Considering that some of you may have heard this or read this, I am posting Allen West’s call for correction to get the word out and to help correct the record. This is from Allen West’s Facebook and Allen West is writing in the first paragraph:
This Chaplain (COL) served as my Battalion Chaplain when I was a Battalion Executive Officer. He has asked me to right this wrong. I want everyone to know this email was sent to me by someone I served with and completely trust, and no one should defame our warriors for an agenda. Here is the email in its entirety:
Gunslinger 5,
The National Review Online is running an article about CH (LTC) Jon Trainer implying that he received the Bronze Star for creating a PowerPoint presentation. This is false! I served with Jon Trainer in Kabul, Afghanistan and he is one of the finest men and chaplains I have ever worked with in almost 22 years. He received the Bronze Star for his cumulative meritorious service during his overall deployment to the combat zone. He did primarily produce the slide presentation per General Allen’s direction to do so. For the NRO to demean his months of faithful service and paint it like this is horrible. The author, Pat Brennan, has been notified that he is conveying a misinterpretation and told Jon “thanks for your service,” but this article speaks to a cause…. No apology, he’s content to run with a lie to pursue his agenda. Jonah Goldberg was tweeting the same fallacy today. A woman named Debbie Schlussel wrote a horrible trash piece propagating the same lie. No one called Jon to check the facts! Is this what conservative journalism amounts to? Ironically, Jon is very conservative and a fan of NRO and the blog that now is propagating a false and slanderous depiction of him.
I write for two reasons: 1) if you know any of these folks from your time in DC, I ask you as a personal favor to ask them to retract the article. They are demeaning a true Patriot who has every right to be proud of his service to our country! 2) As a charge that now that you are more and more a voice in the media, stick to the truth. No agenda that needs lies and misinterpretations to advance is worthy. Good journalism must be true journalism. I have no reason to doubt you at all, but I bet Brennan, Schlussel and Goldberg never got into their line of work with the desire to belittle the honorable service of a veteran for their own gain. The ability to do this to someone comes along slowly cloaked in rationalization and I never want you to stoop to this. You have so much more to offer!
Thanks for reading this! I will personally appreciate any help you can offer, even if it is your prayers for a good officer and a brother in Christ!
Be Bold!
God bless,
Gunslinger Chaplain