What a War Hero!!!!!

[Team Sergeant]

June 28. 2004 12:00AM

Vietnam vet has worn many hats over years

By Harmony Johnson
Times-News Staff Writer

Capt. Fred Sams talks in his office about Vietnam. (PATRICK SULLIVAN/TIMES-NEWS)

Not many men can say they've worked under former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, executed covert missions in Vietnam for the Army Special Forces, earned a law degree, retired before age 40, recorded a hit record, been certified as a forensic science expert and led a crew of Polk County detectives. Of course, there is only one Fred Sams.

The Lake Lure resident currently serves the Polk County Sheriff's Department as captain and chief of its criminal investigations division. But at 55 years old, he has held more jobs and experienced more adventures than most men do in a lifetime.

His office is lined wall-to-wall with diplomas, certificates and awards. Bookshelves boast titles including Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun and Forensic Anthropology Training Manual. Skulls and skeletons decorate virtually every surface, gifts from friends and co-workers for the crime scene investigator with a quirky sense of humor.

Visitors sit in front of his desk on a white toilet, salvaged from the Sheriff's Department after a bathroom remodeling. Sams says he took out the regular chairs because they encouraged people to stop and chat, preventing him from getting work done.

But meeting Sams, you realize that maybe the chairs weren't to blame. Maybe it was the man himself, who for hours can spin tales about the time he spent working for Melvin Belli, San Diego attorney to the stars who counted the Rolling Stones and Elizabeth Taylor among his clients. Or how he lived for a year on a steady diet of popcorn, Worcestershire sauce and Rolling Rock beer as a young fingerprint expert for the FBI, then run by Hoover, whom Sams describes as "this little raisin with legs."

What he's less inclined to tell you about are the stories behind the green Special Forces beret that rests atop one skull on his desk or the Army Airborne Ranger patches that fill several picture frames displayed in the office. For Sams, those tend to be sad stories, ones that no one needs to hear.

"A lot of the stories I have will never be told," he says.

But those also are the experiences that brought him back to the United States a more compassionate man, a man who works to save lives or to find justice for lives taken by homicide because, through war, he learned a greater appreciation for life.

'In stealth mode'

In October 1972, Sams was a detective and crime scene investigator for the Miami Police Department in Florida, where he grew up. When the federal government sent him a notice in the mail, telling him to report for a physical, he knew what was coming.

To avoid being drafted into the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, Sams enlisted in the Army and passed a battery of tests to join the Special Forces, a unit of specialized experts in unconventional warfare.

He was sent to Fort Jackson, S.C., for basic training, to Fort Benning, Ga., for airborne ranger school and to Fort Bragg for 19 weeks of Special Forces training, learning to speak Korean along the way because all Special Forces agents were required to speak two languages.

After that, the details are scattered, his wartime duties more generalized.

By 1973, Sams was on a plane to Korea, where he spent two years as an intelligence agent, advising South Korean soldiers in military operations. From a base there, he and his unit went in and out of "virtually all the countries in Southeast Asia," Sams said.

Part of a 12-soldier unit split into two teams, Sams and five other men primarily were responsible for monitoring the movement of the North Vietnamese army and assessing their equipment. They would compile all their information into reports to send back to commanding officers, letting them know which Vietnamese units were active, how many soldiers each unit had and the amount of light or heavy arms each unit carried.

The six-member team usually slept during the day, moving "in stealth mode" at night through hostile territory. They carried out what Sams calls "the sneaky Pete operations," specializing in "very unconventional" guerrilla warfare tactics when they needed to fight.

"A small unit can be put in behind enemy lines and completely disrupt an entire battalion," he explained. "That's what we were trained to do. É They say a 12-man Special Forces team is equivalent to an entire platoon of 120 men."

Sams' unit was in Saigon when the South Vietnamese capital fell, his intelligence and special ops missions increasing as the end of the war approached.

He won't dwell on specific missions. But what he will tell those who ask is that throughout the course of the Vietnam War, he was exposed to Agent Orange, an effective but dangerous chemical that Air Force troops sprayed over the jungles of Vietnam to kill the foliage; he lost most of his hearing; and lost 50 percent of his lung capacity because of exposure to tear gas.

After the war ended, Sams spent one year at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. The Army determined that his injuries left him "40 percent disabled" and made him ineligible for further Special Forces missions.

So Sams changed his military career track, joining the Army's Military Police force. In addition to training military police officers, he was assigned to an intelligence unit in Homestead, Fla., that controlled access to missiles with nuclear warheads. Military officials feared that the Cuban militant group Alpha 66 would steal the missiles in an effort to overthrow dictator Fidel Castro, Sams said, so his unit was needed to "make sure Alpha 66 couldn't get our missiles and fire them at Cuba."

