I was disappointed in the stolen valor story as illustrated by Brian Williams in an attempt to up his credibility and stature in the journalism industry for several reasons -- and I'll articulate a few.
People steal, embellish, fabricate stories and personas based on what they wish could happen but do not have the intestinal fortitude to actually do it or if it did happen know what to do or how to act in case it did happen. What do I mean by that? Being a member of the military in and of itself is an honor and prestigious. Certain segments of the military -- Navy SEALS, ARMY Special Forces, Ranger and Delta Force Members, and Marine Corps Special Operations Group, MARSOC, are the United States Tier 1 personnel assets. They are the tip of the spear.
So instead of doing the work to become an operator, people will buy tabs, badges, and do a little research and become something they never could in real life. It's a disgrace to active military members especially those who have sacrificed their lives.
In Brian Williams case, he did it for prestige and to compare himself to Joe Rosenthal, Ernie Pyle, Andy Rooney, Joe Galloway and many other war corespondents who saw major combat action and who died -- and in the case of Ernie Pyle for the first amendment reporting on wars. He tried to associate his name which those of the greatest generation of correspondents and the likes of Joe Galloway in Vietnam by making up a story.
In the modern digital age of social media and the 24 hour news cycle it was only a matter of time before his story unraveled. Having served in the RI National Guard for 21 years and 20 of those years in an aviation battalion at Quonset Point and having been an air crew member as a non-rated air crewman and crew chief, his story didn't jive in 2003 -2004 when I first heard it in Iraq and every time I heard it since.
It was an urban legend -- he did this to elevate his stature and nothing more. I personally know Rhode Islanders who have been shot at in Iraq in aircraft and had been hit and have to priority land. I also know soldiers on active duty that have been shot at in aircraft and they have had friends die due to enemy action. So for him to say that when lives have been lost in that fashion that his aircraft was hit by an RPG and crash landed is BS. I'm not going to go into it but if a UH-60 is hit by an RPG think Blackhawk down. That's how bad those crashes are. That he would walk away unscathed from something like that would be miraculous.
Kells Jr. served 5 years in the United States Marine Corps as a field radio operator with 3rd. Battalion 6th Marine Regiment 2nd Marine Division from 1987-1991. While in the Marine Corps he participated in Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989-1990 and Operation Desert Shield / Storm in 1991. In 1992 he joined Headquarters & Service Company 25th Marine Regiment in Worcester MA. After one year in the Marine reserves he joined the Rhode Island Army National Guard in 1993 where he served as a Radio Operator until 2002. He then became a UH-60 Helicopter mechanic and was assigned as a crew chief with Aco. 1/126th AVN. In 2003 he volunteered to deploy with the 119th MP company for Operation Iraqi Freedom 1.
While in Iraq he served in Fallujah, Habbineah, El Khalidiya, Baghdad. He deployed to the California border and worked with the California Army National Guard and Customs Border Patrol for Operation Jump Start from Jan 2007 - March 2008. In 2011 he deployed to Shindand Afghanistan where he was a UH- 60 MEDEVAC helicopter crew chief where he participated in several missions evacuating American & Italian soldiers as well as Afghan soldiers and civilians. He retired from the RI Army National Guard in June 2013 completing 26 years of service.
He is the recipient of the Army Commendation Medal with "V" for Valor device for operations in El Khalidiya Iraq on 5 June 2003. He is also the recipient of the Army Combat Action Badge, several army achievement medals, several Good conduct medals, the Marine Corps combat action ribbon for action in both in Panama and Desert Storm as well as other Marine Corps Good Conduct medal as well as others.
He is a retired Providence Police officer and is currently the CEO of S&P International Stone LLC and is a Special Projects Coordinator for BENRUS .
Related Slideshow: Rhode Island’s Ten Biggest Fabrications Ever Told
NBC news anchor Brian Williams, who is now under investigation by NBC over his now-retracted statement that he was in a helicopter in Iraq that was hit by enemy fire and forced to land, is hardly the first public figure to get caught up in an issue of a potential fabrication.
Below are ten incidents in Rhode Island where personalities in the public eye came under scrutiny for things said -- or done -- that might not have held up.
His famous line came back to haunt him, when it didn't hold up in court.
While he said there were "no stains on this jacket" in 2001 when he was indicted on 27 federal corruption charges, two time former Mayor of Providence Buddy Cianci was found to have one -- when he was convicted on one count of racketeering conspiracy in 2002 (following a nolo plea to assault in 1984).
Cianci's two felony convictions played a major role in the 2014 Providence Mayoral campaign, when the former Mayor ran on platform of past accomplishments and vision for the city -- while a well-funded effort by his opponents to discredit him for his criminal wrongdoings helped fuel Jorge Elorza to victory.
In 2008, DePetro was accused of falsifying ARBITRON rating books for his show on WPRO in Providence -- before blaming his wife. The books had significantly boosted the shows ratings, before they then took a tumble.
The briefly stellar ratings of controversy-dogged-talkmeister John DePetro’s Providence radio show tanked yesterday after a whiff of scandal forced Arbitron to reissue its spring survey of listener-dial habits.
In the 6 to 10 a.m. weekday slot occupied by the self-proclaimed “Independent Man” on WPRO-AM (630), “the reissue ranked WPRO at number nine” among valued 25- to 54-year-old listeners, “down from the number four rank in the original release,” program manager Paul Giammarco and station market manager Barbara Haynes announced in a joint statement.
