Posted on 09/22/2006 7:59:22 AM PDT by SmithL
LOS ANGELES - Republican Senate candidate Richard Mountjoy acknowledged that his campaign biography wrongly said he had served aboard the battleship Missouri during the Korean War, a newspaper reported Friday.
Mountjoy, who will challenge Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) in November's election, did not appear on the ship's muster rolls, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing military records.
The statement about the Missouri was on Mountjoy's campaign Web site, alongside a photo of him as a young sailor.
"After graduating from Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High School, Dick joined the Navy and served during the Korean War aboard the Battleship Missouri," said the statement, which also was featured in a film on the site.
The retired state legislator last week said his stint aboard the Missouri had been "very brief" and he served on the heavy cruiser Bremerton. He said later that he occasionally boarded the Missouri during the Korean conflict and was on the ship for "a couple of days at a time."
Mountjoy called the statement a "mistake" that was likely based on misinformation from an unknown source, dating back at least six years.
"I think it was just something that somebody picked up," Mountjoy said. "It didn't come from me."
Mountjoy said he had asked his campaign staff to remove the Missouri citation from the Web site months ago and did not know why it had remained there.
The campaign removed the Missouri reference from the site late Thursday and replaced it with one about the Bremerton.
Feinstein spokesman Kam Kuwata said the Missouri flap raised enough doubts about Mountjoy's credibility that the challenger "is not qualified to serve the people of California."
The Missouri is best known for hosting the formal surrender of the Japanese in World War II. It was in combat late in that war and during the Korean conflict. It also served in the Persian Gulf War.
The ship is now a memorial at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Mountjoy, of Monrovia, served in the Assembly and state Senate from 1978 to 2000. He lost a Republican primary race for lieutenant governor in 1998.
STUPID!
STUPID!
Real leadership potential, there.
More like Moronvia.
Yes....stupid, indeed. Either the candidate never looked at his own website or he was complicit in this. Probably it was the former.
His service is not in question...only his service on that particular ship. It is a stupid mistake.
"I think it was just something that somebody picked up," Mountjoy said. "It didn't come from me."
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So someone just made it up out of whole cloth? His staff never brought his online bio to him for review?
I'm willing to be educated on this, but I fail to see how he is either stupid or a liar. Are there other possibilities I've missed?
Why would he, or a staffer, feel the need to 'embellish' that service??
Very stupid move.
Well, he wasn't going to win anyway...
Now, which military branch did Diane Feinstein serve in?
probably only an innocent embellishment resulting from an enthusiastic staffer.....but once noticed, he should have ORDERED it corrected, not "asked" and then not make certain it was corrected. In these days of phony military claims getting jerked from beneath the covers, an unwise move on his part.
It's not like he had a chance in this election, anyways, but he's done as far as statewide politics are concerned. Republicans are not allowed to have untruths or inaccuracies in their military resumes, for any reason.
Are the Democrats 'Swiftboating' this guy? I thought military records were sacrosanct? /sarcasm off
"Now, which military branch did Diane Feinstein serve in?"
Same as Condi. So what?
" innocent embellishment "
LOL
Why do people do such stupid things?
Lying about a military record is just dumb. You WILL get caught.
I really despise people who do this. Dem or R.
Wow! The LA Times digging into Kerry's military records. I don't believe it!
/s
wasn't the missouri the ship on which the japanese surrender was signed?
if so, that might be a motive to embellish.
Really wrong.
None of it came from him.
This sort of thing goes on all the time.
Now if he'd said he was sent to Cambodia at Christmastime by a man who wasn't President yet, and managed to get four pruple hearts without one day's hospitalization, all signed for in autopen by a Secretary of the Navy who was a decade or more away from becoming Sec of the Navy when the awards were granted, I'd be concerned that it was a little more than staffer error.
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