https://military.id.me/news/is-track-palin-a-combat-veteran/
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We’re actually not sure how a scanned version of his discharge papers ended up on Twitter, and it’s hard to say with absolute certainty that they are legitimate. But as you can see in the tweets below, the image is successfully discrediting Track’s military service regardless of whether it’s true or not.
@jaykirell Was he in combat? This says he wasnt pic.twitter.com/z4CSviJ4ij
— Elsa Lion (@ElsaLion2) January 21, 2016
The image indicates that despite being stationed in Iraq in an infantry unit for a full year, Track Palin didn’t earn the Combat Infantryman Badge. In fact, there are no war decorations listed at all. To be deployed with the ‘Arctic Wolves’ Stryker brigade and not participate in a single firefight for a whole year sounds like its own achievement.
An Iraq war combat veteran named Jason Kirell also wrote on Twitter that he had met Track during his military service. He wrote that based on his memories of Track, he didn’t believe he saw combat or that his domestic violence arrest was connected to PTSD.
Speaking as a combat vet who literally slept in the same barracks as Track Palin, his mother is wrong and her son is not a victim.
— Jason Kirell (@jaykirell) January 21, 2016
After his tweet began to circulate, Kirell clarified that they didn’t ‘serve’ together. They slept in the same barracks, but were in different BCT cycles.
For the record: A: I didn't "serve" w/ Track Palin B: I did sleep in the same room he did C: In basic, months later I don't *know* him.
— Jason Kirell (@jaykirell) January 25, 2016
Kirell does give Track Palin the benefit of doubt, though.
@ElsaLion2 all I'll say in fairness to him is that his mother claimed he was a combat vet, not him.
— Jason Kirell (@jaykirell) January 21, 2016
Between dubious documents and the personnel testimony of one veteran who didn’t even serve in Track’s unit, the case against Track Palin isn’t exactly solid. And even if it was, who cares? As Kirell points out, it was his mom who hinted that he saw combat in the first place, not Track.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, a real disorder that harms real combat veterans has been pushed to the side.
It looks like PTSD turned into a portable chew toy after all.
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