thedrifter
11-21-06, 12:53 PM
Expert cries foul over Navy Cross pin
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
When Jim Fields spoke to members of the American Legion at a Veterans Day event in Chillicothe, Mo., he told them the story behind the Navy Cross pin he wore on the lapel of his suit jacket. He said he earned the nation's second-highest award for combat valor while serving in Vietnam under Oliver North, a retired lieutenant colonel, Silver Star recipient and host of Fox News Channel's "War Stories."
But for some, Fields' story doesn't wash. And some lawmakers are using the story as a rallying cry to push for legislation to prohibit people who haven't earned military decorations from claiming they did.
On Veterans Day, Fields told the crowd North recommended him for the Navy Cross personally and that they remain friends.
But North doesn't remember him.
"When this first came to my attention yesterday, I inquired with Marines I had served with in Vietnam because I did not recall Mr. Fields. I have a vivid recollection of a number of Marines that I had recommended for heroic awards, and I have notes I took at the time," North said Nov. 16. "In going through my old footlockers, I can find no record of Mr. Fields serving in my rifle company or in my rifle platoon."
When news of Fields' claim to the Navy Cross was published on the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune's Web site Nov. 13, it caught the attention of the nation's foremost authority on Navy Cross recipients. Doug Sterner, who has spent the past five years compiling a database of every Marine awarded the Navy Cross on his Web site www.home ofheroes.com, had no record of Fields receiving the medal.
Officials at Marine Corps headquarters turned up only one service record of a James Fields who served during the Vietnam conflict, but that person was never awarded the Navy Cross.
Fields confirmed Nov. 17 that the record officials found was his, and claimed that the pin he wore in Chillicothe was a Purple Heart, not a Navy Cross.
When confronted with the newspaper's photograph of the Navy Cross pin on his lapel at the event, Fields said, "Well, if it's on there, then it's on there, but I don't have anything but the Purple Heart."
He said he's collected 50 pins over the years and that placing the wrong one on his lapel for Veterans Day was an honest mistake.
Fields' statement that he earned a Purple Heart could not be confirmed by press time. He said he never claimed he was entitled to the Navy Cross during his Veterans Day address, a direct contradiction to the Chillicothe newspaper's account.
In the summer of 2005, Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., introduced the Stolen Valor Act in the House, which called for jail time and hefty fines for phony heroes and was also meant to close a loophole in the current law that allows them to escape prosecution as long as they don't physically wear the awards they fraudulently claim.
After hearing Fields' story, Sterner relayed his findings to Fields' congressman, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., who contacted Salazar to become a co-sponsor of the bill.
Graves, who joins more than 100 congressmen in endorsing the bill, said he plans on bringing Fields' claims to the attention of House leadership "to help ensure we move forward on the Stolen Valor Act."
A version of the bill introduced in the Senate was passed unanimously by that chamber Sept. 7 but has been stalled in the House Judiciary Committee. There was a push to get the bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote before Congress adjourned for mid-term elections Oct. 1, but it languished in subcommittee.
The committee is scheduled to meet again during the first two weeks of December.
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
When Jim Fields spoke to members of the American Legion at a Veterans Day event in Chillicothe, Mo., he told them the story behind the Navy Cross pin he wore on the lapel of his suit jacket. He said he earned the nation's second-highest award for combat valor while serving in Vietnam under Oliver North, a retired lieutenant colonel, Silver Star recipient and host of Fox News Channel's "War Stories."
But for some, Fields' story doesn't wash. And some lawmakers are using the story as a rallying cry to push for legislation to prohibit people who haven't earned military decorations from claiming they did.
On Veterans Day, Fields told the crowd North recommended him for the Navy Cross personally and that they remain friends.
But North doesn't remember him.
"When this first came to my attention yesterday, I inquired with Marines I had served with in Vietnam because I did not recall Mr. Fields. I have a vivid recollection of a number of Marines that I had recommended for heroic awards, and I have notes I took at the time," North said Nov. 16. "In going through my old footlockers, I can find no record of Mr. Fields serving in my rifle company or in my rifle platoon."
When news of Fields' claim to the Navy Cross was published on the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune's Web site Nov. 13, it caught the attention of the nation's foremost authority on Navy Cross recipients. Doug Sterner, who has spent the past five years compiling a database of every Marine awarded the Navy Cross on his Web site www.home ofheroes.com, had no record of Fields receiving the medal.
Officials at Marine Corps headquarters turned up only one service record of a James Fields who served during the Vietnam conflict, but that person was never awarded the Navy Cross.
Fields confirmed Nov. 17 that the record officials found was his, and claimed that the pin he wore in Chillicothe was a Purple Heart, not a Navy Cross.
When confronted with the newspaper's photograph of the Navy Cross pin on his lapel at the event, Fields said, "Well, if it's on there, then it's on there, but I don't have anything but the Purple Heart."
He said he's collected 50 pins over the years and that placing the wrong one on his lapel for Veterans Day was an honest mistake.
Fields' statement that he earned a Purple Heart could not be confirmed by press time. He said he never claimed he was entitled to the Navy Cross during his Veterans Day address, a direct contradiction to the Chillicothe newspaper's account.
In the summer of 2005, Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., introduced the Stolen Valor Act in the House, which called for jail time and hefty fines for phony heroes and was also meant to close a loophole in the current law that allows them to escape prosecution as long as they don't physically wear the awards they fraudulently claim.
After hearing Fields' story, Sterner relayed his findings to Fields' congressman, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., who contacted Salazar to become a co-sponsor of the bill.
Graves, who joins more than 100 congressmen in endorsing the bill, said he plans on bringing Fields' claims to the attention of House leadership "to help ensure we move forward on the Stolen Valor Act."
A version of the bill introduced in the Senate was passed unanimously by that chamber Sept. 7 but has been stalled in the House Judiciary Committee. There was a push to get the bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote before Congress adjourned for mid-term elections Oct. 1, but it languished in subcommittee.
The committee is scheduled to meet again during the first two weeks of December.