“I did 3 tours…” – James Krupsky

BACKGROUND

James Peter Krupsky comes to us from Statesville, NC.  He is 55 years old as of June 2018.  For some reason, people that are around Jim Krupsky are under the impression that he was a RECON Marine with four (4) Purple Hearts, three (3) tours of duty, a Beirut Lebanon Marine Barracks bombing survivor, and took a bullet in the back while saving another Marine and had to get out of the Marine Corps after 12 years, leaving the USMC as a Gunny Sergeant (E-7).

The story of Jim Krupsky is challenging to keep track of because there are so many twists and turns, and the questions of who said what, and who is who – may prove difficult to keep track of.  However, we’ll try and be a guide to the claims and let you decide for yourself.

To be transparent, we got one direct quote from Krupsky that was attributable directly to him.  It was when he commented about having 3 tours.

Several people have told us that Krupsky commonly refers to three tours in the Middle East.  It is plausible that this is what he is referring to in the above post since it was made in the context of military service vs. a visit as a private tourist.

We have other indirect claims we will point out, but we’ve received assurances that Krupsky has made these claims to several people and they have provided us with the equivalent of sworn statements.

Apparently, Krupsky’s wife has made a lot of these claims.  Here, she reached out to the singer Bob Seger and claimed James was a Marine RECON veteran.

James also spoke around town in small group meetings and told several people that he was Marine Corps RECON and a survivor of the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut Lebanon.  Other claims include four Purple Hearts, achieving the rank of GySgt (E-7) and being shot in the back while saving another Marine.

We asked that somebody from the Beirut community familiar with the history and who maintains accurate casualty lists – to check the casualty files that he maintains and perhaps speak with James about his unit while in Lebanon and circumstances of Krupsky being wounded.

A handful of surviving Beirut Marines from RECON were asked about Krupsky.  They said that there was a ‘Robert Krupsky’ who served in Alpha Company of RECON Battalion, but Alpha Co did not go to Beirut.  Nobody knew a James or Jim Krupsky and they also confirmed he was not part of their unit since they know everybody.

In addition, Krupsky’s wife (and/or Krupsky himself) claimed that he was Force Recon vs. Battalion Recon.  Force Recon did not deploy to Beirut, only a company from Battalion Recon.

Thinking that someone was missed from the casualty list, James Krupsky was approached on a Marine Corps Veteran Facebook group and asked about his unit, but he said he does not speak of his tours with people he doesn’t know, but he did say his first four years were from 1979 to 1983.

Another informant had told us that they heard Krupsky’s wife say that he had four (4) Purple Hearts.  This was brought up.  Then, things took a little bit of a strange turn when someone claiming to be Krupsky’s wife posted on his account, confirming that he has four Purple Hearts.

Then, an account claiming to be Krupsky’s wife directly contacted the same person that deals with Beirut history.  During the following exchange of Private Messages, most of the claims given to us by several informants were confirmed again.  It was beyond coincidence.

Just after the individual said “he does have 4” the person that deals with Beirut history was blocked by this Facebook account.

Since the PM conversation was now blocked, there were parting comments made back on the public post on the Marine Corps Veteran Facebook group.

Yet another informant claims that James Krupsky has hit up about every veterans organization in the immediate area and they’ve provided him with money for his car payment and his power bill and other things.  This would be acceptable if Krupsky was a veteran, but is there a chance he has used stories of being wounded for leverage?

Since the combat PTSD was designed as a support group, there was really no money involved so the speculation is that this is why Krupsky stopped coming after a while.

Things were turned back over to Military Phony with a confirmation that James Krupsky was not on a Beirut WIA casualty list nor did the surviving members of RECON company know of him.

Military Phony ordered James Krupsky’s military records.

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FOIA RESULTS

Krupsky got out as a Lance Corporal / LCpl (E-3) vs a Gunnery Sergeant / GySgt (E-7).

Krupsky left active duty months before the Marine Barracks bombing in October 1983.

Krupsky has no Sea Service Deployment Ribbon which he would have for each deployment.  Therefore, no indication of “tours,” let alone the three (3) he claims.

No Purple Hearts or Combat Action Ribbons.

On to the history of assignments…

Krupsky had the MOS of 0311 (rifleman) and later 8151 (guard).  There is nothing in his record to show training for RECON or that he even held that MOS.

The assignments also do not show a unit that would have been in Beirut Lebanon at the time.  In fact, Krupsky left active duty and was transferred to the IRR (Individual Ready Reserve or non-drilling reservist) on 30 June 1983 – designated by “830630” in the record).  The point is that he was not on active duty with the Marine Corps when the Marine Barracks bombing occurred in October 1983.  He had gotten out four months prior to the bombing.

