Stolen Valor: Unearned

Purple Heart
They were two Marines from Texas in western Iraq, taking part in some of the worst fighting in the early
stages of the insurgency. Both left the battlefield early and ended up with Purple Hearts. But one
didnt earn it. Casey Owens was critically injured and lost his legs when his Humvee hit an anti-tank
mine. He committed suicide in 2014 after a decade of suffering from numerous surgeries, brain injury and
severe pain. Brandon Blackstone went home after about a month, his military records show. His medic
said he got appendicitis and did not return. The Arlington man ended up in a Dallas federal courtroom in
OCT 2016, where he pleaded guilty to two felonies for claiming he was blown up in a Humvee in Iraq
in order to profit personally.
Owens Marine buddies say they believe Blackstone took key details of Owens combat injury and
made them his own so he could bilk the government and charities out of hundreds of thousands of
dollars.Hes living off a fake story. Its disgusting, said Nick Sowers, 38, Owens best friend in Iraq
who also was wounded in action. In his guilty plea, Blackstone, 35, admits that he lied about earning a
Purple Heart in Iraq to qualify for a mortgage-free house in Fort Worth from a wounded warrior charity.
He also received monthly disability checks from the Department of Veterans Affairs for about nine years,
officials said. Blackstone did so by forging two witness statements from Marines who he falsely claimed
witnessed his war injury, federal court records show.

Brandon Blackstone

Federal officials have not yet publicly said how much money Blackstone stole from the government
and charities. He faces up to 21 years in federal prison when hes sentenced in February for wire fraud
and fraudulent representation about the receipt of a military decoration for financial gain. For Owens
still-grieving family and friends, the news of Blackstone's deception came as a shock, leaving them angry
and in disbelief. His sister, Lezleigh Kleibrink, called it a slap in the face. These were supposed to be
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your brothers, and you steal valor from one of your brothers? said Kleibrink, who lives in Trophy Club.
My mom and I just feel so sad for this guy. For someone to do this, you are not a Marine.

Lezleigh Kleibrink, with a photo of her late brother Casey Owens

Blackstone was born two months before Owens, in 1981. The two Texans ended up in the same U.S.
Marine Corps unit in Iraq during the war. When Owens Humvee hit the double-stacked anti-tank mine in
2004, Blackstone was about 400 yards away in a different platoon, witnesses said. But Blackstone told
reporters, charities and others that an explosion left him with a brain injury, ruptured appendix, leg
injuries and other physical and psychological wounds. He said he required multiple knee surgeries and an
ankle reconstruction. He told reporters hed earned two Purple Hearts. I suffered some pretty substantial
injuries and had to be flown to Germany, he told an interviewer for a British television production about
the Iraq war. I spent several years going through many surgeries.
Jerome Smith, 34, who was in a vehicle directly behind Owens at the time of the blast, said Blackstone
showed him a photo of Owens destroyed Humvee and said he was in it. It was false, the government said.
Blackstone was never wounded in Iraq. Andrew Rothman, his former platoon medic, told the FBI that
Blackstone actually left about four weeks after his deployment began due to appendicitis. Blackstone and
his attorney declined to comment or answer questions. Justin Sparks, the attorney, released a short
statement that said his client served our country in Iraq suffering several injuries at the time and still
suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and seizures. Blackstones case is at least the second in three
years involving a North Texas Marine who profited off faked war injuries. Michael Duye Campbell, who
lived in McKinney, was sentenced to four years in federal prison in August 2013 for falsely claiming to
have battle injuries in a scam to raise money to become a professional golfer.
Stolen valor cases involving veterans who actually served in wartime are rare, experts say. Usually,
such cases involve civilians who claimed military service they never had. Christopher Frueh, a research
director at the Menninger Clinic psychiatric hospital in Houston, said the easiest lie to tell is one about
which you know something. He said it sounds like Blackstone embellished his war experience using some
details that were actually true. Then it [a lie] can take on a life of its own, said Frueh, who is also a
University of Hawaii psychology professor.

Michael Campbell was sentenced to four years in federal prison in 2013 for falsely claiming to have battle injuries, part of
a scam to raise money to become a professional golfer.

