NORFOLK
A Navy hospital corpsman who claims he rescued six Marines and recovered the bodies of four others during an ambush in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom was convicted Wednesday of wearing ribbons he did not earn.
A judge dismissed the more serious charges of forging documents that led to the awards.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Dontae L. Tazewell was found guilty of 10 of 11 counts of wearing unauthorized ribbons. Some of the honors recognized Tazewell for heroism during an ambush on March 28, 2003, earning him the Purple Heart and Bronze Star in July 2006.
On Wednesday, Tazewell’s supervisors and others testified at his court-martial that the rescue never happened, painting a picture of a sailor so desperate to stay in the Navy that he concocted honors he did not merit.
Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Mann, who served with Tazewell as part of Marine Wing Support Squadron 272 in Kuwait in 2003, testified that, on the day of the supposed ambush, he knocked Tazewell down while running to tell of a helicopter accident on the runway of Joe Foss Expeditionary Airfield. That put Tazewell in Kuwait and not in Iraq.
“I don’t see how he could get a Purple Heart for getting run over by a big guy,” Mann said.
Alejandro Lira, a retired petty officer first class who also supervised Tazewell on that deployment, told of reading about Tazewell’s award ceremony in a magazine, calling the reporter and asking that she “look into it.”
“We have kids dying out there every day, receiving these medals posthumously,” he testified. “I just thought it was wrong.”
Garry Baker, who oversees Navy promotional exams, testified that Tazewell learned in May 2006 that he had not scored high enough to make petty officer second class, because of his evaluations, his award points and the competition that round. Because of his time in the service, he would have to leave the Navy.
Soon after, Tazewell told his supervisors and Baker that his last command had sent him award certificates, including the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Tazewell also noted that several of the evaluations used for his promotion score should have been excluded. After recalculations, Tazewell was promoted.
Under cross-examination by Tazewell’s attorney, Navy Lt. Matthew Cutchen, Baker said Tazewell would have been promoted based on the revised evaluation score, without the new awards. It was unclear whether Tazewell knew that at the time.
In summer 2007, Tazewell brought his supervisors paperwork for more awards, but Senior Chief Petty Officer David Short testified Tuesday that the content and format, including Tazewell’s own typographical quirks, were suspicious. By September, he was under investigation.
After the prosecution rested, Cutchen asked that Tazewell’s forgery charges be dismissed because the government failed “to present evidence of legal harm to the Navy.”
“What the command did of its own volition” in choosing to honor Tazewell, he argued, “is not a liability.”
Cutchen also asked that the charges of wearing unauthorized ribbons – particularly the Purple Heart and Bronze Star – be dismissed because Tazewell merely received the award certificates from his old command and sent them on. Tazewell’s supervisors told him to report to a ceremony where he received the awards, Cutchen said, thereby “authorizing” him to wear them.
Prosecutor Lt. j.g. Allison Ward said Tazewell’s actions harmed the award system’s integrity.
“Successfully duping your command into giving you awards does not authorize you to wear them,” she said.
The judge, Navy Capt. Patricia Battin, dismissed the eight forgery charges. She declined to dismiss the 11 charges of wearing unauthorized ribbons. She did not give a reason for either decision.
In closing, Ward argued that Tazewell knew leaving the Navy would mean losing access to the extensive medical care he’d had since returning from the Middle East. Along the way, he made himself a hero.
“This is what stolen valor looks like,” she said. “This is not what a hero looks like.”
In closing, Cutchen argued that “we tell our sailors if something doesn’t make sense, see their superiors.” For Tazewell, this meant showing the award certificates to his supervisors, who took it from there.
After the hearing, Cutchen said Tazewell “sincerely apologizes to those who may have been offended by his actions,” and he planned to “stand tall” during his sentencing, which begins today. Tazewell faces up to five years in prison and a bad-conduct discharge.
When asked whether Tazewell was ever in Iraq, Cutchen said he was, accompanying a convoy.
When asked whether he saved any Marines, Cutchen declined to answer, because of the pending sentencing.
Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com
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dishonor
I'll never understand how anybody can wear medals they did not earn. It sickens most people and the person wearing these medals knows he is a phoney. Obviously he's not a wannabe but he certainly disgraces himself.
