An Open Letter To Don Hall, From Someone Who Was There

I don’t know why, but this morning I quick peeked in on the Wizbang website where Don has been waging an ongoing smear campaign against the men of F/58th LRP, and in particular Gary Linderer. There’s been a lot going on in there since I last visited and I was startled to see all the activity. Usually, I just post a quick bomb or two and forget about it for a few weeks. Well, there was a LOT of new stuff to read, and I was laughing out loud through most of it.

But the last letter, posted around midnight last night just about brought me to tears. It was written by a Vietnam veteran who was actually present at the battle of 20 November 1968, about which Don has written so many malicious lies and speculations. This veteran, John Reid, was also one of the soldiers that rescued the survivors of Team 24, under heavy enemy fire, after they were decimated on that hill in the Roung Roung valley. He KNOWS how it went down and he has tried, to no avail, to explain this to Don. It was pure happenstance that I saw this open letter to Don Hall, and I think it was meant to be, because I may not have revisited that thread at Wizbang for a few more weeks.

I am incredibly heartened by John’s letter, because once again it is a depiction of true brotherhood. John must know that he is now a very big target for Don Hall. John’s military service will be denigrated in public by Don, and he will be smeared - his motives questioned, his character maligned, and his honor trashed.

Please read John’s letter - it is gentle and it is fair - but make no mistake, it IS firm. John’s commitment to the truth and his desire to see healing is a tribute to him and to the men he served with.

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The Monkey on Don Hall’s Back

Those of you following the neverending psychosis that is Don Hall and his false allegations against F/58th Infantry will find this to be a true gem. The following email was sent by Don to our friend Kender, who graciously hosted us last summer on his radio show for a week discussing the Brother Against Brother series. We’ve been provided a copy of the email, and decided to post it here due to the new information contained in it. We think you’ll be as intrigued as we were.

I am the guy that you called early in the morning and woke me up for your radio show or whatever it is that Ms. Kit Jarrell and Heidi X were on your show, remember? I did hear that the two female girl Bloggers were going to send you copies of the 300 pages of DA1594 records. Did they? I doubt that they would because the records undo their story or should I say, their ten part hit-piece on me and my wife. The US Army Rangers and Spec/Ops community are on this matter now and I have a letter of support from the World-Wide Rangers, Inc. Ex. Director.

As you’ll see later, dear readers, Don’s idea of early is our lunchtime. Then again, you’ll understand why he doesn’t like to take calls in the morning in just a moment. Trust us - it’s priceless. As for the whole “letter of support” thing, let’s just say not everyone is able to correctly distinguish truth from reality. Of course, if you’re familiar with this story, then you’ve seen this idea in action already.

Mr. Gary Linderer does not have the 2 Silver Stars and 2 Purple Heats that he claims he earned for the same day’s combat. That’s a military impossibility!

Actually, no it’s not impossible at all, and we have proof of that, including another man who received a Purple Heart, two Silver Stars, and a Bronze Star for the same day’s action. The Army makes mistakes sometimes. In fact, on Hall’s own DD214 it lists his base as Fort Washington, Alaska. There is no Fort Washington; there is, however, a Fort Wainwright.

Your ever serve in the Army? If you ever want to call me again, call the day before and make arrangements. I had a book deal with Random House in 1993/1994 and after the editor told me about what he had to do too smooth these authors’ books out I sent the money back and broke the book contract. Linderer wanted me to loan him $7, 500.00 for his shoe-string BTL magazine that he started. I wanted his DOB, SSN to run a credit check on him. Business 101 and because I had been hearing rumors, at the time, that he did not have the military awards that he claimed I asked Linderer for a copy of his DD214. He never sent the DD214 and I never invested in his BTL magazine and he had someone wrote a hit-piece about my book in his magazine by someone who was not even in Vietnam and in the unit that this guy wrote about smearing me and calling me a liar. Linderer is smooth at using other people to do his dirty work. I eventually busted him for copy infringement. Random House settled the matter with us quickly because we had everything in writing. Of the over 1,000 pages of records, documents and sworn depositions of Linderer under oath and written statements notarized by people these two Bloggers only used one page in their story against us calling it “BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER.” Don’t you think that a “little school yard girl thing” trying to get two guys to fight over them? It’s simply about truth against fictional and recreational writing.

