Steve Slaton – US Army Helicopter Co-Pilot, Retired Army, Vietnam, Blog of Shame
3306/09/2024 by militaryphonies
BACKGROUND
Steven Hawthorne Slaton comes to us from Show Low, Arizona. At the time of this writing, June 2024, Slaton is 69 years old.
Slaton is running for State Representative in Arizona in LD-7. Slaton emphasizes his military service.
On Slaton’s official campaign site, he claims to have been honorably discharged and to have been a helicopter co-pilot in Vietnam.
Also, on Slaton’s campaign website, there is a claim of being an Army veteran, but on previous iterations, it claimed he was a retired member of the Army. We believe this change came about after attention was drawn to this claim.
The “retired” vs. “veteran” claim was true in May 2023, but by May 2024 it changed over to say “veteran.”
You can see for yourself in the WayBack Machine / Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230517201712/https://steveslatonaz.com/about/
VIETNAM
Slaton posed for a photo with his pickup truck. It had a sticker of a helicopter over a medal for Vietnam.
HE SAID – SHE SAID
Here’s where things start going sideways. Slaton was called out on some of these claims – by the media, other candidates, and stolen valor folks. Slaton presented a copy of his DD-214, but it differed from what people obtained from the National Personnel Records Center. Slaton is holding his version, and the Official Version is on the right.
Notice there are more lines under ‘AWARDS and MEDALS,’ then a few more lines under the ‘REMARKS’ section. Although blurry, you can see a difference in the number of lines.
Here are two versions side-by-side. Notice the “4” under the ‘Nixon Vietnamese Program 1974,’ it is different than the “4” in the rest of the document.
A local newspaper in Arizona called Slaton out on his claims.
https://mountaindailystar.com/az-house-candidate-misrepresented-military-service-locals-sound-alarm/
Things got a little messy at this point – Slaton wrote a “manifesto” where he disputed each claim in the article. Below are some excerpts:
Steve Slaton’s Rebuttal to Article
In addition, he claimed that the Guardians of the Green Beret may have altered the results that they got back from the NPRC. Military Phony has worked with the Guardians of the Green Beret over many years and find that they adhere to very high standards. We find the claim that they altered records completely implausible.
This was discussed on their YouTube channel, complete with a phone call to Slaton.
But, Military Phony feels that debating who said what and who did what is inefficient regarding the official military records. We encourage everyone to just send for Slaton’s official military records and observe them firsthand. We did this and found that the Guardians of the Green Beret were 100% credible, which was no surprise.
. . . . .
ACTIONS CONDUCTED BY MILITARY PHONIES
Steven Hawthorne Slaton’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. We filed with the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to account for his service claims.
. . . . .
FOIA RESULTS
NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC)
FOIA – NPRC – Slaton – Summary Sheet
FOIA – NPRC – Slaton – Assignments and Photo
. . . . .
NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC) – Guardians of the Green Beret
NOTE: These are third-party records but from a trusted source. We post these results to complement what the NPRC provided us. As always, we obtain our own results to establish a clean chain of custody.
NPRC FOIA Results – Guardians of the Green Beret
In addition, the Guardians of the Green Beret sent the DD-214 supplied by Slaton and asked them if it differed from what they had on file. This was their answer:
. . . . .
DISCUSSION and SUMMARY
LENGTH OF SERVICE
The length of active duty service was three (3) years but did not support a retirement claim. There is always a chance that it could be a medical retirement, but this is a non-issue since the claim was changed on Slaton’s website.
RANK
Slaton was discharged from the Army as a SGT (E-5). This is also a non-issue.
VIETNAM
No medals in Slaton’s record would support a claim of being in Vietnam.
COMBAT and AWARDS
Nothing to designate Slaton as being in Vietnam or combat.
SUMMARY
If Steve Slaton has used any of these claims to gain anything of value, he could be in violation of the Stolen Valor Act.
. . . . .
PHOTOS
. . . . .
SOCIAL MEDIA
WEBSITE: https://steveslatonaz.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/steven.slaton.1213
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This Ain’t Hell: https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=157614
Another WANNA BE going after something he’ll never get, Honor. Let’s hope the voters in AZ read this.
One thing that popped out to me immediately was his claim to have been a AH-1G crew chief/co-pilot. That proved he is a liar. The US Army hasn’t had enlisted pilots since WW2.
what an ASSBAG
Another desperate HIT JOB on Slaton!
You fellas need to check Walter J. BLACKMAN’s record and his false claim as a Silver Star recipient!
