The truth about Nathan Phillips is this:
He isn’t just a criminal.
He didn’t just lie about what happened at the Lincoln Memorial at the March for Life.
He lied about serving in Vietnam.
The video that proves he lied is on Facebook.
And, even then, he lied about the lie.
On national television.
Up Until Now
Until now, most everyone gave Phillips a small benefit of the doubt.
Yes, he lied about the confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial he started with the boys of Covington Catholic High.
Yes, he lied about his military occupation specialty by claiming he was a “recon-ranger” and not the refrigerator repairman he really was. But many observers had assumed the media, not Phillips, had said he served in Vietnam.
CNN published an erroneous transcript that has Phillips claiming he was a “Vietnam veteran.” He said “Vietnam times.” The Washington Post published a correction of its erroneous claim that he fought in Vietnam.
When former Navy SEAL Don Shipley disclosed Phillips’ Marine Corps records on YouTube, Shipley observed that Phillips does not appear to have claimed he served in Vietnam, but instead had simply failed to correct erroneous accounts in the media.
That’s a lie by omission; but at any rate, again, no one charged Phillips with claiming he served in Vietnam.
Until now.
Unhappily for Phillips, the Internet lasts forever. In a year-old video posted at the Native Youth Alliance Facebook, Phillips claimed he served in Vietnam. As of now, the video is still there. One can also find it on Twitter and at the Daily Caller. The Post updated a story on Phillips, too.
Speaking about the Native Youth Alliance, its forthcoming “prayer march,” and his birthday regrets, Phillips paused to explain his service in Vietnam:
Uh, I’m a Vietnam vet, you know, I served in the Marine Corps 72 to 76, uh. I got discharged, uh, May 5th, 1976, you know. Um, one of the … I got honorable discharge and one the boxes in there … it shows, if it was peacetime, or, or … what my box says is I was in theater. I don’t talk much about my Vietnam times, you know, uh. Uh, I usually say I don’t recollect, I don’t recall, you know, those years.
He doesn’t “recall, you know, those years” because he didn’t go to Vietnam those years.
As Shipley showed in his devastating report on YouTube, Phillips never left the country during his time in the Marine Corps. The refrigerator repairman, Shipley said, “went AWOL [Absent Without Leave] a few times and got his peep slapped for it.”
“Don’t go AWOL in the Marine Corps,” Shipley quipped. “They don’t like that sh*t.”
But Phillips’ lie about serving in Vietnam might not be as stupid as another lie: On the Today Show this morning, he magnanimously “forgave” the Covington boys for something they didn’t do, and added that he never lied about serving in Vietnam.
“What I’ve always said is that I never stepped foot in South Vietnam, and I don’t know how much clearer that can be.”
No, that isn’t what he always said.
In 2008, Phillips “described coming back to the U.S. as a veteran of the Vietnam era” for Indian Country, “a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians and Alaska Natives.”
“People called me a baby killer and a hippie girl spit on me,” he told the news outlet, which appended a correction to the 10-year-old article.
It too, apparently, reported that Phillips served in Vietnam.
Criminal Record
Unhappily, the Omaha Indian’s criminal past caught up to him as well when the Washington Examiner exposed the military fraud’s rapsheet.
At 19, Phillips was “charged with escaping from the Nebraska Penal Complex where he was confined May 3,” the newspaper reported, citing an article in the Lincoln Star.
Phillips also “pleaded guilty to assault on June 19, 1974, and was fined $200. In addition, he was charged with underage possession of alcohol in 1972, 1973, and 1975, as well as negligent driving. A destruction of property charge against him was dropped in August 1973, but Phillips was sentenced to one year probation for a related charge of alcohol possession by a minor. In December 1978, he was charged with driving without a license.”
The media narrative on Phillips? Privileged white boys harass, surround, and ridicule “Native American elder” war hero.
The truth: A “Native American elder” with a long criminal record who lied about his military service confronted white kids, then lied about that, too.
And was caught.
Narrative done.
Image: screenshot from Facebook video of Phillips speaking about his military service
