In the previous story, Part I of this series of exposes of massive corruption we asked who posed as Greg Hendrix's brother whose phone number was provided by the State Rep office to enable the swatting of Greg. We asked why a State Rep's office was involved. We asked why this swatting had to happen. The answers are going to be stunning for a huge portion of the conservatives in Oklahoma but the proof is iron clad.
The first question, who posed as Greg's “brother”? We are not sure but if asked to make an educated guess we would say possibly it was Alan Beard, Bennett's long time district office manager and our rational for this assumption becomes clear. Two phone numbers appear on the Mental Health Crisis Intervention Note dated June 20 2017, one now goes back to an Indian tribe mental health office, the other was a very old number used by Greg Hendrix many years ago, lost when changing phone providers. What is missing is the phone number for the “brother”. Keep in mind the Intervention Note was written up by a supervisor, not the intake person on the suicide hot line. We know that the police that responded claimed that one “Ward” Hendrix was the worried brother. Greg has one brother, named Floyd Hendrix, living in the Coweta area, not Sallisaw where the storage unit was located that was mentioned in the Intervention Note. BTW the estrangement of the Hendrix brothers was caused by a girlfriend of Floyd and it was nothing more than mild irritation over allowing a woman to cause friction in the family and the best way was to just stay away from the woman.
How did the State Rep's office get involved in reporting to the V.A.? After coming out of the military Greg was a wreck physically, back injuries and a shredded ankle, and the V.A. wasn't doing a great job taking care of him. After surguries Greg would retreat to Sallisaw where his parents had a home and recover. After one ankle surgery in 2012 Greg had been told by local family that the local State Rep John Bennett was a Fallujah Marine, specifically a veteran of the Second Battle of Fallujah where Bennett had claimed he received his head injury due to an IED bomb. Now Greg Hendrix is a retired Marine Major, not a fellow NCO but still they had this in common so Greg put on a tee shirt featuring the Fallujah Marine battle and went to one of Bennett's campaign town hall. Almost immediately Bennett scoped out Greg and came over asking questions. Greg said that Bennett was not at ease but he asked Greg to come by his office after town hall and he would try to help with the V.A. issues Greg was having. Once there, chatting in the office, Greg noticed a shadow box with medals and ribbons, lots and lots of fruit salad, Greg said he never met a staff nco, a gunnery sergeant, or a First Sergeant or an officer with that much decorations and awards. It was puzzling at the time but not alarming but Greg's next act led to a lot of problems for Greg.
“Where did you get the purple heart? “ Greg asked. A normal and expected question from a fellow vet. Bennett replied that it was the 2004 Second battle of Fallujah and repeated the story that it was a roadside IED. Once again Bennett appeared to be ill at ease according to Greg but Greg took the business card of the V.A. lady and went to see her for help. Instead of help, the woman was highly suspicious, eventually claiming that Greg was faking some of his injuries. Not the kind of reception he expected from a personal referral from a state rep.
In 2013 Greg left Sallisaw to work on masters degree for a bit, then back to his Sallisaw parent's house around March of 2014 and around six weeks later he paid Bennett a visit in his Sallisaw district office. Greg was concerned, back in 2012 Bennett had referred Greg to the woman at the V.A. only for things to be quite different than he expected. His visit that day was to tel Bennett that the referral seemed to hurt more than help, and that Bennett wasn't helping much at all. And Greg left. Nothing confrontational, no threats, no loud voices arguing. And you will not believe what happened next.
Greg went to Walmart. He was wearing a back brace on the outside of his clothing and using a cane to walk. A fused backbone and recent ankle surgery does that to a man. Greg was browsing the isles in the electronic section of Walmart when he noticed one of the men that was present at Bennett's office just a few minutes earlier. Alan Beard, Bennett's office manager at the time, a large man, around 6' 6” and 280 pounds, some fat, not all fat. Alan was crouching down and peeking through an opening in the gondolas/shelves at first. Greg thought that was weird but went about his shopping. A minute ot two later he realizes that Alan is right behind him and suddenly Greg is slammed into the shelves by Alan. “Oh, I'm sorry.” Alan said. Greg said “No, you meant to do that.” Officers are usually pretty sharp and Greg realized he was being set up so he walked away. Keep in mind that Greg was cut in the front and cut in the back for the spinal surgery and was not a man in a position to get in a fist fight. Greg walked away, found a manager, and asked if two of their security staff could escort him to his car. Meanwhile here comes Alan complaining that Greg and the manager are talking about him and that he was a Marine himself. Greg had done his homework after hearing some stories so he told Alan that he was no longer a Marine as it seems he had been removed for cause from the Marines and never finished a tour.
After the Walmart assault Greg returned to Bennett's office asking why his office manager would attack him. Greg was expecting a reply along the lines of “He is just a volunteer and does his own thing and I am not responsible for what he does.” Instead, Bennett claimed that Alan Beard no longer worked for Bennett and that Bennett hadn't seem him in over a year. Looking out the front window there is Alan Beard with a worried expression on his face, holding fast food sack lunches for everyone in the office.... Bennett flat out lied and got caught. Later as Greg was leaving he asked Bennett what he looks like right now, Bennett's reply was “It doesn't make me look good.”
Obviously Greg was done with Bennett by this point Greg had reached out, both Bennett and the V.A. wasn't there for him, so he used the Native American health care system from that point on. At that point before leaving Bennett's office Greg made some verbal observations about Bennett's display of medals and actions, questioning the number of Combat Action Ribbons, a series of five or six, an extraordinary amount and they were displayed improperly. There was a Purple Heart at the top of the case, and a Navy Commendation, achievement medal,s ome achievement medals, in addition to that huge row of Combat Action Ribbons.
CAR or Combat Action Ribbons are issued to the Navy, Coast Guard, and Marines for service members that have actively participated in surface or ground operations. To earn the ribbon you have to be under enemy fire, and competently fought back. Being fired upon on a forward operating base or rear reserve base doesn't count. You have to fight back, pursue the enemy or try to kill his ass. CARs are not awarded per battle or fight, you get one per war. And this is crucial, when you have multiple CARs you don't display or wear them all, you wear one ribbon and add small gold insignia called gold star devices. If you have one CAR you wear the ribbon alone. If you have two, the ribbon with one gold star device pinned on the ribbon. If you had four CARs, one ribbon with three gold star devices. Think of CARs as being award stating you had proven courage under fire at one time. These ribbons also allow you to separate the combat vets from those that worked in safety at the rear so combat veterans jealously guard the honors. There is one exception, victims attacked by an IED can receive the ribbon even if they do not fight back, they are at least out in the danger zone trolling for bad guys.
Bennett's excuse according to Hendrix was that “every time we left the wire we were fired upon and had to fight.” Yet were Bennett an actual combat veteran he would have known how to display the ribbons and the criteria for receiving the awards. Bennett, assuming he isn't lying about other parts of his success, was eligible for one ribbon and maybe two gold star devices,.Even if the ribbons were for IED attack only one ribbon would be displayed with two gold star devices pinned in place.
In an upcoming story we will have more about how know that State Rep John Bennett and his office staff were responsible for swatting this retired Major and more details in the questionable display of ribbons that weren't earned. And we will cover even more details that point to a case of extreme stolen valor.
Stay tuned for more on John Bennett's stolen valor.