Not a desperate hit job. Factual reporting always hurts the embellisher. He did 3 Honorable years, why claim more than that. That’s more the 97% of America. It’s disrespectful to bullshit about being a Nam vet. He isn’t even smart enough to know the troop draw down in Nam started March of 1973. His age isn’t even close to being possible to have served in Nam. Nam era, maybe based on active date. But no Nam service. Very disrespectful to those that went over.
Moreover, all combat operations by US military personnel ended on January 15, 1973, over five months before Slayton enlisted on June 29, 1973. Records also show his aviation unit withdrew from Vietnam to Korea in 1972, long before Slayton was even in the Army. Slayton is a liar.
My infantry brigade was headquartered in Da Nang. It ceased combat operations in 1972 and was withdrawn that year in June. It was the last infantry combat brigade to leave Vietnam.
Karen, Walt has NEVER EVER claimed to have a silver star. He does have a bronze star. Please show me where he has ever made that claim??
I encourage everyone to please look up my husband’s DD-214 Walter Blackman. In fact you can ask Gardians of the Green Beret about him. He doesn’t need to lie, nor did Steve. Just be proud to serve.
You see Karen, my husband served proudly as a 19K in the United States Army for 21 yrs. He actually did fight in combat.
Karen, your husband has not been able to produce records, photos, or even comrades who served with him. Anyone who has been to combat has a tight bond with those who served with them, especially our Vietnam vets.
If what your husband claims is true, that means he completed basic, and was such a star that as soon as he arrived to his first unit, they put him on a cobra, worth millions of dollars to preform secret missions, so secret that the Department of the Army didn’t even know about them. NO ONE in charge would ever do this.
Steve’s Falsified stories are as entertaining and realistic as a Grimm’s fairy tale.
Please stop lying and go back to selling your Chinese products.
We didn’t have combat troops on the ground in Vietnam in 1973, let alone having helo pilots flying around. Also; you had to be at least a Warrant Officer or above to be a pilot or co-pilot of any flying craft in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. And there is absolutely no way he could have been a WO at the age of 18.
Sorry, dear; but this man is lying about his background, and it does not matter who he is, what his politics are, where he lives, or what he actually did in the service of his country…if he is claiming things he didn’t do, or could not possibly have done, he is disgracing himself primarily; and is cheapening the service of those men and women who actually DID the things he claims.
I was in the Marine Corps during the Cold War. I was a Supply Administration and Operations Specialist. My highest rank was PFC, and the highest award I earned was the Marine Corps Rifle Sharpshooter Badge. I’m proud of this, and don’t need anything more to pump me up.
STFU, Karen
Just the facts, ma’am. He’s a liar and fraud. He’s showing falsified documents as proof of service.
Sooooo, Karen-post an honest link in which Walter Blackman claimed he was awarded a Silver Star? Blackman HAS provided a verified copy of his DD-214 to the media and his record is real. I don’t get what you and husband’s end game is here. In what way do your husbands phony claims, his refusal to apologize and recant those phony claims, and his relentless attacks on a REAL combat veteran and Conservative Republican (i.e. Walter Blackman) further the cause of the GOP in Arizona?
Karen is Steve daltons wife. The one who was married to his friend that was dying. They had an affair while he was dying and slaton was staying in their home…. His friend was also a soldier.
Karen & Steve do not have the intestinal fortitude to spread their lies, hate and vitriol directly to our face. Let’s see if Steve attends the forum tonight, or will he continue to be a keyboard warrior, without facing the people he has lied to.
Karen, let Steve know that there is a large number of veterans planning to attend so they can ask Wendy & Steve why after almost 3 months he is unable to produce evidence of his Vietnam deployments.
You posted more lies about Walt on your social media claiming he is lying about Steve’s fraudulent DD214. So let’s get this straight, the National Archives, Gardians of the Green Beret, Military Phonies, channel 12 News, the AZ republic, AZ central, stolen Valor, 2 military historians, DD214 Direct & Mountain Daily Star are all liars?? Even the person Wendy and Steve recruited to verify Steve’s fake DD214 said it is fraudulent.
First Steve said his records were burned in the fire in St Louis, until we pointed out the fire happened in 1973 while Steve was still in the military, and the fire consumed Alpha thru Hotel, and Steve is sierra so even if his records were there they wouldn’t have burned.
Next Steve said someone stole his identity lol 😂 that’s a lie!
Then Steve said his proof is “in a box” because he moved. If it were my husband, you would see my big butt searching through every box until I located those records.
Karen, you are messing with a real military spouse. I raised 5 kids during multiple deployments, field rotations and TDY’s. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer during his last deployment in 2013 and we chose for Walt to finish the deployment. My Army Sisters and I leaned on each other during deployments. I have been placed in the middle of the Mojave desert, Germany, Texas just to name a few places and had to acclimate quickly.
