By Susan Gardner
ePluribus Media
Fake name. Fake reporter. Fake news agency. And now this ...
Fake Marine.
First, we went to the Military Personnel Records of the National Personnel Records Center at St. Louis, Missouri, the supposed repository of all military records. No record showed, but the official letter hemmed and hawed and scraped its military-booted feet so much, kinda sorta explaining that they're often ... well ... ummm ... screwed up ... and that we should check directly with the United States Marine Corps at Quantico. You know, just to ... ummm ... make sure.
So we did, in this email correspondence:
From SusanG:
DATE SUBMITTED:
Friday, 3/11/2005 at 11:08 am EST
QUESTION TOPIC:
Records created by the United States military
QUESTION TEXT:
11 March 2005
Re: GUCKERT, James D.
SSN: ###-##-####
Request: 1-292301414
Date: 2 March 2005
A letter was sent pursuant to the FOIA requesting information on the above named subject. He claims to have served in the USMC, E-4. He further claims that his status is "Inactive Reserve/Guard not drilling."
The return letter indicated no records located [in St. Louis]. We are attempting to confirm this.
Answer to SusanG:
From: Amando Nunez
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 7:33 AM
Subject: Re: Records created by the United States military
We could not locate a record from the information provided. If the veteran's record is not yet retired to our Center it wouldn't show up in our system. Also, if the veteran served in the Marine Corps after 1996 that record may not yet be retired to our Center. You may want to contact the office shown below. I do not have a telephone number for this office.
Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps (MMSB-10)
Personnel Management Support Branch
2008 Elliot Road, Room 203
Quantico, VA 22134-5030
You may come into the Research Room but it takes approximately 2 hours to have the record searched. The Research is open from 7:30 - 3:45. If you arrive after 1:45 the record will be searched the following day.
Amando R. Nunez
Lead Archives Technician, Core V, Team D
National Personnel Records Center
National Archives and Records Administration
Phone: (314) 801-0821
Fax: (314) 801-0764
This question was submitted via the Main Inquire Form
by a user of the NARA web site.
Now if it turns out that both the St. Louis Personnel Office AND the United States Marine Corps are so screwed up they can't keep track of someone on legitimate inactive reserve status, we would love to take the opportunity to post PDF files of Mr. Guckert's military service - hey, there's a story in itself, right? God help us in Iraq, though, if this proves to be the case.
And if anyone near Quantico wants to spend two hours sitting in the research room waiting to get yet further information that there are no records on Corporal Guckert, knock yourself out. Let me know if you come up with something. It's taken me two months to get this far with two agencies, and frankly, I've had my fill of bureaucracy.
All Righty, Then. Let's Review!
In many circles, I have become known as "the conservative guy". Some people don't even remember my name because I am an average type guy. I've been a preppie, a yuppie, blue-collar, green-collar and white-collar. I've
served in the military ....
And from military.com via Philly Online (registration required for military.com):
James D Guckert
Rank: E-4 Corporal
Service: Marine Corps
Status: Inactive Res/Guard (not drilling)
And then there's the marketing of "Bulldog," aka "Jeff" aka James D. Guckert, on numerous escort sites turned up by Americablog last month:
When asked what USMCPT meant, Paul said he asked Jeff that very question. The answer: United States Marine Corps, Part Time. Paul recalls Jeff telling him
he was still in the Marines, but only part time.
Ex-USMC Jock: Available for hourly, overnight, weekend or longer travel - OUT ONLY!
The Male Corps link takes you to another of Jeff's escort pages, housed on a different escort service Web site called MaleCorps.com. The page contains the same spread-eagle picture that was on Jeff's personal site, notes that his branch of service is "United States Marine Corps,"
In earlier review, dated 7/11/2000, is from a man who says he's an active duty senior officer in the US Army. He notes that Jeff has a Marine background.
So it seems Mr. Guckert has some explaining to do, not only to flag-waving conservatives who bought into his fictional life on his conservativeguy.com site, but to clients who may have availed themselves of his escort services when he was posing as a Marine.
Which brings up the interesting question: Can those who make use of internet escort sites sue for false advertising? Hmmmm ....
And as to the loophole in the USMC email about service after 1996 ... Let's just say we can guarantee that this particular "veteran" wasn't serving in the Marine Corps after that year. What was he doing? Well, that story is, as they say, ... developing....
(Thanks to seanmykael for help in throwing the links together.)
[NOTE: This is one of the last diaries coming out of the Propagannon project that will publish under my user name, SusanG. Two more diaries should go up soon as SusanG diaries, but after that, the Propagannon project will switch officially to posting under the DKos user name, ePluribus Media. This will serve to begin separating our mammoth investigative process - which now encompasses so much more than Gannon - from the persona of Gannon/Guckert himself (and the persona of SusanG as well). I still will post diaries as SusanG from time to time on topics not related to the investigative work at ePluribus Media. All ePluribus Media projects will have bylines and credits to investigators and researchers who worked on the topic of the story.]