Tyr-Ziu Saxnot
06-28-2013, 10:41 AM
America's deadliest soldier or stolen valor? http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/p/csm_logo_115.jpg (http://www.csmonitor.com/) <cite class="byline vcard top-line">Dan Murphy <abbr>23 hours ago</abbr> </cite>
A new war memoir, "Carnivore" by Dillard Johnson, makes some rather extraordinary claims, according to media appearances and promotional material from publisher HarperCollins (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/HarperCollins+Publishers+Inc.). But it's looking likely that these claims are exaggerated, and in some eyes are veering towards stolen valor territory (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2012/0222/Stolen-Valor-Act-at-Supreme-Court-Is-lying-about-being-a-hero-a-right).
The book is subtitled "A memoir by one of the Deadliest American Soldiers of All Time" and in it Sgt. 1st Class Johnson and his co-author write (http://www.amazon.com/Carnivore-Memoir-Deadliest-American-Soldiers/dp/0062288415/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top#reader_0062288415) that he had 2,746 "confirmed" enemy kills during his time serving in Iraq (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Iraq), with 121 of those "confirmed sniper kills, the most ever publicly reported by a US Army soldier."
But his claims have sent the online veteran community into an uproar, with many vets calling them implausible and some men who served with him saying his statements are downright falsehoods. He served as a commander of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Bradley+Fighting+Vehicle) with the 3rd Squadron, 7th US (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+States) Cavalry, which took the lead in the charge to Baghdad (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Baghdad) after US forces went over the berm to invade Iraq in March 2003.
"I don’t want to take away from what [Johnson] did do, he did do great things: led a platoon, completed the missions," Brad Spaid tells the Monitor. He is a former staff sergeant who served with Johnson in Iraq and now has a civilian job with the Veteran's Administration and has read the book. "We lost some really good NCOs, guys that we really looked up to, and we feel that … on Facebook and blogs other vets are coming out and calling us out and calling us liars and idiots, and it takes away from what we really did…. We don’t want to become a laughing stock, we want to be remembered for what we did and move on."
RECOMMENDED: US military muscle (http://www.csmonitor.com/Photo-Galleries/In-Pictures/US-military-muscle)
That Sergeant Johnson (who received a Silver Star) and his fellows in the 7th Cavalry faced heavy fighting and performed admirably in Iraq is beyond question. The brief unit history on their website recounts that "combat operations for Operation Iraqi Freedom (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Operation+Iraqi+Freedom) began on March 20th when the squadron crossed into Iraq as the lead element of the [3rd Infantry Division]. The Squadron attacked to Baghdad fighting both the Republican Guard and the Saddam Fedayeen. It was the longest cavalry charge in the history of the world and it ended in the capture of Baghdad."
But while I haven't yet read the book, the headline claim is an extraordinary one, based on my five years covering the Iraq war between 2003 and 2008. An ounce of common sense also comes into play.
In late 2007, after Johnson had left Iraq, statistics provided to USA Today by the US-led coalition, estimated that (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-09-26-insurgents_N.htm?csp=DailyBriefing) 19,429 militants had been killed by all coalition forces, including Iraqi ones, since the start of the war in 2003. Johnson's claimed "confirmed kills" of 2,746 would amount to 14 percent of all those deaths, an astonishing number for a single soldier who did not serve in the hottest battles of the post-invasion war. http://news.yahoo.com/americas-deadliest-soldier-stolen-valor-212237661.html
A new war memoir, "Carnivore" by Dillard Johnson, makes some rather extraordinary claims, according to media appearances and promotional material from publisher HarperCollins (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/HarperCollins+Publishers+Inc.). But it's looking likely that these claims are exaggerated, and in some eyes are veering towards stolen valor territory (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2012/0222/Stolen-Valor-Act-at-Supreme-Court-Is-lying-about-being-a-hero-a-right).
The book is subtitled "A memoir by one of the Deadliest American Soldiers of All Time" and in it Sgt. 1st Class Johnson and his co-author write (http://www.amazon.com/Carnivore-Memoir-Deadliest-American-Soldiers/dp/0062288415/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top#reader_0062288415) that he had 2,746 "confirmed" enemy kills during his time serving in Iraq (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Iraq), with 121 of those "confirmed sniper kills, the most ever publicly reported by a US Army soldier."
But his claims have sent the online veteran community into an uproar, with many vets calling them implausible and some men who served with him saying his statements are downright falsehoods. He served as a commander of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Bradley+Fighting+Vehicle) with the 3rd Squadron, 7th US (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+States) Cavalry, which took the lead in the charge to Baghdad (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Baghdad) after US forces went over the berm to invade Iraq in March 2003.
"I don’t want to take away from what [Johnson] did do, he did do great things: led a platoon, completed the missions," Brad Spaid tells the Monitor. He is a former staff sergeant who served with Johnson in Iraq and now has a civilian job with the Veteran's Administration and has read the book. "We lost some really good NCOs, guys that we really looked up to, and we feel that … on Facebook and blogs other vets are coming out and calling us out and calling us liars and idiots, and it takes away from what we really did…. We don’t want to become a laughing stock, we want to be remembered for what we did and move on."
RECOMMENDED: US military muscle (http://www.csmonitor.com/Photo-Galleries/In-Pictures/US-military-muscle)
That Sergeant Johnson (who received a Silver Star) and his fellows in the 7th Cavalry faced heavy fighting and performed admirably in Iraq is beyond question. The brief unit history on their website recounts that "combat operations for Operation Iraqi Freedom (http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Operation+Iraqi+Freedom) began on March 20th when the squadron crossed into Iraq as the lead element of the [3rd Infantry Division]. The Squadron attacked to Baghdad fighting both the Republican Guard and the Saddam Fedayeen. It was the longest cavalry charge in the history of the world and it ended in the capture of Baghdad."
But while I haven't yet read the book, the headline claim is an extraordinary one, based on my five years covering the Iraq war between 2003 and 2008. An ounce of common sense also comes into play.
In late 2007, after Johnson had left Iraq, statistics provided to USA Today by the US-led coalition, estimated that (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-09-26-insurgents_N.htm?csp=DailyBriefing) 19,429 militants had been killed by all coalition forces, including Iraqi ones, since the start of the war in 2003. Johnson's claimed "confirmed kills" of 2,746 would amount to 14 percent of all those deaths, an astonishing number for a single soldier who did not serve in the hottest battles of the post-invasion war. http://news.yahoo.com/americas-deadliest-soldier-stolen-valor-212237661.html