Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald apologized late Monday for falsely claiming that he served in the military’s special forces.
The Huffington Post reported that McDonald spent five years in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division during the 1970s. But the VA chief stated otherwise in a conversation with a homeless veteran of the special forces that aired last month on CBS News.
“Special forces? What years? I was in special forces!” McDonald told the homeless man, as quoted by HuffPost.
When HuffPost contacted McDonald about the discrepancy in his military service record, he told the publication “I have no excuse. I was not in special forces.”
McDonald’s admission comes during a period of increased scrutiny of the agency. President Barack Obama appointed McDonald to replace former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who resigned last May amid a scandals over long waits for veterans to receive medical care at VA facilities and the manipulation of records by the agency to cover up those delays.
The agency released a statement later Monday in which McDonald apologized for what he called the “misstatement” of his military service record.
“While I was in Los Angeles, engaging a homeless individual to determine his veteran status, I asked the man where he had served in the military,” McDonald said, as quoted by NBC News. “He responded that he had served in special forces. I incorrectly stated that I had been in special forces. That was inaccurate and I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement.”
The White House accepted McDonald’s apology and stood by the VA chief in a statement issued late Monday.
“Secretary McDonald has apologized for the misstatement and noted that he never intended to misrepresent his military service,” the statement read, as quoted by HuffPost. “We take him at his word and expect that this will not impact the important work he’s doing to promote the health and well-being of our nation’s veterans.”
The HuffPost report also came at a time when prominent media figures’ war stories were being called into question. Longtime NBC News anchor Brian Williams was recently suspended for six months after being forced to admit he falsely claimed to be aboard a helicopter that was forced down by enemy fire in Iraq in 2003. Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is currently fighting off accusations that he falsely claimed to be in the Falkland Islands during the brief 1982 war between Argentina and England.
