There is an advertisement for Hempvana where a supposed USAF person claims he has 4500 confirmed kills during his service. What a bunch of hooey.

Sounds unlikely to me

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Fear only God

Fly swatter in a mess tent.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Maybe a bombing raid on a town of known population?

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protocalldesign.com

What is Hempvana?

Is that the guy who the ad touts as a retired USAF Command Chief Master Sergeant? He pisses me off so bad, when he says, "When I won the Silver Star.....", and then you see him aiming at a target that can't be more than 75 yards away. Wouldn't be too hard to kill 4500 from that range

No true soldier would bank on his rank and awards in such a manner. He's a big sellout to all those who wear or have worn the uniform.

It's a cream you put on sore muscles, joints, etc. Supposedly has Marijuana in it, or so they say.

Hempvana is advertised as a pain reliever...Breaking down its name, "hemp" suggests a derivative of cannabis, or marijuana or my preferred name: wacky weed..."Vana" may be a contraction of "nirvana" defined in Buddhism as the "final beatitude that transcends suffering"...Together they suggest a dream world in which it may be possible for a USAF Command Chief Master Sergeant to take the lives of 4500 beings of some sort (maybe human, maybe not), and be celebrated as a hero...

To those not familiar with USAF hierarchy, a Command Chief Master Sergeant (pay grade E-9) is the senior enlisted advisor to a unit or base commander...I am not familiar with the subject of this thread, but without wasting my time on research, I would suggest it is the invention of an addled mind, and one possibly guilty of stolen valor...

That is all......Ben

EDIT: I'll further add that nobody ever "won" a decoration for valor...These are awarded to the recipient by a grateful nation, they are not "won"...

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

Probably a ranking member of meal team six

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it just needs more voltage

What is hempvana?

Regardless of who or what the "claimant" is this sounds like so much BS. I doubt many batallions or air wings kill that many of the enemy during a single deployment!

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Gunsmithing since 1961

The only person I know who could make such a claim without dispute is Colonel Paul Tibbets.
I've seen the ad and never paid attention to it, never caught him claiming to be USAF.

The F-100 never got a confirmed Combat Kill.
Don Kilgus chased a Mig-17 and pumped 20MM into it.
He claimed a kill but it was never confirmed.

Attached Images

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Mystery top-notch drone pilot operating for the last 20 years out of some trailer out in the desert SW?

In my two careers over the last half-century, I've worked with more combat veterans than I could count, from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the first Gulf War, and the War on Terror.

Many of these men undoubtedly took the lives of enemy combatants. Not one of them ever boasted about it, or claimed to have "won" medals...

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Where Law Ends, Tyranny Begins

Summary of Veterans and battle experience

In many cases:
Those who talk - Didn't!
Those who did - Won't talk.

Bekeart

Curious - Went to google.

I did find information.
Trust, but Verify - Ronald Regan.
The valor.defense.gov site does list the man.
Many non-gov sites list details.


Markham William C Technical Sergeant Operation Enduring Freedom
Air Force - Silver Star

Sergeant Markham skillfully directed multiple air strikes involving over one hundred seventy-five sorties of both strategic and attack aircraft resulting in the elimination of approximately four hundred and fifty enemy vehicles and over three thousand five hundred enemy troops.
Calvin Markham

I have killed 4,500+ prairie dogs since 1982.

EDIT: I was awarded "Live Stock Conservation Certificate" from the Great Plains Livestock Ranchers Association for my efforts.

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S&WHF 366

I seem to have missed the point of this thread, if there is one.

The JTACs my son worked with knew they weren't doing the killing. The Hog pilots were. Generally speaking, they are an incredible group of people, risking their lives to do a very dangerous job.

I'll have to ask Tom if he knows that guy.

Quite possible as the Bombardier on the Arc Light missions, along with the rest of the crew getting you there.
Did meet an old gent at the VA hospital, last week, that claimed he was a Navigator on a B52. Said he never heard the term
Arc Light.

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Have Fun/Stay Safe

My nephew was in the US AF and probably has that number of confirmed kills in his MO. He was the pest remover so mice, cockroaches, fleas, ticks spiders and other similar stuff. His tours included time in the sand.

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Front sight and squeeze

Col. Tibbets just flew the plane. Tom Ferebee released the bomb. Of course it was really a group effort, and even though Tibbets is the most well-known, the mission commander was actually William Parsons, a Navy Captain and the weaponeer in charge of the device.

I think they can all claim many more than 4500 on that mission.

Yes, a group effort. It usually is.

A quack patent medicine that is essentially Aspercreme with a dollop of hemp oil added.

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Pisgah

And Eisenhower just commanded the Allied forces in Europe but never fired a shot. But it was a group effort.

Is it possible to get that many kills on a golf course....?

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.............SmithNut

He was a Mess Sgt in A-stan. That's 4500 goats.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Then, this really is a pointless thread.

At the golf course near my house, the drunks riding from hole to hole on their golf carts will kill that many beers on a typical Saturday......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

I came across these posts and had to sign in to clear this up. I served with Markham. I don't know about any product he is selling, but he is the real deal. A Bonafide American hero. The numbers of kills are derived from his Silver Star narrative and his official performance reports.

If you recall, there were a few special ops troops that went alone into Afghanistan after 9/11 and led the Northern Alliance and other factions against the Taliban (if old enough, you probably saw them in news accounts afterwards with long beards on horseback).

He was credited in calling in many, many close air support strikes on the enemy (often from just yards away from his position using handheld laser targeting). These strikes resulted in the number of kills (confirmed by strike cameras) listed. Yes, they do count them. It does not mean that he personally killed each, but he sure did his share (I understand that he had a high personal count as well).

