy historians who stay in academia get attacked in academia (in, for example, the Journal of Military History). Crappy historians who write blogs, get attacked on blogs (in addition to having their books slammed in academic journals). Go back and read the critiques. Bottom line: You cannot have a 2,500 year thesis and contend that it’s a constant…but ignore the contrary evidence from the middle 1,700 years. Unless you disagree with me about Poitiers, etc.
Hondo: I agree, it probably isn’t hard. I did not mean to imply that it was really all that hard, and if I did, that was poor communicating on my part. I merely meant that the process is error-ridden.
Also, I admit that I’ve just never really bothered myself much with it. Particularly since it’s been about 12 years since I have served in a position where we had a PAC (for non-mil readers, that is your Administration Center) available. (Pentagon, MNSTC-I, SECDEF’s office, then NATO school and assignment and IJC…none had anything like what would be recognized as a sub-divisional sized-unit type PAC.)
I do note that when the swap from paper to electrons came, I sent in a bunch of hard-copy stuff to get included. Some did, some did not. After a while it was such a pain-in-the-ass (which I did not really care about) that I stopped making the effort. FWIW, since I haven’t worn any uniform but BDU/ACUs in 10 years barring the extremely rare exception, it hasn’t mattered to me personally. But my point was that I can see how it happens. I cede, that is a *personal* bias on my part. But my estimate stands, my electronic records show gaps that I have the paper to fill, but ONLY because I grew up in the paper age. Follow?
I think I’ll wait to see what the other side has to say/show on this in the coming days. At this point, what I am seeing is somebody who has a political axe to grind, and who seems determined to make a mountain out of a molehill purely for political reasons.
Bateman
July 16th, 2012 at 6:49 am
Addendum for Hondo: Realized I missed something: No, my interaction with ARNG and USAR is supplemental, like yours. I was enlisted in Reserves (C/1-315 INF, one of the last CBT Arms units in RES) when I was a cadet (SMP program, no biggie) about a quarter century ago, but that was the mid-80s, and I didn’t know my head from a hole in the ground at the time, so I wouldn’t count that as a basis for knowing squat on NG/RES. I make no claims there.
All I have got is an impression (but no experiential evidence) that as messed up as Regular Army paperwork can be, that the NG/RES side is even more so. But I have nothing but these past couple of decades of anecdotal stuff from men I’ve served with who are NG or RES to give me that impression.
@Joe Williams: I just noticed your comment (sorry for the delayed response) and realized that you think I’m a “Ring Knocker.” Joe, don’t know if you know anything about the military, I don’t know you at all, but a “Ring Knocker” is the common slang in the Army for a West Point (United States Military Academy) graduate.
It derives from the (now thankfully rare) practice of USMA graduates of tapping their huge graduation/class rings on a table when a non-West Pointer was speaking in order to highlight their own “Regular” status (vs. that of most Reserve-on-Active duty officers). Moot nowadays since the changes in commissioning rules. Anyway, I never attended West Point, nor any other elite school. I’m a State University product. University of Delaware, in fact. We don’t do jewelry. Don’t know where you got the impression that I was a student at West Point. I was on the faculty there.
(Actually, the technical position, as I recall, was “Associate Professor.” Or perhaps it was “Assistant Professor.” I can’t remember.)
Bateman
July 16th, 2012 at 8:26 am
Actually, Bateman, I spent the last 21+ years of my career as a member of the USAR – including a 2-year mobilization in CONUS and 3 other periods of active duty. I also spent a year deployed in the CENTCOM AOR, split between two different sub-theaters. So my experience with the Reserve Component has been far from “supplemental”.
Prior to becoming a Reservist, I spent several years on active duty. My experience was that I actually had a somewhat better experience in getting documents into my official files while in the USAR than I did while serving on active duty. Case in point: after I transitioned to the USAR I had to scramble to find copies of orders for two awards I received while on active duty so I could submit them for filing in my OMPF. Each should have been filed in my OMPF long before I left active duty. Neither was. Both were promptly placed in my digital OMPF after I submitted them as a Reservist.
YMMV.
July 16th, 2012 at 8:49 am
Jonn @37 – the next time that you’re in the DC area, you can meet your second leg infantry officer, and probably your first submarine qualified infantry officer.
July 16th, 2012 at 9:19 am
Hondo,
Fair enough. A misreading of your words (“I can’t speak for the ARNG from personal experience…”) on my part. I *saw* “ARNG” but in my Regular Army way, lumped that together to read (in my head) “ARNG/USAR”.
I think we’re all still in moderate agreement that paperwork can go missing, and new 1LTs might not be aware enough as to how the system does (let alone how it is supposed to) work.
