Stolen Valor

by B. G. Burkett

[Excerpt of pages 369-383 -- about Maslin, former member of SVC Battery, 8th Battalion 4th Artillery]

            After the 20/20 broadcast about my work, a member of the Delaware Air National Guard contacted me, expressing suspicions about his unit’s own "Vietnam War hero," a man whose uniform was peppered with some of the Army’s highest decorations.

            Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Maslin, an NCO in charge of security air police with the Delaware Air National Guard, had served one tour in the Army during the war. A full-time employee of the National Guard, a military force controlled in peacetime by the state of Delaware under the command of the governor, Maslin was probably its most highly decorated member. He proudly wore the Army Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and Purple Heart with two oak leaf clusters, all from his year in Vietnam.

            I received anonymously in the mail a picture of Maslin wearing numerous full-size medals, including the Distinguished Service Cross. But Sgt. Jack Maslin was not on the list of recipients of the DSC.

            His military record confirmed that Maslin was a Vietnam veteran and, on the surface, appeared to support some of his other claims of glory, giving him a Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, CIB, and a Purple Heart. However, a close analysis of Maslin’s record called those and many of his other claims into question. Somehow, documents in Maslin’s official file had been significantly altered.

            Maslin enlisted in the Army on April 14, 1970, at the age of twenty-three. His record indicated that after initial training, Maslin spent the period from June 19, 1970, to September t, 1970, at Airborne, Ranger, and Special Forces schools. Training that usually takes up to two years, Maslin somehow miraculously completed in just three months. And Maslin’s elite combat assignment after completing all these highly competitive schools, grooming him to be a skilled combat soldier with Special Forces? The record indicated Maslin was made a supply clerk at a basic training school at Fort Dix. That raised my eyebrows.

            The record of Maslin’s time in Vietnam indicated that he yo-yoed from the mundane to the elite. Sent to Southeast Asia in March 1971, Maslin first was assigned to an artillery battery as a

supply clerk. A week later, Maslin suddenly leaped into the field as a Lurp with Company P, 75th Infantry "Brigade." (Whoever doctored the record obviously was not aware the 75th Infantry [Rangers] maintained the old designation of regiment, not brigade.)

            Three months later, in June 1971, Maslin went back to being a supply sergeant in the artillery battery. But a combat hero such as Sergeant Maslin obviously wasn’t content with such an assignment. In September 1971, Maslin served as a Green Beret "rifleman, forward observer" with 5th Special Forces—for a grand total of one month. That assignment is clearly impossible, not only because "rifleman, forward observer" is an incorrect entry for Special Forces, but because 5th Special Forces left Vietnam as a command months earlier, on March 1, 1971. (I doubt Special Forces was turning supply clerks into Green Berets any more than Air Force cooks were suddenly being called on to serve as pilots.) Maslin completed the remainder of his Vietnam tour as a supply sergeant with his old artillery battery—Svc. Battery, 8th Battalion, 4th Artillery, leaving Vietnam in October 1971. But that unit left Vietnam August 31; 1971. Maslin rotated back to the states as a supply sergeant and was discharged in 1972.

            What an incredible tour of duty: assigned as a supply clerk three times, with stints as a Lurp and a Green Beret, coming home with a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, a Bronze Star Medal, and multiple Purple Hearts—all in a seven-month tour. How could Hollywood possibly have chosen Rambo over Sgt. Jack Maslin?

            The record was clearly bogus. Maslin’s claims to other awards and decorations proved as flimsy as his career as a war hero. His record abbreviated the Silver Star as "SSM," for Silver Star Medal, instead of the proper abbreviation "SS." The block for wounds reads, "Arm Right Arm, Forarm," an improper spelling, calling his Purple Heart into question.

            Also in his file was a Special Order supposedly awarding a Bronze Star Medal with V device to Maslin and another man for valor shown while on patrol in Quang Tri Province, RVN.

            "Above mentioned soldiers did distinguished (sic) themselves while under fire from a hostile enemy force," the citation read. `Above did, at risk of life, in complete disregard of their own safety, did assault the enemy’s automatic weapon position. Completely destroying the enemy’s position, killing 4 (four) enemy soldiers. Their action rallied the spirit of their pinned down team members. Thus eliminating the hostile threat. Their action is in keeping of the highest degrees of heroism and are a credit to their unit and their country."

