PHOTOGRAPHS BY J.M. EDDINS JR./THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Charlie W. Williams of Raeford, N.C., a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars and supporter of Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama, lines up early to get into a rally at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville on Oct. 19. "He's going to get a lot of white votes," he said of his candidate I get real I also looked for images of Army Medals and discovered that I also needed to find some Navy Medals, too. The highest award is two awards of the Bronze Star, one with a 'V' for valor. Since it's illegal to claim a medal for valor you're not awarded, I absolutely believe that, without further evidence to the contrary. The rest are (in order viewers' left to right and descending);
Purple Heart/Army Commendation Medal
Defense Meritorious Service Medal/Army Meritorious Service Medal/Reserve Component Overseas Training/
Unknown/Army Acheivement/Good Conduct/Army of Occupation/Southwest Asia Service (Desert Storm)/Vietnam Service medal (3 stars)/National Defense
NATO Medal/Korea Service/Armed Forces Service Medal/Army Service RIbbon/Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Army Overseas Ribbon /Navy Meritorious Unit/Navy Combat Action
United Nations Service/RVN Campaign/Multinational Force and Observers/Outstanding Volunteer Medal
He has the Southwest Asia medal for Desert Storm,
the Armed Forces Service medal (which is for service after 1992).
He's also wearing a Navy Combat Action ribbon, which he only could've earned as a member of the Navy or Marines.
He also has an Overseas Service Ribbon which can only be awarded to people on active duty after 1981.
His National Defense Service Medal has an oakleaf cluster, subsequent awards of the NDSM are denoted by a bronze star device not an oakleaf.
Willie is wearing medals and ribbons that didn't come into existence until after he left the service since he says he was in Korea and Vietnam. He wears a star on his CIB so that means he had to have been in the Korean War before July 27, 1953. Since his Good Conduct Medal has five knots, he must've served between 15-18 years (each knot is three years of service) but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he did twenty, that means he retired before July 1973 and many of the medals he wears didn't even exist at the time he retired and they're awarded for service he couldn't have. And there's still one medal I haven't ID'd yet.
A few weeks ago, I busted out a warrant officer on Military.com who listed every conflict since Vietnam as wars he'd participated in during his thirty year career. Questioning him and comparing his profile to his medals, we narrowed his wartime service down to just the Global War on Terror - and surprise - he was an Obama supporter touting the IAVA report card.
Zero Ponsdorf and Wpage sent me this article about phony soldiers from the Chicago Tribune. They seem to be everywhere. If you've been in the military, just be proud of your service for what it was, you don't need to make stuff up to be accepted. Cheezum crow.