Multiple career paths

Between 1972 and 1980, Sams enlisted and was honorably discharged from the Army three times.

In 1980, he waived his veteran benefits in exchange for having the military pay for him to attend law school. He earned his law degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 1984, working through school as a clerk and then as an attorney at the law office of Melvin Belli, whose autographed photo hangs on a wall in Sams' office.

Later the same year, Sams earned his juris doctor, and he and wife, Gayle, retired to North Carolina. But for the couple, who have been married 29 years, retiring in their 30s was just too young, Sams says. After two years, he went back to work, earning his real estate license and opening up a small firm in Black Mountain, specializing in commercial properties. He also taught law school classes in the area.

In 1995, he formed the band Screamin' Mule, with Sams on drums. They recorded one album and enjoyed success in Western North Carolina with the single Kudzu.

By 1997, Sams had returned to law enforcement, working as a probation and parole officer in Charlotte. He spent some time as a mediator and as a criminal justice instructor at Isothermal Community College and at Shaw University.

In 1998, he joined the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department as head of its forensics division. He left the department in 2002, when Polk County Sheriff David Satterfield offered him a job as chief of detectives. He also teaches criminal justice in online master's degree programs through Boston University and Canyon College and through the Taylor Group, a national organization for law enforcement education.

With such a varied career, Sams jokes that his father still asks him what he wants to be when he grows up.

"I don't want to 80 years old sitting on a porch somewhere saying I wish I'd done that," he said. "I've tried to get as much living as I can in my life."

'More to life'

Sams insists that his tour of duty in Vietnam had little to do with the jobs he held afterward. But the war did shape others aspects of his life.

"My personality and my way of life, it did tremendously," he said.

Vietnam gave him "a different understanding of life," he said. Like other veterans, Sams said, he brought back more compassion, something he uses daily in decision making, such as responding to 911 calls of people threatening suicide.

"You see so much waste and destruction -- human destruction -- you come to realize there's always more to life as long as you're living," he said.

Sams crosses his arms and leans forward on his desk when asked about how Vietnam affected other veterans, the ones who came home unable to return to a normal life, the ones most frequently heard about it the media. That, he said, is the "Hollywood effect," promoted in Vietnam War movies such as Apocalypse Now and Rambo, which Sams finds offensive.

"It gives people a false impression of who came back from Vietnam," he said. "Probably some of the most compassionate, real-life people are the veterans. That's not cinema. That's reality."

Johnson can be reached at 694-7881 or by e-mail at harmony.johnson@hendersonvillenews.com.

http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/ap...406280327/1034

[Team Sergeant]

April 30. 2005 10:49PM

War story?
Harmony Johnson
Times-News Staff Writer
harmony.johnson@hendersonvillenews.com

Capt. Fred Sams, with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, talks about the time he spent in Vietnam last year. (PATRICK SULLIVAN/TIMES-NEWS)

More than 30 Vietnam veterans are calling Fred Sams a liar.

Sams, who is 56 and planning to retire as chief of detectives of the Polk County Sheriff's Department on May 15, says he executed covert missions in Vietnam for the Special Forces while serving in the Army in 1973.

More than 30 Vietnam veterans say that is not true. They say that Sams never was in Vietnam or a member of the Special Forces and they can prove it.

After the Times-News featured Sams in a story last summer, dozens of Green Berets from across the country questioned his service in Special Forces. Two produced military records -- Defense Department 214 forms that record a person's military service from start to finish -- that support their claims.

Sams touts his tour of duty in Vietnam and his membership in the Special Forces, the Army's elite unit of soldiers specializing in unconventional warfare and known for their trademark green berets, in the June 28, 2004, story. He claims that he was a member of a 12-soldier combat unit that monitored the movements of the North Vietnamese Army and assessed their equipment in early 1973.

"Red flags go up with what he's saying, especially with people who've been there and know what he's talking about," said Paul Moody, a retired Special Forces trooper who served three tours of combat duty in Vietnam. "An individual can't do everything that he said he did in such a short amount of time."

Sams' DD 214, the official Department of Defense record of service of military personnel, tells a different story of the Rutherford County residents military career.

The closest he came to Vietnam was a 13-month deployment to Korea that included no combat duty. Medical problems disqualified him from any Special Forces training, according to his DD 214.

In an interview on April 15, Sams denied the accusations, calling them a political attack.

"My stuff's on the wall up there," he said, nodding toward Special Forces patches and Army certificates along a wall in his memorabilia-filled office. "I didn't make it up."

