Integrity and Honor April 2, 2015
Posted by Nick Noll in Uncategorized.Tags: Brian Williams, clinton email scandal, Hillary Clinton, honor, integrity, internal revenue service, irs, Kenneth Lovell, leadership traits, lois lerner, Lovell, Marines, politician, SGTMAJ Kenneth C. Lovell III, Stolen Valor
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High respect; esteem. A privilege.
When you join the United States Marine Corps you will either take a bus to Parris Island, South Carolina or San Diego, California to attend Basic Training. As young men from various parts of the country arrive late at night they are greeted by a Drill Instructor yelling at them on the bus to get off the bus. There they get off onto the yellow footprints. They stand as young men some barely 18 hoping not to be singled out for further attention.
One of the most critical things you learn, as a young recruit is the 14 Marine leadership traits. Among those leadership traits one stands above all: “Integrity”. A quick web search will reveal Integrity to mean: “The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness and or the state of being whole and undivided.” Leadership within the Marines is extremely important and it is bestowed upon young men who make critical life and battle changing decisions. Recent movies such as Lone Survivor or American Sniper give the American public a glimpse into the split second decisions made by men of integrity and honor whom have been called upon by U.S. policy makers to act in the best interests of U.S. national security.
As the wars continue to wind down the American public continues to see a myriad of integrity violations that lead to a loss of public trust in the leadership of this nation from Cabinet level officials, news anchors, and our highest enlisted Marines who serve in positions of authority but continue to betray the public trust and in some cases the trust of their Marines and honor of those passed.
Integrity in the Marines over the course of a career breeds a level of honor that is often reflective of one’s rank. The highest enlisted rank within the United States Marine Corps is the Sergeant Major (SGTMAJ). Through the course of a 20-30 year career to attain such a high rank the 14 leadership traits are continuously in use and enhanced through experience and professional training. However, just as in the case of the recent Veterans Affairs director Honor has been lost and integrity violated. Having read the biographical profile of SGTMAJ Kenneth C. Lovell III of the 3rd battalion 2nd Marines. A few errors were discovered from colleagues who served alongside the upcoming SGTMAJ. As in the case of Brian Williams there appears to be an attempt to amplify ones accomplishments in the public eye for future albeit notoriety or career ambition.
His original bio stated he: “…attended the Scout Sniper Basic Course in which he was an Honor Graduate.”
SGTMAJ Lovell attended the Scout Sniper Basic Course 3-98 at Stone Bay in Camp Lejeune, NC. The Honor graduate for the class was Corporal Aaron Pine who attained the rank of Sergeant before being Honorably discharged. Once the SGTMAJ was called to task for this claim his official bio was changed where it stated he was a distinguished graduate. No such recognition was made for a distinguished graduate at sniper school in 1998. Additionally, it was discovered through his picture that the SGTMAJ appears to be wearing two stars on his combat action ribbon in lieu of third award. The bio again was changed and now reflects two awards for combat action. The SGTMAJ was recently relieved of his command.
In exploring all levels of public trust one can only think of the statement: “What worries me the most, is our ability to govern ourselves.” maid by former Director of the CIA and DoD, Mr. Leon Panetta. It would not be an assumption to say he knows exactly what he is talking about. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has come under scrutiny recently for betraying the public’s trust as our nation’s most senior diplomat. Cabinet level officials such as Mrs. Clinton hold clearances at the highest level and by nature of their very position are dealing with classified information almost exclusively and of the most compartmented nature.
When you hold a security clearance you sign a secrecy agreement and you are not allowed to take home or hold on your private email server anything related to the work you do. She has compromised her integrity, violated classified handling of material protocols and likely handed over critical information to foreign intelligence services through the use of a commercial and unsecured server per standards set forth by the U.S. government for the handling of classified material. If she could only handle one phone at a time there is surely a team within the State department that would have been capable of integrating any and all features she required to conduct her duties both privately and professionally.
What the public is seeing today and should be gravely concerned over going forward is this sense of entitlement and lack of integrity by both appointed officials and government agencies. Quite simply “The government makes the rules and the government chooses whether to follow them”. Look no further than the examples of Mrs. Clinton and the IRS loosing emails that suggest selective targeting of citizens of opposing political views to that of those serving in IRS leadership positions such as Lois Lerner. This is clearly an arm of the government weaponized against a group of its citizens. It is profoundly more egregious than that of the Benghazi scandal.
