If the law is passed, a great number of people will be redacting their resumes in a hurry....
“Maybe there's an innocent explanation. Maybe he was some kind of intelligence agent, and the Vietnam story is a cover.”
San Antonio Express-News, June 26, 2012
Executive's Military Claims Challenged
By Zeke MacCormack
KERRVILLE — As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to announce its ruling Thursday on the constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act, questions have arisen about an oil company executive's claims about his military record.
The act made lying about receiving military awards a federal crime.
Herbert Williamson III has claimed to be a decorated Vietnam veteran and retired colonel from the Army Reserve.
He declined to discuss his military record for this story, citing a federal lawsuit filed against him by a former business partner.
“When the litigation is over, I'll be glad to supply all sorts of information, but not until then,” said Williamson, a Harvard graduate who held executive and consulting posts with numerous energy companies before moving to Kerr County.
In sworn depositions for the lawsuit, he said he was in the Army from 1970 to 1973, rising to the rank of chief warrant officer, second class. He also claimed to have served one year in Vietnam, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1971 as a scout helicopter pilot.
But Connecticut National Guard records indicate he served in that state from January 1971 to August 1972, working as a communications wireman at the rank of private first class.
“Our records don't reflect that he went to Vietnam, or that he received any decorations,” said Lt. Col. Tom Choate of the Connecticut National Guard. He noted that Williamson was honorably discharged when he moved to Maryland, where he joined the Maryland National Guard.
Documentation was similarly lacking to support claims by Williamson, 63, that he was awarded a Purple Heart and served 30 years in the Army Reserve, retiring in 2003.
“I did not find a record for Herbert Williamson having served in the Army or Army Reserve,” said Mark Edwards, media relations chief at the U.S. Army Human Resources Command.
As a professed Vietnam veteran, Williamson has appeared at Hill Country events honoring military personnel, including one in Kimble County in 2010 where he discussed “the impact of the war experience on the development of the young men who served,” according to a news report.
Now chairman of the board of ZaZa Energy Corp., a Texas-based oil and gas exploration and production company, he dismissed the inquiries into his military background as “a fishing expedition” by Richard Ellison, his former partner's prior attorney.
Alleged discrepancies in Williamson's account of his military service prompted Ellison this month to file a stolen valor complaint with the FBI and a perjury complaint with District Attorney Bruce Curry.
The Supreme Court took up the Stolen Valor Act after an appeals court overturned the conviction of Xavier Alvarez, who publicly described himself as a retired Marine and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor while a public official in California.
While conceding the falsity of those claims, Alvarez said the Stolen Valor Act violates his First Amendment right to free speech. The government argued that the law falls outside First Amendment protections.
The high court's decision is eagerly awaited by veterans groups across the country.
“We're hoping that the Supreme Court ... decides that it's not protected speech,” said Jay Agg, AMVETS national spokesman.
Records provided by the National Personnel Records Center indicate Williamson was in the Army only from March 12, 1971, to July 18, 1971. Those dates correspond with the period that Connecticut National Guard records indicate he was in basic training with the Army.
“I'm very skeptical that he was in Vietnam at all,” Ellison said. “Maybe there's an innocent explanation. Maybe he was some kind of intelligence agent, and the Vietnam story is a cover.”
Asked Monday about the apparent inconsistencies, Williamson said, “There are other things you are unaware of that I can't comment on.”
His lawyer, Richard Mosty, suggested that Williamson may be unable to speak about his service because of its being classified.
Williamson appeared in “The Complete Marquis Who's Who” in 2009 as having received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Vietnam in 1971.
The publication's editor, Fred Marks, said its records indicate the information was submitted before 1993 by Williamson, who verified it in a prepublication proof.
Williamson's name was not on lists of recipients of those medals that are maintained by private groups, but the websites say their records are incomplete.
A corporate profile on Williamson posted last year by Toreador Resources Corp. described him as “a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and a recently retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve with military intelligence and civil affairs command positions.”
From what he's seen, Ellison said, “It's not true.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mil...ed-3662148.php
Linear Mode
