Nathan Phillips is the Native American Vietnam Vet who many were claiming was attacked and harassed by a bunch of evil, white, Catholic, high school kids in MAGA hats at the March for Life on Saturday. As more information became available it seemed clear (unless you work for CNN) that Phillips was the one who instigated the ordeal and the kids really didn’t do anything.
Good times.
Interestingly enough, a few people on Twitter tried to connect the dots on Phillips’ claims of serving in Vietnam and this thread is especially fascinating. Note, we can neither confirm nor deny any of this is true or correct, but it’s definitely something worth reading through.
Provided without further comment.
Time for a full thread on Nathan Phillips. I do not know whether or not he was a Marine. Without a FOIA, this will not be possible. I do know that his claim that he is a Marine combat vet during Vietnam is false though.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Phillips made very specific claims, although tracking each individual source down is difficult. I will try to collect them here.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
1: Did Phillips claim to be a Vietnam veteran?https://t.co/TNHLWUsBW3
"I was in Vietnam times and when I was in the Marine Corps times, that's what I was. I was expendable. "
I was in Vietnam. Seems straight forward.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
BBC also calls him a "Vietnam Vet", and this has been touted around in several news reports.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
2: What did he claim to do?
"I'm a veteran," says Phillips, "a Marine Corps infantryman in the '70s"
So he's claiming to specifically be in combat arms during Vietnam.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
3:How old is he?
Both the 2000 articles on him and the 2019 articles on him give him the same birth year. https://t.co/1je0bo3MEA …
Nov. 26, 2000, age 45. 2000 – 45 = 1955. https://t.co/XSjIyqyvJm …
64 years old, January of 2019. 64 – 2019 = 1955
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
So we have the following information: He was born some time in 1955, he claims to have been to Vietnam, and he claims that he was an Infantryman in Vietnam. Here's where the problems begin.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
He claims to have joined when he was 17. This would put him at 1972. (1955 + 17 = 1972).
The problem? The last Marine combat unit left Vietnam on June 25, 1971.https://t.co/8Kzjrz1Rof
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Throughout 1970 and early 1971, other Marine units left Vietnam in succeeding increments . On 14 April 1971, III MAF Headquarters departed for Okinawa, leaving behind the 3d Marine Amphibious Brigade . Two months later, the brigade was deactivated . Residual Marine forces
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
in Vietnam consisted of approximately 500 Marines, most of whom were performing essentially liaison, advisory, staff, and guard functions . Approximately 60 officers and men were advisors with the
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Vietnamese Marine Division which played a large role in the defensive actions incidental to the North Vietnamese 1972 Easter offensive and in the later South Vietnamese counteroffensive." (page vi)https://t.co/C9K9dQ436r
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
The time to complete Marine infantry training at that time was 13 week boot camp, followed by 8 weeks of ITR training, followed by 52 days of ITB training, (we'll say 7 weeks of training).https://t.co/PsI9dCRp0z
Grand total, that's 28 weeks of training.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Let's go back to his age. If the reporting is accurate (insert lol here), then he is 64. His birth date between those two known points (Nov. 26, 2000, age 45. 64 years old, January 20 of 2019)
If we're really generous on this calculation, we can put him born in 1954
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Knowing that it must be after Jan 20 and before Nov. 26. The most generous date we can give is tomorrow, Jan 21. Assuming he turned 17 on Jan 21 of 1971 and immediately joined the Marine Corps, he would have then needed to complete 28 weeks of training.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
That would take us to August 5, 1971, which is past the June 25, 1971 date that all combat Marines were out of Vietnam.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
That is also ignoring all the other wild coincidences that would need to be true.
Statistics show that five men killed in Vietnam were at the age of 16. 12 were seventeen. https://t.co/BffmFaiU85 …https://t.co/XGptwZPv9H …
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Out of 58,220 dead soldiers. That means that the total populace of soldiers under the age of 18 is .03% of the total fighting populace.
Multiplying .0003 * 2,700,000 total we come up with roughly 810 people who were under the age of 18 in Vietnam.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
So as a remarkable set of coincidences, At the tail end of the war in Vietnam, he either forges his birth certificate or gets his parents permission to fight in an incredibly unpopular war.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Then he manages to arrive on deployment after all of this right as all the other Marine combat units were leaving.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Here's a timeline: https://t.co/UvAe6pNhwo
You can see after 1969, what became known as "Vietnamization" was a process of "redeployment from South Vietnam to the United States", a total of 16 operations that move troops from Vietnam to America.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
There's a whole host of wild coincidences that would have to be true for this guy to be a Marine combat vet. Any decent reporters like @robbysoave or @Timcast figure out if this guy served in the Marines, served as combat arms, and served during Vietnam?
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
And assuming that the media reporting on his age has been accurate and that my timeline estimations are correct.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
The main thing that makes me distrustful is that Nathan Phillips, at best, completely misconstrued what happened. At worst, he deliberately and willfully lied. Such a person's claims should be scrutinized very carefully.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
And h/t for this:https://t.co/hebjYa5AbP
"You know, I’m from Vietnam times. I’m what they call a recon ranger"
I'm not a Marine, so I can't tell. But Force Recon is what the Marines call their elite infantry, Ranger is what the Army calls theirs.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Anyone from the Marines verify this? It sounds like something someone would make up if they heard about Rangers and Force Recon and got them confused in their head.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
He claims to have served 1972 to 1976 and to have been in Vietnam. Since the Marine combat units were out of the area completely in those time periods, I don't see this claim being true.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Any Marine vets that can clarify the length of time for infantry training in 1972 for a Force Recon position would be greatly appreciated.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
Note that he might have been a Marine vet from '72 to '76 and he might even have been elite Force Recon, but I'm specifically disputing the Vietnam vet. He has made that claim directly numerous times and has insinuated it even more. **
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
** It is my general observation that when most people fake military service, they go for elite units. I haven't met too many stolen valors claiming to be cooks aboard a naval craft. **
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
He also keeps using the weasel word "Vietnam Times". I don't like this weasel wording at all. It seems like he's trying to insinuate that he was in Vietnam, and if he gets called out on it, will say, "No, I said Vietnam times, not Vietnam."
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
At the least, he's allowed multiple outlets over several years (back to 2000) make the claim that he's a Vietnam vet.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
I have been informed by someone with more inside knowledge than I that there were in fact, a very few small number of combat arms people active at the time, but that this is an incredibly small group of people.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
The source says that Nathan's story doesn't match his/her's experience, but that there's enough doubt to require positive proof (a DD214) before making an official accusation.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
And one other thing, this is no way meant to encourage a dog pile on him. Thanks to the attention all of you have brought to this thread, the wheels are in motion and the right people have been made aware.
He will be either outed or exonerated.
— NoMan2000 (@_NoMan2000) January 21, 2019
That. ^
Our posting this lengthy thread is not about getting Nathan dogpiled or harassed, it’s just about trying to get the full picture with what happened over the weekend.
Although this made us laugh …
Don't be silly. @SenBlumenthal is willing to vouch for him.
— Gumlegs (@Gumlegs) January 21, 2019
Oh give us a break, we never claimed to be the mature ones in the room.
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