Some years back I wrote an article about WANABEES found at Vietnam Vets... Welcome Home ... http://home.nyc.rr.com/namvets
I found these comments very interesting and I'm going to share with you an
experience I had in 1967. Five of us Marines drove a car across country from San Diego to NYC in 56 hours. All of us had just graduated communications school and had orders for WESTPAC. One of our classmates
got in the car and everybody started laughing. All of us had earned the
Nat'l Defense Ribbon and that was it. Steve thought it would be "cool" to
spruce things up a bit. He was wearing probably 5 rows of ribbons and everybody in the car asked him what he was thinking. His father was a
Retired Col. in the USAF and when we asked Steve what his dad would think
or say when he saw his son come marching home from comm school with all those ribbons Steve replied he will understand.
Way to go devil dog!!
Why didn't he just accept the HYT pay for an E4? He would have probably received VA benefits following his double hip replacement anyway. Now Mr. Seadawg gets to spend 2 years in the brig with his Big Chicken Dinner to follow.
As a 12 year veteran of the navy and the hospital corps, I am sickened that he disgraced the hospital corps as well as the navy.
MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT THIS
What this sailor did was serious and he should be punished, BUT - he did this to try to stay in the Navy, which I think should mitigate his punishment and adds a tinge of honor to an otherwise dishonorable act(s).
I think he should be punished, be allowed to stay in the Navy, then tutored to the extent necessary to pass his tests to remain.
But this is under the assumption that his service record is clean and honorable except for his dishonorable actions in his attempt to stay in the Navy AND that his superiors report that he was a good hand and an asset to his command.
While no one wants to see the integrity of service awards debased, I have a hard time severely faulting a young man for wanting to remain in service to his country.
Re: Stolen Valor
How incredibly sad and ironic! I remember picking my brother up in Oakland, California when he returned from Vietnam from his SECOND deployment with Special Forces. Very late 60's ... spit and garbage hurled at our returning Warriors!
Now, thankfully, and hopefully retroactively, we HONOR our Warriors AND their families that sacrifice so much more than a non-veteran can begin to understand.
How could anyone "fake" being a soldier or "fake" medals? I did not have the HONOR of being stationed in Vietnam and there are many that would may argue with me but I would be PROUD to be able to wear the Vietnam ribbon ... I did not earn it though ... as to the Purple Heart ... I cannot begin to tell you the respect and honor that I hold those receipients in ... past, present and future.
To the post on "lifetime medical" ... are they STILL doing that? That is what I was promised and it was a "factor" to my enlistment but, as I understand it, that is what the United States promised and delivered long ago ... if I am mistaken, my bad ... if I am NOT mistaken then it is just another broken promise by the United States to those that have sacrificed so much and deserve our support.
Anchors Aweigh
Back in my day there was a term we used for dirt bags like this, "give him 6, 6 and a kick!", 6 months Leavenworth, 6 months hard labor and a Dishonorable! A BCD is to good for him. This is truely a "Stolen Valor" case
ADIOS!
Reduction in rank to E-1, forfeture of all pay, 120 days in the brig and a bad conduct discharge.
It's a heck of a benefit...
My husband is retired and we use Tricare Prime. We pay the paltry sum of roughly $38 per month for the entire family and $12 co-pays. It's excellent coverage and our contribution is far less than any other employer I know.
That being said...this ding bat has really cost himself an important benefit by his foolish actions. With a service related disability, he would have received on-going care at pretty much zero cost.
He deserves a dishonerable.
DD
Editor please crop or remove that photo!
Give him a DD and drum him out of the service on the parade deck!
False Info
The sailor should get a dishonorable discharge because he dishonored the medals he was trying to wear and dishonoring those who served and was awarded those medals which they had earned. When I enlisted in the Navy in 1960 I was informed by the recruitor that if I served 20 or more years me and my family if I was married would receive FREE medical and dental for the rest of our lives. I was a career counselor who attended schools to inform service members of all their benefits and in those schools we were told the biggest thing was FREE medical/dental for life if you serve 20 or more years. A court case was filed concerning this when someone tried to stop payments for our medical/dental after retirement. The court ruled there was nothing in writing in our contracts stating this fact, therefore WE WOULD PAY each month out of our retirement checks and be deducted monthly. NO ONE who serves just one tour of duty, 4-6 years, gets free medical/dental for life. Once again, give this dispectable guy a DD and a swift kick in his derriere out the door.
