Marine Corps Records Obtained in 2017 Reveal no Purple Heart or Combat Action Ribbon for John Bennett.
2016 was State Rep. John Bennett's last campaign for re election, when Bennett was loudly and proudly demanding that Democrat challenger Tom Stites show his DD214 in order to prove his veteran status. Stites had been making his time in the Air Force Academy a big selling point toward voting for him but in fact Stites had either quit or was forced out of the Air Force Academy after a few months.
Stites told tall tales about being thrown out of the academy, motion sickness was one if I recall correctly, eyesight was another but Bennett played the card well, hammering Stites for refusing to show his DD214 which is the final discharge papers that lists your rank when you mustered out, your military experience, your last station where you were discharged from, months, and years along with your sea duty and foreign service. Your medals and awards are listed as well. At the bottom it gives the reason for your separation from the service along with the character of your service, usually an Honorable discharge. Sometimes a less than honorable discharge, and some times a dishonorable discharge.
Tom Stites never did show us a copy of his DD214 and he lost the race. Now John Bennett finds himself on the other side of a demand with many people now calling for Bennett to release his DD 214 record so he can prove the stolen valor allegations are false
Read the first part of this series and the second part that explained some of the scandal to get up to speed before tackling this version. But in short, a disabled Marine officer had visited Bennett in his district office one day asking for help with V.A.. Bennett did forward a lot of cases to the V.A.,and wasn't shy about telling that he used to work at the V.A., but in Greg's case the V.A. was of zero help and was treated much differently than he had expected, with suspicion. Somehow Bennett's staff or even Bennett himself had not trusted Greg and their lackluster behavior seemed to bleed over into the V.A. where Greg was questioned and claims that he was faking the injuries were suggested. After a few years Greg gave up on the V.A. and used Indian medical systems to get relief. Around this time was when Greg visited Bennett's office one last time and expressed his displeasure with Bennett's handling of the matter. That uneventful visit led to the 2017 event which led to the Walmart attack against Greg by Bennett's then office manager and then the swatting, someone making a false report to a V.A. suicide hot line claiming that Greg was suicidal and had threatened multiple people with a gun.
All this happened because a Iraq veteran showed up at one of John Bennett's town halls and triggered John Bennett with what we now believe was a fear of being exposed. A simple remark asking how Bennett received his Purple Heart medal and a short glance at a shadow box full of medals, ribbons, and awards seemed to have terrified Bennett. The short version is that we now question if John Bennett is in fact a combat veteran, if he was actually wounded in action by a road side bomb, or if it was an off duty accident caused by a combination of booze, a moped, and a twisting mountain road.
Below is one of the emails sent to me by Major Greg Hendrix, retired USMC:
“The attached document is from Tom Stites. He handed me this document when he was running for the 2nd District State Representative position. One of my last visits to Sallisaw was to clean out my storage. During this visit, I stopped at the Stites campaign office and introduced myself, and told him what I knew about the regulations for awarding and display of the Navy Combat Action Ribbon. I pointed out that if the requirements are met for the award a sailor or Marine only rates one per operation (such as Operation Iraqi Freedom) and John Bennett had a combat action ribbon with numerous devices (covering the ribbon).
Stites informed me that he had already heard that Bennett was claiming decorations that he didn't rate and a private detective generated the attached document. I informed him that I was suspicious of his claim of a purple heart because the timing doesn't match the rest of his awards displayed in his office. For example, the United States invaded Iraq early in 2003. The 2nd battle of Fallujah was in Nov 2004 and this was when John Bennett told me he was injured. An injury that would have classified him as non-deployable for a lengthy time and most likely result in his discharge. In other words, the USMC would not have sent him to another combat zone after Nov 2004. Yet Mr. Bennett displayed two Iraq Campaign Medals and one Afghanistan campaign medal.
As a field grade officer who worked in a position prior to my first deployment, I became very aware of the deployment cycle. USMC deployments for the most part were 7 months and mostly alternated from East Coast bases to West Coast bases.
He left active duty with the GySgt rank (Gunny Sergeant) yet he claimed in numerous news articles that he picked up the next higher rank of 1Sgt rank in the reserves. A marine cannot join the Marine Reserves with disabilities (marines have to be deployable).
Greg Hendrix”
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According to the document above that was supplied by a previous political opponent, Tom Stites, Bennett left active duty with the pay grade and rank of E-7 Gunnery Sergeant well short of a 20-year (minimum) active duty retirement. It is important to point out that Gunnery Sergeant is one rank below the rank of First Sergeant, with an oddity in the ranking system that has the career path split at First Sergeant/Master Sergeant,both ranks being E-8. Bennett could have received an early medical retirement from a line-of-duty injury sustained for instance from enemy action in a combat zone. However, he would not have been allowed to leave active duty and join the Marine Corps reserves and receive the promotion to First Sergeant and retire after serving combined active duty and reserve time of 20 years. A Marine has to be physically fit to join the Marine Corps reserves and be considered for promotion. Bennett made the same comment to the Tea Party as he did to Hendrix - his vehicle hit an IED during the 2nd battle of Fallujah (Nov 2004) With the type of injury claimed he would not be deploy-able to make a deployment to Afghanistan after the claimed date of injury until he received a lengthy and extensive evaluation.
