Well, Ain't That Embarrassing

Blogger does fact-checking that professional journalists didn't bother doing:

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — An Army reservist in Afghanistan with the 425th Civil Affairs Battalion who told Stars and Stripes that he deployed during the Vietnam War has come under military investigation for apparently lying about his prior combat service.

Staff Sgt. Larry Marquez, a civil affairs specialist, stated that he deployed to Cambodia in 1973 after enlisting at age 17 with his parents’ consent.

A story about Marquez ran under the headline “Vietnam vet joins ‘today’s war’ ” in Jan. 13 editions of Stars and Stripes and was also published on the newspaper’s website.

Stars and Stripes failed to perform basic fact-checking to verify any of Marquez’ claims about his service record. The newspaper was alerted to inconsistencies in Marquez’s account by a blogger, Jonn Lilyea, who runs the military blog “This Ain’t Hell.”

Kudos to Stars and Stripes for acknowledging the lapse and not burying the correction where no one would notice it. Even more kudos to This Ain't Hell, which should be on every vet's blogroll.