Officials at the Special Forces Association, a global organization of current and former Green Berets, doubted Sams' story. On April 11, they sent him a certified letter asking him to resign from the group or show proof of Special Forces membership to a national memorial board.

Last week, Sams resigned from the organization without offering any explanation.

Article raises flags

Last summer, as part of its ongoing series on war veterans, the Times-News published a front-page story on Sams, "Vietnam vet has worn may hats over years."

The profile detailed an impressive career, one Sams has talked about for years. Initially, the article drew little attention.

But on March 10, nearly nine months later, e-mails began pouring into the Times-News, most from former Green Berets, all questioning Sams' claims.

By April 5, 35 e-mails concerning the story's claims had been received by the newspaper.

On April 4, two Special Forces veterans, Moody of Fayetteville and Joe Lenhart of Fort Mill, S.C., addressed the inconsistencies in Sams' story. To prove the story was false, the men obtained Sams' military records through a Freedom of Information Act request.

According to Sams' DD 214, he was a military policeman, an infantryman and a recruiter while enlisted in the Army from 1972 to 1980. The only mention of Special Forces on the DD 214 is a 19-week correspondence course on Special Forces operations, which Sams completed.

Sams does not dispute those facts or the length of his service.

But the time-frame raises questions. Sams said he enlisted in October 1972, which military records confirm, and was behind enemy lines on a Special Forces mission by early 1973 and in Saigon when the South Vietnamese capital fell April 30, 1975.

Moody and Lenhart say that is impossible.

Basic training at that time took about two months, followed by another month of advanced infantry training, a month of airborne training, two months of Army Ranger school and at least six months of Special Forces training.

After more than a year of training, it would have been late 1973 before Sams could have been sent to Vietnam as a Green Beret, they said. U.S. forces had almost totally withdrawn from Vietnam in early 1973 following the Paris peace accords, signed Jan. 27, 1973.

Sams' DD 214 show that he was permanently disqualified from airborne training, a necessary precursor to join the Special Forces, due to asthma.

Sams looked at the records on April 15 and said they were incomplete and incorrect. He said they omit much of his military service and awards. He said he did finished airborne training and does not have asthma.

On April 21, Sams provided the Times-News with several copies of certificates, commendation letters and his DD 214 forms that he said are accurate and complete.

The DD 214 forms he provided do not list service in the Special Forces or in Vietnam. His military records are more than 30 years old and many documents were difficult, if not impossible, to find, Sams said, defending his story.

Moody, a self-employed private investigator, said the military records he provided the Times-News are complete and were not difficult to obtain.

"If there were any more forms in there, the (National Personnel Records Center) would've sent them to me," he said.

Federal law makes any soldier's military records available to the public. They can be obtained by sending a written request to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Mo. The Times-News requested copies of Sams' DD 214 forms, but has not received copies as of today.

Contradictions

In an interview last summer, Sams, who grew up in Miami, said he entered the Army in October 1972 and completed basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., all confirmed by military records.

He also said he finished airborne training at Fort Benning, Ga., and then 19 weeks of Special Forces training at Fort Bragg before being deployed to Korea and then Vietnam, which is not true.

He said he lost much of his lung capacity from exposure to Agent Orange and tear gas while in Vietnam, which prevented him from jumping out of airplanes.

He said he received treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and then became a military policeman.

An employee at the National Personnel Records Center, where military personnel records are stored, said there is no record that Sams ever received treatment at Walter Reed.

The military records provided by Moody, as well as the records Sams produced, contradict his story.

According to the DD 214, Sams began his Army career as a military policeman and spent 13 months in Korea, his only overseas assignment. Upon returning to the United States, he worked as a military police detective at Walter Reed until December 1975. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his service at the hospital.

In the documents provided by Moody and Sams, Sams began basic airborne training in February 1976 but never finished. He then became a section sergeant at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida.

Sams became an Army recruiter in July 1977, working in Miami, Cutler Ridge, Fla., Charlotte and Asheville before being honorably discharged from the Army in 1980.

The military records from both Sams and Moody list a 19-week Special Forces Operations course that Sams completed in 1974, long after American involvement in Vietnam ended. That was a correspondence course that gave an overview of the Special Forces, Moody said. Physical Special Forces training lasts a minimum of six months and includes the Special Forces Qualifying Course and language school, he said.

Sams said last week that he completed the correspondence course in addition to the regular Special Forces training. He did not provide military records that prove he completed at least six months of Special Forces regular training.

"I did what I said," Sams said. "All the stuff I've got in here, I've earned."

