A highly Decorated Vn Vet.

[patches]

Just came across this guy. Obviously what caught my eye was the chest covered in medals.

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Christian

 

https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=4572

[johnnyrocket]

I must say this is a very impressive image.

 

One hardly ever see military images displaying all of his or her medals.

 

I wonder just how common is this?

 

I remember seeing Audie Murphy with several pictures of him with a display of his awarded medals.

[uniformcollector]

Wow! If this uniform came up for sale by itself, I wonder how many would immediately think it was put together.

[johnnyrocket]

Audie Murphy...

[McDermut99]

Is that a marksman competition medal right below his infantry insignia?

[johnnyrocket]

I'm wondering now—who was the highest decorated (Vietnam veteran only) during that period of time?

 

This is not a trick question, when I search for this information 5 names come up? They all can't be the highest decorated vet? I think the answer must be for different qualifications (i.e. Valor, qualification, and or both?)

[268th C.A.]

He is wearing six purple hearts ???? What was he wearing a catchers mitt for bullets....

I clicked on the thread...it says Seven Purple Hearts.....

[atb]

There are seven PH's there. Count them again.

[everforward]

There are seven PH's there. Count them again.

 

Is this a legit method of wearing awards/decorations, especially if its one award (PH) earned multiple times..?

 

In Audie Murphy's, it's one heart with some clusters....

[ItemCo16527]

Looks like Capt. David Christian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Christian

[johnnyrocket]

He is wearing six purple hearts ???? What was he wearing a catchers mitt for bullets....

I clicked on the thread...it says Seven Purple Hearts.....

 

I've never seen a military image with the person wearing 7 Purple hearts.

Just a tad dramatic for me.

 

Wonder that the Army Regulations say about that?

[patches]

What's astonishing about it all was he wasn't in country that long really, and all this was on his first and only tour. Then there's the wounds, except for that last one where he got hit by naplam, must of been light wounds, how can they be anything else really, I mean the records show you had one guy shot, and he was out of it for good, if not then a couple of months recovering.

 

That's like one time I brought up Gen Fredrick and his 8 Big Hearts.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/196693-m2-helmet-general-robert-frederick/

[MWalsh]

Patches - that is what I thought too - that he received all those awards in such a short time period. The guy must have been a bullet magnet - wow.

 

Someone else asked who the most decorated in Vietnam was / were. I think Col. David Hackworth was one of them, many Purple Heart and DSC awards if memory serves me right. But I think he was also there for multiple years.

[Bluehawk]

 

Maybe it would be time for him to turn to minis...

[patches]

Patches - that is what I thought too - that he received all those awards in such a short time period. The guy must have been a bullet magnet - wow.

 

Someone else asked who the most decorated in Vietnam was / were. I think Col. David Hackworth was one of them, many Purple Heart and DSC awards if memory serves me right. But I think he was also there for multiple years.

Yes Hackworth did three tours, 1st Bde 101st Abn Div, ten the 9th Inf Div and finally MACV, he was also wounded in Korea, I think two times, there too he served two different times, the 25th Inf Div later in the 40th Inf Div.

[BigJohn#3RD]

I believe that the late Colonel Robert Howard who was nominated three times for the Medal of Honor all within 30 days if memory serves me correctly, his first nomination being downgraded to the DSC. His second and third nominations were simultaneous for two separate actions and the Medal of Honor was awarded for the first of them, the other was downgraded to the Silver Star. Wounded 14 times in 54 months of combat duty in Vietnam, Howard was awarded 8 Purple Hearts. He is one of only TWO men to earn BOTH the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross in the Vietnam War.

I meet him for the first time when I was a FNG in the 2/75 Rangers, next time he was commander of Mountain Ranger Camp and graded a Patrol in was on at Ranger School in 1977 and than when I was going thru the Q course in 1980 he was the commander at camp McCall. The man was a warrior in ever sense of the word and a mentor to all young soldiers he came into contact with because he was focused on passing on combat experience so they would not be killed in combat. Some thing he had seen too much in his tours in Vietnam. I never worked for him but he is someone everyone who came into contact with respected.