There was no active duty listing for Krupsky in DoD Manpower beyond Sept 1984, so this, along with the Summary Sheet above, does not support the claims of being in the Marines for twelve (12) years, eleven (11) of which are claimed to be in combat.

While on this subject – were there even US wars or conflicts back in the late seventies and eighties that would give a total of 11 years of being in combat?

We also checked the USMC Combat Action Ribbon and Humanitarian Service Ribbon database.

There was no CAR or HSM listed for James Krupsky.  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.  With that stated, it seems like “3 tours” or four Purple Hearts would have had Krupsky’s awards show up in this database as confirmation.

CRIMINAL RECORDS

It looks like James has had a few run-ins with the law…

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DISCUSSION & SUMMARY

DISCUSSION

Why have so many people close to and around James Krupsky state the same exact service claims about him?  The statements by his wife are so military-specific that it is hard to believe she is that fluent in military jargon, but it’s possible.  Was James in the room coaching her and she was acting as a proxy or was it James himself using his wife’s account?

REACHING OUT TO JAMES KRUPSKY

We approached James about these claims to get his side of the story.  He claims he was hacked.  He claims he will get an attorney and sue, and he claims he will call the police.  All when he was merely being asked about his service.

Perhaps the oddest thing of all is that he now implies that he has no wife…

So, if James Krupsky is not married as he just claimed… and we can take him at his word, then it means it was James posting this…

What is also strange is that James is saying he is not married, but rumor has it around the town that he lives in is that he just got married or reaffirmed his vows in the past few weeks.

Oh well, the only thing that is certain is that it is hard to know what to believe.

COMBAT PTSD SUPPORT GROUP

Someone observed and claimed to us that the final post made on the public Facebook forum for Marines was made at 1am.  One hour later at 2am, Krupsky posted to the director of his PTSD combat trauma speaking group where he made the comments, asking to speak to the director.  This would have been after the Facebook post and after the PM interaction with the account claiming to be Krupsky’s wife.

We don’t know what that is about but it seems unlikely it was related to t-shirts.  It is plausible that since there were questions swirling, there are three likely candidates as reasons for this:

1. James Krupsky may have wanted to complain about comments he made in the small group have leaked out to others and perhaps he felt like he was assured a “safe space.”  This could be true but the flip side is the group probably expects honesty when people talk about their military service history.
2. James Krupsky may have wanted to either provide caveats to what was said in the group when he spoke or perhaps even backtrack or apologize.  Hard to tell.
3. James Krupsky may have tried to find out if anything was said to the group’s director or if anyone complained about him.  Again, hard to tell.

What we do know for sure is that it was interesting that he tried to contact the group’s director only one hour after these conversations took place.

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SUMMARY

Except for serving in the US Marine Corps, most of the claims attributed to James Peter Krupsky are not supported by his official military records.  He was a Marine that served for 3 years on active duty – the first year (i.e. 09/26/1979 – 06/29/1980) being Reserve and most likely Delayed Entry Program… but the point is that his records do not show that he served for 12 years.  He served an additional three years in the Marine Corps Reserve (IRR) after active duty.

He got out as an E-3 vs. an E-7.  No CARs (Combat Action Ribbon), no Sea Service Deployment Ribbons and no Purple Heart(s).

In fact, on the FOIA cover letter, the lack of any Purple Heart award was put to rest.

The direct quote of having three tours is not supported in his military records, so that alone gives James Krupsky a place on a Military Phony blog.   The other things can be argued that they are all hearsay, and his wife (if he is married) is making the statements vs. him.

However, we have people that have given us sworn statements on all of the other claims as well.

QUESTIONS

• If James Krupsky is married, why is his wife under the impression he was a RECON Marine with 12 years service, 11 of those in combat, and has four Purple Hearts?
• If his wife is making all of James Krupsky’s service claims, how come he is not correcting her?
• Who has heard of the DoD sending a letter decades after military service awarding a fourth Purple Heart?  Could that have been the Camp Lejeune Water Contamination survey and been confused with a fourth award of the Purple Heart?  Who knows?
• If James Krupsky has PTSD, how did he get it if not from combat?
• How is James Krupsky getting combat service-connected disability with the VA if he was not in combat?

STOLEN VALOR

If James Krupsky as used any of these claims such as the Purple Hearts or Beirut Bombing survivor to gain money or anything of value, it could put him in direct violation of the Stolen Valor Act.

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UPDATE: James Krupsky replied at 10:42am on 08 JUNE 2018…

NOTE: I think “Dodge” was an autocorrect substitution for “DoD”

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PHOTOS and SOCIAL MEDIA

PHOTOS

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SOCIAL MEDIA

• FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008425930588 (CURRENT)
• FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/jim.krupsky  (OLD)
• LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-krupsky-a58759103/

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This Ain’t Hell: http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=79854