The Navy has officially corrected Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle’s service record, lowering the medal count that he had claimed in his bestselling autobiography, American Sniper, according to a military spokesperson.
The Navy issued the corrected DD214 form, his official discharge record, on June 14, two weeks after a report by The Intercept found Kyle embellished his military record, despite at least one warning from SEAL commanders that his claims were inaccurate.
In his autobiography, Kyle claimed he received two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars with a “V” device for valor. After investigating the discrepancy, the Navy now says Kyle earned one Silver Star and four Bronze Stars with a “V” device for valor during his 10-year career as a Navy SEAL.
The Silver Star is the third-highest award given for battlefield conduct.
“After thoroughly reviewing all available records, the Navy determined an error was made in the issuance of Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle’s form DD214 (report of separation from military service),” wrote Lt. Jackie Pau, a Navy spokesperson. “Specifically, the DD214 did not accurately reflect the decorations and awards to which Kyle was officially entitled. After notifying his family of the error, the Navy issued a corrected copy of the DD214, which accurately reflects Kyle’s years of honorable and extraordinary service.”
After The Intercept requested Kyle’s service record, documents and Navy officials said Kyle had one Silver Star and three Bronze Stars with Valor, but they now say the number of Bronze Stars with Valor is four. Lt. Lau said the discrepancy was the result of an error on the part of Navy officials sifting through incomplete paperwork relating to Kyle’s award citations and certificates, and the new DD214 reflects every award or commendation Kyle received during his military service.
Normally, the personnel clerk handling a sailor’s separation is required to ensure that the awards match the service member’s official personnel file. The Navy has not explained how the errors occurred in Kyle’s original DD214.
In 2009, Kyle retired from the Navy after serving almost 11 years as a SEAL. He was shot and killed in Texas in 2013 by a fellow veteran suffering from mental health problems.
Kyle’s autobiography, American Sniper, was made into a Hollywood movie of the same name directed by Clint Eastwood.
Taya Kyle, Chris Kyle’s widow, did not respond to a request for comment about her husband’s service record.
Every vet know exactly how many medals he has received. If Kyle perpetuated the error, shame on him.
This is every kind of wrong. The Navy used Chris Kyle. Kyle lies to puff himself up. The Navy lets the lie go to use Kyle. We need to end the wars to stop the terrorism blowback from US military industrial complex folly.
#JillStein2016 http://www.jill2016.com/plan
Call a spade a spade Chris Kyle was a terrorist that deserved to die for his own misdeeds. I hope in hell he looks up and sees the faces of every child he ever shot. Makes me happy knowing that his own kids won’t have to worry about being gunned down by their own psychopath father. His wife is lucky she is still alive. There are many more just like her that are in the ground due to their returned psychopath husbands that were full fledged TERRORIST!
The liberal government will do anything to disgrace a person that served his country with honor.
Rest in peace Chris, you did your country proud and I am proud that you were a Texan.
I hope this mass-murdering sociopath is burning in Hell right now…if there IS a Hell, this POS has a special place in it.
You took the words right out of my mouth. Bravo! So spot on.
In a bureaucracy the size of the US military, errors happen a lot. Given that the Pentagon can’t properly account for trillions of dollars, explaining an inaccurate count of Kyle’s medals wouldn’t top my list of priorities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4dzECaBxFU
I suppose due diligence required you to pester his widow, but it is unseemly nonetheless.
So complain to The Chair Whisperer, Clint Eastwood for glorifying him and bringing him into the limelight.
The prick kept killing after it was obvious that the Iraq War was a lie. To hell with him, his widow, his hicktown and the state of Texass.
Do you suppose Chris Kyle is burning in hell right this very moment? Killing people because some Ivy League pussy in a two thousand dollar suit tells you to should earn a person a straight trip there, as far as I’m concerned
Thank god someone shot that jerk!