Karen, I am tough as woodpecker lips, and the past 6 years that you and your mentally insane husband have been harassing our family has only made me stronger.
The articles and lies you spread are written by your drunken woman beating boy reporter. Don’t you think it is sad that instead of trying to help that young man get his life together you use him to write fiction? Just verifies how disgusting you all are.
My advice for you is to go back to your store and quietly sell your cheap China crap and leave my family alone! There is much more we could release, however we choose not to, and unlike you, the information we have on BOTH of you is factual not fiction.
Lastly, I openly and proudly see a therapist regularly. No shame in my game, as I want to be a good wife, Mother and person. Steve has had an unhealthy obsession with Sylvia Allen and Walt for many years. He clearly needs some help. You BOTH need help, and on your way to therapy, scoop up nutty Wendy while you are at it. You should also let her know people are making fun of her for constantly saying “9er” she sounds like a doofus.
1. Calm down there…KAREN. (See what I did there?)
2. As one can presume from the name, Karen MacKean-Slaton, you are related to or you ARE Steven Hawthorne Slaton.
3. What is desperate about exposing and publishing the factual truth? A liar is going to lie and continue to lie in order to keep up the lie. Then when challenged, they will create more lies in furtherance of the original lie AND/ OR lash out by accusing others of lying about the lies. It is a never-ending feedback loop…..unless, someone pulls their head out of their *ss and admits to the narcissistic pile of bull-mess they having been spewing from their sound hole.
4. As to the “hit job” comment, what hit job? Is that an implication that the facts are being ginned up for political purposes? It is my firm belief that most of the inhabitants, submitters, commenters and lurkers of this forum are above the political fray and set aside their own ideas in furtherance of holding accountable ALL LYING POS’s who never served or those who choose to sully their own military service with factually false experiences/ awards/ or training.
5. Now, DO NOT run away. Kindly return to this site and explain/ defend your comment and aspersions.
Things fixin’ to get a little thorny for you Stevie…Haw haw haw! Been a minute since the troops have had an embellishing, lying POS to chew on. You had, what appeared to be going by THE Official Records, perfectly Honorable Service during a time period when many others did not serve. All you had to do was tell the truth about said Service. I guess you are qualified to be a politician, you’ve got the lying part down. My sympathies to your family and friends that are going to find out that you are an embellishing POS. You do know that they are going to wonder what else you’ve lied about, right? You also do know that you have crapped on anything Honorable you may have done in the past, standing on the bodies and in the blood of Service Members that actually DID serve in Viet Nam, right? Despicable!
Delusional asshat.
BTW, How did he get a phony DD 214?
Just looking at “Steve Slaton’s Rebuttal to Article” in which he adds a florid red font (as if that ever improved credibility) my first reaction was:
“My God, man, can’t you even invest in a decent spell check program!?”
And my second reaction was “I am a card carrying Republican, and I don’t want this liar and fraud representing my party. I’m sure Arizona can do much better than this.”
[…] good folks at Military Phony and the Guardians of the Green Beret give us their work on this fella – Steve Slaton – […]
Karen, you are such a bitter and hateful woman. You need to humble yourself. It’s not our fault you chose to marry men who lie about their service. You have a type, so live with it.
It’s a beautiful thing to watch karma unfold before our very eyes. All of the attacks on others but mean while it was your shit that really stunk the whole time. https://x.com/coffinitup/status/1799125676793921922?s=12
“It’s a beautiful thing to watch karma unfold before our very eyes.”
I get why you say that, but when you live in Arizona, and have to suffer the antics of clowns like Slaton it’s not so beautiful. For decades Arizona has been inundated with these grifters, rejects and losers from other who come here to live out their narcissistic fantasies (from both sides of the spectrum). It’s to the point we should’ve blown the bridges over the Colorado in 1990 and dug anti-tank ditches across I-10 and I-40 to keep out the rust belt retards. We’ve been beset by soy latte hipsters from California who want to turn us into Marin County, and tactiCOOL clowns like Slaton who want us to be a “Red Dawn” militia base. And despite the fact that Slaton has taken enough incoming fire over his ludicrous claims to be lowered three contour lines and still hasn’t budged, unfortunately sez’ something about the loyalty and strength of his base here.
