Adam Kokesh; not feeling the hope
The other day, in DuPont Circle at the Shoe Bush protest, the day before the Inauguration, I saw Adam Kokesh, poster child for everything that’s wrong with IVAW, threaten that he was throwing a combat boot at the 30-foot blow-up doll of George Bush on that day, but that he was saving the other boot for Obama. The threat to Obama comes at the end of this six minute video;
Not waiting for Obama to screw up, Kokesh named Obama a potential war criminal on his website;
But the whole reason I video’d Kokesh was to catch him calling himself “Sergeant Kokesh”. To his credit, he has stopped that. Below is Kokesh’s DD214 which proves what I’ve been saying the last few years; he’s not a sergeant.
So that puts that issue to rest.
Along with his DD214, the Records Center sent the evidence against Kokesh that the Marine Corps used to downgrade his discharge at the hearing he was forced to attend when he was trolling the National Mall in his uniform pretending to be on patrol in Iraq (not that he ever went on patrol in Iraq). I found the evidence to be quite satisfying since it was an article in the Washington Post with pictures – the same article I used to prove his guilt.
I’m guessing the article is included with his records so that if he ever tries to upgrade his discharge, the evidence for the denial still exists.
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
Elvis says he took all markings off the uniform. That’s a lie.
There a Globe & Anchor IN the fabric on a breast pocket. He left that visible.
IVAW is like a bunch of spoiled children. Childish excuses for even the most obvious transgressions.
That’s why you can’t take them seriously.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:11 am
Gee, why didn’t that gutless, hate-filled anti-military extremist talk about the occupying forces that his pot-smoking, draft-dodging, womanizing buddy cliton sent to places like Bosnia and Kosovo??????
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:36 am
Dawn Patrol 01/23/09…
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January 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 am
Holy shit, that’s a pretty sparse DD214 for as many embellished “war stories” as his. What. A. Punk.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:46 am
GI Jane, I totally agree. Wonder if the Secret Service is interested in his declaration that he wants to “throw a boot” at teleprompter jesus?
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am
Block 2 of the DD-214 says “USMCR-KM”. KM=???
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:18 am
Funny, he talks about all the “suffering” Iraquis like he’s the only one who has ever done anything for them and he’s the only one who cares. If he had been President during 9/11, Saddam would still be in power.
I have a precious nephew in the Army who is in Iraq now. When he was home on leave he told me that the troops are still finding mass graves – men, women, children. They found one a couple of days after he got there that contained about 80 people. Why didn’t anyone in the crowd point out that Saddam was dead and the Iraquis are free of his tyranny?
Adam Kooky needs to just shut up. He doesn’t speak for the Iraqui people or the majority of Americans. He has no idea what’s going on over there. I, for one, am against our government giving Adam and his cowardly ilk health care benefits or any other kind of benefits. He’s a lying sack of dung. He needs to go live with his buddy Fidel.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I have a nephew in Iraq too, who says that although the Iraqis are not all thrilled that we are there, they are still quite grateful for the American soldier, and the work being done to give them a life. What they had before, could hardly have been called living!
How a supposed soldier can stand there and be so obviously anti-American/anti armed forces, spouting his putrid words legally, and not recognize where those rights came from, is a mystery.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
It is a shame you will miss Kokesh at CPAC.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
LOL! I suppose it is a shame, however, it will save me from having to shower repeatedly!
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Not a Sergeant? He was barely an E4 and not even eligible for E5 upon his ETS date. As per that DD214, he held the glorious grade of E4 for 28 days before discharge.
Curious thing is that it shows his last command as MNF-West but his sole medal is a Commendation medal. By 2006, the campaign medals and criteria were well established. Why doesn’t he have one? He can’t even join the VFW with that 214.
And how is it that there’s neither sea service nor foreign service listed?
More questions than answers I know, but can we even be certain that is a real 214?
Good Work Jonn!
Jonn wrote: For the record, he WAS a sergeant. He was busted for smuggling an Iraq pistol back to the world. That bust to corporal and the subsequent denial of his request to return to Iraq was what propelled him into the anti-war movement. I have two other of Kokesh’s DD214s which show more awards and service in Iraq.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:22 am
If you notice in the 214 comments, it says “Good Conduct Medal period commences 20061102″.
That means he got into UCMJ trouble prior to that date and his GCM period resets to zero from that date. I assume it was when he received NJP or some other UCMJ action (possibly for the weapon smuggling).
Regardless, what a f*cking turd.
