BACKGROUND
Margaret C. DeSanti comes to us from Mesa, Arizona. DeSanti is 84 years old as of October 2019.
This is an old story, really, since Ms. DeSanti was published by This Ain’t Hell in 2014. They could find no Army records on her to support her claims.
DeSanti was back in the news a few days ago..
Since Ms. DeSanti was back in the news, another stolen valor article was posted about her on Monday 21 October 2019.
DeSanti became an intriguing “feel-good” story by riding on a flight sponsored by Honor Flight Arizona. The Honor Flight Arizona organization came out with the following statement:
“For the first time in 11 years, Honor Flight Arizona has received reports that a veteran who participated in a recent Honor Flight trip may have misrepresented or embellished their military service. We appreciate the concern over this matter that has been expressed by our community and we want to let everyone know that we take this very seriously. Due to privacy considerations, we cannot share more information on this matter.”
On “THE FIVE,” a show on the FoxNews Channel, the now-viral video of DeSanti doing pushups was highlighted and and she was presented as an Army Nurse.
We reached out to Dagen McDowell / The Five to ask for their consideration to do a correction but have not gotten a response back.
Then, military.com picked up on the story and posted that some doubt DeSanti’s military record.
Task and Purpose now picked it up:
https://taskandpurpose.com/push-up-nurse-stolen-valor
As well as American Thinker:
Many were skeptical and asked Military Phony to look into these claims.
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ACTIONS CONDUCTED BY MILITARY PHONIES
Although we do not expect to get different Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) results than This Ain’t Hell received in 2014, Military Phony refiled another FOIA accounting for several names that DeSanti could have served under, but her uniform does have the name tag of “DESANTI.”
Margaret C. DeSanti’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
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FOIA RESULTS
The DoD Manpower Data Center database was searched every year from mid 1980s when it has viable data to present day with the same result – no dates came up for active duty in any military service branch. Sometimes this database has trouble with Reserve activation to active duty and/or very short enlistments. For instance – boot camp active duty and then the individual returned to a drilling reserve status.
Here is one negative result that would have covered time in ODS/S…
NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC)
Here is the “no records found” FOIA result from 2014…
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DISCUSSION and SUMMARY
Military records for Margaret DeSanti were not found at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) when a request was made in 2014.
A recent follow up FOIA request to NPRC asking to account for various spellings of the last name also came back with a “no records found” result.
DeSanti is not recorded as having earned a Silver Star in any of the online databases.
STOLEN VALOR
If the claims by Margaret DeSanti were used to leverage work, military or civilian promotions, or anything else of value, he may be in violation of Stolen Valor laws. State laws may also apply.
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PHOTOS
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SOCIAL MEDIA
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/maggie.desanti.9
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