            But this document, replete with typos and grammatical mistakes, is dearly fraudulent. For example: Valorous decorations correctly are issued under a "general order," not a "special order." Medals for bravery are given for a specific action on a specific day. Instead of "date of action," Maslin’s citation erroneously showed "dates of service," from March 26,1971 to June 30, 1971. And the order is dated May 26, 197,—a full month before June 30, when these courageous actions supposedly occurred. The special order awarding Maslin a Combat Infantryman Badge on June 29, 1971, makes the same mistakes.

            Maslin had used the fraudulent military record to curry attention and favor as an employee of the Delaware Air National Guard, in effect becoming the base’s resident Vietnam veteran war hero. In 1994, I sent all of this information to Maj. Gen. George Hastings, commander of the Delaware Air National Guard.570 General Hastings appointed someone to investigate my charges. I was not the first skeptic to call Maslin’s "military fruit salad" into question. Five years earlier, a civilian Ranger organization had rejected Maslin’s application for membership because it contained material about his accomplishments and recognitions that were suspected to be false. The Rangers made their suspicions known to Maslin’s commander.

            On September 25, 1989, a Colonel Dugar and Lt. Col. James F. Waehler, staff judge advocate, had brought Maslin in for an interview According to a memo by Waehler, Maslin was advised by the two that nothing in his record appeared to justify the DSC, Silver Star, or the two oak leaf clusters for the Purple Heart— all of which he was wearing on his uniform. Nor did there appear to be anything in Maslin’s record to support his entitlement to wear the Parachutist Badge, the Special Forces "Rocker," the Diving Badge, and a number of other badges on his uniform.

Maslin’s explanations for the discrepancies covered all the bases. Maslin complained that he had been engaged in an ongoing battle with the Ranger organization since its founding in 1985 and that "one or more individuals were attempting to get even with him." His military records were in disorder, Maslin maintained in a written response, for a variety of reasons, including all of the following:

            1.         Because he had been engaged in a number of sensitive missions as a member of Special Forces, Maslin’s records did not fully and accurately reflect his military duties.

            2.         A fire at the Army Personnel Records Center destroyed some of his records.

            3.         For some bizarre reason, Maslin didn’t have a "201 file" (his personnel file) when he left the Army, and he never received his pay for his last six months of service.

            4.         Maslin left active duty without a lot of friends. He had turned down a job with the military he should have accepted, and he had been advised at the time that he would suffer repercussions because of that. "He believes that some individuals are now attempting to undermine and hurt him because of the enemies he made while in the service."

            5.         Maslin had suffered several difficult divorces, including a particularly nasty one in 1978. One day Maslin had come to pick up his children only to discover his soon-to-be ex-wife out on the driveway burning his military decorations and records. Maslin was able to rescue only a few of the records from the pyre.

            Maslin persisted that he was entitled to every one of the considerable ribbons and badges that he was wearing on his uniform that day. Waehler pointed out to him that fraudulently wearing military decorations was a serious offense, punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The meeting ended with Maslin promising to make an effort to provide documentation for the ones in question by October 13. Maslin apparently presented documents covering everything but the DSC. Not trained in evaluating military records, the investigators merely ordered Maslin to stop wearing the DSC. He complied and nothing more was done.

            All that had happened long before I became involved. Confident that daily duty rosters could place Maslin continuously in his supply clerk’s job in Vietnam, I told the general’s investigators how to obtain the rosters. But evidently they could not be bothered. Despite all the documentation I supplied that Maslin’s record was bogus, making him subject to prosecution for fraudulently wearing military decorations, Hastings merely ordered him not to wear three minor decorations and badges. Revealing the unit’s heroic "poster boy" as a charlatan would have embarrassed everyone involved. Even while the investigation was going on, Maslin was chosen to represent the unit in ceremonies. Outrageously, during one such ceremony, when the body of a Vietnam MIA was returned to the Dover, Delaware, mortuary, the wannabe Maslin was designated to present the American flag to the family.

            I sent my information to the governor of Delaware and a reporter who covered the National Guard, for a local paper. The governor’s office’s merely accepted Maslin’s command’s response that the matter had been settled. The reporter said he would look into Maslin’s background but seemed reluctant to make waves. Sometimes fakers reach such levels of official acceptance that exposing them is virtually impossible.

            Frustrated by the lack of response in Delaware, I sent the material to the Air Force inspector general in the Pentagon, which elicited a quick investigation. Their findings were forwarded down the chain of command, which meant they could not be ignored again. Court-martial proceedings were filed against Maslin. However, to avoid the public embarrassment of a trial, the Guard allowed Maslin to resign, thus losing his retirement. Maslin’s record was expunged of his bogus medals.