I imagine whoever hired him to do the commercial read his bio (or his retirement medal narrative which would have listed his cumulative service as documented in his 30 years of performance reports and multiple deployments). I wrote one of those later medals myself (for other actions). He was always (around me) very modest and did not really discuss his achievements or push for recognition. It was pretty much forced on him. He served about another 20 years after his Silver Star and was a great credit to his service and his nation.

MSgt William C. Markham, Silver Star Medal Recipient

How the ‘Horse Soldiers’ helped liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban 18 years ago

LT S, thanks for the clarification.

I am sorry that such a fine man is, surely due to unfortunate financial circumstances, compelled to sell a product by the product's manufacturer hoping to grow sales by boasting about how many people he, through his efforts, killed in service of his country.

I'm just some guy on the internet, but I thank Markham for his service, and hope that he will soon be financially in good shape.

It is sad to see all of the hostility from people that haven’t even seen the ad. I just looked it up and watched it. He didn’t personally mention kills and said he received, not “won” the silver star. While I think it is sad to see someone with his service record lowered to hawking snake oil on TV, I don’t think he needs to be accused of “stolen valor”, etc.

Hempvana sounds like the nickname Grateful Dead groupies would give their VW Microbus.

Yes, you do not "win" medals for valor and bravery, it's not like entering a lottery, a 50-50, Bingo, etc.
Reminds me of a more recent politician who passed himself off as a Command Sergeant Major.
"An army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team." Patton
Was drummed into my head that constant boasting and bragging is the mark of a fraud and a poseur. Cf all the "studs" I met with their incredible body count.

I’m sure that I’ve killed at least 4500+ of my own brain cells in my life! That’s about the only thing I can be certain of concerning kills.
Larry

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Miss Buddies crsides & fat tom

One of the first lessons every service member learns is that "I" can do nothing, but "we" can complete the mission.

Without the team the baddest dude on the face of the earth is of very little consequence to anyone, friendly or enemy.

Everyone at the sharp end of the stick knows that there are a dozen other people delivering the stick to where it needs to be and making sure it has what it needs to do the job.

Awards and decorations tell a story to those who know how to read the language. A pretty ribbon might mean demonstrated valor in combat, another ribbon might describe skills or excellence at a particular task, another describes deployment and/or service in a particular campaign or theater of operations. Some are just "been there, done that" stuff.

Couple of years after basic training I ran into my old drill sergeant. When he saw the Purple Heart ribbon on my chest he exploded "(expletive, expletive, expletive) boy! I taught you better than that!" Since then I have always thought of it as the "slow learners award".

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Life of the party until 8:00PM

Hempvana does not work on me as advertised, and the name does not match what it does to you. There may be some CBD oil in it, (No high whatsoever) but many pain med companies are using the HEMP term to make it sound good. The same with those gummies you can buy at the grocery store. Many people claim that CBD oil actually works for pain; I wish it did for me!
Before I moved to PGH, I lived about an hour NW of here in Beaver County and belonged to The Eagles, Aerie 1342, New Brighton, and a nam vet claimed to kill 23 men. We just came back with "wrecking a deuce & 1/2" with 23 US troops in the back after drinking at Ft. Dix.

Edit to add:
I never saw the ad, but what is in a jar of joint pain cream that makes one kill over 4000 people?

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Waiting For The Sun.

Leaving 4500 grieving Taliban widowers.

"Hemp" is soooo yesterday when it comes to marketing hype. Now everything is "Ceramic."

After the first time I saw the commercial in question, I Googled him. His record is impressive, he was at the tip of the spear.

However, I see his entire record cheapened by how it is presented in the commercial. I know a few guys like him, from Vietnam and all the brush fires since, who have distinguished themselves by their combat actions. To a man, none of them brag about getting whatever award they were given and none of them would have said they "won" it. It isn't a prize in a Crackerjack box or the stuffed animal you get at the fair for knocking down a stack of milk bottles with a baseball. Maybe he saw the commercial as a way to some good money, but I see a guy like him hawking an OTC product like Hempvana as an insult to the kind of warrior he is. He could have made the commercial and never have mentioned his combat record and I'd have thought more of him.

One good pass with your Crowd Friendly A-10 on a straight road with heavy troop traffic.

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S&WHF 366

I don't know if Hempvarna works well or not, but a lot of folks believe it does. I hope that is the case (but have no personal experience). Pain is pretty difficult to live with...and military service is hard on the body. Whatever works for you.

Hempvana donates a portion of proceeds to the nonprofit Patriot Fund to help veterans. Markham was at one time the Executive Director (to the Board of Directors) for the Patriot Fund. Markham has long worked with veteran's groups.

Home Page - Patriot Fund

I would probably be willing to hawk it for a military charity if I thought it worked. Even use my military record. Heaven knows, it would not buy me a cup of coffee...but it is long and pretty unusual.

Imagine the numbers an ICBM Combat Crew Commander can claim to hold at risk. Dozens of cities (millions of people), while sitting at a console in an underground capsule eating a burger. Those guys should sell something. Bug spray? Easy Off oven cleaner? Heck, the guys at Black Rifle Coffee seem to do pretty well.

Maybe I should sell something and brag on my own service in the advertising. I was never awarded anything greater than an Outstanding Unit Award (USAF), but I could always include details about battle casualties of our guys that I saw (I was a Flight Nurse) in the dialogue of saying how good such-and-such is for cleaning ovens, or how such-and-such makes me feel better when I ache.

I have nothing against a former soldier/hero selling something on TV or elsewhere; I just feel it cheapens the record when it is bragged about outside the confines of the service. It's enough to mention the advertising individual is a decorated serviceman.

Playing combat video games in his barracks.

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213th FBINA