The Native American drummer in D.C.

[CorpsVet]

When I first saw the news report about the incident at the Lincoln Memorial, they referred to the man with the drum as a 64 year old Vietnam Vet. That got my attention as I thought it seemed a little young to have been there, so I did some research and it seems he was born in 1955. I believe the last troops were withdrawn in 1975, so he would have been about 19 or 20.

It seemed that it was possible that he was there. However, I have subsequently discovered that he has claimed to have been in the Marines and to have done 2 tours there. That didn't seem to be possible, if he had enlisted at 18 been through basic, ITR and further advanced training and then go to Nam twice at a time we were withdrawing troops. I have also heard that he claimed to have been in Ranger/Recon. I never had heard of any Marine Corps units referred to as Ranger/Recon. I certainly knew of Recon Marines and I thought that Rangers were U.S. Army.

Since the first reports the gentleman (?) has given differing accounts of the incident, none of which were confirmed by the expanded videos. This makes me wonder if he is in fact a Vietnam Vet.

Is it possible to obtain a copy of his DD-214? That would confirm which, if any, of his claims of service are true.

As you may have inferred from my screen name I am a veteran of the Marine Corps and I did serve in Vietnam and I would like to know if this guy is telling the truth or just blowing smoke.

 

[SoonerP226]

I got a copy of my grandpa's Army paperwork (I don't recall the form, but it was the WWII equivalent of the DD-214) a few years ago. My recollection is that you have to be a close relative to get it; it seems like I had to get my dad to make the actual request, but it has been a few years.

 

[Pstmstr]

I’d like to see it as well. I was born in 1956 and was at USMC boot camp in January 1975 when the last American left Vietnam. I suspect that if he served at all it wasn’t in Vietnam. My entire time was at Fort Leavenworth KS as part of the USDB Marine Detachment guarding inmates at the military prison.

Besides that, I f he served in USMC he wouldn’t have felt threatened by a high school kid. Maybe he was Army.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fyrtwuck]

You might try a google on stolen valor. They may have some resources to find government records.

 

[SMS]

The folks st This Ain’t Hell are investigating..

https://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=84414&cpage=1

 

[CorpsVet]

The picture of him in a black T shirt in the link above clearly states "Vietnam Veteran". He more than likely has seen it and could have had it changed, if it should have been.

 

[KOPBET]

If me meant (or said) Vietnam Era veteran, that's easily done at 64. Nice teeth BTW...

 

[JD8]

When I first saw the news report about the incident at the Lincoln Memorial, they referred to the man with the drum as a 64 year old Vietnam Vet. That got my attention as I thought it seemed a little young to have been there, so I did some research and it seems he was born in 1955. I believe the last troops were withdrawn in 1975, so he would have been about 19 or 20.

It seemed that it was possible that he was there. However, I have subsequently discovered that he has claimed to have been in the Marines and to have done 2 tours there. That didn't seem to be possible, if he had enlisted at 18 been through basic, ITR and further advanced training and then go to Nam twice at a time we were withdrawing troops. I have also heard that he claimed to have been in Ranger/Recon. I never had heard of any Marine Corps units referred to as Ranger/Recon. I certainly knew of Recon Marines and I thought that Rangers were U.S. Army.

Since the first reports the gentleman (?) has given differing accounts of the incident, none of which were confirmed by the expanded videos. This makes me wonder if he is in fact a Vietnam Vet.

Is it possible to obtain a copy of his DD-214? That would confirm which, if any, of his claims of service are true.

As you may have inferred from my screen name I am a veteran of the Marine Corps and I did serve in Vietnam and I would like to know if this guy is telling the truth or just blowing smoke.

So a few people have brought up your concerns nearly word for word on twitter & FB. It was brought to my attention that he would've been 16 when the last Marines on the ground left? I never had a chance to look it up. Many want his DD-214 like you said.

 

[Pstmstr]

In that case I’m a “Vietnam times” vet. January 1975-1979. My drill instructor got us all together one day and told us the good news is we weren’t going to Vietnam but the bad news was we were going to Cambodia. I joined with a Military Police guarantee but he also broke the news that every Marine was a rifleman first. One small fact my recruiter failed to mention. All I saw was Kansas and couple of trips to bring prisoners back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[doctorjj]

This really irks me. My dad was in Vietnam in 1970. He was 101st Airborne, 1st of the 506th, E company. He was in the Recon platoon. He was at Ripcord when it got overran. He saw some of the worst of the worst. So, I don’t like it when people try to falsely claim that they were part of something when they clearly were not. It really seems like this guys is an attention whore from the beginning so it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s lying about his service.