SIU administrator's military record questioned

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Southern Illinois University officials said they will discuss the employment future of an administrator accused of lying about his military record.

The student newspaper, The Daily Egyptian, reported Monday that career services director Jim Scales falsely claimed in a November story that he completed two tours in Vietnam, and served in Bosnia, Honduras, Panama, the Persian Gulf and Iraq while in the Army. He also said he earned three Purple Hearts.

But U.S. Army Human Resources Command records show that Scales' active duty in the Army was spent in Germany from 1970 to 1973 and at Fort Riley in Kansas from 1973 to 1976 -- never in Vietnam. During the Gulf War, the command says, he was at Wisconsin's Fort McCoy as a transportation officer.

"There was no indication whatsoever of any combat time," Master Sgt. Keith O'Donnell, spokesman at the St. Louis-based human resources command, told The Associated Press. "No Purple Hearts, no combat awards of any type."

SIU officials released a statement Monday saying they will confer with Scales to "determine what is best for both parties at this time." The statement said Scales was hired based on his academic achievements and work experience, and "his performance at the university over the past 29 years has been exceptional."

Lying about receiving certain military awards, including the Purple Heart, is a federal offense under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, punishable by up to a year in prison and $200,000 in fines.

When reached Monday by telephone at his campus office, Scales told The Associated Press only that "I'm not answering anything."

But Scales told the student newspaper he stands by his story, even if his records don't support it.

"I know where I've been and where I came from, and that's all I can tell you," Scales, 60, told the newspaper. "If someone wants to go around disproving that, then when I'm dead I won't have to prove anything."

Scales insisted he threw away his Purple Hearts and belongings tied to Vietnam because he initially objected to the war, telling the newspaper that "I decided when I came back, there would be no medals. There would be no nothing."

"I threw everything away because I didn't want that to be a part of my life anymore," he said.

O'Donnell said Scales did earn two meritorious service medals and three Army commendation medals.

"He wasn't a combat veteran and he wasn't a war hero in the traditional sense, but he had a distinguished career," O'Donnell said. "He served his country faithfully. I'm just not sure where the rest of this information (about Vietnam and Purple Hearts) came from. It's not in his record."

The Daily Egyptian published an apology Monday, saying it failed to follow fact-checking guidelines put in place after it was scammed into publishing stories in 2003 and 2004 and columns about a young girl whose mother supposedly was dead and father was fighting in Iraq.

In Scales' case, the newspaper wrote, "the explanations are not excuses: We were pressed for deadline. He produced ribbons, details and a compelling story. He was an administrator, an SIU employee for the past 29 years and someone who was easy to trust. But by giving our trust, we betrayed yours.

"We did not check the facts when we should have. We allowed the front page of our newspaper to become a platform for lies and false claims of patriotism. Simply put, we messed up."