As I live in AZ I’ve been following the antics of Steve Slaton for a long while and this story for a while. The back story is that starting in the mid-90’s when California passed ever increasing Draconian gun laws a flood of Californians swarmed to Arizona and of course some of those Californians (being Californians) are whackos. So, guess what state Slaton moved to Arizona from? He’s ensconced himself with the way far right in Arizona and has been engaged in a nasty feud with a real combat veteran-Walter Blackman, a retired US Army SFC and former tanker over a primary slot. And Slaton has aligned himself with some heavy hitters in Arizona politics like Wendy Rogers and Kari Lake who seem bothered that Slaton’ war stories are fulla bovine excrement. And I occasionally when Wendy Rogers (who really is a retired USAF vet) talks about her days of flying a C-141 they story sounds more like she was doing NOE strafing runs on Fallujah than delivering 463L pallets.
But Slaton ain’t backing down on these claims and it appears he’s stuck in his own little reality distortion field. I think his game plan is deny-attack-distract-deny-attack-distract. As a retired US Army combat veteran, yeah-it p!sses me off that he’s doing this but the really troubling issue is that he has attacked a REAL combat veteran and Rogers & Lake are just fine with that and his BS.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/06/07/kari-lake-arizona-senate-hopeful-spoke-in-front-of-confederate-flag/74022051007/
You’re no Republican. I hope they kick your butt out of the Republican Party. Go join your Demon-crat friends where you belong…
I never claimed to be Republican!? Or a Democrat! OR ANYTHING! A military phony is a military regardless of his politics and is therefore scum. But I guess it doesn’t bother you that a PROVEN military phony who happens to be Republican (and a whacko) has been consistently attacking Walter Blackman who is a RETIRED US ARMY COMBAT VETERAN and CONSERVATIVE MORMON. Likewise it doesn’t bother you that two MAJOR politicians who are Republican are standing with Slaton and refuse to condemn his attacks on Blackman!? So “Jimbo” in your whacky world you’d rather elect a right-wing military phony who is a Republican than a retired US Army E-7 combat vet conservative Republican!?!?!? Hmmmm, so does the fact that Slaton is White and Blackman Black have something to do with your opinion?
My message is meant for Slaton to be kicked out of Republican Party. Not sure why you’re responding to me. Perhaps an error occurred using a iPhone before.
Cat got your tongue “Bimbo”? Admit it-you don’t have ANY problem with a military phony so long as that military phony has an ideology that you support. It doesn’t matter to you if that military phony is attacking a real combat veteran, or if that phony is attacking a Conservative Republican. You’re absolutely OK with a military phony that you like.
That’s pretty pathetic.
Retard fight!
Looks like Slaton needs some new shoes. Walking in all that bullshit he’s been telling.
Let’s leave these postings to the facts of whether claims of military service are accurate and complete, as they pertain to the one person named.
This forum is not, and never will be, a forum for advancing or rejecting political positions, parties, or offices.
Military service, true or false. Nothing more, nothing less.
By the way, for those not familiar with the Army MOS code system in the early-mid 1970’s:
His MOS (according to the apparently unforged DD-214 was 67Y20.
That’s 67= Transportation (Aviation subset)
Y (Yankee) = Mechanic
2 = Pay grade E-4 (Corporal or Specialist Four)
0 = Zero (no other qualifications, such as “P” for Parachutist).
Had he actually been a Sergeant (Pay Grade E-5), his MOS would have
been 67Y40, with the “4” indicating the rank/grade of Sergeant.
Last item, and then I’ll quit. Again, for those unfamiliar with mid-1070’s Army rank,
there were two possible ranks that carried the pay grade of “E-5.”
Sergeant = aka “Buck Sergeant” = three stripes on the sleeve/collar. A Sergeant is a noncommissioned officer, entrusted with duties, including leadership over soldiers of lesser rank.
Specialist =
May be Specialist Four (Pay Grade E-4, the same pay grade as a Corporal; [two stripes, also a noncommissioned officer/leader, or’
Specialist Five: Pay Grade E-5, the same pay grade as a Sergeant, but NOT a noncommissioned officer, with no leadership duties.
At one time the Army also had Specialist Six and Seven. In each case the importance was that the soldier was entitled to added pay due to his/her ability/length of service, but a Specialist was never a noncommissioned officer, and was not in a leadership/command position.
By way of illustration, a Corporal, Pay Grade E-4 (two stripes) out-ranked ALL
Specialists, even those such as Specialist Five/Six/Seven who were being paid more that the Corporal was being paid.
The key was leadership, and responsibility.
Steve Slaton was apparently a “Specialist Five”, as reflected in the true DD-214 and the forged DD-214, but he was never a Sergeant. He had the pay grade equal to that of a Sergeant, but he was outranked by any Corporal in the United States Army, and he would NEVER lawfully wear three strips on his collar or sleeve.
Why? I will never get why these ass holes do this over and over for what. To feel like a big man…
I’m confused why he added transportation school on there. What benefit is that?