Rob Pearson – US Marine MSgt (Ret), 25 Years, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon – Blog of Shame
1605/24/2018 by militaryphonies
“For those who fought for it, Freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.
former Marine, proud to have served 4 tours in the middle east.” – Rob Pearson
BACKGROUND
Rob Pearson comes to us from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is 59 years old as of May 2018. He is originally from St. Louis, MO. People sometimes refer to him respectfully and affectionally as “Sarge.”
Pearson was brought to the attention of Military Phony due to inconsistencies in his claims and medals presented on his Facebook profile.
If we were to enlarge the above photos to get a closer look at his medals…
As you can see from the above enlargement, he has a Bronze Star Medal, a Purple Heart and a Combat Action Ribbon. Quite interesting is he has no deployment ribbons. No Sea Service Deployment Ribbon which is awarded for each deployment.
Then, the Good Conduct Medal is for active duty of three years duration. Since he has three stars on top of the ribbon, it would represent 12 years of active duty.
This is in contrast to the six (6) service stripes that he wears on his sleeve, which designate a period of four (4) years each. Six times four = 24 years.
An article states that Pearson retired with twenty-five (25) years of service, which is supported by the service stripes on his sleeve…
But… the twenty-five (25) year service claim is not supported by the four awards of the Good Conduct Medal which equal twelve (12) years. Perhaps he is speaking of time in the Marine Corps Reserve? (We’ll come back to this point.)
Pearson takes a lot of official looking photos in his dress blues. We thought at first they were from a formal function, but on closer inspection, it appears that he strung up an American flag on a backyard fence.
Difficult to see, but the Kuwait Liberation Medal is also upside down in this photo.
It is also upside down in this photo, which may have been taken as part of the same sequence on the same day. Here, Pearson claims “Special ops.”
Then, Rob Pearson has a display case of his awards and accomplishments…
Enlarging the display case shows the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon and the “Special Operations” claim, along with MSgt (E-8).
Pearson makes several references to combat and injuries while in combat…
On Rob Pearson’s Facebook profile, he claims to have done four tours in the Middle East…
You may have noticed that Pearson is a bodybuilder and works for a bodybuilding company. Well, he also puts his Marine Corps accomplishments on display at work as well.
You may be asking yourself at this point – although it is assumed that they are unaware, is it really fair to bring his Pearson’s place of employment into all of this? Well, it appears that Pearson does…
SOURCE: Rob Pearson’s Facebook and EUROPA Sports Products web page
We’ll let you be the judge of the ethics of the work association. As we stated, they are probably unaware. We can say for certain that if someone uses their military claims to gain or promote their work or work product, it may enter into some interesting territory.
Wouldn’t you love to hear the conversation that takes place in the below setting with active duty members?
To Rob Pearson’s credit, he looks like a rough, gruff, cigar-chomping Master Sergeant of Marines, so why would anyone doubt any of his claims?
Just a few more direct claims and claims by implication.
USMC Power Lifter…
This may be true… we cannot prove or disprove so we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. Believe it or not, the Marine Corps does have a powerlifting team. If Pearson was on this team, it would be a pretty impressive accomplishment.
SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) – very pretigious training…
We will check the SERE claim in his official military records.
Then there are several direct and indirect claims of tours to the Middle East.
Rob Pearson certainly looks the part of a combat-hardened Marine MSgt.
A little difficult to see, but he seems to have a few less medals in the above photo. This will be discussed further in the SUMMARY & DISCUSSION section below.
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FOIA RESULTS – SELECTED
However, the DoD Manpower database shows different service dates for the second period of active duty.
Since there are no record of assignment (Chronological Record) entries for Nov 1986 – Nov 1989, there is a suspicion that the date of “November 1, 1986” on the Summary Sheet may have been a typo and it was meant to be “1989” instead.
In either case, the documented active duty service was less than the typical twenty years required for retirement. It was certainly less than the twenty-five (25) years claimed by Pearson. Recall that the Summary Sheet says “Retired” so this points to a medical retirement.
We also checked the USMC Combat Action Ribbon and Humanitarian Service Ribbon database.
There was no CAR or HSM listed for Robert Pearson. It should be noted that this database has been found to not include all awards, but it has been more reliable for recent conflicts. Still, no conclusion can be drawn from this result alone.
