Day 4, no response: Complaint on Joe Tanners "numerous combat medals" claim.

A brief recap.

Below is a post wherein I indicate concerns over an apparently false claim to "numerous combat medals" allegedly earned in Vietnam by then Navy Electrician Tech Joe Tanner.

I requested that Tanner provide me with a listing of said "medals" in an email that went out 3 days ago to his quite active campaign website, joe@votejoetanner.com.  As a veteran and prospective constituent, I have a right to know and a right to ask.

So far, Tanner has not seen fit to respond.

As a result, I am going forward with a request for an investigation of what appears to be a "Stolen Valor" claim, particularly insidious when utilized for political purposes like those Tanner seems to be engaging in today.

The biggest problem I have with this nonsense is that the incumbent in this race, Commissioner Tom Mielke, IS a combat veteran having served a tour in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne and having received a Bronze Star with "V" device for DIRECT combat action, quite unlike that Electrician Tech Tanner likely encountered with his soldering iron... likely on a ship offshore in the waters of Vietnam.

So, I am forwarding the following complaint on the matter to the two per-eminent "Stolen Valor" organizations for the investigation and action.

The complaint is as follows:

I am a veteran living in Clark County, WA and as seems to be the case more and more, a candidate by the name of Joe Tanner is running for office is with what appears to be a false claim on his website where in he claims "numerous combat medals" for service in Vietnam... where he served as an "Electrician Tech."

What makes this particularly insidious is that he is running against an incumbent who IS a combat veteran, a guy who received the Bronze Start with V, a holder of the Purple Heart and a veteran of a tour with the 101 Airborne as an 11B back in '68... and, if memory serves, there was a lot of stuff going on in their neck of the woods back in '68.

As a result of these claims on the part of Tanner, I've sent him an email requesting that he list these "numerous combat medals."  That email went out 3 days ago to his campaign email address (joe@votejoetanner.com) and so far, he has ignored me.  His failure to respond is something I warned his campaign about day before yesterday, wherein if he did NOT reply, I would bring this matter to your attention.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Day One, No response from Joe Tanner.


Having been troubled by reading about Joe Tanner's "numerous combat medals" claim from Vietnam on his bio, I actually thought I'd go to the source to find out, sending him the following email:

Mr. Tanner,

I understand you are running to replace our North Clark County Commissioner.

As a prospective constituent, I noticed something quite troubling to me, personally, in doing my "due diligence:"

In your bio, you make the following claim: "As an active duty Vietnam veteran, Joe Tanner received numerous combat medals."

I would appreciate it if you would list them.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will be blogging your response, whatever it may be, unedited.

K.J. Hinton
Clark County Politics

Although I am a prospective constituent of his, he has not seen fit to respond.

So, here's the deal.

If he does not provide the requested information by COB tomorrow, I will turn this case over to the "Stolen Valor" experts at stolenvalor.com and pownetwork.org organizations, and they can deal with it.

Clearly, talking to constituents, particularly those from the opposite end of the political spectrum, is not one of his priorities. But making a claim of "numerous combat medals" and failing to back it up when asked?

There's no excuse for that from any politician.

And here's the basis for my claim:

Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Troubling questions for Joe Tanner

We have a Republican county commissioner, an actual combat veteran of Vietnam with the 82nd Airborne Division. He has actual "combat medals." People actually shot at him. he actually shot back.

Then we have democrat Joe Tanner, who ALSO served in Vietnam.

His service in Vietnam in the Navy, for 27 months, was as an electronics technician.

How, precisely, does a Navy "electronics technician" get ANY "combat medals," let alone "numerous?"



I'm not sure. So this email is going out today:

Mr. Tanner,

I understand you are running to replace our North Clark County Commissioner.

As a prospective constituent, I noticed something quite troubling to me, personally, in doing my "due diligence:"

In your bio, you make the following claim: "As an active duty Vietnam veteran, Joe Tanner received numerous combat medals."

I would appreciate it if you would list them.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will be blogging your response, whatever it may be, unedited.



K.J. Hinton
Clark County Politics

I'll keep you posted.

at 11:27 0 comments Links to this post

At the links in the article above are first, his claim to service in Vietnam as an "electronics tech" for some 27 months and next, the screen shot from his campaign website bio where he makes the claim of "numerous combat medals."

Tanner is a businessman in these parts, well educated (as he'll tell you) and like all politicians, he knows that words have meaning.

Why he's claiming "numerous combat medals" is a mystery to me.  But that he's doing that when his opponent IS a combat veteran?  It seems to me to be a ploy to level a perceived advantage for political gain.

Of course, Mr. Tanner COULD just provide the details of his "numerous combat medals."  But his failure to respond?

That speaks volumes.

As always, regardless of what I learn, I'll keep you posted.