Good fucking god. There you have it! The DD214 is NOT the final authority, if it was then the US Navy would not have been able to lower the count; there would not be procedures to fix or correct the form.
Chris Kyle lied and defamed Jesse Ventura.
He was an efficient mass killer who just followed orders.
He had no honor.
Boy, I bet Clint Eastwood is fuming in his grave! Wait, he’s still alive, isn’t he? :)
c r a f t makes money torturing/gang stalking/suiciding innocent americans.
“Craft” refers to mastering the art of torture without leaving a mark. They practiced on innocent americans and made money off those skills. Not heroic in the least.
I will ask this question one more time. Why the need for military medals? Achievement medals for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are fine, but for the military? Really?
It’s rooted in a Napoleonic trick or tradition; I believe he said you could get men to die for a piece of coloured cloth and honor or recognition. Can’t recall, but I think Napoleon’s financing had dried up, there was only awards to pay the soldiers.
In the U.S. it was previously forbidden for officers to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, I believe… could be wrong about all of this and confusing with somehting else.
CD: Interesting bit of history-thank you. Earning a possible medal was the last thing on my mind when I joined the Army. I have absolutely no idea where mine are and certainly don’t lose any sleep over them. The incentive for me to enlist was to avoid the draft.
Ever notice how embarrassed most of the recipients look at a White House MOH ceremony?
Honestly, this article is stupid. You can criticize policies of politicians and the choices that our leaders make, that is free game. It is quite another thing to criticize the people that made a good faith effort to make our country safer, both at home and abroad, even if those policies ended up being misguided. The only reason we get to have these conversations is because the people willing to defend this country feel it’s worth defending. Demeaning their sacrifice only reinforces the low morale that encourages poor behavior and denies talent to organizations that desperately need it. @matthew & @Sheelagh, pick targets that actually mean something rather than criticizing a man whose courage in defending the only thing that means anything in war, the guys next to him, are beyond doubt.
You didn’t just drink the Kool-Aid, you’re running it IV.
Nothing Chris Kyle, or anyone else serving the Bosses in the recent invasions, did had anything to do with defending the country.
It was all about illegal wars of aggression in the service of greed and power-lust and the fewer people who are willing to sign up to do more of the same, the better.
WE. ARE. NOT. GOOD. GUYS.
FEEL.FREE.TO.LEAVE.ANYTIME
I first hear that “Love it or leave it” nonsense about 50 years ago. It’s undemocratic, authoritarian and un-American (at least it would be if the real America were like we were taught in school and is propagandized in the MSM).
I think I’d rather stay and tell the hard truths that you can’t handle. And I am and I will.
On Point, Doug! It’s been a while since we waged a war to defend our country, but these yahoos keep repeating the same lines feed to them by Faux News and every commercial fake news outlet out there.
Hear hear.
Adding: those military men swore an oath to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution. They did not swear to make the country safer both here and abroad. It is extremely ironic that what is happening as a result of the GWOT the U.S. Constitution had to be destroyed.
It is clearly false that those folks (Seals, Marines, Rangers, etc) are even doing that (making the U.S. safe) in light of the recent, previous, and ongoing attacks. Bush’s orders to the American people to go shopping and go about their daily lives was foolish. Ever American born became and becomes a combatant via ‘terrorism’
How long was Bush in office when 9/11 happened. How long do you think this was planned before executed and you blame Bush?
When long ago I took that oath upon receiving my commission (having joined the Navy rather than being drafted into the Army, and being too dumb and chicken to go to Canada) I had the distinct impression that I was the only one among my class who had actually read it. The impression remains, and now includes members of Congress, Cabinet officials, and even certain members of the Supreme Court.
I often wonder what this country would be like if people born here had to go through the same process as immigrants to be granted citizenship. Would it dispel the love it or leave it crap or any of the other bullshit we hear from the mouths of these false patriots?
