I was just looking at a copy of my military records earlier. Technically, I’m a German paratrooper, too. I’d forgotten about that. You get foreign paratrooper wings when you as a paratrooper train with a foreign country’s parachute forces, and they then award you those wings — so I have American and German paratrooper wings.

When you hear in the press about ex-military folks claiming military honors they did not receive, most of the time it’s probably true. However, there’s stuff I did and training I received in the army that never made it onto my official military records. I only discovered this when I was exiting the army.

At that time, I was so happy to get out, my military record could’ve only said in 72-point font, “MIKE IS A TURD” with giant poo emoji printed on it, and I would’ve signed it and been happy.

That scatological aside aside, military records are a form of truth and sure, most of the time those who claim honors they never received in fact are prevaricating; however, not always.

Which is the truth, what happened in reality or what appears on a piece of paper?