- I think the key points are that there are people who have gotten access to non-classified records and are making assumptions based on that.
???
You mean the assumption that he did not go through, neither begin much less complete, any "specialized" training, other than Basic, followed by AIT, which all infantryman undergo? What exactly is wrong with reading the record to mean that? It is what is indicated.
Looking at the pdf of the record under discussion, there can be seen no additional training after AIT. No jump school, or any other courses beyond AIT, and no Wings, or Parachutist Badge listed in the commendations.
Additionally, it is highly doubtful that there is some sort of "super secret" record as to Corapi's military service, or involvement by him on some sort of "super secret" mission in North Vietnam, if that is what you are implying.
Nice fantasy though.
What is much more real, is that Corapi long claimed to have been a Green Beret, or at least, for a very long time, many years, he didn't correct those whom promoted him in published blurbs concerning himself, prior to his visiting as a speaker and the like.
For now, (the last few years) after being challenged(?) Corapi himself apparently has amended the story to being only that he trained to become one, but was injured in training in a helicopter accident --- so that's why he never really was one, even though he let, even lead people far and wide to THINK he was, in fact a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, a.k.a., Green Beret.
What's up with all this stuff like
- Finally, there was a Special Forces Op in North Vietnam to free American POW's. It is possible that some of the Spec Forces involved had not been involved in any Vietnam War Operation except for that one.
unless that be attempt to provide explanation for the little story Corapi is alleged to have told, claiming he was spit upon, after coming back to the States, and while wearing his Green Beret uniform?
So far, I haven't been able to find anything real concerning that small aspect, the "spit upon while in Green Beret uniform" other than this man Bendell makes the claim Corapi told the story at some conference, and elsewhere some one else denies it, saying there were two others claiming Corapi never told that story, at the time & place he is accused of telling it. Lot's of unsubstantiated stuff found there...as is much of the controversy, both this older one, and the other more recent charge made by the woman.
Otherwise, Corapi does say some beautiful things. Much of which I am willing to regard as based upon truth.
This apparent embellishment of his own military record is troublesome. It hurts and detracts from the very messages he works to convey. When he can be heard saying such things as "that a deep peace came over me", and when he woke up he realized God's name was Mercy, hey, I'll buy he experienced that quite directly. And Mercy, is indeed, one of the Lord's names.
Allegedly, the record otherwise under discussion was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
I find that I cannot clearly read the name on the second page. But what if it is all too real? What then?
It would mean, or could be reasonably deduced, that the man Corapi is in fact lying in regards to his long standing, often repeated U.S. Special Forces claims, even limited to the more recently amended or [ahem] clarified claim, that he went through, and in Corapi's own words, completed such specialized training.