We already proved this entire paragraph to be false, so I’m not going to revisit it. All of the above is a flat-out lie, and the “everything in writing” is also pretty shoddy, since I have copies of it all and the only thing it shows is that the Halls are adept at twisting words, patching lies together with unrelated facts, and presenting it all as “truth.” The Halls like to whine that they have “extra” or “new” information that they held back from us, but if they had a smoking gun of some sort, they’d have given it up early.

Kit and Heidi said that they had Linderer sign a Form 180 in July 2005 to release to them Linderer’s full military records and they did not. See their web page with photos of them copying Linderer’s military records at his home or office in Branson, MO. If you really want a big story that will put you out there call me. After all, Linderer was a clerk after the combat actions of 20 Nov. 1968 and if you were ever in the Army you knew what clerks could do? Did Linderer have someone like General Fred Weyand supporting his books? Did Linderer have someone like General Norman Schwarzkopf in our award-winning documentary “SILENT VICTORY?” No he and the other authors did not.

So now he’s accusing Linderer of fixing his own records. It’s not working anymore to accuse the entire 101st Airborne of engaging in a cover-up, so now Hall will just make something up.

If you want a copy of my book and the documentary, let me know? It’ll change your head about what is really real.

The above is way more amusing once you read what’s below.

I’ll save you some time and send you what I have found and you can make up your own mind or read that national archives true copies posted on my web page at: www.i-served.com. If you read about F/58 LRP with the 101st Airborne Division that was Linderer’s team # 24 on 20 Nov. 1968. Compare those contemporaneous records with what he wrote and some other dozen authors wrote. Big stretch from claims of Linderer’s that they killed over 200 NVA soldiers on 20 Nov. 1968, when the records show a body count of ten (10) at the end of the day that include the nine mostly unarmed Vietnamese (5) males and (4) females reported in as “rice porters” that they ambushed not a NVA medical staff as Linderer wrote. And then, you have Det. B-36 Special Forces commanded by (then) Major James Bo Gritz. Read those and see why that LT. Williams was accidentally killed on purpose. You can see what these two marginal units had in common.

“Save you some time and send you what I found…” Right. In other words, “Here, I’ll spoonfeed you what I want you to see, and then you can’t help but agree with my asinine and illogical conclusions.”

If you want a real BIG STORY give me a call off the radio, of course, and let’s chat first. It’s coming out and those two Bloggers missed the truth by a long shot. This is about the STOLEN VALOR ACT H.R. 3352. Congressmen have called me about it and you will see what is going to happen.

Hall is a chronic name-dropper, as if you couldn’t tell. What he fails to mention is that most of the people he claims support him have since retracted that support after seeing the truth of how singlemindedly obsessed Hall is with Linderer’s career. Time after time men who initially tried to help Hall or defend him have found out the hard way that Hall’s obsession is so all-consuming that he will literally stop at nothing to destroy Linderer, even if it means making up stories, harrassing business partners and associates of Linderer, and threatening the physical well-being of those who disagree.

PS: Kit and Heidi knew that I’ve had two low back surgeries and I am disabled due to a broken back suffered in Vietnam in 1968 and I told them numerous times not to call me in the morning because I take 45 mg of Morphine. They should be so lucky, huh?

And here is where it all gets fun.

First of all, Hall was a LRP for 7 1/2 months (20 Oct 1967-4 July 1968), according to a Freedom of Information Act request that I have here in front of me. He claims in his book that the reason he was pulled out of the field and sent to the hospital is because he had a bad cough that endangered his team on missions. However, in the above paragraph he claims he broke his back in Vietnam in 1968. Let’s look at the facts.

After 11 months in Vietnam (11 Aug 1967-4 July 1968), he was sent to Roanoke, VA as a patient on 4 Jul 1968. The very next day, on 5 July, he was sent to Kenner Army Hospital at Fort Lee, which among other things was known for its extensive psychiatric facilities. According to his records, he stayed there until 28 Aug 1968, at which time he was sent to Fort Bragg, NC, and given a new job at 82nd Division HQ, as a “Sp Instr. School Det.” My question is, if he broke his back bad enough in 1968 to have to undergo two surgeries and be on 45 mg of morphine per dose, how is it that he was fit to return to duty after only 52 days?

They called me in the morning on your show and when they got in touch with Linderer who is one gifted used-car salesman-type who used his claims of two fake Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts to bullshit his way into Ross Perot’s office they started calling me in between the hours that I asked them not too.