Then, there are the pages of record of assignments…
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FOIA RESULTS – COMPLETE
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DISCUSSION & SUMMARY
DISCUSSION
In looking at the case of Rob Pearson, it almost has the feel that a huge block of his career, including all of the claimed Middle East tours, is missing or not accounted for.
RETIRED
However, the key here is the designation of “Retired” on the Summary Page. That shows us that the records are complete. There were not enough years for a typical twenty (20) year retirement so there could have been an early retirement or a medical retirement.
In fact, if you combine this possibility with all of the hospital stays, it points to either an injury or chronic illness. In 1986, Pearson was transferred to the Temporary Disability Retirement List. He reentered the service at a later date for only a few years. This pattern of medical visits could not be related to a combat wound since he does not have a Purple Heart and he doesn’t have anything on his Combat History Page.
AWARDS
In the following photos, he seems to not have the number of awards that he does in pictures taken later. That is in spite of him having the rank/stripes of a MSgt (E-8) in both of the photos.
Later, the awards seemed to accumulate but the rank stayed the same. Plausible? Yes, but still a bit interesting.
In the following photo, marked as taken on 30 SEPT 1985 (850930) he has the rank of Sergeant of Marines (E-5) but only has a few ribbons.
Clearly one row of ribbons, and although it is difficult to make out, it appears there are two but maybe only one. This would be consistent with his record of assignments since his records show no deployments prior to 30 SEPT 1985. It shows the overseas assignment of Okinawa, but no deployments.
SERE
Rob Pearson had the MOS of 1345 — which is a Heavy Equipment Operator. He was in support of Combat Engineer units. We did not see and SERE school listed. He wears the t-shirt which would suggest that he was trained in SERE, but he makes no statements other than the photo.
POWER LIFTING
Pearson claims he was on the Corps Powerlifting team. As stated above, the Marine Corps does have a Powerlifting team but to prove or disprove this goes beyond our scope.
RANK
According to his official military records, Pearson’s final rank was Sergeant (E-5) vs. his claim of Master Sergeant (E-8).
TOURS – COMBAT
Other than Okinawa, no overseas tours as documented in Pearson’s record of assignments and further documented by his awards. Neither support four tours in the Middle East as he claims.
No Combat Action Ribbon or Purple Heart is listed in his records. It is difficult to determine which conflict(s) Pearson is claiming that would give him those awards.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
We saw nothing in his military records that support a claim of “Special Operations.”
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SUMMARY
Most of Robert Pearson’s claims are not supported by his official military records. He was a Marine that served for over 10 years… but his records do not show that he served for 25 years. The service stripes that he wears on his sleeves to not match what is in his records.
He got out as an E-5 vs. an E-8. No CAR, no Purple Heart, and no Bronze Star medal. Ironically, we could not find support for having three stars on his Good Conduct Medal.
Pearson has a career in the Marine Corps that anyone would be proud of. It appears that he took liberties with the truth as many of these claims are unsupported. If he has supporting documentation as to many of these claims, we would be glad to help set the record straight but it’s not looking too good.
If Pearson used any of these claims to gain employment or uses them to sell his work products – it could put him in direct violation of the Stolen Valor Act.
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PHOTOS and SOCIAL MEDIA
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SOCIAL MEDIA
- FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/robpea
This Ain’t Hell: http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=79618
UMM and a real hero get the MOH and he has to lie
A shame that this Marine felt the need to lie and embellish his record and duty.
Shame on you.!
There is no Marine Sergeant that I know of that will accept the moniker “sarge”.
This assclown was a heavy junk operator, crane, bulldozer, whatever. Nothing wrong with that but he lied.
He was a rifle MARKSMAN, not the prestigious RIFLE EXPERT, now did he ever qualify with the .45 pistol/9mm pistol ?? so WTF is with the pistol EXPERT Badge?
His ribbon rack is a total lie.
Assholes like this piss me off, 15 years of honorable service and he pisses all over that. I spent 6 years in the Corps (69-75), got the NDSM, GCM and OSSR, do I need to embellish on that or claim awards I was not awarded? Hell NO, I’m proud of what I did, and what I was awarded. Sack of shit needs to eat a bag of dicks.
