Maybe I owe FlashReport’s readers an apology. Somehow I hadn’t noticed that San Jacinto Councilman Jim Ayres’ Assembly campaign website contained inaccurate information about the candidate’s military record. If I had noticed, I could have pointed it out before the L.A. Times came along with today’s headline: "Candidate’s Military Record Embellished".
I have to admit I had heard that this might be coming. I get a lot of calls from opposing campaigns telling me this or that about one of the other candidates. The 65th Assembly District Republican Primary has been no exception.
Today’s L.A. Times makes this hand wringing irrelevant with the following statement: "…On his website … Ayres said he was awarded a Southwest Asia Service Medal for valor and a Cold War medal."
As the Times quoted an Air Force spokesman as saying, the Southwest Asia Service Medal (pictured right) was given to all veterans of the Gulf War, but it was not issued for "valor". The article also points out that Ayres received a "Cold War certificate", which according to the Times the Ayres website had referred to as a "medal".
The Times also reported, "On the candidate’s website Thursday, it stated that Ayres received the ‘Southwest Asia Service Medal with Bronze Star,’" and the article correctly points out that the "bronze star" is actually a service star that’s affixed to the SWASM ribbon signifying service in a particular operation. (For example, those who participated in Operation Desert Shield received the SWASM, and those who also took part in Operation Desert Storm received a bronze service star in addition.) In Ayres’ latest press release, which lashes out at opponent Brenda Salas and the Times, the "bronze star" is listed with a lower-case "b" and a lower-case "s".
So did the campaign deliberately embellish Ayres’ awards? In all fairness, Ayres’ website never claimed he had received the "Bronze Star" medal (a very distinguished award that’s sometimes issued with a "V" device signifying "valor"). But his website did inaccurately state that his SWASM was issued for "valor".
There is apparently an unofficial Cold War "medal" that can be purchased by those who have the certificate, even though it’s not recognized by the Air Force. Maybe that was inappropriate to list because when reading a list of military decorations most people assume they’re official awards. And maybe the "valor" reference to the SWASM medal and the use of "(Cold War) medal" instead of "(Cold War) certificate" were typos attributable to the campaign’s webmaster, as the Times quoted an Ayres spokesman as saying.
After reading the Times article, a reasonable person could suspect that the listing of Ayres’ military awards on his website was deliberately embellished. Ayres says it wasn’t deliberate, which should be good enough. But in campaign world, it is not good enough — especially when one considers that Ayres had tried to prevent one of his opponents from using his retired military status in his ballot title. For the record, my boss, San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus, has endorsed that particular opponent — Yucca Valley Mayor Paul Cook (a retired Marine Colonel who earned a Bronze Star Medal with Valor device). But I haven’t personally endorsed a candidate in this race. And it should go without saying that I’m not criticizing Ayres’ military service, especially considering he retired from the military.
As a fellow veteran, and (like Ayres) a graduate of NCO (noncommissioned officers) School, I would simply expect Ayres to take full responsibility for this mistake, even if it wasn’t deliberate. Ripping Brenda Salas and the L.A. Times in response to this doesn’t cut it.
May 12th, 2006 at 12:00 am
It would seem the Ayres campaign is giving us more credit that we deserve for “exposing” this incident. Curious he neglected to mention our culpability in the news article – but then he was probably afraid they would call him on it. Maybe I should just take credit for it and move on, but I suspect we’ll see some more scurrilous attacks before long.
As a former Navy intelligence analyst and what you guys ‘on the ground’ would call a Non-Commissioned Officer (we call them Petty Officers), one of the first things you learn is to take responsibility for your actions. Maybe that’s just too much to ask for.
I should say, of course, that I was lucky to get out of there with a couple of good conduct awards. Or is that a Good Conduct Medal with bronze service star? Either way, at least one of them was presented by the Chief of Naval Intelligence, so I got that going for me to fall back on. Check out the ribbons on that Admiral.