This is a copy of the phone records showing all calls from Don Hall to me during the months of June and July, 2005, when Heidi and I were researching the Brother Against Brother story. (Calls from his personal cell phone were not counted in this total.) Please note that the “To” number listed is area code 810, which is Flint, Michigan, in the Eastern Standard Time Zone. Since Hall lives in Redmond, Washington, his local time would be 3 hours behind. As you can see, exactly half of the calls made by Hall to me were not between the hours of 11 am and 2 pm, which he outlines in the next paragraph as his preferred time for phone calls due to his medication. Am I to assume that any calls made outside of Hall’s 4-hour window of lucidity were conversations where he was under the influence of what to a healthy person would be a potentially lethal dose of morphine?

According to several sites I looked at, morphine “impairs your ability to think.” 30mg of morphine in a single dose can be lethal for someone who does not normally use morphine. However, for someone who is a habitual user (even if on a prescription for it), the lethal dose is higher. Therefore, Hall has apparently been on morphine for quite some time. Based on this, it is also important to point out the long-term effects of morphine use, many of which are outlined in the above articles. They include impaired judgment, drowsiness, nightmares, lethargy, and a lowered level of dopamine in the brain, as evidenced by this study.

What’s interesting is this theory, which suggests that “the unusual behaviour and experiences associated with schizophrenia (sometimes extended to psychosis in general) can be fully or largely explained by changes in dopamine function in the brain.” While there is evidence both for and against this idea, as explained here, it seems to be generally accepted that dopamine levels play a part in certain mental disorders. While I am not a doctor and would never seek to offer a definitive opinion, I did find the information intriguing.

I called Mr. Perot and he realized that he was being duped again by associates of James “Bo” Gritz. Long story from years ago, but Mr. Perot was one pissed off Texan and I sent him the records. So if you want you call me between the hours of 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM. If you’d like, if not that’s okay too.

Hall outlines a 4-hour window during which he is apparently lucid enough to accept calls and claims that I called him during times he requested that I not call, and yet I again direct your attention to the fact that the phone records I showed you are all calls from Don Hall to me. This is not to say I never called Hall. However, as you can see from the list of my calls to him, I only called them 5 times, and two of those were on June 3 due to connection problems on our first three-way call with Heidi.

If you are one who thinks it is okay for US military personnel to frag or plant a toe-popper mine that blew off the foot of their new CO based on rumors that they heard about this new officer then don’t go any further. Kit and Heidi think snitch is bad, but in Linderer’s case it’s okay. Moral relativism they seem to have a lot of, I guess.

Moral relativism is not a trait Heidi and I possess, as any reader of this blog is well aware. However, after the points outlined above, I’m not that worried about any accusations coming from Don Hall. After all, he’s the one on morphine.

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Behind the Scenes Attack Could Hurt Vets

Operation Homecoming 2006, slated for June 11-18, seeks to give Vietnam veterans the homecoming they were denied so many years ago. Held for the first time last year, the event was a week-long reunion for 35,000 veterans and their families that included big-name musical acts, golf and fishing tournaments, helicopter rides, and other activities. For these veterans, it was a chance to be finally recognized for their honorable service during a time when their country dishonored them, and to reconnect with brothers they had lost contact with. To organizer Gary Linderer, it was a way to give something back to the veteran community with whom he had shared so much.

However, one man’s efforts to discredit a fellow veteran are intended to sabotage the event, at the emotional expense of 80,000 veterans and their families expected to attend this year.

In a manner reminiscent of John Kerry’s defaming accusations against fellow veterans, Donald C. Hall, a former member of an Army Long Range Patrol unit, has leveled accusations against Operation Homecoming’s organizer, Gary Linderer, as well as the elite Army unit Linderer served with. Hall claims that Linderer and his unit engaged in war crimes: the attempted murder of their commanding officer, and the premeditated murder of civilians. Even though Hall did not serve in Linderer’s unit, did not serve near Linderer’s unit, and was not in Vietnam at the time he alleges these events took place, he nevertheless has contacted the management company connected with Operation Homecoming in an effort to convince them to withdraw their support for the week-long event planned, and has threatened to send letters to the sponsors and entertainers.

Hall’s accusations are nothing new to Linderer, who has been dealing with the situation for 10 years. While Hall’s efforts to discredit Linderer’s unit have been the primary focus of Hall’s life over the last decade, little credence was given to his claims by the military community due to the lack of evidence and the number of men who had actually survived the true events in question. Hall’s own questionable history in the Army, as opposed to Linderer’s stack of medals and accolades, also helped those who heard Hall’s allegations to dismiss them as simply destructive envy.

