Tommy Tuberville- What's a few tiny fibs if it makes me look better?

What would you say if a Democrat did the same thing, Senator?

Far be it from me to ever let my common sense get in the way of my stupidity. I say we press on.

• Sherrilyn Kenyon, Infinity

In today’s GOP, you have three types of liars:

1. There’s The Former Guy, who will bury you in bullshit, dissembling, and the worst sort of transparent dishonesty imaginable. You know he’s lying. He knows he’s lying. And he knows that you know he’s lying. Worst of all, he doesn’t give a damn because he knows the knuckle-dragging rubes that make up his base believe him with their whole heart.

2. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) are the “He’s WAY too smart to be that stupid” type of liar. They think they're being too clever by half, but the reality is that they're not nearly gifted or sociopathic enough to lie convincingly. They’re just lazy enough to be painfully obvious.

3. Then there’s Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who lacks sufficient functional brain cells to be able to think critically, much less lie credibly. The man’s “tell” is when he opens his mouth. If his lips are flapping, he’s lying. And he talks WAY too much for his own good. The junior Senator from the Yellowhammer State really should learn the strategic value of STFU.

Sen. Tuberville would be far more effective if he spoke less and observed more. For one thing, he’d have less occasion to lie about his accomplishments…or anything else- including his father’s WWII record.

For nearly a decade, Tuberville has described the World War II exploits of his father, Charles R. Tuberville Jr., in a relatively consistent way — that he was a tank commander, that he earned five Bronze Stars, that he participated in the D-Day landing and that he lied about his age to join the Army. News organizations have tended to accept Tuberville’s version and either reprint or broadcast it.

Yet an examination of Army histories, newspaper reports and other materials calls into question many of the claims put forth by Tuberville, who sits on both the Senate Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs committees and is now in a high-profile battle with the Biden administration over a Defense Department policy offering time off and travel reimbursement to service members who need to go out of state for abortions. Since February, he has blocked every senior personnel move in the U.S. military that requires Senate confirmation, stalling the promotions of more than 265 military officers. The Pentagon has said Tuberville’s holds are putting the nation’s military readiness at risk, as 650 general and flag officers will require Senate confirmation by year’s end.

In effect, Tuberville has promoted his father to highly decorated tank commander — but based on our research, that claim is dubious.

Of course, family histories can be tricky to nail down. Most of us have aspects of our family stories that have been stretched, twisted, and/or inflated over time and with repeated tellings of each tale. Since most family histories tend to be verbal, over time they can become not unlike a game of “telephone,” where the end product can sound very different from the original story.

Unfortunately, most of the Army’s personnel records were destroyed in a 1973 fire, making it challenging to confirm much of Sen. Tuberville’s claims about his father’s service. There’s no doubt that the Senator’s father faced some dangerous combat conditions during his service, particularly during the Battle of the Bulge, the German counteroffensive lasting five weeks from December 1944 into January 1945.

There’s no question about his heroism or service.

Steven Stafford, Tuberville’s communications director, responded to our questions by quoting from what he described as Charles Tuberville’s “report of separation” from the Army but, except for a snippet, declined to provide a copy for review by The Fact Checker.

This is false. Charles Tuberville, who was born in 1925, turned 16 five months before the United States entered World War II because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His draft registration card (front and back) shows he submitted it on July 16, 1943 — his 18th birthday.

That was required under the law, according to the card, which states it is “for the registration of men as they reach the 18th anniversary of the date of their birth.” (The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 had required registration upon the age of 21, but Congress amended that to 18 after the United States entered the war.) Voluntary enlistments were eliminated in December 1942, so every man between the ages of 18 to 37 was drafted. Tuberville’s Veterans Affairs records state that he was enlisted into the Army on Nov. 8, 1943. His service number, 38598011, also shows he was a draftee. Both his card and the VA records show he was honorably discharged on Dec. 27, 1945.

There is, however, some question about Charles Tuberville’s duties while he was in the Army. His tombstone lists his highest rank as “TEC 5” or “Technician 5.” That rank indicated some technical skills but not a combat leadership role.

Per a 1944 Army memo,

TEC 5 jobs were limited to armorer, cook, tank driver, light truck driver or tank mechanic. Tuberville would have needed to be a sergeant to be a tank commander.

That said, it’s possible that at some point in the war as a TEC 5 he commanded a tank if the unit was strapped for leaders, and he was deemed capable enough by his superiors.

So, unlikely…but not outside the realm of possibility, if his unit had suffered losses among leadership that necessitated Charles Tuberville being called upon to become a tank commander. Typically, however, that would’ve also involved a battlefield promotion, probably to sergeant.

Charles Tuberville's promotion record is unclear because of the loss of the Army personnel records in the 1973 fire. Still, the Camden (AR) News reported on February 7, 1945, that he’d been promoted to corporal (the same level as TEC-5), making it unlikely he’d been a tank commander on D-Day.

