en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/1385114 Comments by Kevin R.C. O'Brien http://bigjournalism.com/dpeabody/2010/07/06/disgraced-historian-michael-bellesiles-fishy-war-story/#IDComment85167709 If you look at icasualties.org, you will find exactly two KIAs with the first name of Javier. Neither was a US Army soldier. Javier Olvera was a 20-year old Lance Corporalin 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force when he was killed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan on August 20, 2009. The other Javier was a Captain in the Spanish Army. RIP. However, the Chron story now says, and perhaps it always said, the Bellesiles changed names "out of respect for privacy." Given what we know of Bellesiles and his character, the privacy in question is probably his own. I can't believe that (1) Central Connecticut gave this notorious fraud a job and (2) that he returns to the scene of the crime, the Chronicle. On the other hand, I have no problem believing the Chronicle editors gave him the floor. For them, it's all about advancing the narrative, and who does that better than someone who's so committed he'll make his facts up? And I have no problem believing that people trained at Emory or UC Irvine for that matter will defend him on the grounds that "everybody does it." In their milieu, probably true. When someone dies of wounds in theater, the Defenselink.mil press release, which is the raw material icasualties.org uses for US and Coalition deaths, reports "Corporal xxx died on July 6 of wounds suffered July 3." Most usually, the delta is only one day if the victim did expire in-theater. I did not find an example of more than three days, but I did not search exhaustively. I recommend that anyone wanting to identify Bellesiles's fallen soldier look through the two sites mention, the official press releases at defenselink.mil and the unofficial (and generally antiwar) icasualties.org. As others have noted, it is most irregular for a soldier to linger on in theater. If anybody's stabilized enough, they can fly him or her to Landstuhl and then the USA (WRAMC or Brooke AMC in Texas for burns), even maintaining ICU conditions on the theater medevac aircraft. It's not impossible that Bellesiles is telling a true story here, but it's -- as the author says -- fishy. The story is too beautiful a little short story arc, and the author is the Clifford Irving of historians. "Soldier's brother takes pride, but is crushed and destroyed when soldier's life is thrown away on Bush's wars of imperialism, and learns only too late that all glory is moonshine." -- the sort of idea you have about the military and military families if your hiney has sat forever in a comfy chair, and Hollywood is your instructor. Tue, 6 Jul 2010 18:31:53 +0000 http://bigjournalism.com/dpeabody/2010/07/06/disgraced-historian-michael-bellesiles-fishy-war-story/#IDComment85167709