However, in 2005 Hall’s machinations could no longer be ignored. Mounting a massive online campaign, Hall and his wife Annette sought to destroy the first Operation Homecoming held in Branson. Contacting every member of the board of directors for the event as well as entertainers and individual sponsors, the Halls called Linderer and his unit murderers, fakers, and “prevaricators extraordinaire,” and asked everyone connected with Operation Homecoming to withdraw their support. Hall ignored those who questioned whether his efforts were robbing veterans of their rightful homecoming, and boasted publicly that he personally was responsible for 10,000 veterans choosing not to attend the event. No evidence exists that Hall’s claim is true, but the idea that Hall claims it as a triumph shows that his personal vendetta trumps even his fellow veterans’ right to a homecoming.

As part of his ongoing effort to professionally destroy Linderer, Hall contacted us and asked us to write the story he had spent 9 years telling, one of murder, misconduct, and dishonor. During our investigation, which spanned several months, we discovered that not only had Linderer and his unit served honorably, but valiantly, with two members of his team even being recommended for the Medal of Honor. Linderer himself was recommended for a Distinguished Service Cross and received many awards and letters of commendation during his time in the Army, even being awarded Squadron Soldier of the Month and Battalion Soldier of the Month.

Even in the face of insurmountable evidence exposing his claims as unfounded and malicious lies, with this year’s Operation set to be much bigger and better than 2005, Hall has redoubled his efforts to see the event fail, even if it means robbing those he served with of the honor they have earned. We are working to bring you a copy of the letter he is sending to those connected to Operation Homecoming, and will post other updates as they become available.

The results of our research can be found here, in a series titled Brother Against Brother. We are also available to answer any further questions veterans may have about our research, the claims Hall has made, or Linderer’s service; we can be reached by email at euphoricrealitynet@gmail.com.

Those involved with Operation Homecoming—from the entertainers to the organizers to the sponsors—are doing an amazing, noble thing. The veterans from the Vietnam era deserve to be honored with this event, and it is our sincere hope that unfounded claims and already disproven charges will not be allowed to tarnish this celebration of their service and sacrifice to America.

[Note: Our readers are already familiar with Don Hall, his attempts to discredit Linderer, and his desire to derail the Operation Homecoming event last year. However, with the new information surfacing and Hall's new attempts to contact this year's event organizers and sponsors, we felt it was important to keep people abreast of the new developments.]

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By Popular Demand

By now, much of our readership has read the Brother Against Brother series, and is aware of the ongoing psychotic drama that surrounds that series today. Over the last few months, we’ve received numerous inquiries about many of the books we cited in the series, as well as more information about LRPs. To that end, I’ve put together a page listing all the books we referenced, and they are all excellent & exciting reads! I can say that because during our research Kit and I read all of them multiple times!

If you have any interest in Vietnam, and the fierce no-quarter combat of the LRPs, Rangers, and Special Ops - then these books are for you.

*****Welcome, 75th Ranger Regiment!*****

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The Fun Never Ends

Everyone’s favorite troll is back. Ever since we wrote Brother Against Brother, we’ve been dealing with Don Hall and his wife Annette. Faithful readers will remember the attempts at intimidation, threats of legal action, harrassing phone calls (never published on the blog until now) and various other actions designed to make us rue the day we ever decided to tell the truth and expose his libelous, psychotic fixation on Gary Linderer and the men of F Company, 58th Infantry. They are so completely obsessed with us at this point that they’ve even made a website just to talk about us, calling the whole affair “BloggerGate” as if the entire wretched and retarded drama is even big enough to be a “-gate” anything. For our part, Heidi and I just let it go. We did our research, wrote the truth, and exposed a pair of malicious liars. End of story.

It’s been quiet for a few weeks, and I had started to wonder if perhaps they had crawled back under their rock to stay. Unfortunately, not only are they still wasting oxygen, but they’ve reared their ugly head again. This time they’ve outdone themselves.

As many of you know, I am a member of the Media Bloggers Association. Hall made a telephone call to Robert Cox, the President of the MBA to say that he wanted to file a complaint against the unethical actions of one of its members.

One can only speculate as to the horrors that lay in store for us all, since Hall apparently bored even the voicemail to death - it cut ff after a few moments. We’ll keep you posted when we get more info. We know you’re all waiting with bated breath. Or something.

