Our Friends at thisainthell.us send us Edwin Tingstrom, fake Airborne, fake Purple Heart, fake Green Beret
Ed claims that he was a combat infantryman in Vietnam. As you can see from his uniform, he’s wearing a Combat Infantryman Badge, parachutist wings and a Purple Heart. In the news articles included, he also claims to have been Special Forces.
His records prove otherwise.
His records show that he was indeed in Vietnam April 1966 – March 1967. yet he wasn’t an infantryman or even in an infantry unit, he was a clerk in a Psyop Company.
In the Simi Valley Acorn Newspaper article "Keeping History Alive", See article here Simi Valley Acorn Article, under the paragraph Small-town boy to Green Beret, it says
Tingstrom grew up in the small Napa Valley town of Healdsburg. After graduating from high school, he had two choices: Work in the vineyards or enlist.
He signed up for the Army in April 1965, joining the 5th Special Forces Group, or the Green Berets. At the end of that year, at the age of 18, he was shipped off to Vietnam.
“It was a scary time,” he said. “When you take a small-town person and put them into something as large as war, it’s both terrifying and exhilarating. But the biggest emphasis is on terrifying.”
During his 18-month tour, the soldier had several close calls, including a serious case of malaria. Once, a mortar round exploded just 35 feet from him, leaving the infantryman with shrapnel wounds, a concussion and the loss of hearing in his right ear. More devastating, though, was losing two high school buddies from back home.
Tingstrom returned from Vietnam in May 1967 but was deployed six months later to Germany to serve on a special task force charged with drug enforcement.
In June 1974, he left the Army, partly because he’d had enough and partly because of psychological issues that have plagued him since Vietnam. The hostile reception veterans received when they came home, plus the memories of war, made transitioning back to civilian life challenging.
“The most difficult part was understanding the change in the people . . . and then trying to put behind the ghosts of Vietnam,” he said. “Because war is an assault upon the senses, and while it may be organized murder and mayhem, there are scars that are left upon the individuals who must participate and execute that war.”
Although those ghosts still visit him today, he said he would do it all again, and believes most of his comrades feel the same because, like those MOH winners, “We believed in what we were doing.”
He also never attended jump school, nor was he awarded a Purple Heart. He had a break in service and reenlisted to be an MP in Germany.
He never served in the 5th SFG(A) as the article states.
In the Los Angeles Daily News Article "American Homecomings, see article here Los Angeles Daily News Article: Valley veterans honor their fallen brethren on Memorial Day" it says:
Ed Tingstrom, 65, served in the Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War.
Every Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and also during funerals for members of the military, he and other volunteers comprise a color guard and march with the American flag.
The names of two of Tingstrom’s friends are inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., and he thinks about them every day and hopes others will honor their service and sacrifice.
Again Ed never served in Special Forces
From his records, we see no assignments to any Special Forces unit. We don’t see Airborne or Purple heart either.
We see him as a:
Clerk Typist
Power Generator Sp,
Electrician,
Reg Clerk,
Military Police.
Edwin Tingstrom, you’ll now be added to Guardians of The Green Beret Hall of Fakes Frauds and Phonies.