BACKGROUND

Richard A. McKinney comes to us from Muncie, Indiana. He was born in Hollywood California and grew up in Ohio. McKinney is 51 years old as of April 2019.

McKinney is an Islam convert and earlier in his life he served in the United States Marine Corps. His military service seems important to the story he tells because he paints a portrait of hatred – especially toward Muslims.

The following post on Facebook tells his story – born in Hollywood CA, grew up in Cincinnati OH, used and sold drugs, ran away from home, joined the Marine Corps in 1986, discharged in 1993, joined the Army in 1995 and was medically retired in 2013 after being injured in Iraq in 2006.

This is important to understand because McKinney’s story narrative has been picked up on and carried on several media outlets – including CBS and MSN. Basically, the theme of his story is that it is a journey from hatred to understanding.

CBS Sunday Morning carried his story as well as others.

This is the same video without the introduction…

In this video, McKinned claims that he has twenty-six (26) confirmed kills but “stopped adding after 26.”

He claims that he fought in the Middle East several times, was in [Operation] Desert Shield/Storm, South America, Philippines and Somalia.

He claims that the first time he was shot at, in the context of military service with the Marines, he thought back and realized he was in English class that same time a year ago.

In the following article, The Facing Project: The Anger is Mine, McKinney said that anger got him an early discharge from the Marines, and the PTSD got him discharged.

In the following Op-Ed, titled “I wanted to kill Muslims, too. But then I saw the light,” McKinney wrote that he fought in Somalia:

In the following article from the Ball State Daily News, McKinney is said to have been a Sergeant (E-5) in the Marine Corps. He works for Ball State.

To several people, some of the claims just didn’t sound right, especially to someone that served with him.

In addition, the people that investigate Stolen Valor were swamped with requests about Richard McKinney, many having some doubts about his story.

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ACTIONS CONDUCTED BY MILITARY PHONIES

Richard A. McKinney’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

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FOIA RESULTS – COMPLETE

NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC)

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DISCUSSION and SUMMARY

SUMMARY SHEET

Richard A. McKinney’s official military records show that he was in the Marine Corps and US Army National Guard from 1986 – 2013. Oddly, the Combat Action Ribbon (CAR) is not listed but it shows up in the USMC CAR/HSM database.

His time in the USMC shows he was a Cannoneer (0811) and an assualtman (0351) usually meaning TOW anti-tank.

DESERT SHIELD / STORM – 1990-91

People that served with him say the unit didn’t get there until after the fighting in Desert Storm, so that would explain the Kuwait Liberation Medal but no CAR.

SOMALIA – 1993

People that served with him say they went to Somalia but they didn’t see much, if any, combat action. He was awarded a CAR but the heavy fighting was by the US Army and not the Marine Corps – think “Black Hawk Down” movie.

MARINE SERGEANT

There are several claims that he got out of the Marines as a Sergeant (E-5) but his CAR says a Corporal (E-4) the same year (1993) he got out. Also, the US Marine Corps summary line in the National Guard records points to him being an E-3.

OVERSEAS

There is no “war” or conflict other than Panama, Desert Storm (Iraq), Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq (2003) during his time in the service but his records do not show some of the deployments that he claimed – namely South America and the Philippines. The Philippines was most likely a liberty stop so the image of deep-jungle insertion to fight anti-government insurgents may not be realistic.

His MOS of Cannoneer and TOW Missle would not put him into covert status and have him inserted into hotspots around the world that are kept off his military records. For this reason, we doubt some of his claims.

WHERE WAS HE “GETTING SHOT AT ?”

Lastly, he claimed in the video that the first time he was getting shot at he looked at his watch and realized a year before he was in English class. If he joined in July of 1986, school would have been out so he must have been talking about being somewhere in the spring of 1987 when he was being shot at which would make his English class in spring of 1986. We could not think of any US conflict in spring of 1987 where the Marine Corps would send him where he would be getting shot at.

TWENTY-SIX (26) CONFIRMED KILLS

This is probably the wildest claim that McKinney makes. Although military records do not keep track of such things for a regular MOS’s, McKinney simply did not have the geographical assignments supported in his records that would put him in conflicts that he could rack up such numbers of kills.

We even asked people in artillery if an artilleryman would claim such a number through their regular duty. After a chuckle and our assurance that the question was serious – we got a hard “no.”

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PHOTOS

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SOCIAL MEDIA

FACEBOOK#1: https://www.facebook.com/ramckinney1081

FACEBOOK#2: https://www.facebook.com/richard.mckinney.58760

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