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Patrolling Magazine Mentions Euphoric Reality

Heidi and I were mentioned in the latest issue of Patrolling magazine, the official publication of the 75th Ranger Regiment Association. Patrolling named our site and encouraged its readers to check out our series Brother Against Brother, about the LRP/Rangers of F Company, 58th Infantry in I Corps, Vietnam. It was an unexpected thing to open my copy of the magazine and come across our names, but it’s definitely made us really excited. Writing that series brought into our lives some of the most incredible men we have ever known, and it was a real pleasure to write their story.

Welcome to all 75th Ranger Regiment members. We are truly honored to have you on our site. Thank you for your service and your continued dedication to our freedoms.

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Weirdo.

Well, the one-sided rant rages on and I didn’t even know about it. I guess I had moved on with my life, and forgot how weird Don Hall is. Unbeknownst to me, he’s been crapping at other people’s websites again recently. He’s a determined little bugger, ain’t he?

Cao, annoyed by the stink, was inspired to write her own full-on rebuttal. I just happened across it by default as I browsed her site this lovely Sunday afternoon, and thought I’d point you over there. It’s always fun to read a verbal smack-down, and Cao’s is enough to make a grown man cry.

I almost feel sorry for Don - he’s surrounded on all sides by women who are smarter and tougher than he is (though admittedly, that’s not much of a stretch). Hmmmm…come to think if it, Don’s behavior is very sado-masochistic. It’s like he has this compelling need to be dominated. Ok, that’s gross. Ew. Can’t go there.

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The Lowest You Can Go

More fun from the neverending loonybin that is the Halls.

Heidi and I received an email from a guy who says his name is Keni Moore, and that he served with the F/51st Long Range Patrol in Vietnam. “Why, that’s the same unit as Don Hall, from that Vietnam story you guys wrote,” you’re thinking. Why yes, dear reader. Now why would someone named Keni Moore be writing someone like me or Heidi? Well, it seems Mr. Moore is a bit mistaken about what Heidi and I did. He wrote to harass and intimidate us for writing the story we did back in July. In between calling us names, threatening us, and just generally acting like an illiterate ass, he consistently says things that normal, sane people would find laughable and disturbing simultaneously. There’s only one problem.

We don’t think Kenneth Moore is actually the person who wrote the email.

However, intelligent readers, we ask you to be the judge. Please read the following emails that we received - in a span of 10 minutes today - and tell us what you think. Do the letters sound like someone who’s actually read our series Brother Against Brother, or someone who’s perhaps read it but doesn’t care for the truth contained in it? Does the author sound sane? Logical? Most importantly, does the writing style sound familiar? And why so many emails in such a short period of time? A fit of rage, perhaps? Maybe some sort of psychotic state brought on by over- or undermedication? The possibilities abound. But take a look, readers, and tell us what you think. The emails are pasted below with no changes to spelling or grammar. You’ll see why.

Note: The party impersonating Moore makes certain to put in all caps that we aren’t allowed to publish his email. However, we’ve gone ahead and done so because the party impersonating Moore is engaging in a crime, and therefore isn’t really in a position to tell us what we can and can’t do. Besides, what would he do? Sue me for copyright infringement under his fictitious and stolen name?

Sent at 1308 local time today:

Jarrell and Heidi:
NOT FOR REPRINT, RESENDING, COPYING OR ANYTHING!! THIS IS BETWEEN YOU AND ME AND YOU WILL HEAR MORE SOON!YOU 2 MISSED THE REALLY BIG STORY CAUSE YOU’RE STUPID.
No answer from you —hey.You 2 bimbos did this nasty shitpiece on our friends the Halls and you are part of this growing nasty Bo-loving-Gritz group who have been trying to stop the film about our unit.It will not work and You did this story when we were having our Co. reunion and we believe Linderer was behind it so none of us knew about it until after words.What was going on other than Hall tellng a lot of us that you 2 were liarsand it shows.I’ll get your phone number and give you a call on these matters because what you have done is exactly what Linderer and his punks have been doing all these years.I’ll be a witness for Hall anyday.Were Les Ervin left off twenty of us are now taking his place.You know about how Linderer and Emanuel stole from the Halls and how they threatened Les Ervins’ wife as he was dying in his home. His wife had to move him cauise of these punk ass punks who were REMF in RVN.This crap your wrote is that—CRAP and you both know it.You should be ashamed of yoruselfs!!! Air force grease moneky and a wanabe pilot. Airbore S1 eye-candy for some staff officers.Pimping your way through the army.Hall was right about you writing about a good freind of our who’s Mexican.You 2 think you’re the only Americans’ out there or something your dumbass broads?

