Jonas Rides At The Door, a Marine Corps combat veteran, calls on Sheehy to release medical records. (Keila Szpaller/The Daily Montanan)
Military veterans on Tuesday said people should not trust Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy with their vote because he has shown himself to be an “egregious” and “serial” liar.
They also said telling a falsehood about being wounded on the battlefield is particularly troubling.
Lara Dorman, retired Montana Army National Guard Captain who served in the Gulf War, said she is insulted Sheehy is lying about his military record and an incident in Glacier National Park. (Keila Szpaller/The Daily Montanan)
“If elected, he will continue to deceive Montanans,” said Lara Dorman, a retired Montana Army National Guard captain who served in the Gulf War.
Jonas Rides At The Door, a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in the Iraq War, said he found Sheehy’s comments about being wounded in combat “personally offensive” having been hurt in war himself.
“If Tim Sheehy really wants to tell Montanans the truth, he could come clean and release his medical records from the Kalispell hospital from that day in Glacier,” said Rides At The Door, also a Purple Heart recipient.
The veterans spoke on the lawn of the Missoula County Courthouse following more reporting from national outlets about the now-famous “gun incident” involving Sheehy in Glacier National Park.
Sheehy is a former U.S. Navy Seal and decorated veteran whose awards include a Bronze Star for an act of heroism in combat, a Purple Heart, and many other commendations.
Last week, the former Glacier National Park ranger who responded to the incident took to national media to describe the event that has become one of the focal points in the race between the handpicked GOP candidate and incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.
Kim Peach described the incident to both The Washington Post and The New York Times. He discussed confiscating the .45-caliber gun, the follow-up investigation, and the ticket he wrote to Sheehy.
“I am 100 percent sure he shot himself that day,” Peach said in an interview with the New York Times.
Sheehy has offered different versions of the story. In a handwritten account dated one day after the Oct. 18, 2015, event, Sheehy provided the following in an incident statement form to an investigating ranger in Glacier:
“Upon finishing our hike at Logan’s Pass while reloading our vehicle, an improperly placed firearm kept in the vehicle for bear protection fell out and discharged into my right forearm,” Sheehy wrote.
He said after ensuring no people or property were harmed, “we immediately” went to the Kalispell emergency room. Sheehy, however, has declined to release medical records from the event.
More recently, however, Sheehy has said he fell on a hike in Glacier, feared the injury had dislodged an old bullet wound, and manufactured the story about the illegal discharge to dissuade any investigation into whether he had been shot by friendly fire while on duty overseas.
Sheehy himself did not speak about the incident when the news resurfaced last week, but Sheehy’s campaign staff side-stepped questions, instead offering criticisms of Peach himself, a self-described Democrat.
Peach had talked about the incident before but only anonymously; last week was the first time he came forward with his name in a news story.
The Daily Montanan asked Sheehy for at least the second time during the Senate campaign to release the medical records from the event, but requests for more information about the incident went unanswered.
However, a medical examiner with expertise in gunshot wounds recently said the make and model of the revolver also would help shed light on the incident, in addition to descriptions of any injury in the emergency room.
“To determine the likelihood of a discharge if dropped on its hammer, what was the make and model of the revolver?” said Gary Dale, who served as Montana State Medical Examiner from 1990 to 2015.
In a letter to the Choteau Acantha and interview with the Daily Montanan, Dale called on Sheehy to “alleviate concerns” about the repudiated statements he gave in 2015 by providing more information.
The firearm was a revolver, he said, but knowing the make and model would indicate if it was equipped with a safety mechanism and, therefore, if it had the potential to discharge when dropped.
“As a forensic pathologist who has investigated thousands of gunshot wounds, including some allegedly sustained when a revolver was dropped, I call upon Mr. Sheehy to authorize release of relevant records and provide answers pertinent to his repudiation,” Dale wrote in his letter.
His letter did not rule out the possibility that Sheehy hurt his elbow in a firefight from a ricochet off a rock or through his radio, for instance, and that he also hurt himself in the park.
“The ‘park visitor’ who initially reported a gunshot is unidentified: Was it Sheehy himself, a family member or an unrelated witness that happened to be in the Logan Pass parking lot that Sunday afternoon?” Dale wrote. “Many questions and Montana’s voters are entitled to some answers.”
At the event Tuesday, Michael Jarnevic, who spent more than four decades in the Marines and Army Special Forces, said he respects Sheehy’s military service, but he said Sheehy can’t be trusted and lied about getting shot.
“In some circles, we veterans call this stolen valor,” Jarnevic said. “And it’s one of the most horrific things you can do as a veteran.”
As such, he said, Sheehy will earn a place on a “wall of shame” of the Special Operations community.
The race between Tester and Sheehy is one of the most watched in the United States, as Democrats in the U.S. Senate fight to hold a narrow lead in Congress’ upper chamber. Tester has remained consistently behind in most polls.
But veterans at the event said Tester already has worked for them in the U.S. Senate, pushing for the PACT Act, which helps veterans exposed to toxins while in military service and the families of veterans.
The incident with a gun being discharged in Glacier National Park remains one of several incidents involving Sheehy which are uncertain.
Sheehy’s campaign insists that the incident with Peach was part of a cover to hide a gunshot wound the former Navy SEAL sustained in combat action as a result of “friendly fire,” or a gunshot from a fellow American soldier in Afghanistan.
It is the second questionable account with Glacier at the center of a story that appears to lack proof. During the summer, the Daily Montanan asked park officials and the Pentagon about parachute training Sheehy claims to have done over Glacier National Park.
At a campaign event, Sheehy commented that parachute training was part of what made him fall in love with the state. However, records kept by the park and the military indicate there’s never been such training, and park policy prohibits it.
Last week, former SEAL colleague Dave Madden told the New York Times he was with Sheehy when he trained in Montana, and none of it included parachuting or jumping into Glacier National Park.
The Tester campaign, which has been trailing in polls, was quick to seize on Peach’s decision to come forward and speak more openly about it.
“I met Tim Sheehy at the hospital. He was bandaged and told me his gun had fallen and shot his arm,” Peach said during the ad supporting Tester. “But I know two things: Sheehy is a liar. And that bullet was from Glacier.”