“I was homeless and on the verge of suicide after coming home from Afghanistan.
It took me nearly 10 years to stop being hyper aware of my surroundings and
actually be comfortable in public places.” – Eric Johnson
BACKGROUND
Eric Joseph Johnson is very active on Twitter and Reddit. He has changed his name several times. He goes by “TrollingThunder”, “Problematic Johnson”, “Metalmartyr” and currently “Martial Daww”.
His physical appearance, much like his names on social media, changes often.
He can be identified by his unique neck and arm tattoos, however.
A photo of Johnson’s face is quite rare, as he seems to prefer memes instead.
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CLAIMS
On one of Johnson’s Twitter accounts, which also links ‘Problematic Johnson’ to ‘MetalMartyr’, he claims he was wounded during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan.
“Vulneror non Vincor” is the Latin motto of the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge. This means “I am wounded, not conquered.”
On Reddit, ‘MetalMartyr’ reveals himself to be Eric Johnson.
On Reddit, Johnson/’MetalMartyr’ claims that he was in Afghanistan in 2002-2003 as part of Task Force (TF) Rakkasan during Operation Anaconda. He’s certain that he has killed people but he doesn’t want to know how many he has killed.
On a ‘TrollingThunder’ account on Reddit, Johnson links to his ‘Martial Dawww’ account on Twitter.
‘Martial Daww’ links himself to being Eric Johnson in this review.
As ‘TrollingThunder’ on Reddit, he claims to have been part of the 187th Infantry (Raider Rakassans) in 2002-03 in Afghanistan.
In response to a question on Reddit, Eric Johnson claims that the worst way he has ever woken up was during incoming rockets in Afghanistan.
Johnson also implies that his experiences in Afghanistan combined with being homeless prompted thoughts of suicide.
He claims he was a homeless blogger writing in bars. (as user ‘tossed_away’ on Reddit)
Johnson also claims he was convicted of manslaughter for killing someone in a bar.
There are many variations of these same claims. People can search themselves on Reddit by using the below search engine and plugging in the users ‘TrollingThunder’, ‘MetalMartyr’, Problematic Johnson’ and ‘Martial Dawww’. Then use the keywords ‘Afghanistan’, ‘Anaconda’, ‘Rakkasan’, etc.
Reddit Comment Search: https://redditcommentsearch.com/
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Eric Johnson’s official military records were requested through the Freedom of Information Act.
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FOIA RESULTS – SELECTED
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FOIA RESULTS – COMPLETE
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DISCUSSION & SUMMARY
DISCUSSION
Absense Without Leave
It appears that Eric Johnson went AWOL soon after completion of boot camp. Maybe he went on leave after boot camp and never returned? He was Dropped From the Rolls (DFR) in May 2001. He returned from DFR in Feb 2002 and was immediately discharged.
Highly doubt he was then sent to Afghanistan in 2002-2003 as he claims.
Second DoD MDC Results
Of note is the second result from DoD Manpower Data Center which shows a second active duty term from 05 May 2002 to 22 Jan 2004.
Results from this database sometimes reflect service obligation vs. actual service. It is highly doubtful that after almost a year of being AWOL and discharging Johnson that the Army would have pulled him back in and sent him to Afghanistan, so we tend to feel the second DoD Manpower Data Center result reflects obligated time. His enlistment start date was 23 Jan 2001 and his enlistment end date was 22 Jan 2004 so this further supports the conclusion that it reflects service obligation vs. actual time spent on active duty.
Medals (or lack of)
Since Johnson was awarded no medals, this does not support his claim of being in Afghanistan in 2002-2003. He would have had campaign medals for Afghanistan.
Most importantly – no Purple Heart for wounds sustained in combat.
Assignments
There is no assignment that reflects Johnson serving with the 187th Infantry.
Criminal
Military Phony mentions criminal records when it seems pertinent to the case file. In this case, since he has a common name it is hard to pinpoint his story about serving three years in prison for manslaughter. We cannot confirm or deny.
An assault charge in Texas is linked to him but we’re not sure if that is related to his bar story about a manslaughter charge. Doubtful since this charge was 2009 and he claims the bar fight was 2003.
We do know that he has been extremely transient. He originated from Newport News VA and has lived in VA, MO, AL, TX, FL, OH and NV. We suspect that his Facebook page of places he’s lived is probably accurate. He currently lives in Nevada.
SUMMARY
Eric Joseph Johnson’s military claims are not supported by his official records.
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PHOTOS and SOCIAL MEDIA
PHOTOS
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SOCIAL MEDIA
FACEBOOK#1: https://www.facebook.com/TheTrollingThunder [now deleted – pic]
TWITTER#1: https://twitter.com/martialdawww
TWITTER#2: https://twitter.com/metalmartyr
TWITTER#3: https://twitter.com/TrollingThundr [not active]
REDDIT#1: https://www.reddit.com/user/metalmartyr/
REDDIT#2: https://www.reddit.com/user/TrollingThunder/
Also…
Johnson has created at least one fake Facebook profile to create a witness to his supposed military service: https://www.facebook.com/dwayne.rakkasan [now deleted]
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