The Afghanistan War
While Grisham was deployed to Afghanistan, enemy bombs and bullets were literally killing Soldiers with whom I was embedded.
Rather than trying to figure out who was killing Soldiers in his area of responsibility, Grisham was laboring over his blog while stationed in the air-conditioned rear at Kandahar Airfield.
It has been reported that US citizens pay about one million dollars per Soldier per year to deploy to Afghanistan. While they are deployed, troops should work, and most do.
But while we were getting blown up and shot, Grisham was blogging thousands of words, including:
“Today, I listened to the advice of more than a few people and finally went to the TMC and Combat Stress hospital. My right hand hasn’t stopped twitching after nearly a month and it’s beyond irritating. I’m not sleeping, not eating, and highly irritable. I’ve been under a lot of stress and feel like many of those above me are just making things worse. So, for three hours today, I sat and got to revisit many issues related to my PTSD, depression, and anxiety as well as some new ones.”
We sent this guy to beat the Taliban. The Taliban monitor sites by deployed troops. They must have been laughing their turbans off.
Why would a counterintelligence senior NCO flood the Internet with photos of himself, his wife, and his children, all while talking about his mental and money problems? That is borderline solicitation to sell state secrets.
To an enemy intelligence professional, his words sound like, “I am crazy, weak, I do not like my leadership, and need some money. I have a Top Secret clearance and a computer that flies on the highway of secrets.” “Boris – send this Grisham the honey trap, not that he needs a trap!”
Instead of figuring who was shooting at us, Grisham was spending massive time harassing me on Facebook, haunting my website, and continuing to cause problems within the unit that I was covering.
His flaccid command group cost the 4-4Cav a possible book. A documentary film company was lining up to come over. As a result, the courageous efforts of 4-4Cav will never be properly documented.
One wonders if any of our KIA would still be alive if Grisham’s commander had exerted appropriate authority over his Intelligence unit, and focused them on the battlefield instead of on Facebook, blogs, and mischief that so clearly exposes us to espionage and exploitation.
Grisham was all about attracting attention, latching like a remora onto anything related to PTSD, constantly trying to associate with famous people, or to get his picture taken with celebrities, which he would publish. An enemy spy could tap into that vanity.
People with Top Secret clearances should not blog about every facet of their lives, while advertising they have TS clearance, as Grisham so often does. At minimum, this creates a personality profile that a professional can use to fashion a key to unlock a brain with access to state secrets.
When I did not give Grisham quality time, he stalked. Anything for attention. I was giving great press to 4-4Cav, but never mind that. If Grisham could not get ink, neither should they.
So now our fictitious enemy spy knows that Grisham will sell out fellow Soldiers, does not like his leadership, has money problems, purrs for attention, wants to be a hero, and is weak. Anyone could cut a key to open that door.
When MEDEVAC failures mounted and I exposed them, Grisham latched on. Grisham knows nothing about MEDEVAC or real combat, yet that did not stop him from contacting the press and Congressman Todd Akin and others who were taking up the cause.
Our efforts and the team that we created led to MEDEVAC changes that must have already saved lives.
According to Army Dustoff and Air Force Pedro pilots, our efforts worked, yet Grisham in his quest for glory publicly opposed the MEDEVAC issue, again selling out comrades in exchange for attention, while waving his Bronze Star.
If Grisham is not a traitor in the legal sense, he is a moral traitor. He frequently sells out fellow Soldiers for a minute of press or gratification.
Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair, on trial for rape
In Afghanistan, command refused to order him to stop troublemaking. I asked the key people to intervene and finally began arguing with PAO officers, one of which, a lieutenant colonel at RC-South, I hung up on.
It was becoming tiresome to get shot at with bullets while pulling knives from my back. Life is too short. It is said that I had already embedded more with combat units than anyone in US history. If they wanted good ink, they had to cooperate. No negotiation on that. Nobody needs embeds, and nobody will beg to give good ink to the Army while risking getting their legs blown off. I was only there at invitation of Petraeus, but he was back in America, and I would not reach that high for this.
But should this have been a surprise? In Afghanistan, Grisham fell under the command known as RC-South.
During Grisham’s tour at Kandahar, Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair was relieved from RC-South and sent home, and today is on trial for rape, among other crimes.
There is no dispute that Sinclair engaged in adultery, a violation of military discipline. Sinclair does not deny it, but is contesting the allegations of rape and other charges.