Integrity is it becoming a lost art among those who are in positions of authority and entrusted by the public, peers, and colleagues to protect, inform, and lead? Here are but a few examples at the Government, Military, and Corporate levels where public trust is lost for personal gain. It divides a workforce, weakens a military unit, and a public that demands strong leadership to drive us through the grave national security issues that exist today is divided. The United States stands strong today because “United we stand, divided we fall.” Leadership is key!
An Open Letter to Sgt Major Lovell…. March 26, 2015
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: Combat Action Ribbon, discharged, Lovell, Relieved, Sgt Major, Stolen Valor
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Sgt Major Lovell, I am the author of the blog post you reference in your email to 3/2. I am indeed a former enlisted US Marine Sgt. and also a former US Naval Officer. Instead of ‘disgruntled Former Marine’ you can call me “Sir” as you would have when I served….I served honorably as an Infantry Marine, Scout/Sniper, and Reconnaissance Marine and was discharged on a disability. I am certainly not ‘disgruntled’. In fact, I earned my own Combat Action Ribbon as a sniper long before you claimed to have earned your own. I am certainly more than a “blogger” Please read my bio and my DD214. If that does not convince you, you can read some of my articles in National Review, The Counter Terrorist, SC Magazine and others. Or you can listen to my interviews on NPR, NewsMax and other outlets. Additionally, I have worked with numerous charitable organizations to help Marines and others. Upon becoming aware of your recent statements, I have decided to post your very self serving ‘apology’ for the world to read. After publication of my story, I invited you, the USMC, and anyone else who questioned my story to contact me directly. You did not, the USMC did not and instead, you published an apology attempting to discredit me as a simple blogger and disgruntled former Marine. Today I received an email from a Marine who had taken me to task for the blog post. He vigorously defended YOU only to find you had lied. His opening statement to me was telling of his own character and the contrast with your statement is clear. It said: “When a good man is wrong, a good man will admit it. I was wrong,…” Instead of owning up to your actions, you continue to try to blame others. I can only thank God that I never had the misfortune of serving under you while I was an enlisted Marine. I have heard numerous stories and your ‘apology’ below simply demonstrates the accuracy of those stories. You failed to mention to “your” Marines that you had been contacted about the inconsistencies in your story and given the opportunity to correct said inconsistencies. You did not and I posted my article. If you would like to contact me, I am easy to find. Here is the email from Sgt. Major Lovell to the Marines of 3/2. “I want to apologize up front for how impersonal this email is, but with the Battalion spread to the winds across the planet and the very short turn I’m on, I just didn’t have the means or time to address you all in person. Many, if not all, have heard of the attack on my reputation via social media. Specifically, a former disgruntled Marine took shots at me by grossly misinterpreting my biography from Facebook to a blog site. I didn’t make it hard for them by being lazy in my attention to detail to ensure that all ribbon racks and documentation I possessed were all 100% accurate. As such, I allowed myself to have some info out there that is correct, and some that is not. Because of this, 4th Marine Regiment has lost trust and confidence in me to continue to serve as your SgtMaj, and I have been relieved and will leave island today.
US Marine Sgt Major Lovell Relieved after False Claims Verified March 24, 2015
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: Aaron Pine, Honor Graduate, Lovell, Marine, Relieved, Scout Sniper, Sgt Major, Stolen Valor
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It is both a sad day for the Marine Corps but an important day. The Marine Times just posted a story stating that “Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Lovell III was removed from his post as the infantry battalion’s sergeant major on Monday due to a loss of confidence, said 1st Lt. Luke Kuper, a spokesman for III Marine Expeditionary Force.” His claims were first reported on this blog and subsequently investigated by the USMC. While it is always sad when a distinguished Marine’s career is destroyed, it is an important step for the US Military to take Stolen Valor seriously . In addition to having falsely claimed a 3rd Combat Action Ribbon and Sniper School Honor Graduate, the USMC also corrected Lovell’s claims of service in Kosovo and with the Israeli Defense Force.
Email, Meta Data and Non Repudation (“It wasn’t me!”…Shaggy) January 9, 2015
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: authentication, email, network solutions, non repudiation, silver star, Stolen Valor
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This is a simple primer on email, authentication and ‘non repudiation. To understand ‘non repudation’ as it applies to information security, it is important to understand repudiation. Repudiation is simply the act of denying or renouncing something. A suspect stating that they did not commit a crime is repudiating the crime. Non-repudiation is a concept in which a “..a party in a dispute cannot repudiate, or refute the validity of a statement or contract” Within information security this means that a person cannot dispute that he or she was the origin of an action. We will use email as an example.
