[yarddog]

My guess is that his claim is accurate and the Navy records are not.

[onedoug]

The Navy needs to correct its records.

[NEMDF]

Exactly. Our son, who lost two limbs in Iraq, just realized there is no Purple Heart on his DD214.

[GrootheWanderer]

Maybe.

But it bothers me that two of his former commanding officers were asked if he repeated information that he knew to be false, and both of them refused to answer the question. It would have been simple to say “I believe what he claimed is correct” or even “I believe Kyle reported the best information he had.”

[fr_freak]

My guess is that his claim is accurate and the Navy records are not.

That would be the safest bet, I think. The bureaucratic paper-pushers in the military screw stuff up all the time. Plus, the idea that Kyle would embellish is ridiculous. A SEAL with a Silver Star and three Bronze with a V is not going to feel the need to add on a couple. Why would he? It would be like a six-foot-three guy going around claiming he is six-foot-five. Why bother?

[ExNewsExSpook]

Also possible that Kyle was decorated for highly classified missions and those awards may not show up in Navy biographies and personnel records that can be released to the public.

During Vietnam, scores of USAF pilots flew for Air America, the CIA’s aerial support operation. Officially, they “resigned” their commissions before joining Air America, but they actually remained on active duty. Their personnel records were moved to a secure area within the USAF Personnel Center. As far as I know, their performance evals and decorations earned while flying with Air America never entered into their “official” records, because so much of what they did was classified.

I will defer to those with more expertise in these areas.

[hillarys cankles]

“My guess is that his claim is accurate and the Navy records are not.”

______________________________________________________________

BINGO!

As someone who served in the US Navy, I can vouch for the Navy’s ability

to royally screw up simple record keeping.

[mylife]

I know my records are not accurate

[Drew68]

My guess is that his claim is accurate and the Navy records are not.

As an active duty sailor who has expended great time and energy trying to clear up multiple discrepancies in the many databases that maintain my records, I would agree with you.

I'm an Ordnanceman and I often joke that if I kept track of munitions the way the Navy has kept track of my records, I'd be in Leavenworth.

[HamiltonJay]

That would be my guess as well.