BTW, between his Good Conduct and his National Defense ribbons…that’s the Marine Corps Selected Reserve ribbon….like a GCM but awarded for 3 years of service in the reserves..and making 90% of the meetings….that would equal the 15 years of service on his DD-214
Combat Engineer and Heavy Junk are two completely different MOSs all together
This chump’s no Combat Engineer but he is an asshole………
Fixed. Thanks for your input.
[…] partners at Military Phonies share their work on this fellow, Rob Pearson, who claims that he was wounded in combat while he was […]
Hello,
I am [redacted]. I served 96 to 00. I have a boss who claims to have been a Marine, but no one has ever seen any proof. He wont release his DD 214. How would u or any one be able to verify his service? Please let me know. Thanks
https://militaryphony.com/report-form/
Why lie? Even if you never deployed, you still did more than most Americans. Be proud of your service.
Disgrace to the EGA
The records you have posted do show that he WAS deployed overseas once;to Okinawa (FPO San Francisco) from Mar to Aug of 83. It appears that he was hospitalized there & was soon returned to Norfolk, VA.
This is a far cry from four (4) deployments to the middle east.
The records also indicate that he received one (1) bronze star,… for his Good Conduct Medal, indicating a 2nd GCM award.
With what you have here, I agree that it shows that he served from Jul 78 to May 86 & then again from Nov 89 to Apr 92, obtaining the rank of Sgt. (E-5). It appears that he was discharged for medical reasons.
He served. That’s admirable. The embellishments aren’t.
Ah yes… the Okinawa deployment is true. I take it that there was no float associated with it due to not having a SSDN. Thanks for your input.
I spent 26 years in the US Army and only have 4 good conduct medals. Yes they are suppose to be automatic but its something I never ran down or worried about. While my dd214 shows 1 Iraq and 2 afghan deployments I also had deployments to Pakistan x2 and a several other places that are not listed on my 214 some I have orders for some I just hoped on an air craft and went. my 214 shows 5 years as an 18Z 23 years as an 18B 24 years as an 18C 17 years as an 18F so do I have 60 years of serves? Just be carful how you look at this stuff, I don’t see anywhere that you show his DD-214.
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(NOTE: The below reply was also sent to you via email. Looking forward to your response. ~ MP)
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Thank you for your service.
The discussion about the Good Conduct Medal(s), deployments, and length of service was meant to be circumstantial since many things did not add up.
Although what you say is true about hopping on a plane I don’t think that would be considered a tour unless the definition of the term was stretched. I’m not speaking about your service, I mean Pearson’s use of the term 4 tours in the Middle East. He went to Okinawa and many times BLT’s were pulled for floats, but they would receive a Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. Again, not trying to split hairs but this is also circumstantial and feed into a larger picture.
Once you look at records and start giving the benefit of the doubt, it never ends. Could an individual have been cross-assigned on top of them being already cross-assigned and volunteered to get on a fixed-wing aircraft and be shuttled across the globe without time to have it entered in his record? Yes, it is possible but not plausible. When you get several of these things stacking up it points to something else.
Same with the earlier photos with fewer medals and then they jump to having a chestful… circumstantial.
By circumstantial, I mean that each one of these by themselves can be explained away with some plausible explanation, but when they stack up then you have to employ a rule that an individual only gets so much benefit of the doubt.
We have enough doubt about his claims that we put the ball in his court. If he would like to clear some of this up we are all ears. Right now he is claiming we got the wrong guy but this is tied to his SSN and he posted a photo with his SSN on his Facebook, so those records are tied to him.
The NPRC rarely provide DD-214’s. They have on rare occasion but do not standardly provide it. Instead, they provide a Summary Sheet and on this document, they list his status as “Retired” which means the records they have are complete.
The bigger picture is the potential violation of Stolen Valor. The Combat Action Ribbon and the Purple Heart would place him at odds with the Stolen Valor Act. We can’t understand why he would not have these in his records, or records support of a conflict that he was wounded in. Recall the Combat History Page was blank with no entries.
I notice that you are from North Carolina. Do you know Rob Pearson and were you asked to intervene on his behalf?
~ MP
He claims SOF… yet I remember a video of USSOCOM CINC back ca 1995 saying that there were no SOF units in the USMC…. MARSOC wasn’t established until much later, like a decade or more.