Anthony John Benardello – US Army Ranger, Sniper, Delta Force, Served in Five Wars, 12-15 Years in Special Forces, Blog of Shame

militaryphonies

6 years ago

BACKGROUND

Anthony John Benardello comes to us from Florence, South Carolina. At the time of this writing, August 2020, Benardello is 61 years old. His nickname is “The Wolf.”

Benardello attended college at the State University of New York. He was elected president of the Student Association but his time was marked by controversy.

Here is a claim of being a “sniper in Special Forces:…

SOURCE: The Aquinas – The University of Scranton Student Newspaper

This, in turn, was picked up by the New York Times. Due to publication in the NY Times, it got quite a bit of publicity…

There was a claim about being in the Gulf War.

Although Benardello was not directly quoted, it makes one wonder how the journalist could arrive at such a conclusion or for that matter, why didn’t Benardello correct the claim if it was not true he was a Gulf War veteran?

On his now-deleted Facebook page, Benardello makes several claims i.e. sniper, HALO, etc. as well as attending Campbell Law School from 1998-2000.

On his high school alumni page, which was used to determine his Facebook profile above, listed several other claims including graduating law school. This is a different law school (UNC Chapel Hill) than above (Campbell). There is no listing we could find that shows that Benardello graduated or is a practicing attorney, so providing it is true that he attended and graduated he may not have taken or passed the bar exam but we don’t know for sure.

Notice that he claims Delta with SFOD-D out of Ft. Bragg, NC.

Here is an article that Benardello wrote for the school publication Bingington Review. In the article, he talks about serving in Somalia in the 1993 The Battle of Mogadishu, detailed in the movie “Black Hawk Down.” The claim of serving for 12 years with Special Forces is in his brief bio at the end of the article.

. . . . .

ACTIONS CONDUCTED BY MILITARY PHONIES

Anthony John Benardello’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

. . . . .

FOIA RESULTS

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MANPOWER DATA CENTER (SCRA)

DoD Manpower Data Center Results – Anthony John Benardello

NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC)

FOIA Result – NPRC – Summary Sheet – Anthony John Benardello

NOTE: The above FOIA results were obtained directly from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) and represent a clean chain of custody. The following FOIA results were obtained from a third-party source. We cannot speak to their authenticity but they appear to support the FOIA we obtained.

3rd Party FOIA Results – NPRC – Summary Sheet

*3rd Party FOIA Results – NPRC – Photograph*

3rd Party FOIA Results – NPRC – Assignments

. . . . .

CRIMINAL

There were quite a few criminal charges found on Benardello. He appears to have spent time in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. Some aspects were overturned on appeal – see case specifics here.

[2012] https://mugshots.com/US-Counties/North-Carolina/Mecklenburg-County-NC/Anthony-Benardello.20486856.html (ASSAULT AND BATTERY/AFFRAY – AGG.PHYS.FORCE)
[2011] https://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Anthony_Benardello_5836014/ (BATTERY FACILITY EMPLOYEE BY THROWING/EXPELLING FLUIDS/MATERIAL)
[2010] https://arrestfacts.com/Anthony-Benardello-2O5l71 (ASSAULT/BATTERY ON PERSON 65 Y/O OR OLDER)
[2002] https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/former-teacher-charged-in-murder-for-hire-plot/83-404247417 (Newspaper Article)

. . . . .

DISCUSSION and SUMMARY

LENGTH OF SERVICE

Although there were minor variations in the exact join and release days, both the DoD Manpower Data Center (SCRA) results as well as the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) summary page list active duty dates of 09-10 MAR 1984 through 22-23 APR 1986 — just over two years.

There are no listing of dates that would have accounted for Operation Desert Shield/Storm (ODS/S) nor were there listing of dates that would have accounted for Benardello being in Somalia in April or October of 1993. The Battle of Mogadishu was fought on October 3rd and 4th, 1993.

RANK

He left the Army as a Private First Class (E-3). We did not find any claims of rank so this is a non-issue other than it would have been hard to achieve all of the training he claimed with both time in service and rank.

ASSIGNMENTS

As discussed above – no Somalia, Afghanistan, or Iraq.

MEDALS

The only medal listed in Benardello’s records was an Army Service Medal.

If he had been overseas, there would have been either an Army Overseas Ribbon (OSR) and/or an Army Reserve Components Overseas Training Ribbon (ARCOTR) which is the Army Reserve version of the Army Overseas Service Ribbon.

Benardello’s official military records had neither overseas ribbon.

The rest of his awards were shooting and grenade badges.

TRAINING

There is nothing in Benardello’s military records reflect sniper training.

We should note that he qualified as a sharpshooter, which further casts doubt on his claim of being a sniper.

. . . . .

STOLEN VALOR

If the claims by Anthony Benardello were used to leverage work, military or civilian promotions, or anything else of value, he may have been in violation of Stolen Valor laws. State laws may also apply.

. . . . .