September 9th, 2018 Newsletter
Using Military Service for Politics
Sociopaths and Liars Abound
We have all seen the likes of Representatives Kevin McDugle, Chris Kannaday, and Josh West using and abusing their military service in politics in a shameless manner and it looks like we have another "veteran" using the same tactics of lies to increase his chances of winning in November.
Tom Stites, the son of a former and now deceased state rep, is running for John Bennett seat down in Sequoyah County against a pastor of a small church. The worst that Stites could come up with is to call the guy a Yankee, never mind that Stites himself never really lived in the county till he retired from Nike. And yeah, Stites is trying to distance himself from the latest controversy with Nike.
So Stites puts up a Facebook post last week, poking Nike a bit and saying it wasn't the guys that he worked for that did it, and waxed poetically ad nauseum about his devotion to the flag. And like the sociopath he is Stites just had to blow and puff his chest about his military service in his post. Now Stites has the word "Veteran" plastered over his literature, website, and campaign signs. But is he?
In his post Stites claimed he was put through rought training at the air force academy, that he was put into a small cell for "several days", sleep deprived, dragged out of his small box several times a day, and interrogated. In fact, in the first screen shot he repeated the term "several days" numerous times. He claims he was tied up and slapped around: "No torture like John McCain got but after a few days...". A few sentences later Stites claims that: After about a week I was put into a camp environment....", and later on he claims: "Each day we were forced into the main yard and forced to bow....", then later on Stites referred to: "One particular day the camp commander...".
Sounds horrible, eh? Obviously it was more than a week and many, many days according to Stites. In fact, it was less than 2 days, 40 hours according to a New York Times article from that era, an article that was published before Stites went to the academy:
"But spokesmen for the academy, which is near Colorado Springs, said that cadet injuries occurred only during one 40‐hour session in the summer of 1971 and that reports of cadet "torture" and resulting physical and mental wounds were "exaggerated and do not reflect the true situation."
The story goes on to explain that not only does the training last a mere 40 hours, it is conducted by fellow students:
"Cadet upperclassmen, supervised by academy instructors, attempt to extract information and confessions from underclassmen by using mental and physical harassment. The session, which lasts 40 sleepless hours, is part of summer training after a cadet's freshman or sophomore years; It is called "SERE," for survival, evasion, resistance and escape."
Later academy classes reported that the name had changed to Expeditionary, Survival and Evasion Training (ESET) as SERE was a far more prolonged and far more challenging program that airmen and pilots are put through prior to going into combat.
Once participant from a bit later than 1976 described it as more of a Boy Scout outing:
"Wasn't fun.. I would describe it as surviving "hide and go seek on steroids" and how to cook a bunny rabbit. Seriously, you should learn survival skills I hope you never have to use. "
Obviously Stites is exaggerating wildly not only about the weeks and days of abuse but most likely about any abuse as well.
"We conclude that the General Assembly did not intend to bestow a veteran's preference to someone who was a cadet at a military academy, but never obligated himself to perform, or otherwise undertook, any subsequent military service...Blake went to college. He did not serve in the armed forces of the United States and thus he is not a 'solider'. He is not entitled to receive a veterans' preference when applying for civil service jobs in this commonwealth."
Laws written much later do consider academy education as active duty but the caveat is that two years is required and the law at that time is what is important. Later the time to qualify as a veteran was dropped to 180 consecutive days but it excluded training and this was to cover service at a time of war:
The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2006, signed into Public Law by the President on January 6, 2006, expanded the definition of a veteran (for purposes of preference eligibility) in 5 USC 2108(1). The new definition includes individuals who served on active duty for more than 180 consecutive days, other than for training, any part of which occurred during the period beginning September 11, 2001, and ending on the date prescribed by Presidential proclamation or by law as the last day of Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Yet cadets at the various service academies cannot use their education time toward military active service, or toward retired pay and allowances. In fact, if you visit this website on financial aid for veterans you will see this:
"However, the Veterans Administration and the US Department of Education use a different definition of veteran, leading to some confusion. The definition of active duty also excludes active duty for training, attendance at a service school or, in many cases, members of the National Guard or Reserves. "
"The definition of veteran for Federal student aid purposes is not necessarily the same as the definition of veteran for VA purposes. This can lead to potential problems, since the FAFSA processor performs a data match with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) records to confirm a student's veteran status. Section 480(d)(3) of the HEA indicates that a student is considered to be an independent student if he or she is a veteran of the US Armed Forces, which is defined in Section 480(c) (1) to mean any individual who:
has engaged in the active duty in the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or Coast Guard; and
was released under a condition other than dishonorable.
Section 8019 of the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171) changed the definition of independent student to also include members of the Armed Forces serving on active duty for other than training purposes. HERA 2005 also defined active duty to exclude attendance at a service school.
Even National Guard and Reserves members might not be considered veterans:
"Members of the National Guard or Reserves, however, are only considered to be veterans if they were called up to active Federal duty by presidential order for a purpose other than training. A member of the National Guard or Reserves who is called up to active State duty is not considered a veteran. A key issue is whether they were under the control of a regular component of the US Armed Forces or remained under the control of the National Guard or Reserves.
A member of the Reserves who was called to active duty but who was discharged before serving on active duty (e.g., due to medical reasons) is not considered a veteran."
Current law dictates that current academy students may be considered veterans as long as they were released under a condition other than "dishonorable" and according to the source above a "dismissal is generally considered the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge for enlisted members. They might still qualify as a veteran for college aid but not for VA purposes.
Stites can always publish a true copy of his DD214 and if it shows anything other than a dishonorable discharge then he could have claimed veteran status for college aid, but not for VA purposes. So far Stites has yet to provide any discharge papers and has obviously embellished his past.
Considering that Stites washed out of the academy, the reason for that has been stated in a different manner according to which interview Stites gave, intimate sources claim that Stites never served a single day of active service but went directly to college after the Air Force booted his butt out of the academy, and the lack of any active duty service means that Stites cannot claim "veteran" status other than perhaps for college aid.
And given that Stites is obviously lying about his days and weeks of torture during what we now know was a hour training program ran by fellow classmates, it is likely that little the man says ought to be trusted. The man running against Stites, John Olson, is considered an honest man and a true conservative, hand picked by John Bennett to run for the Republican held seat. He could use some money and some support so please get in touch with him.
