Louis D’Allesandro – Veteran, US Marine Corps Retired, USMC Reserve, Red Flag
1303/14/2021 by militaryphonies
BACKGROUND
Louis Clifford D’Allesandro comes to us from Manchester, New Hampshire. D’Allesandro is 82 y/o at the time of this writing – March 2021. He often goes by “Lou.”
D’Allesandro is a New Hampshire state Senator and has been for many years.
Recently, D’Allesandro weighed in on an issue involving an outbreak of COVID-19 in a veteran’s rest home. In an article about the situation dated December 21, 2020 D’Allesandro was described as a retired member of the U.S. Marine Corps.
In an OP-ED written a few months later by D’Allesandro on February 5, 2021 he states that he is a “veteran” and goes on to state that the situation at the Veterans Home was incredibly personal for him.
A few of Senator D’Allesandro’s constituents caught these statements and in light of the leverage they had toward veteran’s issues, they asked Military Phony to look into the claims.
On Senator D’Allesandro’s official NH Senate page, it states under “Military Service” that he was in the U.S. Marine Corps.
SOURCE: http://gencourt.state.nh.us/Senate/members/webpages/district20.aspx
NOTE: The above senate page has now been edited and the military service has been removed. It can still be pulled up on Google cache or an internet archive. See comparison here – this edit occurred sometime between March 15 and March 21, 2021.
On a bill-tracking page, Senator D’Allesandro’s biography lists him as having retired from the U.S. Marine Corps.
SOURCE: https://billtrack50.com/legislatordetail/1021 (Click on “BIO”)
On the BallotPedia.org website, when the Senator was seeking reelection, it states that “D’Allesandro served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves in 1958.”
SOURCE: https://ballotpedia.org/Lou_D%27Allesandro
This comment comes with a reference – and that reference points to D’Allesandro’s official website under “Biography” which was accessed on May 16, 2014. This reference to being in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1958 appears to no longer be stated on the Biography page.
SOURCE: https://dallesandro.com/biography/
Then, there is this article…
D’Allesandro and several NH veterans respond to alleged Trump comments
“The fact that the current administration is so negative in their approach to veterans, it’s very disconcerting and very disheartening. It’s very disheartening for me who has served with many people in defense of this country,” said D’Allesandro, a retired member of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Then, this article where D’Allesandro is referred to as a veteran and retired U.S. Marine…
Veterans believe colleagues will support Biden
“Throughout the event, speakers such as Sullivan and State Senator Lou D’Allesandro (D-Manchester), himself a retired U.S. Marine, also used statements and actions from President Donald Trump as a contrast to Biden’s actions.”
On D’Allesandro’s Wikipedia page, there is a photo of him wearing a United States Marine Corps badge on his lapel…
Here is an official speaker’s biography for the NH Statewide Chamber of Commerce Summit held in December 2020.
On July 26, 2017, Senator D’Allesandro was officially recognized by a formal submission into the Senate Record. This document is part of the record at the U.S. Congress. In this official record, D’Allesandro was honored for having “served our country honorably in uniform in the U.S. Marine Corps…”
. . . . .
ACTIONS CONDUCTED BY MILITARY PHONIES
Louis Clifford D’Allesandro’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
. . . . .
FOIA RESULTS
NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC)
FOIA Results – Louis D’Allesandro Jr. – Summary Sheet
FOIA Results – Louis D’Allesandro Jr. – Assignments
FOIA Results – Louis D’Allesandro Jr. – Service Photo
. . . . .
OTHER RESEARCH
BOOK
Louis D’Allesandro had a book written about him titled “Lou D’Allesandro: Lion of the New Hampshire Senate and Thoughts for Presidential Hopefuls” by Mark C. Bodanza.
In this book, there are references to him being in college, playing football and signing up for the U.S. Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course (PLC).
Page 22
Page 23
Page 30
These references in the book appear to be a truthful account.
FOOTBALL
D’Allesandro was captain of his college football team. As such, college games are usually played on the weekend, which would seem incompatible with U.S. Marine Corps Reserve duty. He would have had to be excused from those drills. We are not entirely familiar with the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course back in the late 1950s/early 1960s, but it appeared to be a summertime commitment.
. . . . .
DISCUSSION and SUMMARY
As stated in the FOIA results – the NPRC summary sheet states that D’Allesandro’s records show no active duty service in the U.S. Marine Corps. Had he gone to boot camp prior to going into the reserves, that would have been recorded as active duty.
There is no Officer’s Candidate School (OCS) recorded either.
It appears that he was discharged from the program. It would not be correct to characterize this as “retired.”
D’Allesandro offered up the following document when asked about all of this.
This is a standard discharge document when one is not going to enter active duty from the Platoon Leaders Course. One is discharged as an E-1.
One is not considered a Marine if they never graduated boot camp or OCS.
As a side note, there is a Louis Walter D’Alesandro that was in the Marine Corps for over 25 years, including 1958. There is only one “L” in his last name, but there were occasions that it was misspelled with two “L”s. Louis Walter and Louis Clifford are two different people – no relationship we could find – and their Service Numbers are different.