January 24th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
He was all those palces in eleven months? Wow! It took me twenty years to rack up numbers like that. Italy, Spain, France, England, Souda Bay/Irakleon Anchorge, Philippines, Tahiland, Hong Kong, Korea, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Pakistan. this was done on the Good Shhips Independence, Ranger and Kitty Hawk. If anyone wants, I will put up my DD-214’s for viewing. The Old Retired Petty Officer would be proud.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
WOTN, even if he was eligible for VFW, I doubt any of the Posts in Northern Virginia or Maryland would have him. Around here, we actually care about Core Values, such as Integrity, Respect, Selfless Service and Honor. He exhibits NONE of those qualities. Maybe if he stopped drinking his own piss………………………………………
January 24th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Forgot to put my name in the above post, my bad…
February 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I have a really stupid question afer I listened to this video. His DD214 says he entered into the military 12/18/06. How was he in Falluja in Sept 2004? I listened to it several times to make sure I was hearing it correctly. Or am I missing something here?
Irregardless, people like this make me sick. I am so tired of hearing the things they spew and you have to hunt and search hard to find a story about the good that our boys do. I have three sons in the Army. One spent 15 months in Iraq, and the other two will be in Afghanistan this summer. The things they will see and have seen are not pretty, but hey, we’re at war. But they are not and you won’t see them acting a fool such as this. They have too much love and respect for themselves and their country for that. The rest of these guys (IVAW)have no right to the title of Veterans.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:24 pm
thebronze,
Good catch. Wonder what he did to screw the pooch enough tp roll back the GCM medal oddometer to zero?
March 10th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
DD-214s are notoriously incorrect… and they’re so difficult to have fixed that I don’t know of many people who want to go through the pain and trouble of trying to get errors fixed. I just wanted to throw that out there as doing some FOIA request and getting your hands on a copy of someone’s service record doesn’t necessarily prove anything.
Jonn wrote: Yeah, nice try. DD 214s are NOT notoriously incorrect. And it’s not hard to get them corrected – all you have to do is read the thing before you sign it. What is notoriously incorrect is the image that IVAW is trying to portray.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:46 am
AJ–they’re only incorrect if YOU don’t take the time to review them. And they are easily enough correctable with a DD-215. I should know–I didn’t get my second Navy Achievement Medal until I was on terminal leave. A simple call up to PSD Port Hueneme, a fax from my old command, and viola! a DD-215 comes a month later.
That being said, what Kokesh is doing is using some questionable service to piss on the yeoman’s efforts of literally hundreds of thousands of his brothers-in-arms.
January 24th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I can’t believe I’m defending Adam Kokesh… sheesh! Having some personal knowledge about Kokesh, let me say that he WAS a Sergeant, extensive travel is common in Civil Affairs, and reserve DD214s are VERY different than active duty (actually they are the same, we just get them more frequently… so this one reflects his most recent activation of greater than 30 days, NOT his whole ‘career’). Oh, and he definitely DID patrol in Fallujah. His post-deployment actions should not take anything away from his earlier activities. For all the grief I have with him, it’s all based on his violations of the UCMJ, attitude and behavior after returning, NOT with his first CA tour in Iraq.
All that being said, he is an opportunistic fellow that I would not be quick to trust as an elected official. We’ll never know for sure, I suppose, but I’ve always believed his anti-war stance was just box-checking to get his liberal creds established…
March 5th, 2010 at 9:09 am
If this much time and energy had been spent vetting Obama, he would not be president today.
March 12th, 2010 at 3:07 am
Thanks for posting Adam’s DD204. It says that he seperated from the Marines Nov 30, 2006. Isn’t it true that when you are no longer on active duty that you are no longer subject to UCMJ? It appears that he served honorably and was even awarded a Marine Corps Commendation Medal. Why do you insist on defaming my friend Adam? If we looked into your military background and history would it come out as honorable as Adam’s? Something tells me that it would not.
March 12th, 2010 at 7:54 am
Justin, you should really stick to commenting on things you understand. Adam was in the USMC Reserve. The 2006 discharge marked the end of his active duty period – he still carried a valid ID and he was still subject to the UCMJ. You can read the regulations which applied at the time at my other post which seems popular this week.
Yes, he has a Commendation Medal, I have the narrative. He was awarded the medal because his hummer had a bullet hole in it once.
I didn’t smuggle an Iraqi pistol back from the war, so I’m not sure what would indicate my character of service was less than Kokesh’s.
March 12th, 2010 at 8:39 am
What’s a DD204?