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| Xavier Alvarez |
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Medal of Honor
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco just ruled that Americans have a constitutional right to lie about military service. Here’s the deal: back in 2006 Congress overwhelmingly approved what’s called the Stolen Valor Act, which made it a crime to lie about receiving a military medal or service badge. One year later, a man in California, Xavier Alvarez, claimed he was a Marine and a winner of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. He is neither. Alvarez pled guilty on condition he could appeal on First Amendment grounds. An Associated Press report stated the 9th Circuit judges agreed “that the law was a violation of his free-speech rights. The majority said there’s no evidence that such lies harm anybody, and there’s no compelling reason for the government to ban such lies.”
Doesn’t harm anybody? Let me exercise my free speech rights and tell you, Mr. Alvarez, and you, judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, that your actions do hurt people! Your actions hurt the men and women of the armed services and their families. This ruling, which condones dishonest and anti-American behavior, comes at a time when some men and women serving abroad are not returning home because they gave their lives serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other regions around the world.
Let me tell you a true story about valor. It’s about one of my heroes. His name is Thomas Vernon Holyoak. Grandpa Vern answered a call to serve in the United States Army. He never personally told me about his service abroad because he did not like war. Luckily, my father convinced him to record what happened before he died so his posterity would know about his service and his experience.
Grandpa left his home in southern Utah in November of 1942. He endured a voyage of more than two weeks to join his company in Africa. When he arrived, he witnessed World War II first-hand. After defeating the enemy in the African theater, his unit took part in the invasion of Sicily. He spent time in the cities of Catania and Palermo (cities I lived in 40 years later while serving as a Mormon missionary). After again driving out the enemy, his company traveled to England to prepare for the invasion of France. Grandpa Vern’s unit landed on Omaha Beach. He spent more than two years with Allied troops as they pushed through France, Holland, Belgium and into Germany where he fought in many campaigns. He served as a weapons runner, delivering ammunition to the mortar battalion along the front lines. Seeking a place to sleep on one particular night, he and some fellow soldiers found a German pillbox. They removed the German bodies inside to make enough room to lay down. Severe stomach ailments, which later turned out to be an ulcer, forced him off the front lines in Germany and into a hospital for two weeks back in England. During that time, 90 percent of his unit lost their lives during a fierce battle with the Germans at the Bridge of Remagen.
Upon his release from the hospital, Grandpa received orders to report to southern France where he assisted in guarding 50,000 German prisoners (see some of them below in a photo Grandpa carried with him as a soldier). He said many of them looked very young, like they were 10 or 12 years old, He said he felt sorry for them.
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| Prisoner of war enclosure near Marsielle, France 1945 |
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| Corporal Vern Holyoak & Lieutenant Emma Holyoak (his sister) in Marsielle, France 1945 |
Grandpa Vern was in Paris on May 8, 1945 for V-E Day, when the Allies accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany marking the end of Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich. Three months later, he received orders to return home. As he flew on board a B-17 to Casablanca, French Morocco, a report came over the radio confirming Japan’s official surrender. World War II was finally over.
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| Bronze Star |
I, Mark Vernon Holyoak, am proud to be his grandson and his namesake.
Those who serve in the Armed Services are men and women of valor. They represent us. They fight for us. They protect us. They and their families sacrifice for us. They deserve our support. They deserve our loyalty. They deserve our honesty.
(This was originally published in 2011 when Alvarez was already serving a prison sentence for fraud after his conviction of registering his ex-wife for health benefits with his former employer. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled the Stolen Valor Act was an unconstitutional abridgment of the freedom of speech under the First Amendment, striking down the law in a 6-to-3 decision.)
