Steve Slaton – US Army Helicopter Co-Pilot, Retired Army, Vietnam, Blog of Shame

militaryphonies

2 years ago

BACKGROUND

Steven Hawthorne Slaton comes to us from Show Low, Arizona. At the time of this writing, June 2024, Slaton is 69 years old.

Slaton is running for State Representative in Arizona in LD-7. Slaton emphasizes his military service.

On Slaton’s official campaign site, he claims to have been honorably discharged and to have been a helicopter co-pilot in Vietnam.

SOURCE: https://www.steveslatonaz.com/about/

Also, on Slaton’s campaign website, there is a claim of being an Army veteran, but on previous iterations, it claimed he was a retired member of the Army. We believe this change came about after attention was drawn to this claim.

The “retired” vs. “veteran” claim was true in May 2023, but by May 2024 it changed over to say “veteran.”

You can see for yourself in the WayBack Machine / Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230517201712/https://steveslatonaz.com/about/

VIETNAM

Slaton posed for a photo with his pickup truck. It had a sticker of a helicopter over a medal for Vietnam.

SOURCE: https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2024/04/02/slaton-stolen-valor-claim-roils-arizona-legislative-race/

HE SAID – SHE SAID

Here’s where things start going sideways. Slaton was called out on some of these claims – by the media, other candidates, and stolen valor folks. Slaton presented a copy of his DD-214, but it differed from what people obtained from the National Personnel Records Center. Slaton is holding his version, and the Official Version is on the right.

Notice there are more lines under ‘AWARDS and MEDALS,’ then a few more lines under the ‘REMARKS’ section. Although blurry, you can see a difference in the number of lines.

Here are two versions side-by-side. Notice the “4” under the ‘Nixon Vietnamese Program 1974,’ it is different than the “4” in the rest of the document.

A local newspaper in Arizona called Slaton out on his claims.
https://mountaindailystar.com/az-house-candidate-misrepresented-military-service-locals-sound-alarm/

Things got a little messy at this point – Slaton wrote a “manifesto” where he disputed each claim in the article. Below are some excerpts:

Steve Slaton’s Rebuttal to Article

In addition, he claimed that the Guardians of the Green Beret may have altered the results that they got back from the NPRC. Military Phony has worked with the Guardians of the Green Beret over many years and find that they adhere to very high standards. We find the claim that they altered records completely implausible.

This was discussed on their YouTube channel, complete with a phone call to Slaton.

SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1W_1kY-NwQ

But, Military Phony feels that debating who said what and who did what is inefficient regarding the official military records. We encourage everyone to just send for Slaton’s official military records and observe them firsthand. We did this and found that the Guardians of the Green Beret were 100% credible, which was no surprise.

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ACTIONS CONDUCTED BY MILITARY PHONIES

Steven Hawthorne Slaton’s military records were ordered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. We filed with the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to account for his service claims.

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FOIA RESULTS

NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC)

FOIA – NPRC – Slaton – Summary Sheet

FOIA – NPRC – Slaton – Assignments and Photo

. . . . .

NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER (NPRC) – Guardians of the Green Beret

NOTE: These are third-party records but from a trusted source. We post these results to complement what the NPRC provided us. As always, we obtain our own results to establish a clean chain of custody.

NPRC FOIA Results – Guardians of the Green Beret

In addition, the Guardians of the Green Beret sent the DD-214 supplied by Slaton and asked them if it differed from what they had on file. This was their answer:

. . . . .

DISCUSSION and SUMMARY

LENGTH OF SERVICE

The length of active duty service was three (3) years but did not support a retirement claim. There is always a chance that it could be a medical retirement, but this is a non-issue since the claim was changed on Slaton’s website.

RANK

Slaton was discharged from the Army as a SGT (E-5). This is also a non-issue.

VIETNAM

No medals in Slaton’s record would support a claim of being in Vietnam.

COMBAT and AWARDS

Nothing to designate Slaton as being in Vietnam or combat.

SUMMARY

If Steve Slaton has used any of these claims to gain anything of value, he could be in violation of the Stolen Valor Act.

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