Suppose a person (person A) sends an email to another person (person B) in 2011 in which they attach a document including claims to military heroics which resulted in the awarding of some honor..say a Bronze Star. Later, after it was discovered that person A was not awarded the bronze star and people began to question them Person A decided to disavow any association with said email or reference to the Bronze Star. In short, they have repudiated the claim that they sent the email and created the document. Person A goes a step further and claims that the document and the email were “forgeries” intended to sully their (Person’ A’s) good name. Is it possible to demonstrate with a high degree of confidence (or even certainty) that Person A was indeed the originator of the email and the author of the document? YES! This is where ‘non repudiation’ or the ability to prevent someone from disputing the action is important.
To understand how this can be achieved, there are a few concepts related to email that should be discussed.
1) Authentication– Authentication is is described on wikipedia as: “…the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone) as authentic, that is, that claims made by or about the subject are true”. You can read more in an earlier blog post titled Security 101; Authentication. Authentication is an important part of access control and email. Email access control is managed by two components. 1) the user who is assigned a username and 2) the password or other authentication mechanism used to ‘authenticate’ to the system. By using the correct password that is only known to the user, the system ‘authenticates’ their access and allows them to access the email. The rigor of the authentication provides greater confidence that the person is the originator of the email. While ‘multi factor’ authentication provides the greatest confidence, a password also provides very strong non-repudiation for most purposes. (more…)
Randy Abbott – “paralyzed surfer who was robbed” AND A Recon/Sniper? Yeah..OK… February 3, 2014
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: GoFundMe, randy abbott, Recon, Scout Sniper, sniper, Stolen Valor, the view from 42
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UPDATE: The fine folks at This Aint Hell (but you can see it from here) just published a story on Randy Abbott and included his DD214s as well as a speech he gave at the Travis Manion 2013 Hero Run. While he claims he: “…spent (his) first eight years assigned to Special Operations Command with a counter terrorist unit”..His DD214s confirm what we already knew…he was NOT a Recon Marine and NOT a Marine Corps Scout/Sniper. Mr. Abbott was a BulkFuel specialist (ran a gas station) and an Admin Marine (Made sure Marines got paid and had records updated). Thanks to A Buncha Damn Cowboys for their work on outing this guy. Who is this shadowing group? Pretty simple. It is a group of Recon Marines, Scout/Snipers and SARCs who were tired of people claiming honors which they had not earned.
Two weeks ago I (and a lot of my friends) read a story about Randy Abbott. Randy is a paralyzed surfer who said his surfboards were stolen at the beach. According to Randy he hit one of the guys with an uppercut but they ran away with his boards. By most accounts a pretty decent guy.
Since the report of the theft and his status as a ‘disabled vet Recon/Sniper’ there has been an international outpouring of support and numerous people donated thousands of dollars in response. In the story, they state that after spending “fourteen years as a Marine Corps recon scout sniper”, his body was banged up. Randy was not just a Scout/Sniper but a real life “Recon Sniper”? WOW!…I had to do more research as the Marine Reconnaissance and Scout/Sniper community is VERY small and I had not heard of this guy! Why..I am a Recon Marine and Scout/Sniper!! So I did some research and found a picture on his Facebook page that was a giant tattoo of non other than the 1st MarDiv Scout/Sniper School with the motto: “Suffer patiently and patiently suffer”. Nobody would go so far as to get a tattoo of a sacred sniper HOG (Hunter Of Gunmen) logo unless they were ‘legit’. Since nobody could find Mr. Abbott in any of the secret ‘invite only’ Facebook pages for Recon Marines and Snipers (yup…they exist), the Sniper School “God book” or any other places that we use to verify Recon Marines and Snipers (instructors, classes, people who served with him etc.) the question was raised as to whether or not Mr. Abbott was really a Scout Sniper or Reconnaissance Marine? A few former Recon Marines reached out and Randy said he served with “1st Recon BN, Sniper Platoon” That seemed odd since nobody can remember a ‘sniper platoon’ in 1st Recon Bn. More research and NOTHING…his DD214 has been requested but if you know how to contact Randy, please ask him to shoot me an email and we can clear all this up. I have posted my own DD214 to show how easy it is to demonstrate you are Recon Marine or Scout/Sniper. Until then, it appears as if this man is simply making things up…
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