F*** Tom Harkin.
Posted on 04/08/2010 6:14:25 PM PDT by csvset
By Mike Gangloff
ROANOKE
A man who falsely claimed a chestful of military medals was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and was ordered to repay $11,098 in veterans benefits he shouldn't have received.
Thomas Barnhart, 59, had 21 years of legitimate Navy and Coast Guard service, including offshore duty in Vietnam. But starting in 1979, he began inflating his experience in claims for promotions and benefits, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Jacobsen told U.S. District Judge James Turk today in Roanoke.
Among Barnhart's lies, according to the prosecutor: he was a Navy SEAL, he received elite low-altitude parachute training, he was awarded five Purple Hearts, three Bronze Stars, two Silver Stars and a Vietnamese medal of honor. He also falsely claimed that a downed U.S. helicopter pilot died in his arms and that he saw other U.S. soldiers die around him.
Jacobsen, a veteran of the current Iraq war, called Barnhart's conduct "repugnant."
Barnhart wept in court and said he lied because neither the Navy nor the U.S. public appreciated his real service.
"I just can't punish myself enough," he said, sobbing. "Every day I ask forgiveness."
When I was stationed in Monterey in 1985 I got to sit down talk with General Doolittle at his home in Carmel. We talked about the raid (of course)WWII and his degrees. He showed us a picture he had hanging on his wall of President Reagan awarding him his fourth star earlier in 1985.
A pretty huge moment in the life of a young buck sergeant.
It’s pretty surprising about some of the people you get to meet. While LTG Frank Sackton didn’t have a very illustrious career, he did attend the first H-bomb detonation at Eniwetok. A wild and wacky experience. He just passed away this past February, at 97.
A lot of people were enraged here when TSA staff at Sky Harbor prevented MoH recipient and WWII US Marine Fighter Ace Joe Foss from boarding a plane to give a speech to cadets at West Point, because he had his Medal of Honor with him, and it was made of metal and had pointy edges, that the TSA thought he might use it to hijack the plane. They had never seen a MoH, and had no idea what it was.
That's sad, but in a funny way. What an embarrassment for those TSA guys.
And that's pretty incredible about LTG Sackton. I wouldn't have thought anyone from the H-Bomb tests would still be around!
I’m sorry to hear about Frank Sackton. I had him as a professor at ASU 18 years ago, he was 79 then and sharp as a tack. He taught a public budgeting class (he had been comptroller of the Army) and the first thing he taught was entitlements will bankrupt this country. An amazing individual.
Some are aghast at his false boasts; I’m wondering how the dickens he managed to buffalo the VA system which had access to his genuine records.
F*** Tom Harkin.
“Wore my dress blues to church and could not figure out what the old guy was doing holding the door for me.”
That would still happen in SOME parts of the country today.
That is a good question.
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