Here’s what you really missed out on your dumbass story of bullshit.Hall was going to let you know about the congressmen that had been calling him over the 25,000 page of records he has and you 2 missed your shot and think you will be a book?NOT ON OUR WATCH!Calls have been made to Random House legal about you both.

While I realize the idea of Heidi and I writing a book could be something traumatizing for the person behind these emails, especially if it does better than his did, at this point we’re merely entertaining the idea. It’s not final. And I don’t really know why calls being made to Random House’s legal department would do any good, since they don’t have a clue who we are. And “Bo-loving-Gritz group”? Priceless. I wonder if now-retired Major James “Bo” Gritz, former commander of B-36 Special Forces unit, ever hears about this and just has a good laugh.

Also, if Hall has really has congressmen calling him, perhaps he should jump on this opportunity while he has the ear of our legislators and actually discuss issues that are actually important. Or maybe even issues that are actually true. We could start with the Crescent of Embrace. Or perhaps the Islamo-supporters funding it? How about the need to confirm Judge Roberts? Or perhaps the thousands dead and displaced by Katrina? But I digress.

One more thing. I think when he was talking about Heidi “pimping” her way through the Army, he really was trying to say “whoring”. Doesn’t it just take all the power out of insulting someone when you can’t even use the right words? It’s almost like trying to call someone stupid in writing when you can’t spell or punctuate…oh. Right. Moving on.

Sent three minutes later, at 1311, with the subject “You haven’t heard the end of all of this”:

Nice shity hit piece you did on the Halls.Where did you come up with that crap?

Well, let’s see. We got it from thousands of pages of material from MACV, individual divisions, and the survivors. In fact, we got a lot of material from one Donald C. Hall. It was rather funny, though. Even the stuff he provided proved him to be a malicious liar. Anyway, now you know. Does that answer your question?

Sent 7 minutes later, at 1318:

Don
I’ll be your witness after finally reading all that shit these 2 hacks did on you and your wife.Where did they get this shit from?I talked to Clark and he said they lied and took him out of context.Why woukld these two do that?To make all of us Vietnam Vets look bad all over again?That’s the way I read it all.
Tell Annette to hang tough and she didn’t desearve this shit nor did you but they wanted to make us all look bad iguess.like you said we are above it and better then them but I had to write these 2 bimbos even through you said not to.I contacted Saunders and he’s drawing up the papers on this.He wants you to call him and said to give these 2 girls one more chance to return your books and stuff.
Kit can go rapping with Gerald “RAP” Brown and the others who went off to
jail— LOL!!!

The beauty of the above email that was supposedly CC’d to Hall, is that “whoever” typed the email made a typo and actually CC’d the email to donchall@i-servede.com. Just so you know, Don, if you were looking for that email in your inbox, that’s why it didn’t get there. Check your Sent folder in Hotmail. I’m sure there’s a copy there.

And here is where yet another line is crossed. See, we don’t care that this person thinks we’re “bimbos” or “pimps” or whatever else. But once you’ve sunk to the point of using the names of men in your unit, men you fought and bled with, then you are scum.

There was a Ken Moore in the F/51st in Vietnam. However, he was not at the unit’s recent reunion. In fact, he’s not been heard from for a long time by the men he served with. And what of Saunders? Does this man want his name associated with something so hateful and malicious? Or perhaps Clark, who this person claims told him we lied and misrepresented his words in our story? I found Clark Etterman to be a quiet, articulate individual who had very intelligent things to say about the situation and yet wished not to become embroiled in it. Yet, here he is, his name dragged in by someone who has so little respect for his brothers that he will use them and their names for whatever harassing misdeeds he engages in.

How low is it to embark on a crusade to destroy another man’s life for no reason other than professional jealousy, or retaliation for being caught in a lie? Personally, I think it’s disgusting. What is even more pathetic is the idea that someone would use the names of those he served with in his crusade and indeed his crimes, even though the real victims have no interest and perhaps not even knowledge of the situation; they have no idea they’re being used as materiel in yet another war.