Not possible

Moody said he was unsure why the Times-News article took so long to garner a reaction from Special Forces groups.

Continued.......

[Team Sergeant]

Some Special Forces veterans stumbled upon the story in late February and e-mailed it to other veterans, including Moody, who served 13 years with the Green Berets, including more than three years in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War likely would have ended before Sams could have completed the necessary Special Forces training, and he likely would not have been able to travel between Korea and Vietnam during that time, he said.

Sams' claim that he served as a Special Forces trooper is "a smear" to legitimate Green Berets, Moody said.

That military role is hard to attain and those who earned their green beret are a tight-knit brotherhood, said Lenhart, who served more than two years with Special Forces, including one tour of combat duty in Vietnam.

"We don't want you saying you're one of us when you're not," he said.

The two veterans said they would readily and happily apologize if Sams verified his military claims.

"That'd be great if he could fill in some blanks and prove us wrong," Lenhart said.

"But I don't think he can," Moody said.

A political attack

Sams said he does not know any of the Special Forces veterans who have challenged his military experience.

Moody and Lenhart said they do not know Sams. E-mails were sent to the Times-News from across the country, but Sams said they likely stem from Western North Carolina.

Sams said hostility has followed him since he was chief detective at the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department, a job he held for several years before coming to Polk County. The attacks are sparked by rumors that he might run for sheriff in Rutherford County, he said.

"That has been the speculation since the day I went over there," he said. "It's really getting out of hand."

Sams adamantly denies that he has any political aspirations.

Polk County Sheriff David Satterfield said he doesn't understand the attacks on Sams, whom he called "a tremendous asset for the Sheriff's office."

"He passed everything with flying colors as far as being a law enforcement officer," he said. "There's nothing in his background that would prohibit him from being a deputy sheriff."

Sams underwent an extensive background check before he could be hired by the Sheriff's Department, Satterfield said. The Sheriff's Standards division of the N.C. Attorney General's office conducts the investigations, he said.

Steven Hyer, certification specialist for the Sheriff's Standards division, said investigators check at least 10 years of employment history plus military and high school records. Applicants go through a criminal record check and must fill out a 14-page personal history statement and include documentation, he said.

The statements on the forms submitted by the applicant are investigated thoroughly, Hyer said. Law enforcement certification can be barred or revoked if someone tries to gain that status through "fraud, deceit or deception," he said.

Sams' military service "has nothing to do with the Polk County Sheriff's Office," said Satterfield, a Vietnam veteran.

"The fact that he served in Vietnam or wherever he served is really not a concern to me," he said.

Sams came to the Sheriff's Department highly recommended and is a person of good character, said Satterfield, who met Sams while he worked for Rutherford County and aided Polk deputies in some criminal investigations.

"I've not come up with anything in the two years he's worked here that indicates he's lied about his military service," he said. "As far as I know he's served his country honorably. I just feel bad that somebody's trying to do a hatchet job on him."

The allegations from the Special Forces groups, which coincide with Sams retirement, are "real suspicious," Satterfield said.

"I think the lying is coming from these other people," he said.

Sams has headed criminal investigations in the county since 2002. His retirement, announced in March, was prompted by his desire to leave a long and stressful law enforcement career, he says.

No honor

But other veterans say Sams' stories of his military service leave serious doubts about his character.

"To me, there is nothing more offensive than an unearned decoration," said David Bethea, a retired Army colonel who served two tours of duty in Vietnam.

The Hendersonville resident said he is concerned about Sams' "apparent absence of integrity."

"If he lies about this, what else has he lied about?" Bethea asked. "You don't lie selectively."

Johnson can be reached at 694-7881 or by e-mail at harmony.johnson@hendersonvillenews.com.

http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/ap...73220148185463

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

The allegations from the Special Forces groups, which coincide with Sams retirement, are "real suspicious," Satterfield said.

"I think the lying is coming from these other people," he said.

Someone should inform Mr Satterfield that CNN also took on the Special Forces Association, and that action cost CNN dearly.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Doh!

[CPTAUSRET]

The Hendersonville resident said he is concerned about Sams' "apparent absence of integrity."

"If he lies about this, what else has he lied about?" Bethea asked. "You don't lie selectively."



House of cards, I hope they push it, and bust hiss ass! Doubt that he was an O-3.