Most of the people I know that have joined the military have done so because there are no other jobs available. We need to bring the draft back so all Americans will weigh in on these endless wars that the MSM, Pentagon, & the political class so dearly love.
Yes! What Johna said.
This time, no deferments for the privileged and no cushy phony warrior jobs (e.g., defending Houston from Viet Cong attack) for the super-privileged to use to add “”credibility” to their CVs for future political campaigns.
I am all for two years of compulsory national service for everyone. And along with it, bring back the GI bill. That’s what paid for my masters degree. These days, having a GI bill would go a long way toward solving the student debt crisis, and would help unify the country in more ways than one.
The bottom line is that he was mercenary , a hired gun who murdered innocent people and was rewarded for it. Still doesn’t make him a hero or worth of a movie. YAWN. Can we forget he existed now please?
This week the Navy says it is one silver star and four bronze stars. But next week it might be three silver stars and eight bronze stars. Paperwork has never been the strong point of the military and the count will naturally change each time you ask the question. At the end of the day, I think everyone can agree that Mr. Kyle killed a lot of people and was awarded many medals for doing so.
Setting the satire aside:
Paperwork, really has never been the strong point of the U.S. gov., yet they wallow in it… (viz I need a referral to investigate HRC lying under oath). Paperwork helps keep the truth bound up.
“..killed a lot of people..” doubtful, he filled out paperwork for this, the kills were not bagged and tagged.
Thank you.
It never ceases to amaze me how Americans see these cold blooded killers as “heroes.” Think about it: Let’s say a country (pick whichever you’d like) launched an unprovoked aggressive war against the United States, invading its territory and killing upwards of perhaps 15-20 million innocent people. Then after “mostly” pulling its troops out of U.S. territory leaving behind death, destruction and disease as well as tens of millions of refugees, it awards medals to its military murderers who killed hundreds of innocent U.S. citizens. Then its movie industry glorifies these killers. This is just a thought experiment of course but I wonder how U.S. citizens would feel about this? The fact of the matter is most if not all Americans would be outrages and angry and urging for retaliation. So why can’t they see it from the Afghan or Iraqi point of view and understand that you shouldn’t do to others what you don’t want done to you. Hypocrites…
Yes. PresBush and Hitler share the commonality of having changed thw world forever by unleashing such great quantities of evil.
Why, yes, as a matter of fact, they do.
So do many other world leaders (and others), throughout history, including a long list of American presidents. Whether the “quantities” of evil are equivalent really can’t be judged in the present time, but must await the analysis of historians from the future.
If you think it is obvious that the evil Bush unleashed is much less than that arising from Hitler’s mad aggression, you must know something about the eventual outcome of the ongoing wars he started that the rest of us don’t.
By the way, how do you feel about the delayed evil (Hitler, himself) unleashed upon the world by the greedy and vengeful Allies on June 28, 1919?
Could someone explain why Chris Kyle is considered a “hero” and Micah Johnson is (rightly) considered a cold-blooded murderer? Is it because Kyle was white and Johnson black? Or because Kyle was a pathological liar so his tales of killing Americans from the Superdome are probably bogus? Or is it the alleged victims (Kyle shooting Ay-rabs and black people; Johnson shooting police)?
I think Micah Johnson was a patsy and Chris Kyle is who he says he was.
Kyle shot people for no other reason than some superior told him to. He was an instrument of Bankster’s wars. Considerd a hero by the Bankster sycophants.
Johnson (maybe) shot people, because the CIA was successful at using the MSM to agitate the black populace. The Dallas police were Americans, not enemies in a foreign country. Neither one should have pulled a trigger.
And he really enjoyed it.
You think the MSM “agitated” American blacks more than centuries of oppression, poverty, brutality, lynchings and almost-always-unpunished unnecessary killings?
That’s some powerful media, that is!
BTW, why, exactly does the CIA want that agitation?
The CIA wants martial law and control, they are not our friends.
You’re smoking something very special. Where can I get it?