F/51st LRP was a good unit, and most of the men who served with that outfit were honorable, decent men who fought well and served their country but more importantly continued to be decent, honorable men throughout their lives after the war. Those men, and the ones who never came home at all, deserve better than to have their unit’s name invoked by someone who doesn’t use it with pride, only selfish and malicious intent. They deserve better than to have their own names dragged into a situation that perhaps they were never aware of and certainly wouldn’t wish to be part of.

I want to personally apologize to the men of F/51st for the way their names are being trampled on. Our piece never sought to tarnish your reputation as Hall would have you believe. In fact, we barely even mention your unit, and never in a deprecating way. You are welcome to read the piece in full to see for yourselves. I hope that the above information helps you. Your service is appreciated, you deserve better than this, and I wish you the best.

As for the scum who is hiding behind the names of his brothers without their knowledge or consent, I challenge you to step out and deal with the situation head on. If you’re going to sue us, do so. If you’re going to show up at our doorstep, or when we’re “out at the mailbox” as you’ve threatened others, then do so. But stop the lying, stop the fraud, and stop the idle threats. Be a man and stop bragging from the dugout and bring a bat to the plate for once.

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Our Final Word.

This is our final word on the matter of Don and Annette Hall, re: Brother Against Brother. And then we. are. done.

You have accused us several times of claiming to be “investigative journalists”. I’m quite certain that to you, a investigative journalist is “someone who prints what they’re told to without first doing the research.” If the fact that we didn’t simply print your allegations without checking out the information first means we’re not investigative journalists, then I gladly concede that point. Hang on to that point, for it’s the only one you’ll have when we’re done.

You’re fond of linking our names with the likes of Michael Moore and Dan Rather. While I chuckle that you find us to be in the same league of notoriety as these two “celebrities”, I must again point out that what we did was actually nothing like either of them. I know you love to use the term “hack job” in reference to our work, but unfortunately it doesn’t really apply. However, it may very well refer to your own. The errors in your “research” are apparent to any intelligent reader, as is the obvious bias.

As for the claim that we’re after fame and fortune, well, thanks for the chuckle. We don’t have a book deal, and we don’t have any desire to get on “cable TV”, unlike you, who have already contacted everyone in the electronic media in an effort to get a book sold.

I don’t plan on spending the next ten years of my life engaging in your fantasies of conspiracies and personal attacks, so this will be my final dissertation on the matter.

• For you to accept that the documentation you have staked your entire campaign on is faulty, you demand a standard that is logistically impossible to meet. You know this, and that’s why you demand it. Ignoring the laundry list of proven errors and mistakes in your paperwork speaks toward a deeper, perhaps more sinister purpose than “finding the truth”. I’m not a mental health professional, so I’ll leave the diagnosis to them.

• For a moment, I’ll even set aside all the problems with the records that you’ve camped on like a Boy Scout on a summer trip. If the records are in fact accurate, then they still prove you to be incorrect. Your conclusions about the villages and their chiefs are drawn by taking completely unrelated events in unrelated locations that were dealt with by unrelated units and patching all together with a sign that says “All roads lead to F/58 because we say so”. You cannot deny that the entries from early in the morning on 20 Nov 1968 do not have anything to do with the members of Team 24, F Company, 58th Infantry. These events are from many miles away. How is it that you don’t see this? You claim B-36’s CO didn’t let his men have maps while you were there. Perhaps that’s why you can’t read one. If so, my apologies. I didn’t realize it was a training issue.

• The 1594 also mistakenly identifies the female enemy soldier who lived a few moments after the ambush as being male. Which is it, Don? Are the 1594s correct or are they not? You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Either way, the 1594s themselves prove you incorrect.

• Please remember that you came to us. In fact, at the beginning of this little journey you bemoaned the fact that out of the long list of military bloggers you had sent the story to, most hadn’t given you the time of day. Only one other blogger besides us published anything about your story, and he did so without looking at any information besides what was on your site. Apparently you think we should have gulped down what you spoon-fed us and then regurgitated it onto the site. Would you be attacking us personally then? Of course not.

• You claimed publicly on the internet that you believe Gary Linderer and the men of F/58th attempted to murder their commanding officer. If I were Gary, I would demand that you have charges brought within 30 days. If not, I’d sue you. How is it that it’s okay for you to threaten anyone who disagrees with you, and personally threaten us if we said anything that made you look bad, and yet it’s okay for you publicly accuse someone of attempted murder when there is so much evidence to the contrary?