The second bullet point about Bennett's claimed reason for retiring early is from Bennett himself, he in fact told the Tea Party this story way back in 2010, that a roadside bomb caused head trauma and early retirement. He did retire as a Gunny Sergeant, with sergeant being the lowest NCO rank, staff sergeant next, then gunnery sergeant, then master sergeant/ first sergeant (both E-8), master gunnery sergeant, sergeant major, then the highest NCO rank being Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.
Now there are many variations depending upon the unit but a sergeant will command a squad of 13 Marines with the actual number depending upon the type of unit. A staff sergeant will assist a 2nd Lieutenant in command of a platoon of 43 marines or a section leader in a weapons platoon . A gunnery sergeant might be a platoon leader in charge of a weapons platoon with the more experienced moving up to the company gunnery sergeant in charge of beans, bullets, and band aids so to speak. Master sergeants serve as operations chief or assistant operations chief of a company of Marines, at this level they are pushing paper and logistics, not tech experts or leading men. A first sergeant serves as the senior enlisted advisor to a company or battery commander, supervision of the lower ranks, sorting out human resource issues, not out leading men or working logistics. A master gunnery sergeant serves as the operations chief of an infantry battalion, between 500 and 1200 men depending upon the unit's purpose.
So First Sergeant is a step up from logistics or squad command to supervision. And the size of the Marine Corp is important, only around 181,000 in active service, around 91,000 in reserve units, and the room to advance is small. To become a sergeant takes almost five years statistically as 16% of the entire Marine force are sergeants, over double that to become a staff sergeant which around 9% of the entire force , nearly 15 years to make it to gunnery sergeant which are 5% of the entire force, and nearly 19 years on the average to make it to master sergeant/first sergeant 2% of the force which are. A marine must meet both time-in-service and time-in-grade to be eligible for consideration for promotion. Because of these time limitations, it takes on average 19 years for a marine to reach the rank of 1st Sgt. First Sergeant is a step up in supervising authority and responsibility from that of an E-7 Gunnery Sergeant
Are you seeing the problem here? With only 13 to 14 years of service, with being supposedly blown up in 2004 around ten years into his service, his advancement would have slowed to a crawl if he had memory damage as he claimed which led to his retirement. Marine NCOs advance only with great fitness reports, so many are skipped for advancement due to the limited number of slots available and they leave the service as they aren't likely to advance further. Promotions are handled by a promotion board and basically those with the longest service in grade, in that rank, move to the front of the list. There are merit promotions but they are rare and you cannot make it to first sergeant through merit or it is very rare.
Next up is that due to the extremely limited number of billets available the Marines expect longer service in exchange for promotion to master sergeant or first sergeant. And there are limits to years served, a sergeant is out at 13 years, a staff sergeant is allowed 20 years, a gunnery sergeant is allowed 22 years, a first sergeant or master sergeant is allowed 27 years, and a sergeant major is allowed 30 years. The retirement pay balloons with these extra years, few first sergeants would want to quit at 14 years if any.
The fourth bullet point on that document above mentions Bennett's final posting, the Third Intelligence Battalion and this is where things get interesting. Not only is the battalion a headquarters group, not a combat group, it is stationed in Okinawa and didn't send a contingent to Afghanistan until 2009, two years after Bennett had left the service. How did Bennett get to Afghanistan if his unit didn't arrive until two months after he had left the service.
Another interesting rumor has been floating around, that booze and a moped and a mountain road were the likely cause of any head trauma Bennett might have suffered. An alternative rumor was it was a nearly identical story except it was a motorcycle in Georgia. This would explain Bennett's retirement, a loss of memory loss would indeed have him denied re enlistment.
The fifth bullet point in the document above is the clincher. This is from the Marine Corp Records Branch and there is NO PURPLE HEART or CAR, Combat Action Ribbon. Without the CAR you cannot call yourself a combat marine. Now you might remember from the previous installment of this saga that being blown up by a roadside bomb is a way to receive a CAR, therefore John Bennett would have had a CAR listed on his list of medals were he indeed blown up while on duty. Add to that the improper display of a large amount of CAR ribbons, far in excess of the normal, for a guy with a desk job it seems as his last posting.
Now we do have that last award, four years volunteering in a rest home and as a girl scout leader....maybe the Purple Heart came from selling cookies or dumping bed pans?
