Guys,
I just read six PDF files from wannabee Ron. Disgusting!
I wasn’t in the Army very long, and only held three MOSs: 82C2P (Artillery Surveying), 12B4S (SF Combat Engineer) and 11F4S (SF Operations and Intelligence). Accordingly my knowledge is limited. I am sure that each of you with your different backgrounds and experiences would find your own holes in Ron's stories. But based on my limited background and in addition to his "war stories” BS, I found the following by reading what he wrote: ffice  ffice" /> >>
1. Dropped out of high school in September of 1965, just prior to his 18th birthday. Probably true, note his grammar, spelling and faulty command of history.
2. Enlisted in Chicago on November 5, 1969, a Friday.
3. Took a train to Fort Knox, KY. He would have arrived there that weekend.
4. The week of 7 through 12 November would have been doing medical and dental exams, shots, initial clothing issue and such. The 11th was Veterans Day or Armistice Day as it used to be called.
5. Basic Training would have then started on November 15th at the earliest.
6. Claims eight weeks of Basic training. The earliest he could have completed Basic would have been January 7, 1966. Keep in mind during those eight weeks of Basic were Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Years Day. All were legal holidays so more likely Basic would have been extended through Friday, January 14, 1966.>>
7. Two weeks leave after Basic, so the earliest that he could have started AIT was January 31, 1966.>>
8. Eight weeks “Heavy equipment operation and maintenance” AIT, so the earliest he could have graduated AIT was March 25, 1966.
9. Awakened by his sergeant on the morning of March 26, 1965 to go help out some attacking Marines, landing at “Red Beach” in the Dominican Republic. Except the US major involvement in the Dominican Republic took started on April 28, 1965.
10. Claimed that “Won Bosh” (real spelling was Juan Bosch) had taken over Santo Domingo. Juan Bosch served as President of the Dominican Republic from February 27, 1963 until his ouster from office via a coup on September 23, 1963. COL Francisco Caamaño overthrew that government on April 24, 1965. The US sent forces there on April 28, 1965 to restore order, or whatever your politics may tell you what the reason was for our presence. An interim government was formed and Presidential elections were then scheduled for July 1, 1966; an election for which Bosch only halfhearted campaigned because he feared for his safety. He was not involved in rebel activities at the time Ron claims to have been involved. After August 31, 1966 the Brazilian peace keepers took over and there was an appropriate reduction of US presence and forces in the country.>>
11. If Ron wet to the Dominican Republic because Bosch had taken over Santo Domingo, he did so during that seven month period in 1963. Maybe Ron went as a Boy Scout. I don’t believe that they had time machines back then, other than in science fiction stories or cartoons.
12. Ron’s story implies that he went on to see action in the Dominican Republic for the next six to eight months, telling war stories and such.
13. One of Ron’s stories is, “while on guard duty a guy came from a tree line and pointed a gun at me. I fired and he went down. The Sgt and about 20 guys came and went to wear the guy was. I was relived from guard duty. I never seen the guy, but they tell me he was dead.”
14. From his own story he could not have been there prior to March26, 1966, long after hostilities had been greatly reduced there. Maybe Randy C., or others on this forum who were there at that time, can enlighten us on that point.
15. Ron claimed to be there for six to eight months, which would have had him there after the majority of all troops were returned to the US.
16. Ron wrote, and pardon the spelling, it is a cut and paste from his document: “I came back to the States on the Navy ship USS Hermitage, Were we drove from North Carolina in a convoy to Fort Benning. I was at Benning for a short period when I met Col. Hampton Rollin, (The Guy that sent the map of VN to my mother) . Col. Rollin got me into Pathfinder school (I had the patch on the dress uniform that I had on when I came home (Blue patch that said “fallow Me”) .”>>
17. The above garbage is not even worthy of a comment. It is accompanied by the US Army Infantry Center and School patch, along with a US Army Pathfinder badge. Why would someone returning from the Dominican Republic have on the Infantry School patch? And why can’t he spell “Follow Me” when it is written on the patch?
18. After a minimum of six months in Dom. Rep. and a boat ride home it would now be at least October of 1966. Two months after the bulk of US troops had returned to the states.
19. Completion of Pathfinder School would have been by the end of October or later, depending on how long he was in Dom. Rep. It could have been as late as the end of the year according to his story.
20. A week later he had orders for Viet Nam, preceded by a 30 day leave. That would have had him in Viet Nam by December of 1965 or February 1967 at the latest. That is unless he is lying.>>
21. Assigned to 1st Battalion 35th infantry, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.>>
22. Ron wrote: “I stepped out of the 727 at Cam Rhan Bay VN and was greeted with that warm wet air of a tropical climate.”>>
23. Boeing 727s were short distance commercial airliners at the time and the stretch version was not even introduced until six months to a year after Ron was to have gone to Viet Nam. I do not believe that the aircraft was even certified by the FAA for trans-pacific flights -- ever. It is a three engine aircraft and at that time planes had to have four engines to be certified for those flights. I guess he could have taken a milk run, hopping from island to island.>>
24. Suddenly Ron claims to have an infantry MOS, but does not adequately explain how he went from engineer to infantry.>>
25. Ron has a picture purported to be of him taken at Cam Ranh Bay on June 19, 1967. He is wearing infantry braid over his right shoulder (sorry, I can’t remember what that is called) and some other chord over his left shoulder. He also has a glider patch on his garrison cap and parachute badge. Never in his story did he mention Jump School. He appears to be an SP4.>>
26. Became an RTO two weeks after he got to his unit.>>
27. Ron wrote:” ps. VN was not actually my first time shooting my gun in anger, (Dominican Republic) But that wasn't the same. We kinda all stood and fired at a building sort of, that a "rebel" was hold up in?”>>
28. Woops, what about the guy he claimed to kill while on guard duty in Dom. Rep.? A simple wannabee oversight, but real deal guys don’t forget such things.>>
29. He has an entry for February 20, 1968. Suddenly he learns how to spell and form a proper sentence. Cut and paste no doubt as Superscout pointed out in one of the posts in this thread.>>
30. March of 1968: he forgets how spell again. Hmmm…>>
31. May of 1968, eleven months into his tour of duty he gets R & R. I guess the war needed him too much to allow and earlier R & R.>>
32. June 18, 1968 he caught a 727 headed for the states. Hmmm, at least the stretch model was out by then. They just weren’t making trans-Pacific flights because it only ever had three engines.>>
> >
> >
Maybe some of my assumptions are wrong. And certainly a more thorough examination will find more discrepancies. Either way, this guy makes me sick.>>
> >
Robert
|