It’s unclear whether Charles Tuberville was involved in the D-Day invasion, but his involvement cannot be confirmed or definitively ruled out.

Tuberville was a member of the 746th Tank Battalion (A Company), according to a statement placed on a memorial website by his widow, the late Olive Nell Chambliss, and official Army after-action reports of the battalion. After being afloat off the coast of France from June 1 to 5, A Company began landing on Utah Beach on June 6, and by June 8 one platoon had brought four tanks ashore, the reports say. The company connected with the 101st Airborne Division in the days after the invasion, so the senator’s reference to the 101st is accurate.

The official Army history leaves little doubt as to the bloody toll of the D-Day invasion and the days after. Charles Tuberville isn’t mentioned in any after-action reports until he appears on a list of wounded soldiers in April 1945, 10 months after D-Day.

The Camden News reported that Tuberville had been “overseas since June 7, 1944.”

Because so many replacements were needed to fill in for the hundreds of soldiers who were killed, wounded or sick, it would not have been unusual for someone to have joined the battalion after the invasion of France. In fact, in a 2008 interview with ESPN, Tuberville said his father went into Europe days after D-Day — not on D-Day.

Stafford said the report of separation said Tuberville was part of the 746th Tank Battalion (A Company) and his date of arrival in theater is listed as June 6, 1944.

Charles Tuberville did receive a Purple Heart for being wounded in action when enemy bazooka fire hit a tank. The incoming fire killed one person and wounded three. Tuberville was listed as “LIA,” Army code for “lightly injured in action (hospitalized).”

The Camden News reported that Tuberville’s parents received a letter from the Army stating that their son had been wounded in Germany and was recovering at a hospital in France.

Sen. Tuberville has also said that his father earned five Bronze Stars during his WWII service. That’s not true.

The Bronze Star, the eighth-highest military award, is earned when a soldier “distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service” in combat with an armed enemy of the United States.

Earning five Bronze Stars would be highly unusual; Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of World War II, earned two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars, among other medals. About 395,000 Bronze Stars were awarded to the 11,200,000 Army soldiers who fought during World War II, so about three out of every 100 soldiers earned one.

There are hundreds of pages of after-action reports on the 746th Tank Battalion from June 1944 to August 1945. None of them listed Charles Tuberville receiving or being recommended for a Bronze Star among the hundreds of soldiers meticulously cataloged as either being recommended for the medal or receiving one.

Neither Tuberville’s tombstone nor his widow’s memorial notice mentions a Bronze Star, much less five.

Stafford provided a photo of a snippet of the report of separation that said Tuberville was “awarded 5 Bronze stars for above campaigns per WDGO #33-40 1945.” He said the report of separation referred to the Central Europe, Ardennes, Rhineland, Northern France and Normandy campaigns.

That photo snippet confirmed Tuberville earned not Bronze Stars, but rather Bronze service stars — which denote that a soldier was physically present during a particular military campaign or engagement. Campaign service stars, unlike the Bronze Star, are not individual medals and do not indicate valor in combat. The notation “WDGO #33-40 1945” refers to War Department General Orders 33 and 40, issued in 1945, which defined the dates of the campaigns.

Senator Tuberville also claims that his father drove a tank in Paris when it was liberated. This is also false. The US Army’s 28th Infantry Division marched down the Champs-Elysées on August 29, 1944. After-action reports for the 746th Tank Battalion show that it was attached to the 9th Armored Division on that day.

On August 29, the 746th Tank Battalion crossed the Marne River, encountering only light resistance. The after-action report places the 746th on both sides of the Aisne River at the end of the day.

While the 28th Infantry Division was staging its triumphant march through the heart of Paris, Charles Tuberville’s unit would have been 90 miles northeast of the City of Light.

There are two ways of looking at this. One is that, like many family histories, the story of Charles Tuberville’s WWII service has grown and inflated significantly with time and repeated tellings. It may be nothing malicious or dishonest, merely what we might typically expect from the passage of almost 80 years.

The other is that Sen. Tuberville has inflated his father’s military record to puff up his credibility and military bona fides. Football coaches sometimes have an unfortunate habit of seeing themselves as generals leading their troops into combat, even though football is nothing like war. To compare the two does a great disservice to those who’ve fallen in defense of their country.

Of course, for someone who claims to revere our military (“No one’s more military than I am!”), Sen. Tuberville has an odd way of showing it. He’s currently placed a hold on approving high-level promotions, meaning that, among other things, the Marine Corps has no Commandant. Before long, there will be no Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Why? This is all so Sen. Tuberville can do his part in the culture wars by trying to wage it on the US military. And he says he won’t drop his hold until Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin changes the department’s abortion policy.

If memory serves, the military is looking at about 600 senior officers currently awaiting deserved promotions. That means families and units are in limbo. Before long, readiness will be impacted…all because of one Senator and his commitment to the culture wars.

Sen. Tuberville has an odd and disturbing way of demonstrating his commitment to and affection for America’s armed forces.

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