Gaining national attention for guarding Hughson Elementary School in the days following the tragedy in Connecticut, Craig Pulsey also guarded the truth about his military service. Wearing Sergeant rank on his uniform and having claimed a distinguished career as a Veteran of two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, the actual records of his service show his true colors.
Brian Beck, the superintendent for the Hughson Unified School District said he asked Pusley to leave the school grounds Thursday morning after he checked with Marine Corps officials on Pulsey’s service, and soon thereafter asked Pulsey to leave.
“He certainly seemed legit,” Beck said of Pulsey, whose real records show him as never having served overseas, and only serving 9 months at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego before he was discharged in April of 2008 as a Pfc.
In an interview on Wednesday with the Modesto Bee, Pulsey talked of his time in the Marine Corps, His Iraq tours in Ramadi and Baghdad and his tour in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. Saying that he was misquoted by the Bee on Wednesday, Pulsey tried to clear his name once his fraudulent actions hit the airwaves, but has yet to return any of the messages the Modesto Bee has left with him. The editor for the Bee stated that what was published were direct quotations from Pulsey from the Wednesday interview with reporter Nan Austin.
“I cannot emphasize how sorry I am that all of this has happened,” Pulsey told the Army Times Thursday. “These were not my intentions. This was never supposed to happen.”
After reading a plea for Veterans to protect schools in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last Friday on Facebook, Pusley showed up in uniform to guard the school. With a story and a stoic look Pulsey took watch in front of Hughson Elementary’s flagpole.
“I don’t have a fear in the world that if someone came here, I’d have the strength and the ability to protect (the school).” he told the Bee on Wednesday. “I just want to have a word to this community that I stand between them and any danger.”
If Pulsey’s story is true, which looks to be very unlikely, then this is just a very large miscommunication, which went from bad to worse. However it is much more likely the accusations against him are true. Either he went out there with good intentions and got carried away with the attention, or he went out there with a fabricated story in his hand and rank he didn’t earn on his collar to get attention. IF the latter is the case, then he is no better than the list of valor thieves such as Tim Poe or Adam Kokesh. If that is the case, he is even more despicable; trying to get his 15 minutes of fame by using people sympathy for a tragic incident that has left 20 children and 7 adults dead.
Realizing his folly, Pulsey has since stated that he was not seeking the attention, and regretted any rules he may have broken regarding his uniform and his statements. “You don’t need a uniform to do this,” he said, protecting the children is everyone’s job.
A lot more info and updates are at:
Another incident of stolen valor. If you want to wear the uniform, enlist! Its not hard.
http://merrellmichael.blogspot.com/