By DoEchelon | AuxBeacon News Contributor
[Editor’s Note: Every so often we receive a slam dunk of a contact story that is calmly written and better organized than we have right to expect from mere volunteers. This one exposes how desperate Civil Air Patrol has become to invent its own good news to shout down current stories of pedophiles, pilots and plane crashes. Somewhat sadly for Congressman Barry Loudermilk, our editors unanimously agree with this piece because of the author’s thorough presentation of details. Thank you for the contribution.]
Here’s one for your “AuxBeacon Files” that should blow minds at just how much excrement the Civil Air Patrol leadership believes it can feed to the Air Force (Heather Wilson), to the American taxpayer and to its captive membership.
The Introduction
A few days ago, my friend attended Civil Air Patrol’s low-turnout 2018 Southeast Region Conference at the Crowne Plaza Peachtree City, Georgia. He witnessed a pathetic Maj Gen Mark E. Smith award the CAP Silver Medal of Valor to Lobby Squadron member Lt Col Barry Loudermilk for a “revisionist spin” of his actions during the 2017 Congressional Baseball Shooting. By accepting Civil Air Patrol’s highest honor after admitting to running behind a concrete restroom to stay down until the shooter was neutralized, Loudermilk further devalued the award and himself as a patsy for those controlling him. All who live in Georgia’s 11th district can “hear” Hayden Collins rolling his eyes on the Hayden Collins Radio Show.
CAP members have been angrily slamming both Smith and Loudermilk in a secret group and we hope that your site can amplify member outrage over this circle-jerk of a publicity stunt. In addition to the walk-through below and the photos from the conference, we are providing snapshots of the commentary. If you publish the comments please redact their usernames to protect all who helped us assemble this story.
The Background
The 2017 Congressional baseball shooting took place on June 14th 2017 at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia. By 6:30 am, 24 Republican congressmen had gathered at the park to practice for the next day’s Congressional Baseball Game for Charity, an annual and bipartisan tradition held since 1909. Three Capitol Police officers were posted behind the first-base dugout to protect House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Practice had been underway for roughly 30 minutes when left-wing activist James T. Hodgkinson opened fire on the congressmen with an SKS rifle shortly after 7:00 am.
By 7:09 am, the Alexandria Police received a report of shots fired and two of their officers arrived within three minutes to join the gunfight. Witnesses estimated that the entire event lasted about 10 minutes before Hodgkinson was shot by two Alexandria Police and two Capitol Police officers.
Loudermilk in His Own Words Immediately After the Event
On June 14th 2017, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) issued the following statement after returning from the congressional baseball practice and shooting event:
“Today’s attack was a senseless act of evil and hatred. I was there this morning, along with my Chief of Staff and, thankfully, he and I are okay. If it hadn’t been for the two Capitol Police officers there, courageously protecting us and returning fire, I don’t know how many of us would still be here. Many of my good friends were injured today. Please pray for those who were shot, and their families. There were a lot of heroes out there today, and I’m thankful for God’s provision and protection.”
Loudermilk also gave a detailed interview on that day that was published by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In this interview, Loudermilk never mentioned any quick-thinking action on his part or any Civil Air Patrol training that helped in the events of the day. He stated very clearly that he ran and “jumped behind a shack that was there” and “behind a concrete restroom” and “stayed down” until after the shooter had been taken out by police. Loudermilk also stated that after the female officer was immobilized, it was the other male officer who “distracted the gunman to draw fire” from the rest of the [Congressional] members.
00:48 So we all start running out to the first base side. I go outside the field and
00:53 I’m running, I mean dirt is flying up by us from the bullets hitting the ground.
01:04 Some of the guys were diving in the dugout. Others got behind the dugout.
01:07 I went outside the field and jumped behind a shack that was there. Ummm.
01:44 Staff member Matt Mika… on the ground with a chest wound… was in bad shape.
01:57 So myself and most everybody that was with us then ran back
02:01 another 30 to 40 yards behind us was a concrete restroom and most members got behind that.
02:07 Me and the other guy stayed there to see if we could help Mika. Every time we tried to
02:11 move out to help him you know the shooting would begin again,
02:16 and so we stayed down.
02:41 So the other officer very bravely went and drew fire. He went around to the left
02:46 side to draw his fire away from the rest of us. I saw him get injured apparently
02:51 got hit by some shrapnel or something, but he stayed in the fight.
02:56 You know I’m trying to think what.. what can we do to help at this point
02:59 because every time we try to go out there he would shoot.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution released Loudermilk’s interview on YouTube.
On February 21st 2018, Loudermilk published his own video of an address he made on the Sixth Month anniversary of the shooting to congratulate others whose actions helped him and his comrades to safety.
Rep. Davis and Sen. Rand Paul both confirmed that if not for the presence of the Capitol Police officers, the incident “would have been a massacre.”
