Anthony T. Kolat Jr. – US Marine , Beirut, Purple Heart Recipient , POSer, Blog of Shame
404/22/2015 by
Anthony Kolat Jr. met with a newspaper reporter at an Eat ’n’ Park Diner and shared stories and photographs of his time in the Marines. The newspaper was all too happy to publish the accounts as Mr. Kolat relayed to them. Fact-checking appeared to have taken a second seat to getting the article printed so reporter Sean Barron (has departed the publication) and The Vindicator ran with the story.
(Photo by Robert K. Yosay – The Vindicator)
There were only two real problems with the story: One is that apart from there being no record of a Purple Heart in Kolat’s military records, a Purple Heart is awarded for wounds received in combat and not given “for trying to find as many people as possible” and two, that according to the National Archives, Anthony Kolat never even served in Beirut, Lebanon. To underscore this even more, Kolat was released from active duty on 21 August 1982 and the Marines of the 32nd MAU landed in Beirut, Lebanon to help with the PLO evacuation on 25 August 1982. This was four days after Kolat was released from active duty and well over a year before the 23 Oct 1983 bombing of the Marine Barracks. 
Efforts by Beirut Veterans to contact the reporter, the newspaper and place comments at the bottom of the article have not met with success. In fact, many comments were removed that pointed out inaccuracies in the story. The current people to contact appear to be:
Betty Jagnow (Publisher) – bjagnow@vindy.com
Mark Brown (General Manager) – markbrown@vindy.com
- This Ain’t Hell Blog
- Guardian of Valor Post
This Ain’t Hell Blog # 2
if this shitbucket is a Beirut Vet , then I’m the freakin Pope.
He WASNT there and to claim as much, in my opinion,is no different than spitting on the graves of those Brothers that never came back with us.
You have two choices Anthony-
Man up and make this right ,or –
spend the rest of your miserable life knowing every morning when you wake up and look in the mirror, a gutless glory-hound will be staring back at you.
I knew this turd wasn’t with my platoon.
I hope your 15 minutes of fame is worth your lifetime of shame Kolat. May you burn in hell for disgracing the Corps, and trying to gain glory off the backs of those of us that were there and especially those who didn’t come home. You are a piece of trash! With honor you lied,in dishonor you will hide because I know you will not fess up & make this right.
“Remember the Peacekeepers” 241/270
“Forget Losers like Kolat”
[…] Scotty sends us his work on this Anthony Kolat fellow who claims that he was in Beirut when Hezbollah bomber the barracks there on October 23, 1983 and that he earned a Purple Heart there. […]
piece of shit, my best friend, Gsgt C.R. Ray was killed in that bombing I had known him and his wife Akiko for almost 10 years. I was with 2/8 on our way to relieve 1/8 when it was bombed. We landed on Genada the next morning 10/24/1983. John St John sgt usmc