Debating Elizabeth Warren in Springfield on Wednesday, Scott Brown stated "I served in Afghanistan".
He did not.
Scott Brown is member of the Army National Guard. In the summer of 2011, he requested that his annual two weeks of guard training be done in Afghanistan. The key points here are:
1) two weeks
2) by his request
3) spent in the rear, with the gear
4) did I mention two weeks...well, not even that, really:
Tanned, his hair cropped closely on the sides, and dressed in fatigues, Senator Scott Brown looked every bit the dashing soldier coming home from war when he returned from National Guard duty in Afghanistan a year ago.
His wife, Gail Huff, raced to meet him in a crowded terminal at Logan International Airport. Photographers captured their kiss and long embrace.
The scene has played out across Massachusetts countless times during the past decade as Guard units have returned from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Brown, though, returned not as a veteran of a protracted period of duty but after a 14-day Army National Guard assignment he requested. During that span, he spent seven days in Afghanistan itself.
While there, he participated in training exercises with the troops, but he also spent considerable time meeting with generals, ambassadors, and other leaders, an experience more akin to his role as US senator.
--Boston Globe
This from the guy who pushed the "Stolen Valor" act.
The man who inspired Sen. Scott Brown to write a bill making it illegal to falsely claim military honors said he thinks the Massachusetts Republican is stretching the truth when he claims to have "served in Afghanistan."
...
"I thought it was seriously misleading," said Sterner, whose website outing heroes was the basis for Brown's "Stolen Valor" bill. Sterner's criticism echoes a Boston Globe editorial published Thursday morning.
"I think it does go to an issue of personal character and that concerns me," added Sterner, who earlier this year broke with Brown and has endorsed Warren.
Sterner said it wasn't that Brown's service was with the National Guard that's the problem. Scores of Guard members have been recipients of the Medal of Honor, he noted. Brown's mistake, he said, was implying that his service in Afghanistan was a real tour of duty.
"I would be the last person to denigrate anybody's National Guard service, but I thought the claim, putting himself on par with men and women who have done combat tours, often in excess of a year, 14 months, was a pretty cheesy thing to do," Sterner said.
--Huffington Post
"Cheesy" is far to kind. The only suitable word is "asshole".