Here are some links about his service e and legacy.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Howard

 

https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2010/july/colonel-robert-howard-of-waco-greatest-american-hero/

 

https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=2769

 

This is not to disparage other MOH recipients but this man was a true human war machine. SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam by John Plaster probably gives the most detailed account of Robert Howard during his service in Vietnam.

[patches]

Here's a WWI version of this fashion of wearing medals up and down the front.

 

Ludovicus M. M. Van Iersel

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovicus_M._M._Van_Iersel

 

 

[Lsparks]

I must say this is a very impressive image.

 

One hardly ever see military images displaying all of his or her medals.

 

I wonder just how common is this?

 

I remember seeing Audie Murphy with several pictures of him with a display of his awarded medals.

Today it’s not common. I’ve never seen it. I fully expect it’s not authorized and may have been done for personal photos or perhaps publicity? Murphy’s photos shown in the thread look like PAO/Media release photos and I’ve always thought that.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[patches]

Today it’s not common. I’ve never seen it. I fully expect it’s not authorized and may have been done for personal photos or perhaps publicity? Murphy’s photos shown in the thread look like PAO/Media release photos and I’ve always thought that.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes not done for official portraits I should think.

[patches]

Another example of an informal photograph with full size medals covering the chest, in the 1970s. I'll post more on this guy in another topic.

[Ironheart]

I had a ton of relatives in the military. My father was a U.S. Marine who fought in WW2, Korea and Vietnam and was there on Mount Suribachi when his cousin raised the second Flag.

His cousin was Harold Schultz.  ( BTW they did speak up)

 

 

My other cousin who died just a few years ago who was in the Army and was there at LZ Andy at the same time claimed by Lt. David Christian.  My cousin Welsey Schultz said he never had heard of him while there at the same base in the same year.  Usually, Rambo officers got fragged.

 Back many years ago Stolen Valor Organization sent me David Christians Military Record  and it shows his being in Vietnam only 6 months.  His personal website claims her served 2 tours and was in the LRRP, and was a Ranger on top of being Airborne and Green Beret.  This I find very difficult to believe, my cousin said he is a fraud.  I did some extensive research and yes, this guy is all made up.  He did just like Bo Gritz did by writing up his citations and walking them through.  David Christian made a lot of claims and when you fact check it does not hold water. 

 

I enlarged that photo above and on each decoration he is wearing an attachment.  On all of the Purple Hearts he has an oak leaf which in people's eyes would appear to have double than what is seen.  According to official record he earned 3 Purple Hearts and at an Awards Ceremony in 1970 he received 1 Silver Star 1 Air Campaign plus 2 Purple Hearts one of which he already received while in the hospital.  I have yet to see any awards ceremony or certificate for his other claims.  Different Newspapers interviewed him from 1974 in which David Christian made his claims of a ton more medals but when he was in front of Jimmy Carter in 1978 he was wearing his decorations correctly not this showboat nonsense.  Also in the photos with President Carter he was not wearing the DSC.  If you look at his Vietnam Service Medal, he has 3 campaign stars. That is not possible for only being there 6 months.  Some other GI s who did 2 tours might have 3 or 4.    The when you read his claims from different newspapers there are a ton of claims by him. If you look him up on Wiki the sources all come from David Christian.  All through the years his stories are always changing or conflicting. When someone places a question he always has an out or excuses and some are whoppers!   His claim that the University was trying to kick him out because his claim of being a war hero.  He claims that the Uni got Jane Fonda to protest his going to the Uni there.  Not true, she has no clue about him and she was never protesting at that University.  The University dropped him because he failed his courses so he filed a law suit using his claim of a War hero to get back in...but the University just gave him his diploma/honorary.  Here is another of those gotcha moments.  