I see you have continued to ride the wave of your “confidential source” fiasco. I will state this very clearly, and I will be sure to use small words. We at no time lied about anything related to that. Heidi assumed the reason that he had been “outed” was due to her questions. Contrary to what you might think, Heidi and I don’t talk incessantly all day, and she had no reason or way of knowing what had happened until I told her myself. You’ll notice that I did not deny outing him. In fact, I’ll even plainly state in public on this site what I did. I stand by my decision.

A Unit Director in the 75th Ranger Regiment Association sent you confidential emails from within the association. You can claim every day for a year that it was only two, and you can claim that they were directly related to you and that you somehow had a “right” to see them. However, you and I both know what the truth is.

I contacted Steve Crabtree, the President of the 75th RRA, by telephone and told him that I had in my possession email from this Unit Director that had been forwarded to you. Since the emails dealt with internal financial business of the association, I felt it would be in the association’s best interest to be aware that they had a person in their midst who apparently had no problem leaking this sort of information. Crabtree sent out an email to the association stating that I had told him this Unit Director was forwarding all email, which was not the case. Crabtree apologized to me for the error, and for accidentally sending the email to the leak himself; true to form, the person passed it right back to you like a good little minion.

There is a difference between being a whistleblower and being a troublemaker. Your friend in the 75th RRA did nothing helpful with his actions. He brought no law enforcement in to investigate any actual complaints. He showed no proof of wrongdoing by any parties in the association. He simply passed on an email that gave you fuel for your eternally burning flame.

You also claim that we chose not to talk to the men who served with you. What actually happened when we called them is this:

• One vet hung up on me when he heard your name and that I was calling him at your request,
• Several refused to get back to us,
• One rambled on for over an hour in your defense but finally admitted that all his information was secondhand from you,
• One tried to hit on Heidi via email,
• The one who actually chose to talk to me had less than glowing reviews of your book and your conduct. I chuckled to see you claim that he told you I used his remarks out of context since I taped the conversation. I’m quite certain that you didn’t mention to him the email you sent me warning me about him.

Almost a full week before publishing the series Brother Against Brother, we served you with our research findings. We were quite clear that what we had found was not what you wanted us to find, and we gave you ample time to respond.

Instead of simply providing additional documentation to support your claims, you did the following:

• Left a total of four voicemails on our home telephone numbers in less than 30 minutes. During these voicemails you engage in behavior that leaves us no choice but to question your emotional stability, including threats and intimidating statements. The voicemails get more and more disturbing as they go on. At one point, on Heidi’s voicemail, you lapse into a sort of eerie singsong chant. I have copies of them, and have no problem whatsoever posting them on the website.

• Your wife wrote us a 10-page email attacking us personally and disparaging any and all work we did on the case.

That was just the first day. In the weeks since, you’ve added to that pile with the following:

• Called me personally to threaten me with legal action, as well as claiming that you were getting calls about us from “people in the military”.

• Left several voicemail messages, each time attempting to use intimidation and threats to convey your point. In one message to Heidi you claim that you “just got off the phone with 20/20 and 60 Minutes”, who are apparently “very interested” in a story about “Bloggers Gone Mad”. (Your choice of title was priceless. May I suggest you visit Democratic Underground? There’s quite a few over there.)

• Posted personal attacks against us on Amazon.com, in your “reviews” on Linderer’s books using a fake name.

• Slyly lied to Heidi that something was wrong with her military records, and “we’d all soon find out about that - heh heh heh.”

You even dug around in the personal lives of Heidi and myself, looking for whatever dirt you could find. Your gleeful voicemail to Heidi proclaiming me as “Kit - or should I say ‘Jeanette’ - Jarrell” is proof of that. I haven’t really hidden my real name. Until now, it’s never been a problem. However, if knowing that Kit is not the name I was born with somehow gives you a charge, then be my guest.

You came to us. You wanted publicity for your story. You told us to read the information and make our own decision. We read everything you gave us, and then dug for more. We have an incredible number of resources unrelated to the men of F/58th that corroborated the testimony of Team 24 and their CO. Most, if not all, of this information was available to you. You chose not to even look for it. Don’t blame us because your story is full of gaping holes.

The rest of your accusations against us personally are simply half-truths, twisted pieces of information, and outright lies. I doubt you’d know truth if it slapped you in the face. Perhaps even worse is the knowledge that you willingly choose not to see it. Our readers, our family, our friends, and those who know who we are see your attacks for what they are. I’m not worried. Take your best shot.

I hope you do</