Bateman
July 16th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Lovin how the Paratroopers are given so much shit to the legs… I’ve been both, would have chosen my Leg Wolfhound brothers over a shit ton of my Para bros any day of the week. And if Airborne school is your crowning achievement in the Army, seriously… navy chicks go through that school with us, who are you trying to impress? Someone shows you how to strap on a harness and you jump out the damn door… might have been a big time elite school once upon a time… but not anymore, now its just like the big Army… pretty much anyone can go.
July 16th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
^ Spoken like a true leg. ;P
July 16th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
JP.. spoken like a true douche…
July 16th, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Tanner…Why, thank you! Cheers
July 16th, 2012 at 8:07 pm
Damn, Yon has driven literally tens of people to our website today.
I hope is expose on us doesn’t destroy us.
July 16th, 2012 at 8:43 pm
Strangely, that comforts me, TSO.
July 16th, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Alexa seems to think our traffic is bigger as well. All I know is that his people comment over there, but there’s no way of correcting their mistaken impressions.
Also, there are at least 3 threats that I have seen.
July 16th, 2012 at 10:21 pm
They’re so cute, and they make the funniest yelping noises when you kick them, don’t they?
July 17th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Jonn way back when I was on Casual status at FT Devens waiting for my ASA TC&S I mowed grass fetched laundry picked up mail washed cars made coffee etc with 10GP 402nd does that mean I am an SF Vet …Hell NO I was barely a candy striper…Paul is a tool…I have said so for years…..But then again I am a nobody…. my money is what Mary has to say!!!!
July 17th, 2012 at 10:17 pm
[...] Non-Profit Founder Accused of wearing patches and medals he didn’t earn. this morning’s blog piece Notice the Special Forces unit patch on his left shoulder, which would mean that he was assigned to [...]
July 17th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
As quoted in the comments of the follow-on post to this: Rieckhoff has admitted that he has no orders for a BSM or transfer to 19th SFG. He admits he has no citation for the BSM, was not pinned in a ceremony, and has no reason greater than someone telling him that he was going to be put in for one to believe that his 214 was correct to have listed it.
He has further clarified that he has had no OFFICIAL reason to wear his Class A’s since PRIOR to his deployment to Iraq, and hence no reason (no transfer orders and no official need to wear the Class A’s) to have the patch sewn on.
He further admits that the reason why the commander expressed that he did not think Rieckhoff was a good fit for the unit was that Rieckhoff had become a hot political publicity figure. Rieckhoff says that media stint began after the photo shoot wearing the BSM and SF Patch.
Yes, I’m paraphrasing because like all POLITICIANS, which is what Rieckhoff is, he couches that information, in unclear statements, with extraneous information mixed in.
Bottom line is that Rieckhoff has no orders to 19th SFG nor for a BSM. He never did. He knows that. He admits it, but it did launch his political career.
Now, he is a self-appointed Chairman of a misleading “Veterans’ Organization” designed for the express purpose of furthering a political party, and misleading voters. The “membership” nor their representatives vote on his position, nor does he tell them where the money comes from. They are not afforded a right to change the person that “leads” the organization, but he does like to brag about the perks he has gained by having it, to include premium passes to sporting and entertainment events, and invitations to meetings with Obama.
July 17th, 2012 at 11:42 pm
In HIS words:
“I tried to track down a citation later, but I never received one. …… And I’ve been in contact with the Department of Defense, Army Review Boards Agency (ARBA) to seek further clarification. …. I did not have a presentation ceremony or other formal confirmation of the award. …. That day was the first and the last time I wore my Class A’s after coming home. …
I had the SF unit patch on in the same photo eight years ago because I was in the process of transferring over to an SF unit at that time. …. Later that spring, I was on national TV talking about the war and thrust into the public eye. .. I talked to the SF Commander, and given my new public profile and uncertain future, I could obviously no longer join that kind of a unit. … My life became pretty public from that point in 2004 on.” Paul Rieckhoff in an email to his new BFF, Michael Yon, as reported by Yon on 16 July 2012
July 17th, 2012 at 11:44 pm
Why is he not showing his combat patch?
July 18th, 2012 at 8:13 am
The explanation about a BSM just showing up on a DD214 is absolute BS, and Jonn, I can’t believe you are not calling that out and staying on this message. You are being way too diplomatic here. This is potentially a big story given it would be an act of Stolen Valor.
Why do you think Rieckhoff was so reactionary? If he knew there was nothing to worry about, he would not have reacted the way he did.
If I saw a Bronze Star show up on my DD214, I’d ask where the certificate was. Doesn’t it seem possible that he doctored up a forged Certificate to put on his DD214 and then later realized later he crossed the line? His explanation just doesn’t make sense because it ended up on his DD214. I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t happen without the individual a) getting it put into their record by a clerk and b) validating their DD214. Records drop from DD214′s, they don’t magically appear. Lastly, he signed this DD214.
Jonn, you fought up to the OBJ, but I’m not seeing you fight through the OBJ. Whether he clarifies all answers or not, this story you’ve broken should be brought to conclusion.