Scarlet Letter "L" for liar
Make him wear a scarlet letter ribbon for lying and let's call it a wrap already. Geez, it was desperate stupidity of youth moment, not something that got anybody killed.
ricm, I would go further to say...
the medical care is not free - not for those still in the military, or those retired. They pay and have paid for it; by spending holidays, birth days, months and years away from home. It is not, and never was, a
"free" benefit.
What about his command?
I think the big question is the culpability of his command. How could they award him 2 medals based on paperwork the he submitted? In my opinion there is no excuse for them to not verify these awards. I have received Navy awards in the past (NAM's and COM's), and never have I submitted them to my Chain of Command. They were written on my behalf.. I can not begin to fathom how his command allowed this to happen.
Nice Job
No wonder the accused's defense council advised his client to skip the jury and go with a judge only trial....looks like defense council knew they had an ally sitting on the bench! Captain Battin obviously needs to take stock of her comittment not only to the Navy, but more importantly to her belief and desire to uphold the integrity of the military justice system. Dismissing the eight counts of forgery????? Come on now, you know you're ginding an axe judge....you should be ashamed of yourself because you have clearly abused your position of trust and authority, not to mention using the accused as a hapless pawn in a personal quest to legislate from the bench and redefine military justice. It's time to move on Captain...in order to expedite your retirement, maybe you can have Tazewell whip up a fake (don't want to say forgery because we know how you feel about that) D-214. Fair winds and following seas...go home.
Very Misinformed
Rachel, you really should take your own advice (“Some people don't look into things to make sure they are right before they…”). The only time someone that serves just four years and receives medical care the rest of their life is if they receive permanent injuries in the line of duty. As for the sailor: he should receive a dishonorable discharge, not just a bad conduct. What he did was beyond bad - it was dishonorable to all that receive such awards, usually posthumously.
Rachael, your following
Rachael, your following comment is purley fictional;
It's amazing what will people will do to make themselves look good. He wouldn't have lost his medical. When you join the military and stay in for your first term you get medical for the rest of your life. Some people don't look into things to make sure they are right before they act. I mean he could have looked at what he did have and what was good about what was going on before going criminal. Good luck with that....
The only time that a service member gets free medical for life for doing anything short of retirement is due to a "medical" discharge which is a disabilitating injury while discharging your duties and then you have to go in front of a board every so often to prove your disability.
To quote your own statement..."Some people don't look into things to make sure they are right before they act".
Sailor / Wearing Medals
That person saying that,"after you finish your first tour of four, you get free medical care the rest of your life." I don't know where she gets her information but its "NOT TRUE." This is how most of the garbage gets started, downgrading our military. How completely uninformed this person is.....
Sad case of stupidity
I hate to see these things happen and he made a really dumb mistake. I'd give him 90 days and a BCD. He is his own worst enemy.
Odd
Commands usually send awards and the paperwork to the admin department of the next command, not to the individual themselves. It is interesting that his command took him at his word on such significant awards. When an award is approved, it is also on an electronic training record that Tazwell could not have influenced. His command was dumb for holding an awards ceremony without first checking the facts.
In my 26 years of service, I have also never heard that you get medical for life simply for completing one enlistment. When you elect to separate from the navy, you get a DD214, inactive reserve for any years remaining up to eight, some VA benefits, and a GI bill if you contributed to the Montgomery GI program.
He's just another
dummy who got caught. Kick him out.
this is crazy
It's amazing what will people will do to make themselves look good. He wouldn't have lost his medical. When you join the military and stay in for your first term you get medical for the rest of your life. Some people don't look into things to make sure they are right before they act. I mean he could have looked at what he did have and what was good about what was going on before going criminal. Good luck with that....
This wouldn't happen if...
The navy used a more objective method of ranking and promoting it's sailors. The wicket system works for the Army and Air Force, but the Navy just can not get out of the archaic method of subjective eval reports the weigh down the advancement system in favor of the english major. Basically if 2 sailors are sent to the eval board, but one has a supervisor that can write up a better eval, even if he is a lesser sailor, the lesser will win, every time. Couple that with unnecessary tenure (one that has not remained consistant in the last 20 years as it is) and it is a definite recipe for disaster.
Tazewell was wrong, but his motives were survival and self preservation, the fault lies with the navy on that point.