C.B. Smith, Are You Really That Stupid?

Now we’ve always know that C.B. was a few sandwiches short of a full picnic, but when it comes to Kevin Harrington’s past we thought C.B. would be smart enough to let a sleeping dog lie, guess not.

For some reason, C.B. still wants to claim Kevin Harrington possess an honorable discharge, when he doesn’t. What’s even more peculiar is Kevin himself has admitted that he didn’t receive an honorable discharge, so why is his cousin C.B. Smith claiming he did? Somehow C.B. believes that he can offset Kevin’s past by overshadowing it with Lou Desso’s, one problem, Lou isn’t hiding anything,

Here’s what we’ve been able to put together from the information that’s out there (remember C.B. the only secret is the one you never tell anyone). Kevin Harrington went into the Navy shortly after he was involved in a fatal automobile accident that claimed the life of a young girl. Based on a news account from the time Kevin Harrington was the driver of a car that failed to negotiate a turn, went airborne, flipped over and ejected all of the occupants before the car landed on its roof. Based on these accounts, it appears speed was a factor, although there was a police investigation, details were never released.

It was shortly after the accident that Kevin joined the US Navy, and some have speculated he may have used voluntary military service to avoid charges or prosecution that could have resulted from the accident. In the “old days” it was common for a court to give the “accused” a choice between the service or prison. According to Kevin’s profile on classmates.com, he graduated from Troy High in 1987 and was also serving aboard the USS Mount Baker the same year, considering time for boot camp and “A” school, he had to enlist around July or August.

While in the Navy, some event triggered Kevin’s early separation with a general discharge. Normally general discharges are not issued to someone who completes their four or six year commitment.

Contrary to what C.B. Smith may claim, a general discharge IS NOT AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE. A general discharge is an administrative discharge characterization which is given when significant negative aspects of the member’s conduct or performance of duty outweigh positive aspects of the member’s military conduct or performance of duty outweigh positive aspects of the record. The key words of that definition are ” significant negative aspects”, for those who weren’t in the military it means you were FIRED! A general discharge is given for cause, such as the inability to conform to military rules and regulations, such as drugs, alcohol, criminal offenses, it will also be given when the service member has emotional/mental problems, and is rarely given for anything other than a disciplinary problem. In fact many times it’s give as a form of a “plea bargain” to avoid court martial.

Each member of the service upon separation is given a form DD-214, Certificate Of Release Or Discharge From Active Duty. That document is your history of military service and includes information such as your length of service, duty station, specialty, decorations, education and more importantly your “character of service (box 24)”, “separation code(box 26)” and “narrative reason for separation (box 28)”. What s also important on this for is Box 12, record of service. From this you can tell if the person was separated early which is usually another sign of some form of misconduct.

 

As you can see by the above example, one form contains the significant portions of your military history, and Kevin Harrington can clear up any questions about his military service by releasing a copy of the form.

Now a person who receives a general discharge may or may not still be classified as a veteran by the government it depends on the reason for the separation. Amongst veterans, receiving a general discharge is considered a disgrace. It’s a simple concept, why should someone who failed to serve honorably receive the same classification as someone who did. In his latest rambling C.B. is claiming that veterans are already angry, but “not at Harrington, but at Sawyer for allowing himself to be used by Crist and the GOP to attack Harrington’s military service”. Hate to burst your bubble buddy, but the veteran’s aren’t angry with Tyler Sawyer, Rich Crist or the GOP, they’re anger with Kevin for two reasons. First, he fail to uphold the traditions of honorable service to the US Military and was discharge for cause because of it, second, he lied about it.

Now one Tyler Sawyer has become a “Charlie Target” after mailing a letter to veterans in Harrington’s district. Tyler Sawyer, who many will remember as our former town Comptroller, and also served as Grafton Town Supervisor for 10 years mailed that letter to veterans for a reason, he’s a resident of Rensselaer County, and he’s also a veteran, and Kevin Harrington sits on the County Veterans Committee, so Tyler Sawyer was well within his right to send the letter.

Now of course C.B. needs to add as much drama as he can to any story, after all you can’t sell a story without drama. So he adds in all of his buzz words like bogus, criminal, police, police report and caper. The one I love is ” Sawyer was named in a town police report as the person who entered the town clerk’s unlocked records room to grab the town oath book”. So friggin what, he was named in a police report, how many police reports have your name on them C.B. Did the police find that Tyler by “enter[ing] the town clerk’s unlocked records room to grab the town oath book”, commit a crime, no they didn’t. Was he authorized to go in there, yes he was, was it a “burglary” as C.B. claims, no it wasn’t, just more drama from C.B.

But since you brought up Tyler, and we’re talking about military records, let’s compare Tyler to Kevin, it won’t be hard.

Tyler F. Sawyer was HONORABLY discharged after serving 23 years in the United states Navy where achieved the rank of a Senior Chief Petty Officer(E8), William Kevin Harrington involuntarily separated from the Navy with the rank of Seaman Apprentice(E2) (rank information can be verified on military.com). So when it comes to questions about military service, Kevin couldn’t carry Tyler’s “ditty bag”. In fact if you consider Kevin’s rank of E2, he was either a complete failure or demoted prior to his discharge, normally someone with 4 years of Navy service would obtain the rank of E5.

Is C.B. that stupid to think he can attempt discredit an individual with Tyler Sawyer’s record as a means to make his cousin Kevin look better, what is this man thinking.

So C.B. it’s time to put up or shut about, Kevin was a disgrace to the United States Navy and was discharged for some act of misconduct, he lied about the class of his discharge on a job application and got caught, if I’m wrong, prove it by releasing the documents, if I’m right shut up and tell Kevin to do the same. Myself and other who have served honorably are tired of hearing the two of you cry about. Bottom line is Kevin cheated the taxpayers by getting trained to do a job, failed to do his job, and got shit-canned because of it. In the eyes or real veterans he’s a lowlife. If I’m wrong, prove it and post his DD-214

As for Lou Desso and his history, you’ve been beating that drum for four years, and apparently people are not that offended by it, after all he had the highest total vote in the last election, even after all of your press releases. The question for this year is, are the people going to be offended more by Lou’s past of Kevin’s? If what I hear is true, Kevin’s issues with the Navy had to do with drugs. That kind of makes Lou and Kevin equal there doesn’t it? So now we have to consider Kevin’s military service and the accident, and if he was any way responsible for the young girls death. Was he speeding, drunk or stoned, again we won’t know unless Kevin releases information. Considering that the car went airborne, flipped and ejected three people he was at least speeding, which makes him responsible.

And on the subject of police reports and forgeries, wasn’t John Hebert named in a police report as being the main suspect who forged a letter from the Wynantskill fire Department during the village elections? Isn’t he the same person you’re using to draw all of your cartoons? Hell maybe he’s the one that forged all the WFP ballots down in Troy. You hang with some classy characters C.B.