The image above is the sad memorial at my deceased Grandma’s house. It stands in memory of my uncle, Private Merton R. Johnson, KIA Korea, on the 15th of August, 1952. There is a ton of pain behind that little picture frame. I’m not doing a deep dive into it. Suffice it to say that my mom’s family suffered from his loss.

I retired as a commissioned officer in 2014, with three GWOT deployments behind me, counter-drug stuff, and a post-Gulf War hangover tour in ’95-’96. I’m not sure how many months I drew “HFP,” or hostile-fire pay, but it was probably about four, maybe five years, give or take a bit.

This is in no way a boast or loathsome self-promotion. I wish some of it had never happened, but it did. It is what it is, all of it.

From the above, I think I can judge a case of “Stolen Valor,” an accusation that is cheapened by frequent use. Unfortunately, the topic has been in the news lately, with some politicians accusing others of this phrase.

When I read about some of these accusations and looked into them, it seemed to be pretty thin soup.

“Stolen Valor” occurs when someone claims to have earned an award like my uncle’s, but they didn’t. If you claim a “V” for Valor award, be prepared to back up your bullshit. Neither party in this dispute has ever made any such claims, so I’m confused about how accusations of “Stolen Valor” can be made.

IMO a vague statement given off the cuff in an interview years ago by a proven long-service NCO does not rise to this level. I’m sure he regrets his careless wording in this age of eternal documentation and general lack of knowledge re: all things military. The furthest connection most people have to military service these days is playing “Call of Duty,” or they watched “Saving Private Ryan.” This is why I’ve written this article; to help people who may not have direct contact with military life. To tell the tale of a common soldier; much like my fiction.

There are also accusations of “Stolen Valor” regarding the man’s rank. “Stolen Valor,” in my narrow definition, applies to boasts of wartime heroism. But that’s just me. Others may feel differently. Also, the man was promoted to the rank and served as a CSM. I have much respect for anyone who achieves this level of non-commissioned service; while I thought a few CSM’s I’ve known were complete dicks, I’ve never met one who wore the rank to be a soup sandwich. Your knowledge and expertise are godlike if you are a sergeant major with hundreds of enlisted troops under your supervision. Yes, he took an admin bust to master sergeant upon retirement because he didn’t complete some schooling and didn’t have time in grade. This happens to many people; it does not reflect the character of his service. Master Sergeant, three up and three down is still impressive. So I’m mixed on this one in regards to the accuracy of his statements. Yes, he was a CSM. Yes, he retired officially as a MSG. IMO, he can claim either because he was either. Period.

Re: guys he served with who hate his guts. This is the case; those people have popped up throughout his political life. They have many messed up things to say about him—guess what? ANYONE in a leadership position who does his/her job will always have people with beef. Always. You must take these accusations with a grain of salt and look at people’s motivations. The person leveling the accusations didn’t serve as a senior NCO, while the accused did. A corporal doesn’t have the time to accumulate enemies like a CSM, but I’m sure the accused had people who didn’t like him, either. They just haven’t come forward. Yet. The election cycle is still young.

Re: deserting his unit before a deployment. From what I understand, his unit only had vague rumors of a deployment in early 2005 when he filled out his retirement paperwork. Look, I’ve been through the mobilization process. Rumors are just that, bullshit rumors. When I was a reservist going through college, our unit commander stood before us and said, “I’ve got a gut feeling that we’ll deploy.” Later, an old master sergeant said, “If you have a gut feeling, you should go take a fat shit.” He referred to the fact that rumors in the military are worthless—you can’t base any decision upon them. Especially important life-altering decisions. You could hang out forever, waiting on the mythical deployment that may never come, or you can get out and get on with your life. It’s a fact of military life. Until you have orders, it’s garbage. Sometimes, AFTER you have orders, the mission is scrubbed. Sometimes, the orders change, and you do something unanticipated. Long story short, the man did go to Vincenza in support of OEF, and he served for five years during wartime (don’t forget the Gulf War, when tons of Guardsmen were called up). The Fickle Finger of Fate could have screwed him at any time. He had the good luck not to have the Finger land upon him before retirement; at any time throughout his career, it could have caused him to do some bad stuff.

I’m not a fan of people who worm out of deployments. I don’t know about the Marines, but the Army doesn’t casually let people skate when it’s time to go on a trip. Do any of you remember the phrase “Stop Loss?” It was a thing in ’05. Looking carefully at the records of both these guys, I don’t see any history of duty avoidance from either.

This is an important point—the accused did way more than most dudes at Walmart and doesn’t base his entire identity on his honorable service. Let’s also not forget that both of these men were volunteers! Neither had to be there, doing what they chose to do. Both men signed the proverbial “blank check,” which all of us signed, which could be cashed at any time by the enemy.

Honorable service. Both the accuser and accused have it. We should leave it at that and switch to other topics, like individual policy. Politics is a bloodsport; there is plenty of room for the politicians to destroy one another based upon policy ideas and votes.

Leave it at that. Both of these guys did their time and got out, as was their right. Neither “ducked” service, combat or otherwise, or performed any less-than-honorable actions.

This is my take. It’s a good thing to have veterans in politics. It’s a bad thing when they throw mud about perfectly acceptable service. It makes all of us look bad and muddies the water for civilians who don’t know the ins and outs of the military.

Knock it off.