The Civil Air Patrol Plan
The many stories you have assembled here have very effectively exposed Air Force and Civil Air Patrol abuses of power and funds along with their intimidation and defamation tactics to conceal. While our self-serving national commanders (Bergman, Bobick, Bowling, Wheless, Pineda, Carr, Vasquez) have always been a disappointment, the real problem is the gradual degradation of commanders and staff at the unit level. The events you reported on Jonathan Holder come to mind. Following each period of mass-exodus, the squadron and group is where all the newly recruited replacements are trained. Progress in rebuilding is slowed now because these many sites allow new recruits to uncover CAP’s dirty history. The new recruits are floored to find that many of the same people who created the mess are still posing an active threat in the organization. What can CAP do to offset these losses after being repeatedly caught in fraudulent and unsafe activity?
The more devious in CAP believe that their control over bits of ribbon, metal and words on paper allow them to fabricate alternate realities for both members and taxpayers using the military device of Perception Management. No joke here, Civil Air Patrol is using the nine strategies of Perception Management to manipulate new recruits just now entering their fold.
If, during the shooting, Congressman Barry Loudermilk appeared to have acted only in self-preservation, perhaps CAP con-artists could use the techniques of Perception Management to paint a more profitable picture? Could they rewrite history and back-fit the details into a Silver Medal of Valor citation to make a hero of a benefactor with influence on CAP funding? If they tried, would the captive membership and the public actually buy it?
The Award, Citation and Ceremony
According to Civil Air Patrol regulations the Silver Medal of Valor is CAP’s highest honor and is awarded for “distinguished and conspicuous heroic action, at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of normal duty.”
Civil Air Patrol Silver Medal of Valor
On June 2nd 2018 at the CAP Southeast Region Conference, both Civil Air Patrol and Loudermilk recalled a new, more inspirational CAP-spun story of his actions, but he never previously mentioned his Frostbite or any other CAP training until we all witnessed this pack of lies a few days ago.
The citation accompanying the medal singled out Loudermilk’s actions during the assault for distracting the gunman from firing on a first-base dugout filled with lawmakers and others, as well as the legislator’s “support” of a wounded congressional staff member.
Loudermilk was standing near home plate “when sounds of gunfire erupted from behind the third-base dugout. After a brief moment of confusion, he began to run for cover running past the first base dugout, towards a gate, resulting in significant gunfire in his direction,” the citation read.
“Many believe [who?] without this short distraction, the shooter may have concentrated his fire into the dugout where several congressmen and staff members had taken cover.”
Then, as Loudermilk took cover behind a shed outside the infield gate, he spotted a staff member with a severe bullet wound. “He advanced toward the gunman’s position in an effort to reach the injured man and immediately became a target for the gunman,” according to the citation.
“Once again this distraction provided others a brief opportunity to seek safer positions of cover. During the seven to eight minutes of gunfire, Lieutenant Colonel Loudermilk was able to get close enough to the victim to calm him and assess his condition from a distance.”
00:06 Lt Col Barry D. Loudermilk distinguished himself by conspicuous heroic action while risking his own life to save others on 14 June 2017.
The Conclusion
On July 27th 2017, President Donald Trump awarded five first responders with the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor for their response to the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting. In this event, Civil Air Patrol recognized an opportunity to deploy their new skills in Perception Management to fabricate a better story for one of their influential own. They hoped that the membership and the public would swallow their creation without objection. Fortunately, it is not passing the smell test.
Attendees CAP 2018 Southeast Region Conference
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this story.
Related Stories
• Pineda Era Silver Medal of Valor Fraud
• Loudermilk: “I had no way of defending myself or my friends. I felt completely vulnerable.”
If you are really going to do review stories, then I would start with an update to this one exposing Barry Loudermilk for receiving a medal of valor as a political stunt.
Show how Barry blocked constituents on his Facebook page so that they couldn’t point out his incompetence.
Show the video of Barry Loudermilk comparing Democrats to the fictionalized Pontius Pilate of the Blood Curse.
How is it possible in this age of information that Barry Loudermilk hasn’t learned about the Flavians and Jesus Barabbas?
After last year’s disastrous Southeast Region Conference in which US Congressman Barry Loudermilk was given CAP’s Silver Medal of Valor for “running for cover past the first base dugout towards a gate” during the 2017 Congressional Baseball Shooting, celebrities appear to distancing themselves from the stench of Civil Air Patrol’s desperate manipulation.
For this year’s conference the Special Guests are Barry Melton, the outgoing SER Commander and Mark Smith CAP’s National Commander. If you are thinking to yourself that these two stiffs should be mandatory attendees, then you can slap a silver star on your forehead.
Need proof? [links redacted]
These people give themselves more awards than the Boy Scouts and we the tax payers foot the bill for these ridiculous honors. They are a total joke. And a total waste of money.
I think Barry Loudermilk has been played into this. Bad form and actions not worthy of an award for heroic sacrifice. All victims cannot be spun into Medal of Valor heroes. This looks political to me as well.
Hey, you should know that a little while ago Representative Barry Loudermilk attempted to fix the panic of having deleted his original tweet on his Silver Medal of Valor Award.