Chapter Two
Owens, a Houston native, was in his second year at the University of Texas at San Antonio when terrorists
attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. The event jolted him into action. He dropped out and joined the
Marines, said Kleibrink, his sister. He had been searching for what he was meant to do, she said. Owens
took part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. His sister says he was in Baghdad, watching as a statue
of Saddam Hussein was pulled down. The moment signaling the fall of the dictator was captured for
audiences around the world. The following year, Owens was beginning his second tour of duty with the
1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment in the town of Husaybah in far western Iraq, on the Syrian border.
An insurgency had begun months earlier, and U.S. troops were being attacked daily.

Casey Owens risked his life numerous times to help injured Marines.

Blackstone, a 2000 graduate of Martin High School, was managing a rent-to-own store in his
hometown of Arlington when he joined the Marines in January 2004. He was a rifleman with 1st
Battalion, 7th Marines, according to his military records. When Blackstone arrived at Husaybah in August
2004, the Marine camp was a dangerous place. Smith, a machine gunner from Michigan who was in
Owens platoon and a close friend, said his company was taking enemy mortar fire or gunfire daily.
Improvised explosive devices were everywhere, and snipers fired at them from buildings. Smith and
others said their unit had been taking casualties regularly. It was bad. It was bloody, said Sowers, who
was Owens best friend at the time. We were targets.

Brandon Blackstone

About three weeks into their deployment, a reconnaissance unit was conducting operations in
Husaybah when a Marine was shot in the head by a sniper. But he was still alive. Owens platoon was
ordered to help evacuate the wounded Marine to a landing zone in a field outside town where a helicopter
would meet them. They were a quick-reaction force for anyone who needed help. Owens had already
risked his life numerous times to help injured Marines. But while they were en route, they were told to
return to base. Owens was in a Humvee in front of Smiths on a small dirt road known as Trash Road
when a massive explosion went off.
The blast knocked Smith away from the machine gun he had been manning on the Humvee and left
him in a disorienting orange-yellow dust cloud. His ears rang. Debris rained down on him. Insurgents
had buried two mines stacked on top of each other in the road, Smith said. The explosion tore the right
front half of the vehicle off, where Owens sat. Owens took the brunt of the blast and was thrown to the
ground. Smith saw a large black object on the ground when the smoke cleared. I had no idea what it
was, Smith said. It was Owens. He appeared to be covered in a black, sooty residue. He had over 200
shrapnel wounds, including a metal shard buried in his throat. A part of one leg was blown off. Both legs
were severely mangled.
Shortly after, Blackstone told his platoon medic that he had blood in his urine. He was sent to
Germany to get his appendix removed. Rothman, the medic, said everyone expected to see Blackstone
back in Iraq in about six to eight weeks. He never returned.
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Chapter Three
Owens woke up in the hospital in Germany, his sister said. He had about 100 stitches alone in his neck,
two collapsed lungs, perforated eardrums and burns across his body. His jaw and collarbone were broken.
Doctors had removed his right leg below the knee. He had fractures in both legs, and blood clots nearly
killed him. It is not Casey. He is swollen, everything is broken, Kleibrink wrote in an online
journal after she and her mother flew to Germany to be with him. His mandible had been broken and
wired shut; therefore his face is twice the size of what it was. His nose is black with tubes coming out of
it. ... He had several hundred stitches all over him, tubes on both sides of his lungs, exterior rods in his
right arm and left leg to stabilize the fractures, and his right leg is gone below the knee.

Owens was soon moved to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Several days later, he learned he
would lose his left leg. His pain medication caused hallucinations. At times, he thought the Iraqis had
captured him. Or that they were at the door, Kleibrink said. Please continue to pray for Casey's pain
levels, Kleibrink wrote in her journal. There are moments when I don't think he can take it anymore,
and we don't know what else to do for him! About a month after his September 2004 injury, while
undergoing physical therapy at the Walter Reed medical center, Owens was awarded his Purple Heart. He
also received a Bronze Star and was promoted to corporal.

George W. and Laura Bush visited Owens and his mother and sister.
)

President George W. Bush and Laura Bush visited Owens at Walter Reed in November 2004, as did
top generals and celebrities such as Billy Joel, Jon Stewart and Adam Sandler. A famous photograph taken
of Owens saluting during Bushs second inauguration in 2005 was published nationwide. He is in dress
uniform in a wheelchair. Kleibrink said her brother was able to use prosthetic limbs. But he had problems
with painful nerve bundles that grew on the ends of his stumps that forced him back into a wheelchair. He
could feel pain as if his legs were still there. These phantom pains a common condition for amputees
would continue to torment him for the rest of his life. Despite his injuries, Owens told people he
wanted to go back to Iraq to be with his buddies.

