A Marine veteran who made national news for standing guard outside a
California school in uniform denied faking his military service but was
caught on video saying he was a sergeant and had been to Afghanistan. Craig Pusley appeared outside Hughson Elementary School on Wednesday
in a desert camouflage uniform to help children feel safe following the
massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School
in Newtown, Conn., he said. He added that he was inspired in part by
another Marine veteran, Staff Sgt. Jordan Pritchard, who made headlines
for similar actions at Gower Elementary School in Nashville, Tenn.Media coverage of Pusley’s actions reported that he is 28 years old and got out of the Corps as a sergeant after deploying twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan.
In
reality, Pusley graduated from boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot
San Diego but was in the service less than a year and never made it past
private first class, Marine officials said. He never deployed or made
it through military occupational specialty school, leaving the Corps
designated a “basic Marine,” MOS 8000.
Pusley
told Marine Corps Times in a Thursday phone interview he never lied
about his military service, blaming the first reporter who interviewed
him, Nan Austin of The Modesto Bee, for getting the story wrong.
“There’s
a lot of fabrication to this story that didn’t come out of my mouth,”
Pusley said. “All I know is that I talked to a Modesto Bee lady, and
everything went crazy.”
A Marine veteran who made national news for standing guard outside a
California school in uniform denied faking his military service but was
caught on video saying he was a sergeant and had been to Afghanistan. Craig Pusley appeared outside Hughson Elementary School on Wednesday
in a desert camouflage uniform to help children feel safe following the
massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School
in Newtown, Conn., he said. He added that he was inspired in part by
another Marine veteran, Staff Sgt. Jordan Pritchard, who made headlines
for similar actions at Gower Elementary School in Nashville, Tenn.Media coverage of Pusley’s actions reported that he is 28 years old and got out of the Corps as a sergeant after deploying twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan.In reality, Pusley graduated from boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego but was in the service less than a year and never made it past private first class, Marine officials said. He never deployed or made it through military occupational specialty school, leaving the Corps designated a “basic Marine,” MOS 8000.
Pusley told Marine Corps Times in a Thursday phone interview he never lied about his military service, blaming the first reporter who interviewed him, Nan Austin of The Modesto Bee, for getting the story wrong.
“There’s a lot of fabrication to this story that didn’t come out of my mouth,” Pusley said. “All I know is that I talked to a Modesto Bee lady, and everything went crazy.”
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