The #CivilAirPatrol recently presented me with its Silver Medal of Valor for “the events that transpired” during the baseball shooting in 2017 in Alexandria, VA. Thank you, @capnhq for this honor.
[link removed]
I am reading that Civil Air Patrol will now “Develop and include annual Suicide Prevention training to all members which will increase awareness of suicide in CAP and in the local community.”
“Suicide Prevention Training” is also “Suicide Facilitation Training” if understood and unethically twisted.
I have read your articles on CAP as a Cult and on the recent CAP suicides, particularly Rex Glasgow and Tonya Boylan’s. When members of a chain-of-command driven cult like Scientology believe the defamatory gossip issued by commanders who must discredit those exposing them, the commanders are able to achieve a SHUNNING of the member who is exposing the abuse.
When we shun members in our Civil Air Patrol cult for reporting Fraud, Waste or Abuse as required by the regulations, then what do we think might happen to those we shun?
The command staff are the guilty ones, but they control the ribbons and challenge coins and appointments so they can effectively nudge the naive idealists to eventually BLOW THEIR BRAINS OUT.
While Joe Knight III was noticeably absent from the 2018 Southeast Region Conference, I am astounded that Al Bedgood has survived as a useful tool to conduct unpleasant member termination hearings for those who would avoid the muck.
That Richard Greenwood has escaped to stain Congressman Barry Loudermilk and Mark Smith seems a fitting outcome, however.
Barry Loudermilk was an unfortunate VICTIM on that ball field, and there should be empathy for that. However, he is not a Medal of Valor winning hero who risked his life above and beyond the call of duty to save any others. Expect most will agree with you, some publicly but some only privately.
We’d like to assist your authors in exposing CAP corruption in Alabama and Georgia. This article just came out in the New York Times and quotes Barry Loudermilk totally contra to his acceptance of a Silver Medal of Valor Award. Your AuxBeacon team is spot on here. Nice job.
Mr. Loudermilk, for his part, surmised that Mr. Hodgkinson, who was killed in the attack, could have been cut off earlier. “I had no way of defending myself or my friends,” he said. “I felt completely vulnerable.”
When Mr. Loudermilk visited a shooting range months after the attack, he heard gunshots and rushed back into his car.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/10/us/politics/republicans-baseball-team-shooting.html
This is a big screw-up that cannot be undone. It is going to leave a mark.
DoEchelon’s JDAM struck its target. See here or check your email.
[link removed]
You conspicuously neglected one National Commander, s’up with that?
[link removed]
Another brilliant Richard Greenwood Production? Show the public this photo of Richard Greenwood presenting Slick Barry with a SMOF challenge coin.
[link removed]
Smells more like a Greenwood-Shaw production gone very, very wrong. It was actually Jim Shaw who created MOVA: Medal of Valor Association.
[Admin: Sting’s statement is true. August 19th 2007
http://auxbeacon.org/james-l-shaw-medal-of-valor-association/%5D
Who is the guy in the brown WW2 era uniform in the group photo?
David Brown, One who brownnoses (A LOT)
Good article. The sucking up to these weavers of half-truths and lies in ribbon form is precisely how our program got into this humiliating state. There are no such shortcuts on the path back to honor and competence.
NOTTHEWAY, what do you mean by “sucking up” in your comment about perception management?
This complete disaster of a stunt only heaps more scrutiny on the Civil Air Patrol Legislative Squadrons and their clever game of influence and lobbying.
God is gonna cut you down.
Barry Loudermilk did not heroically give comfort or apply first aid during the shooting incident to meet the standard of this award.
I had to look up Civil Air Patrol Frostbite, which is a cold weather Search and Rescue Exercise conducted in the North Georgia Mountains. It was easy to find, but you can help the readers by adding some explanation text.
It might also help to add that portion of the transcript for the award ceremony video where Loudermilk struggles to connect his Civil Air Patrol training with his actions during the shooting.
I agree that this looks like another manipulative use of the award.
We are not writers, we are volunteers. In fact, we had help writing this. Anything other members, ex-members or the editors here need to do to improve the article is okay by us.
DoEchelon, you did a good job with an unpleasant task. Your walk-through and the comments members are providing make connections that have opened a floodgate of new exposure on these people. We just submitted a related article that we hope AB can vet and release soon.
The “many believe” portion of the citation is a clue to recognizing what this is.
Barry Loudermilk wraps himself in the Flag and Jesus, but he is an unenlightened buffoon who is too easily entangled. He paid-off Ethel Blackmon $80,500, on the condition that she was to keep quiet about the details of the settlement.
Barry should know better. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
“People will think, what I tell them to think.”
Spirit of the Code: Do the right thing and live honorably.
Hans Christian Andersen wrote a tale about two perception management weavers who promise their emperor a new suit of clothes which they say will be invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. In reality, they make no clothes at all, making everyone believe that the clothes are invisible to them.
When Emperor Barry Loudermilk parades before his subjects in his new “clothes”, no one dares to say what they truly see out of fear.
Finally, a child cries out, “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!”