Army officer reports stolen valor, found later in duffel bag
Marquette, MI — For one veteran the issue of stolen valor is more than a viral YouTube video meme. It truly hits home.
Lt. Col. John Landsteiner was all set to hang his valor up on the wall following his retirement last fall, thinking it would fit well in his Army-themed man-cave and serve as a great teaching point for his children.
He had taken his valor with him on three tours in Iraq from Samarra to Sadr City. Like a trusty poncho liner his valor has always been with him from the relative safety of sprawling FOBs to every combat patrol and IED blast.
But on his last tour in combat, this time to Afghanistan, Landsteiner left his valor safely at home in storage. As a self-described "staff-weenie" for Combined Joint Task Force 101 (CJTF-101) he assumed he wouldn’t need it. And he didn’t think about his valor again until returning to his hometown after his retirement.
But as he dug through final out paperwork, 237 pages of clothing records, countless pairs of four different styles of comba…
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