He's been several alter egos over the years, but one turn as a love advice columnist turned out to be the wrong one for Rudy Cheeks.
In January 2011, Bruce McCrae (i.e. Rudy Cheeks) used material from Slate online column “Dear Prudence” by Emily Yoffe in his “Dr Lovemonkey” advice column. WRNI's Scott MacKay had the story.
A reader tipped off the Phoenix that the columns were similar.
When asked by Phoenix editors about the similarities, Cheeks admitted to using Yoffe’s work without attribution. The Phoenix notified Slate of the incident and apologized.’’
He was suspended for a month from Phillipe and Jorge and the Phoenix cancelled “Dr Lovemonkey."
When the former Providence Mayor ran for Congress in 2010, and claimed the city was in "excellent financial condition," perhaps David Cicilline was confused as to what constituted "excellent," as Mayor Angel Tevaras called it a Category 5 hurricane just months following.
"David Cicilline ruined Providence’s finances, he lied about it throughout the 2010 election cycle, and he’s lying about it today,” said former Congressional opponent Anthony Gemma. “Through the final weeks of his congressional campaign, David Cicilline denied tapping the undesignated surplus, or rainy day fund. He looked us in the eye and told us that close to $30 million was left in that account. He was lying through his teeth. The real number was around ten percent of that figure. And he knew it.”
In April 2012, Cicilline admitted he shouldn't have used the term "excellent" as he did in 2010.
“I should not have used that word,” Cicilline said to WPRI 12. “It obviously doesn’t describe the condition the city is in [and] it was never my intention to mislead people intentionally. I should have been much clearer the challenge the city faces."
While Brian Williams is taking heat for his misremembering being shot-or-not down in Iraq, Rhode Island has had its own case of alleged stolen valor.
After several brushes with the law, former Rhode Island State Representative Dan Gordon's claimed that his "problems stemmed from PTSD-fueled alcoholism, a product of his service in the Gulf War. He also claimed he was injured by shrapnel in Baghdad," according to the Huffington Post.
The Post went on to write, "The AP obtained Gordon's military records and discovered that he had never been near a battlefield while serving as a military aircraft technician. Records show he never received the Purple Heart -- an award typically given to any service member wounded in a war zone, unless the injury was caused by an accident or friendly fire -- contradicting his claims about being injured in Baghdad."
Gordon stood by his military record following the reports.
Former Congressional candidate Anthony Gemma garnered both local and national attention for his rapid rise in social media followers -- especially when it turned out most of those followers were not from Rhode Island.
"Who are the 20,000+ people subscribed to Anthony Gemma’s Facebook? And here’s a better question: what’s up with many of their unusual names? And why do most like “Unicorn City Film” as a movie?" wrote Sam Howard in RI.
Other candidates recently have been caught up in allegations that their campaigns were buying Twitter followers, including Romney and Newt Gingrich. That’s relatively easy to do online, costs only pennies apiece and is not illegal — only in violation of Facebook and Twitter terms of service.
But an oversized social footprint that suggests mass appeal can be embarrassing for a campaign should it be revealed.
"If a candidate abuses the appropriate channels to gin up their followings, they risk hurting their reputation as a grass-roots candidate," said Amy Brown with Harris Media LLC.
The winner of the first season of Survivor was convicted in 2006 of failing to pay taxes on his $1 million prize -- but Hatch said that he thought "producers were supposed to pay his “Survivor” taxes, and said the donations he took from his charity were far less than the money he had already poured into it," according to Today.
"Hatch’s lawyer, Michael Minns, said Hatch caught fellow contestants cheating and struck a deal with the show’s producers to pay his taxes if he won. But Hatch was never asked about the allegation when he testified."
Hatch served 51 months and maintains his innocence.
It happens, we know. Weather is hard to predict. And its better to be prepared than not.
But last week's snow was just one case in point, when winter storm Juno delivered a punch but far less than the knockout that had been ginned up.
With talk of it being a Snowmaggedon, it turned out not to be the snowpocalpyse that was predicted -- and nowhere more so than New York, where a meteorologist issued an apology
Meanwhile, this week's storm appeared to catch officials less prepared, as evidenced by the delayed plowing on the highways (and already poorly plowed side roads.)
Sheila Martines, the former Channel 10 personality who passed away in 2014 at the age of 58, found herself at the center of controversy following an incident where she was found in the trunk of car in Florida.
In 1988, Martines told authorities she was kidnapped, assaulted and locked in the trunk of her car for hours, before being found by neighbors.
Her fiance at the time, Bristol County District Attorney Ronald Pina, detailed the ordeal and attacker, but didn't offer anything more.
Channel 10 reported that Pina in a 1988 interview admitted her difficulties with alcohol abuse and outlined her goal of overcoming them. "She claimed she was abducted, but no arrests were ever made," said 10.
"I discovered that some underaged guests were consuming alcohol without my knowledge or consent. Upon discovering this, I started asking people to leave and turned those away arriving at the door. I stopped the party and sent people home. Dispersing the party, I checked that no drivers were under the influence," Esserman said in a statement.
The city conducted an evaluation of the incident the following weekend -- and then GoLocal learned that Esserman's daughter had broadcasted to friends on Facebook prior to the party that the celebration "would not be interrupted by police" and to bring booze and marijuana.