Kleibrink said her brother was crushed knowing that he wouldnt be a lifer in the Marines. It was
the loss of his dream, she said. He competed in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington in 2005 and
was the first wheelchair competitor across the line. But he was soon back in the operating room. The
muscle and skin on his amputated legs failed to heal properly, leaving him with painful raw wounds.
Additional amputations reduced the size of his right leg. Owens was still having surgeries to repair
problems to what was left of his right leg when Blackstone left the Marines in 2006 as his enlistment
period ended.

Chapter Four
Blackstones life went downhill after he left the Marines. His wife moved out in October 2006 and later
filed for divorce. He applied for VA benefits in 2006. He was 100 percent disabled and unemployable,
he said years later in a video for a veterans charity. He said in an interview that he became homeless for a
while and started using methamphetamine. Blackstone told a television news station that he drank and
used drugs to cope and try to deal with people. He said he received inpatient drug rehab for several
months and became isolated from his friends and family. Blackstone said he was hoping to do another
tour in Iraq but that the Marines told him he was no longer needed. I felt cast away. I was angry at
myself, Blackstone said in the promotional video for wounded veterans. He said he wondered why I
was still here when others werent.

Blackstone said in an online biography that he had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and
post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Germany. Blackstone said he locked himself in his
house. He said in an online biography that he had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder after returning from Germany. It said he also suffered from major depressive
disorder, insomnia, anxiety disorder, loss of hearing, and knee and ankle injuries. He worked briefly as a
mental health counselor, according to his Linkedin page, and he began taking classes in 2010 at Tarrant
County College. I had no self-esteem, I had no motivation, Blackstone said in the promotional video.

Blackstone got instruction on using a kayak by National Heroes on the Water in 2009. He later traveled across the country
as a motivational speaker for veterans

He learned about a charity in St. Louis called the Focus Marines Foundationand enrolled in the
program in 2011. He said it changed his entire mind-set. Walt Suhre, chairman of the foundations board
and a former Marine, said Blackstone was a model participant in the program, formed by veterans in 2010
to help those with invisible wounds of war like traumatic brain injury. Participants go through
classroom training and mentoring in a remote wooded location. Blackstone was such a success that the
foundation videotaped his testimonial and posted it on the website, said Suhre.
Smith, Owens Marine buddy, said he met Blackstone in 2012 when Smith was going through the
Focus Foundation program. Blackstone had been invited back to help after taking the class. While
chatting, Smith and Blackstone learned they both served in the same unit in Iraq. They exchanged stories,
but to Smith, there was something not right about Blackstone and what he was saying. His stories were
not matching up, Smith said. Blackstone mentioned the explosion that injured Owens. He showed Smith
a photo of Owens damaged Humvee and said he was in it. He pointed to scars on his body that he said

were from shrapnel. But they didnt look like shrapnel wounds, Smith thought. Blackstone said Owens
was on fire and that he put him out with an extinguisher. None of that happened, Smith said.
Smith said he didnt say anything at the time because he didnt want to disrespect the foundation. He
asked some of his Marine buddies about Blackstone, but no one knew who he was, which also seemed
odd. Our units arent big. We all know each other, Smith said. Theres a few people you dont know.
But nobody can figure out who the dude is.
Blackstone used his Focus Marines connections to branch out, and things were suddenly looking up.
He formed a charity in 2012 called The Fight Continues with Eric Calley and James Sperry, two former
Marines he met at the foundation. Their organization raised money to help veterans and their families.
Blackstone and his two partners organized a widely publicized Veterans Day event in 2013 to read the
names of more than a million fallen service members. We are the next generation going forward, and its
time for us to give back, Blackstone told a reporter at the time.
Blackstone traveled across the country as a motivational speaker for veterans. He got engaged in 2012
and flew to Michigan to receive a donated puppy a cross between a St. Bernard and a Great Dane to
be his service dog. News reports said the puppy would be trained to help warn Blackstone about
oncoming seizures caused by the frontal lobe injury he received in Iraq. The lieutenant governor of
Michigan presented Blackstone with a commendation certificate. The breeder, Cliff Brunner, said the
dogs sold for $800 at the time. Who would do something like that? Brunner asked about Blackstones
made-up war injuries. A disturbed person. ... I hope he gets help.
Blackstones medical records are private, but he did tell a judge that he suffers from PTSD and
seizures when he entered his guilty plea. In late 2012, Blackstone received a $150,000 mortgage-free
house in Fort Worth from Military Warrior Support Foundation, a San Antonio-based charity. A photo was
taken of him accepting the keys with his fiance and pro golfer David Toms. Andrea Dellinger, a
spokeswoman for the charity, said applicants must have had a combat-related injury to qualify. After three
years, the foundation deeds the homes to the veterans. But that didnt happen in Blackstones case, she
said. Some former Marines called to tip off the charity about Blackstones phony war injuries. When
confronted, Blackstone admitted to making up the story, Dellinger said. It was the first and only stolen
valor case the charity has had, she said, after giving out 742 houses since 2010. Blackstone left the house
this year, she said.

