Homeless ex-POW 4 tour Vietnam vet says he’s tired of fighting-was lying?

UPDATE
What was he thinking?

Jerry Davich: Hobart man’s P.O.W. claims refuted, paperwork fraudulent
August 2, 2011

The ‘Obama slam’

“If Barack Obama was standing right here, I’d bust him in the mouth for forgetting people like me.”

This inflammatory quote from now-disgraced “Vietnam era vet” Jerome Pagell was used as the front-page headline for my Tuesday column. And, although I had nothing to do with its placement on the front page, I heard repeated complaints about it.

It hasn’t helped that the quote came from a guy who is a lying, deceptive fraud. Then again, I heard several complaints well before anyone knew that new info. But are those readers upset because Obama is our president or because Obama is, well, Obama?

Meaning, I wonder if those readers would have been just as upset if, say, George Bush, was named instead? Or would I (and Post-Tribune editors) be hearing from only Bush supporters, equally upset about slamming their man in print?

Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that the majority of complaints have been from the black community, seemingly more upset about the “Obama slam” on the front page than the vet’s lies about being a P.O.W.

Connie Utley was duped. I was duped. And possibly so were many of you, thanks to me. For that, I sincerely apologize.

My Tuesday column on Jerome Pagell turned out to be only partly accurate in its tragic depiction of the disabled Vietnam era veteran.

In truth, the 69-year-old Hobart man showed me forged paperwork claiming he was a prisoner of war. He was not, according to multiple sources familiar with his “stolen valor” scam.

“He’s a fraud,” said Earl McDowell, district one commander for the state’s Veterans of Foreign Wars.

On Tuesday morning, McDowell went to Pagell’s home to confront him about his P.O.W. claims alongside Utley, the hair salon owner who first contacted me about Pagell. She has been helping Pagell for weeks and she called me Tuesday morning bawling from shame, disappointment, and anger toward Pagell.

“I have to know the truth,” she told Pagell face to face, with McDowell standing nearby. “I loved you, and I helped you with anything you needed. Why would you lie to me?”

Pagell refuted McDowell’s claims that he is a fraud, yet refused to provide him with the same paperwork he showed me when I visited his home. That paperwork confirmed that Pagell was a P.O.W. who was held captive more than two years in Vietnam.
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Hobart man’s P.O.W. claims refuted, paperwork fraudulent

Jerry Davich: Homeless POW vet says he’s tired of fighting
JERRY DAVICH jdavich@post-trib.com
August 1, 2011 5:56PM

Jerome Pagell of Hobart talks about Vietnam at A Lil' Off The Top Monday, Aug. 1, 2011, in Hobart. Pagell was a POW in Vietnam for 26 months, 12 days, 14 hours, and 23 minutes. | Scott M. Bort~Sun-Times Media

Disobedient tears ran down the proud but tired face of Jerome Pagell.

“Sir, I served honorably for this country. I gave blood for this country. And I lived in a hell hole as a prisoner of war for this country,” he told me, fighting back emotions. “But my government doesn’t care about me, and I’m tired of getting crapped on and forgotten about.”

Pagell, who turns 69 next week, served four tours in Vietnam as a U.S. Army cardiovascular nurse, first arriving in 1961.

On June 6, 1964, he was captured by the Viet Cong and imprisoned in a cage that was 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet. There, for “26 months, 12 days, 14 hours and 23 minutes,” Pagell lived, cried, urinated, defecated, yelled, laughed and questioned God’s existence.

“I cried out to God for his angel of death to come take me home,” he recalled in vivid detail.

But the angel of death never came. He finally was discovered and released by the Swiss in August 1966.

During another tour of duty, his unit was hit by Agent Orange, the code name for a cancer-causing herbicide used by the U.S. military. He developed ocular blastoma, a cancer behind the eyes, causing him to slowly lose his eyesight.

He has since developed diabetes, high blood pressure and post-traumatic stress disorder, and he’s legally blind. His feet are dark purple from poor circulation.
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Homeless POW vet says he’s tired of fighting