I bet you never heard of Dellon Tyler Ward. I hadn’t until I read a little bit about him on another blog. I read it a while ago and it has bothered me every since.

Its bothered me that I had never heard the story. It bothered me because the story was buried on the inside pages of a few newspapers. It bothered me that when I did a google search I only found a handful of articles about him and all those articles were in small local newspapers around the area he is from. Only two blogs were in the google search. Only two blogs had picked up on the story. It bothered me that I couldn’t find a single picture of him in my search. It bothered me that he doesn’t have to be recognized by his appearance and that 99.9% of the people in the United States will never associate him with the treason that he committed against his own country. He will never have to suffer the shame of what he did.

Buried in the middle pages of local newspapers are a mere few comments about an act of treason.

Man sentenced for lying to agents, sparking international military investigation

A Rising Fawn man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for lying about the existence of a fictitious video tape he said depicted “atrocities” committed by U.S. Marines in Iraq.

Dellon Tyler Ward had pleaded guilty months earlier to two counts of knowingly and willfully making materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements to federal agents about the video footage, which allegedly showed members of the U.S. Marine Corps committing murder in Iraq.

At the sentencing hearing Friday afternoon in Rome, Federal Prosecutor Todd C. Alley reminded U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy that Ward’s lies sparked an international investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The investigation cost $193,000 and involved pulling U.S. Marines out of combat zones in the spring of 2007.

Ward, 21, apologized for his actions at the hearing and asked for leniency.

After delivering the sentence, Judge Murphy said it was “beyond comprehension for this court why any individual who is a responsible citizen would make up such a tale.”

I saw my son for the first time in two years recently when I went to Germany to visit him. He had just gotten back from a 15 month stint in Baghdad. While I was there, I met quite a few of his combat buddies. They were all men. It was a front line combat unit so there were no women in their area of operations. Every one of them were impressive young men. They were disciplined, educated, exhibited integrity, intelligence, compassion, loyalty and a sense of duty and honor. These are attributes our culture once held in high regard.

My son and others reacted to an attack on America by standing up and saying ‘Send me, I will go’. For being the type of young men (and women) who bring character and strength to a society, they have spent 15 months being shot at, physically and psychologically assaulted in Baghdad and having their integrity, intelligence and dignity assaulted daily in the old media of our own country.

Ruthlace recalls the greatest generation of World War II and the pride with which men served as Marines, Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful. She goes on to say that this is another greatest generation. They are also facing an enemy like none we have ever faced before. I would add they are are also facing that enemy within who is in many ways more dangerous than the one they face who openly admit to being their enemies. They are investigated for any allegation anyone wants to make against them. Their hands are tied. They are held in contempt by the media that goes out of their way to paint them as villains instead of heroes.

Meanwhile, a young man who worked to undermine our military during a time of war says he’s sorry and gets a 15 month prison sentence. A slap on the hand. Men his own age are fighting and sacrificing in deserts on the other side of the world. This young man attempted to undermine their efforts and further endangered them.

Dellon Tyler Ward is guilty of treason and only received 15 months in prison.

The old media is only interested in false accusations made against our Marines or the hijinks of some low level, poorly disciplined troops. They aren’t interested in righting wrongs committed against our Men at Arms.

God help us if this trend doesn’t change.

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