Chapter Five
In 2012, Owens depression continued to worsen. He had moved a few years earlier to Aspen, Colo., so he
could continue skiing, using a special mono ski. He told CBS News in 2012 that skiing was the only
activity that allowed him to forget the bad things. To a point. I dont think Ill ever be free, he told the
network. I dont think the burden of war is ever gone. The former high school football player competed
for a time as a Paralympics skier in Colorado. But his brain injury ruled his moods, and the lows were
crushing. Owens tried to return to college but had trouble concentrating due to his brain injury. He was
self-medicating with beer and liquor. He still had phantom leg pains.

Owens with his special needs dog Harold and competing as a Paralympics skier in Colorado.

Hed call me up drunk in the middle of the night, Smith said. He was in so much pain. Owens had
trouble with his medical treatment. He told CBS News in 2009 that VA doctors wanted to perform another
surgery on his leg to repair nagging amputation complications. But the procedure had failed three times
before. Each time, more of his right leg had to be amputated. I didnt have much more of my leg to
give, Owens said. He did his own research and found a doctor who could perform a different procedure,
but government approval took six months. Owens said he also couldnt get help for his brain injury. When
he told the VA about his symptoms, he was told they were sinus headaches or migraines, he said. Owens
later testified about the VAs bureaucratic delays before Congress.
Owens got a special needs dog named Harold to help him with panic attacks and depression. He tried
to put on a good face. I have my bad days and my good days, but when Im having my good days, I
definitely know Im lucky to be alive and to experience this, Owens told CBS News on a segment that
aired in 2013. But Owens became more and more withdrawn, his sister said. He had stopped driving
using special hand tools. And he was back in his wheelchair. He would forget conversations they just had.
It was the lowest moment of his life, she said about his final decline. He put a gun to his head and
pulled the trigger. A friend found his body in his home in Aspen on Oct. 15, 2014.

A memorial service was held for Owens after his suicide.

Chapter Six
Blackstone had built a new life for himself. But the videotaped testimonial about his Iraq experience got
around. Owens Marine buddies had seen it, and they were comparing notes. The Focus Marines
Foundation got an email from someone accusing Blackstone of being a con man and a fraud, but the
nonprofit wanted concrete evidence. Smith said he and his friends did some investigating and found the
letter Blackstone forged to the VA. He said he spoke to the person who supposedly signed it. That person
denied writing it. Someone alerted a federal law enforcement agency. Blackstone was charged on Sept.
15.
He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma Ramirez in federal court in Dallas on Oct. 20, dressed
in a dark suit, and pleaded guilty to the two felony charges. The second charge falls under the federal
Stolen Valor Act of 2013. As part of the agreement, Blackstones attorney handed over a Purple Heart,
enclosed in a small box, to the prosecutor. The defense attorney did not say where his client got the
medal. Blackstone received monthly disability checks from the VA from November 2006 several
months after his discharge until December 2015, court records show.

Blackstone walks to his vehicle with his lawyer after pleading guilty in federal court in Dallas.

In late 2006, he was examined at the Dallas VA Medical Center. He told the doctor he received
multiple lacerations and physical injuries from the explosion, according to court records. Calley, who
started the veterans charity with Blackstone after meeting him at Focus Marines Foundation, said he
disgraced our military and people who are trying to help veterans. Blackstone, he said, was effective at
fooling everyone. He convinced hundreds of people he was a decorated war hero and he wasnt, Calley
said. Anyone who is willing to do that is horrible in my mind.
[Source: The Dallas Morning News | Federal Courts Reporter Kevin Krause | November 23, 2016 ++]

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