Back to the wounds. .....since when does the Army allow a person to go back on the line if they have been shot so many times or Napalmed?   Even Roy Benevidez was shot some 40 times/shrapnel stabbed etc.   in the course of a battle but was not given a Purple Heart for each one.   There is always recovery time then you have to pass your PT to be allowed back to line or combat duty.   One of the things Christian changes his story is how he earned his high decorations and the citations do not match his stories.   The one published is the one where he goes to Vietnam to make some Public Show of an apology to the Vietnamese but he is bragging of how he took out six machine gun bunkers with a grenade and his bayonet.

Not possible.  All of his photos of his being in Vietnam are at some hut, or in the hospital, standing in parking lot but not a single one in semi combat mode.  No weapons or sidearms...photos my father showed me he was NEVER without a sidearm at the minimum.

Another claim he makes his going through Basic, Airborne, OCS all in one year becoming an LT. at 18 year old?  How?  He never even did his complete his 4 year obligation. There are just too many loose ends...all of his stories do not make sense...like his claim his mother was an Aide to General MacArthur in South Pacific during WW2.  Where? How?  His Aides were all men. He didn't take women with him in combat zones.     But the one that really pisses me off are his claims of being Nominated for the MOH 3 times....for what?  By who in the chain of Command?    A note or letter from the general public is NOT a nomination.   Every time it gets question he uses the claim his paperwork was lost, or it burn in the Army Documents Building.  What I saw was a man who came back from Vietnam who saw a way he could con the public, claim a hero status, and schmooze his way into the elite public getting insulated along the way.    He claimed to have co founded the Vietnam Veterans Of America, I have an email from them and said they never heard of him that he is not in the records.  He makes a lot of claims that when you fact check it...you can not find it or you have to deep research to find the truth.  Everything HE CLAIMS  has so far been a lie or a very stretched out embellishment!!!

 

 

[Ironheart]

It is not letting me post photos

[patches]

6 minutes ago, Ironheart said:

It is not letting me post photos

What seems to be the problem specifically?

[Ironheart]

I tried to post both a document and a photo but they did not post at all.   I am reading it say drag files or attach.  I did the attach but the photo did not attach.

I do not have problems on other forums just here.  I joined the site a year or two back but did not discuss anything until just yesterday because I had totally forgotten about this forum.

Also, I recently had surgery that then had complications so last night I was a bit out of it due to the meds.  Apologies for any ramblings, misspellings grammatical errors

[Ironheart]

On 1/25/2018 at 11:09 PM, patches said:

Yes not done for official portraits I should think.

Later in his life he did wear these decorations just like this in this informal photo.  His book Victor Six after it had been ghost written by another author David Christian went on a promo tour and he wore his dress unform like you see in that above photo.  But he is not authorized to wear any the way he is doing but no one has stopped him.  Stolen Valor Organization had thousands of complaints from Veterans and the Organization did try to bring charges but David Christian has become friends with a lot of the elites in the Military, Congress, Senators and ex Presidents.   They told me he is an untouchable who is well heeled.   David Christian discovered a way to endear himself as the spokesman for the Neglected Vietnam Veteran with claims of his fighting for the rights of these neglected veterans.  To be honest, I could not find any part of his history that backed up any of his claims especially anything that has helped out neglected veterans.  Rights that were enacted to assist the Vietnam Veterans that did get changed, David Christian took credit for were actually accomplished by someone else.  And with the internet having been hijacked by Google and Microsoft makes searching for the truth extremely difficult because these search engines take you to the same places over and over where the sources are completely unreliable.  And anything you try to find on David Christian takes you to the sources that were supplied by David Christian himself

 Real research has to be done by going through foreign means or microfilm.   Then what further muddies up any finding documents is the claim from the US ARMY of their archives were destroyed by fire.  But I found that that fire was for documents from 1962 backwards to WW2.  In few moments I will try to show you what I mean.