Terry

[sharkmanII]

I have been retired for almost 5 years and working around the DC area for a military organization, I tend to meet a lot of retired guys. Upon introductions I NEVER mention what I did in the service. But I bet that 6 out of 10 guys represent themselves as former "Green Berets" or some other Special Ops type guy from other branches. The guys I work with use to introduce me to other folks in meetings and such as their resident "Retired Green Beret" because of the clout the job carried and it seemed to make me an SME in everything military. I asked them to stop doing so after having to endure long stories of "I almost got selected, or I was selected then changed my mind" type BS stories. It's good to be amongst some REAL folks here, thanks Bro's.

[BMT (RIP)]

Sam's house of cards got blowed away. Maybe QRQ30 can remember what happened.

BMT

[magician]

If there is more to this story, I sure would like to know about it.

Thanks for posting this.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by sharkmanII

..... or I was selected then changed my mind" type BS

That is the classic line. "Yeah, I got selected and was doing good in training. After a while I realized it was BS so I quite."

The thing about SF is that somebody was there with you. It might have been only one or two guys but somebody was there with you. If in the very rare operation where you were doing something by yourself there were other people pulling support.

Some nut starts telling too many woof stories and SF is still small enough that somebody in the area can be tracked down with the real story.

[SP5IC]

Terry & others may recall when this went like wild fire through the SF-List. Paul Moody got Mr. Sams' records, and the rest is history. Paul was the President of SFA Chapter XI in the 1970s.

[Ambush Master]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

June 28. 2004 12:00AM

Vietnam vet has worn many hats over years

By Harmony Johnson
Times-News Staff Writer

Capt. Fred Sams talks in his office about Vietnam. (PATRICK SULLIVAN/TIMES-NEWS)
Part of a 12-soldier unit split into two teams, Sams and five other men primarily were responsible for monitoring the movement of the North Vietnamese army and assessing their equipment. They would compile all their information into reports to send back to commanding officers, letting them know which Vietnamese units were active, how many soldiers each unit had and the amount of light or heavy arms each unit carried.

The six-member team usually slept during the day, moving "in stealth mode" at night through hostile territory. They carried out what Sams calls "the sneaky Pete operations," specializing in "very unconventional" guerrilla warfare tactics when they needed to fight.

"A small unit can be put in behind enemy lines and completely disrupt an entire battalion," he explained. "That's what we were trained to do. É They say a 12-man Special Forces team is equivalent to an entire platoon of 120 men."

That ONE STATEMENT cinches it !!! Having really done what he claims to have, I'm here to tell you that if you moved at night, or while it was raining, you were DEAD MEAT !!! First off, it was sooo dark out there, that if you moved a hand or object towards your face at night, you would hit your face without EVER SEEING a thing !!! This was WAY before NODS !!!

I went from Army entry in June '69 through Basic, AIT, Jump School, The Q and to RVN in August of '70. I don't even need his records after the above statement to Peg my BS Meter (Hell, it twisted the needle off and it's laying at the bottom of the lens!! Gotta get it fixed again !!) !!

[rubberneck]

How sad. What the heck is wrong with being an MP? I'll never understand why men who have served their country feel the need to lie about what they did. All the good this man may have done for his community over the past 20 years is out the window just because being an MP wasn't sexy enough. I almost feel bad for him.

[CoLawman]

This guys Law Enforcement Record is BS as well. My observations

1. Stated he was a forensic science expert and worked at the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover.
a. Four year degree was required to obtain employment with the FBI at that time.
b. There is a Certification process that takes a minimum of a year to be a Fingerprint expert.
c. He was was working for Miami PD in 1972 as an Investigator.

Well............J. Edgar Hoover died/left the FBI in 1972.
Idiot would have had to have graduated from high school in 1967 or 1968 based on his age. He then would have to obtain a BS degree (usually 4 years) do his internship in forensics (at least 1 year) . By my math he would have accomplished this no sooner than 1972. Yet he claims he was an Investigator for Miami PD in 1972. It takes at least 3 years in Patrol Division before you are even eligible for testing into Investigations. Something Stinks Here.

Claims that he enlisted to avoid the draft. His draft number would have been assigned in the 1971 draft, NOT the 1972 draft. In fact the last person drafter was June of 1973. Again something is not right.

Now for the clincher for me. He claims that he waived his military benefits and negotiated that his Law degree would be paid for instead.

What total BS. There are no other benefits for someone who did not retire from the military. Unless he is talking about VA loans! His GI bill was automatic and did not need to be negotiated. In fact most states picked up in state tuition for Viet Nam Era vets, if they attended a school in the state of their home of record.

I think a close examination into all of this guys records may point out the lack of College and Juris Doctorate Degree.

Just my thoughts.

[Spartan359]

Originally Posted by rubberneck

I almost feel bad for him.

I don't. As it say's, you don't lie selectively.