Several local bloggers are reporting the story that Republican Senate Candidate Mark Kirk may have fudged his military record until he was recently called-out about it.
Credit goes to Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog which has the following:
Kirk downgrades claims of his military recognition
I expressed skepticism that Mark Kirk was the Navy's "Intelligence officer of the year" in 1999.
- There doesn't seem to be such an award.
- Why would a reserve intelligence officer beat out a whole bunch of active duty officers?
In addition to writing about my skepticism here, I did some calling around...
So I did my own follow-up of Ellen's story. Details below the fold...
UPDATE 1 - 5:01 pm CDT
Illinois Senate candidate admits claim about military award was inaccurate
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 29, 2010; 5:41 PM
So, according to Ellen (and The Wayback Machine - gotta luv "teh tubes"), it seems that Kirk was claiming the following on his website until May 18th:
The U.S. Navy named Kirk "Intelligence Officer of the Year" in 1999 for his combat service in Kosovo...
It now reads:
Kirk was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for his Kosovo service in 1999...
Hmmmm, seems there is no mention of even the medal in Kirk's December 2001 official bio, nor his December 2002 bio.
The first mention of this momentous 1999 achievement - "The U.S. Navy named Kirk 'Intelligence Officer of the Year' in 1999 for his combat service in Kosovo..." comes in Kirk's April, 2003 Official Bio and continues through several revisions up to May 01, 2008 (which is the most recent capture I can view from The Wayback Machine).
In plain English, if this were an "oversight" or a "mistake" by Kirk, it is one which came well after the alleged award and continued through multiple official government website updates until the day it was questioned by a blogger.
As another blogger just put it:
The way it was written before the change it sounded like Kirk claimed he was in combat. New text: no mention of combat.
Perhaps the Congressman can enlighten us all on his combat hours and prestigious awards?