Not really a political issue, but I know there is a lot of military on this board and thought there might be some interest.
SGM Charlie Clawson was reduced from E9- to E5 in a courts martial last month for wearing 9 un-authorized awards over a 5yr period. He even awarded himself a doctorate degree from Liberty University. He held the title of Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Air Facility at Quantic Va.
For the life of me, I cant figure out why they let him stay in.
How stupid!? He was set for life and his ego made him falsely inflate his accolades. 
I saw this and it was just a jaw dropper.
How could somebody be so unbelievably stupid?
And the level of ego needed to push somebody to do that.
Civilians or ex-military doing that is one thing.
But a ■■■■■■■ SERGEANT MAJOR???
Un ■■■■■■■ believable.
From the article I infer that he had 2 non-combat deployments in his career… He claimed he had been on 7, with a Purple Heart, Combat Action Badge and GWOT Expeditionary Medal (which you could only get for a combat deployment). In other words, he never was in the right unit, at the right time, to pull a combat deployment. He did earn 2 MSMs and 5 Navy Commendation medals, but nothing to show that he was a Marine who served in combat. Sounds like a bad case of envy that his stack didn’t match up to a Lance Corporal’s with an actual combat tour.
The dates they used were from Jan 2019 through Oct 2023 he wore the bogus medals. I suspect he used the awards and the Doctorates degree to get promoted, but that is only a guess. They say he entered the service in 1996 so he would have 23 active years in 2019.
Wait you can award yourself medals in the military? That seems ripe for abuse.
No…In his case he either forged the docs and sent them to the military personnel center to be put into his records, or just purchase them from the clothing sales store and pin them on his uniform himself. Article doesnt say if they were in his files or not.
Oh that makes more sense.
I was under the impression an officer or senior NCO had to recommend you for the award in writing. Unless it’s one of those auto-badges like the old Cold War badge thing.
This is true, anyone with the knowlege of the event can put you in for the award, but realistically for higher awards it takes a colonel or general officer to approve it.
If you’re gonna go with the purple heart and a car, why not just throw in a navy cross?
…or is that too presumptous?
So the article doesnt say if any of his promotions were revoked. If they werent, when he joined he was part of the High 3 plan. This plan would take your last 36 months, and divide it by 36 to compute your retirement pay. If promotions were not revoked and he retired immediately, his retirement pay would pretty much be for an E9, since he could have 34 or 35 months of E9 pay and only 1 or 2 months of E5 pay.
E-9 to E-5 is a good reduction in pay and retirement. The Marines probably have a nice deployment planned for this chooch not to mention Jr NCOs are now his peers 
It’s really going to suck to be him until he gets out.
NOT TO MENTION, the Marine Corps, from what friends tell me is a close knit bunch and bad news travels around.
What a moron
good thing he never ran for veep
Monthly basic pay for an E9 with 24+ years = $8072.70
Monthly basic pay for an E5 with 24+ years = $4076.40
Just about a 50% drop.
He will be retired immediately since as an E5 he is long past his 12 year high end tenure.
Research ‘High Year Tenure’ and see what it is for E-5 in the Army.
I highly doubt it’s 28 years or even close to that. That means he is being discharged, though probably honorably.
LOL ■■■■■■■ POGUE’s.
