post service awards

[AFD660]

is there a way to check for post service awards. I got out in 07 and our platoon was suppoused to get combat action ribbons (navy) for the 4 IEDS we took in our 05-06 deployment. The Marines have an ammendment to the criteria for getting a CAR to include IED's. Would the Navy use the same criteria?? The 4 guys who got injured revieved purple hearts about 4 months after the incident.. but never recieved CAR's. The II MEG who we fell under said we are elgible to get the award but it was up to our unit to process it. So I'm just wondering what has to be done or shown so that at least those 4 get the CAR.. Pictures or what?? thanks

[m21sniper]

Call the VA? Or your local congress critter?

[Seahawk]

These folks should be able to help. I remember a section somewhere on the site about units awards, I just couldn't find it.

Good luck.


Military Human Resource Records

http://www.npc.navy.mil/Npc/Templates/Generic.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID={73BD62C1-315D-48B1-B560-FC16F7822B28}&NRORIGINALURL=%2fCareerInfo%2fRecordsManagement%2f RetRcds.htm&NRCACHEHINT=Guest#Awards

[Hard-Deck]

BCNR, Board for Correction of Naval Records

Board for Corrections for Naval Records. I used them once when the USMC jacked up my GI Bill for 13 years. They squared it away most ricky tick.

[gt350mike]

I can't give any advice for a Navy guy, but I would strongly advise doing what this nutcase did....

Vet Pleads Guilty in False Honors Case

To say this guy has significant issues would be the understatement of the year. I personally would like for them to take the guy out back and give him an opportunity to earn all of the Purple Hearts he has claimed.

[gt350mike]

Just in case you have trouble with the link, here is the story:

Vet Pleads Guilty in False Honors Case
January 07, 2010
The Roanoke Times, Va.

Even as he pleaded guilty to inflating his military record, Thomas James Barnhart insisted he'd received a Purple Heart.

"I was given a Purple Heart with no paperwork in Vietnam, so it was as if I had made up the award myself," Barnhart, 58, said Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Jacobsen said Barnhart, who lives in the Norfolk area, didn't stop with one Purple Heart. In paperwork filed when he transferred from the Navy to the Coast Guard, then in applications for disability benefits, Barnhart claimed an increasing array of honors. Ultimately he said he'd been a Navy SEAL, earned five Purple Hearts -- each supposedly marking a combat wound -- Bronze and Silver stars for valor, and more.

Barnhart's case echoed that of Randall Moneymaker, who in March 2008 was convicted of federal fraud and theft charges linked to false claims of combat missions and wounds that gained him a job as an Army recruiter and veterans disability benefits.

Jacobsen, who had prosecuted Moneymaker, said Barnhart also improperly sought benefits. In 1991 and 2005, Barnhart told Veterans Affairs interviewers tales of combat missions and a pilot dying in his arms. He said he'd been nominated for the Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor.

All of that was bogus, Jacobsen said.

The prosecutor agreed that Barnhart was in the Navy from 1969 to 1979 and the Coast Guard until 1990.

But investigation showed only that Barnhart earned a medal for offshore duty during the Vietnam War. There was no record of combat or combat awards.

Barnhart pleaded guilty to violating federal Stolen Valor legislation by falsely claiming to have been awarded medals. He also pleaded guilty to a felony embezzlement charge tied to $13,923 in disability payments for supposed post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a short statement, Barnhart said he'd given the wrong reasons for why he suffered from PTSD, but seemed to defend the diagnosis itself.

Judge James Turk accepted Barnhart's guilty pleas and noted that his plea agreement said he would repay the disability payments along with whatever fines and prison term might be imposed. He scheduled sentencing for April 8.

After the hearing, Jacobsen, who served with the U.S. Army Reserve in Iraq, said military veterans, like fishermen, are prone to exaggeration. But falsifying service records for financial gain is "just galling," Jacobsen said.

So is claiming false honors during wartime, he added.

"You've got the real sailors, soldiers and airmen out there putting their lives on the line every day," Jacobsen said.

He said authorities were alerted to Barnhart's false claims by the veterans group AMVETS. Mary and Chuck Schantag, who run the group's ReportStolenValor.org Web site, could not be contacted Wednesday.

Doug Sterner, a Vietnam veteran from Colorado who was a leading advocate for the 2005 Stolen Valor legislation, said Barnhart's case shows the need for Congress to push the military to keep better records of medals such as Purple Hearts.

"There are literally tens of thousands of people who were given awards that never made it to paperwork," Sterner said.

[Gordo2]

I would start with your unit's admin section to check on the status of any previously submitted awards, and ask if the command would support submission of a new award if one wasn't submitted originally.

If you are starting from scratch:
- Ask your admin for refs to CAR criteria; you are correct - IED's can rate the CAR, as long as you can show that the unit/personnel took "appropriate action"- set up perimeter D, rapid response to wounded, etc.
- I don't recall for sure, but I think there was a grace period to allow for submission of past incidents that rate under the newer criteria (criteria was updated in ~2006). You may be outside of the window.
- Write ups for the CAR generally include an account of the incident including specific actions take by the individuals that are recommended for the award.
- I would also ask if they have a copy of an IED CAR write up from your unit that you could use as a reference.

Be prepared to take on most of the burden of preparing the write up yourself (by now the unit probably doesn't have anyone who can provide a first hand account of the incident) - it can be a lot of work gathering the required details, but if its important to you and your troups, it will be well worth it.

Best of luck,

Gordo

[Erakad]

Shouldn't that be on the DD 214? Or was award approved after you separated? Otherwise, might try:Military Personnel Records, SF-180

Good Luck