Louis Walter D’Alesandro – 048636 (<– Service Number)
Louis Clifford D’Allesandro – 1866911 (<– Service Number)
Back at that time, individuals were assigned a service number as an identifier vs. serving under their Social Security number. The period of 1958 had a service number that was one digit longer than previous service numbers.
We point out this distinction because we could not find a reference to Louis Clifford serving in any capacity in 1958. His summary sheet from the NPRC states that he joined on March 19, 1959. There could have been the equivalent of a Delayed Entry Program, so there is that.
We reached out to Senator D’Allesandro through official channels asking him to clarify how he justifies using the label “veteran” or “Retired – U.S. Marine Corps.” We reached out initially, waited one week, then reached out again. We have not gotten a response.
We would have liked to have him comment on this issue.
PUBLIC CLAIMS
We were able to put together a few claims that appeared in the press. There is always the likelihood of other claims made in speeches or in private conversations but we will leave that for others to confirm.
. . . . .
PHOTOS
. . . . .
SOCIAL MEDIA
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/lou.dallesandro
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/senloudallesandro/ (reelection campaign)
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A politician lying or embellishing the truth? I have neve heard of such a thing.
Talk about “Stolen Valor”, If anyone needs to be voted out of office it’s this person.
Well, well, well, ain’t this so very special! It seems as if State Senator Louis D’Allesandro of New Hampshire is an embellishing Valor stealing POS. Why am I not surprised that he has a D after his name. And considers himself a Lion? Wonder how his driving across bridges skills are? The last “Lion of Senate” I had heard about , those skills were lacking. At least that one had swimming skills going for him, so there is that.
Welcome to your upcoming GOOgle Fame as an embellishing SOS. You are the epitome of what is wrong with politicians. If you are going to lie about your Military (Lack of) Service, wonder what else you have lied about? The inquiring minds of Voters in NH should want to know.
This requires more digging. Either his service record was incomplete or full of errors.
I don’t follow what you are saying. We filed a FOIA request with the NPRC and all of the results were presented.
Basically, we don’t think that D’Allesandro’s involvement with the PLC is in question. In fact, he pretty much details it in his book. It appears that due to a knee injury, the option of going active duty was not available to him.
We would be interested in hearing from him about all of this, but I believe that it may be a case of characterizing his brief involvement with the Marines vs. an entire military career that was “missed” if that is what you are suggesting. I’m still not clear as to what you are saying – you think he did serve in the Marine Corps and retired and the NPRC could not find any record of that? If this is what you are saying that is kind of a long shot and I have my doubts that this is the direction that D’Allesandro would take – i.e. that there are “missing” records and more digging needs to be done.
It was a long time ago. Different locations where records were stored, etc. Heck, I have a different set of records that I made with a photocopier than the one’s that were sent to me from St Louis (or NO).
Six years is short of retirement. Medical retirement?
D’Allesandro doesnt sound very reliable.
Records that far back are kept at the National Archives / NPRC. If you wanted WWI or WWII records, or even farther back than that, they are kept at the National Archives / NPRC. There is no alternate site.
Records that are more modern day – i.e. mid-1990s and upwards are kept at their respective service branches – i.e. Department of the Navy, Headquarters Marine Corps, Department of the Air Force, etc. Only exception to that is the U.S. Army, who also keep theirs at NPRC for recent release from active duty.
All of this is detailed at the bottom of an SF-180.
Since NPRC is the body that would hold all of D’Allesandro’s official military records, we went through the NPRC and they gave us what they had. The records detail the extent of his involvement with training for the Marines. He was discharged as an E-1 from the PLC – which is standard for not continuing onto OCS or boot camp. Most likely due to the knee injury as he suggests in his book.
From what I read, the PLC is sort of like a junior ROTC… a prepartion course for entry into active duty. I don’t believe you can medically retire from PLC.
I follow you. This would make sense.
PLC washout, He did a few weeks of training here and there, so he certainly can say that he truthfully was “in” the Marines.. but he was never “A” Marine
MP: I had to read through it several times. “Inactive” was the most prevalent word. I offer my apologies after having to talk it out. I wish that he could just talk about it without embellishment. He can support the USMC and still be honest.
I am also no war hero. I did what I could and got my four/out. But I send my love to the forward deployed and combined special operations folks.
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Goober. And I don’t mean that in a kind way.
He wants it both ways, it seems. The narrative in his book is factual. The *other* interpretations leave much to be desired and left as is, can imply much more, maybe poorly worded (and that giving him or whomever a HUGE benefit of the doubt) but, either way, they are what they are and the were not corrected or modified.
THAT is the issue at hand.
Were my service in *anyway* misstated, I’d be furious and you can bet your backside, (I’m being nice here) I’d get it fixed for my OWN edification and sense of right.
This guy has less time on REAL AD than an E-1 sailor at the Gedunk at NTC Bainbridge, MD.
What a boring gasbag.