July 18th, 2012 at 8:35 am
#95, Notsurprised, I’m in the business of presenting facts. I can’t afford to speculate. I’m pretty sure that I know what happened, but telling you what to think about it would not be professional. You have to arrive at your own conclusions. As you can see in the comments, people are arriving at their own conclusions, some of those conclusions are wrong or have to be arrived at with some stretching of the facts. I gave you the ammunition, now you have to fight through the objective.
July 18th, 2012 at 1:31 pm
I’m interested in seeing another analysis of IAVA’s 2010 or 2011 tax filings, something similar to what was presented for the fiscal year 2008. I can only imagine what Paul’s executive compensation is now. It’s also suspect that in the “financials” for the 2010 annual report provided on IAVA’s website, they do not list salaries as a separate and distinct expense. All I see are management and general expenses along with a whopping $4.6MM for program services. Can we dig up the most recent tax filings again?
July 18th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Rieckhoff makes veterans sound like a bunch of selfish clowns who serve just for the glory and benefits which is obviously why he served.
Riekhoff if you are reading this it is time to do something new. Get a real job. Go be an actor or something. Your part in Green Zone almost stole the show. Just kidding, but perhaps with more acting lessons. Actually I thought the movie was horrible and didn’t get very far past the part where you came in at the briefing. Seriously go reinvent yourself. You have been pretending to be the Chairman of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for way too long. Acting may be the ticket because you do play the part of veteran very well. I know one reaction might be to say ‘haters’ as if we all want to be like you. The fact is we don’t. We have normal jobs and think our military service was privilege enough. We don’t want or need all the attention you so desperately seek out presumably for yourself in the guise of calling it for other veterans. You’re embarrassing yourself now. Maybe if you stayed on active duty longer you would have cred. You deployed almost a decade ago and spent, what?, two years in uniform. That’s a joke compared to veterans like me who served multiple tours. You may fool civilians who don’t know and the media and you may fool members of Congress and you may even fool the President into thinking your views matter more than other veterans but you will NEVER fool your fellow veterans into believing you carry our voice.
July 18th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
@98.
Right on, man.
July 23rd, 2012 at 11:55 am
[...] Paul Rieckhoff a victim of the machine July 23rd, 2012 You probably remember the discussion about poor Paul Rieckhoff who was wearing a Bronze Star Medal he was never awarded but still wore to an interview for [...]
August 1st, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Ok, I should of posted here first instead of the subsequent thread from here.
Like I wrote; I am active duty Army and currently deployed. I was with the 101st, 4ID, units in Germany and served in the Marine Corps and Army Guard for some years.
When I came into the Guard; personnel put inaccurate information on my records that was properly shown on my Marine Corps DD214. I had to inform them to correct it. This was 1998. When I went AD Army at the start of OIF, I had to see the division clerk at the 101st to get all my records into the e-MILPO system that will generate on my ERB (enlisted record brief that replaced the 2-1). That was back in 2004. Now he was federalized for his tour so who processed his DD214 upon completion? 3rd or 4th ID personnel? Was his BSM annotated from a verbal response or pulled from an ORB that was still in its infancy stages?
You don’t get two end of tour awards. I seen company commanders get two awards for COC ceremonies downrange but that is the exception to the rule. I seen soldiers get an ARCOM for winning a soldier of the month award and then another end of tour award but leadership usually approves those so they can earn more promotion points to get promoted.
Also, just because you go to group doesnt mean you going to SFAS. He was probably going to be assigned in a support role hence the not being a Captain rationale.
When I became an officer a few years later, I got a DD214 cut with all my awards and tours up to that time (OIF). I have since did two OEF deployments and earned more awards (ACM/Nato ribbon). I had to bring all my awards (hence all the hard copies in my “I LOVE ME” book and get them placed on my ORB (officer record brief).
To the person who wrote about wearing the gaining unit patch. That sounds true but now and days with the ACU and velcro; it is very easy to get your patch changed when you show up to your gaining unit (that is how people report in now). But sometimes you wait to get to your gaining unit to get the new unit patch sewn on your uniform because you will get a voucher for it to get it sewn on free at the base alterations. Personally, I think he was wearing it for the publicity photo. He is a fraud; got called out on it and now is trying to cover his tracks. I no longer have respect for him.
BTW, he can get he global expeditionary medal changed to Iraq campaign medal if he likes and look more high speed. I was former Guard but I understand why the regular Army calls them the “Nasty Guard”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Campaign_Medal
August 1st, 2012 at 2:43 pm
@post 98. Exactly. He look so unnatural playing the part of a field grade officer.
August 1st, 2012 at 2:46 pm
At first look, I thought it was Joe the Plumber playing that part lol
January 22nd, 2013 at 7:33 pm
This should be seen by more people.