Sinclair is another pedigreed soldier loaded with ribbons and medals and accolades, above reproach from we mere mortals. It was difficult to get relief in that command climate which must have sanctioned his attacks, despite the positive dispatches I was publishing.
Grisham Quits
Finally, in 2011 in Afghanistan, Grisham gave up. His character was shattered. He could no longer handle the stress of working in the rear on dusty Kandahar Airfield.
The incoming rockets were loud and caused buildings and Grisham to tremble. During one attack, Grisham wanted to run for a bunker, but a female Major ordered him to remain at work in the office. Grisham tweeted that the rockets frightened him.
While the base pizza makers, the ice cream sellers, journalists, and thousands of civilian contractors endured the rocket strikes for years, US Army Master Sergeant Christopher “CJ” Grisham was spent. He asked to leave Afghanistan and to go home.
The self-described hero, who claimed that he rushed through a hail of bullets with only a grenade and a pistol, wiping out a squad of Iraqis, tweeted:
“I’m no longer in theater. I requested to come home early to deal with some issues.”
Publicly emasculated, the tweet backfired. Grisham deleted it, changing his story much later, saying that he was ordered home for skin cancer.
After losing his piece of the war in Afghanistan, Grisham went home to Temple, Texas, and posted this image, while his unit remained in-country. Young Soldiers stayed behind to do their duty, and Grisham bragged online about going to a Godsmack concert. Again, the very definition of a moral traitor.
Earlier, he had complained about money problems and his inability to pay his bills, and then he admitted that he purchases ammunition with every paycheck.
Grisham may have never engaged an enemy combatant, but he published this image of a mouse, boasting that he killed it.
After Grisham fled the war to play, he had even more time to needle people online.
Today Grisham lives in Temple, Texas.
On 16 March 2013, he was charged with resisting arrest. He was carrying a pistol and an AR-15 rifle in public.
From the local paper in Temple:
“The officer said Grisham was angry and irate, yelling at him that he wouldn’t give up his gun, yet he reached to take it from Grisham. … Grisham tried to pull it away…officer reportedly drew his weapon and pointed it at Grisham.”
“…officer finally gained control of…Grisham and held him against…patrol car until help arrived….passively resisted their attempts to handcuff him….additional weapon under his shirt at his waist.”
According to the article, he was arrested at the 7000 Block of Prairie View road. The top red line points to his home. The report says that he was first spotted in the area of Airport Road and Old Howard Road. (Bottom red line.)
Just the day before he was arrested, a story appeared online about his previous dealings with the city:
“When Temple resident C.J. Grisham, a U.S. Army master sergeant, presented the Temple City Council with a gun rights resolution, the city became one of a series of Texas cities and counties being called on to articulate commitment to Texas residents’ Second Amendment rights. Per the Temple Daily Telegram, Grisham asked the council to ‘declare that citizens’ rights to keep and bear arms will not be infringed upon.’”
Grisham then sparked a public letter writing contest with Temple Mayor Bill Jones. The “Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran” baited Mayor Jones into being an actor on his stage. The press was already running stories. 2nd Amendment defenders were getting riled up, having no idea they were just props in Grisham’s play. Perfect.
The props were in place for a confrontation with police, similar to what he had done in Alabama with a school board, described in this 2009 article:
“Did complaint get him demoted?”
Grisham acknowledged standing up on his seat and slamming his fist at the parent meeting, but said his behavior was not alarming. Others apparently disagreed.
Superintendent Ann Roy Moore said she received e-mails from parents who claimed to be uncomfortable with Grisham’s behavior at the parent meeting. She said the school’s principal, Avis Williams, contacted a Redstone liaison officer about the situation but not Grisham’s commanding officer.
Grisham, who did not attend the Thursday meeting, said the complaint led to his demotion from first sergeant to master sergeant. “My standing has been put into question” with his superiors, he said before the meeting.
As per normal, in 2009, he alerted the press: “Grisham’s supporters, led by WVNN talk show host Dale Jackson, helped fill the board meeting room.”
In 2009, major bloggers came out to support him. Though his conduct scared a room full of civilians, and they reported his behavior to the local military, Grisham resorted to typical threats to sue them. He set up a legal fund, and stayed engaged in the press battle. No legal case was brought, and the money that he raised disappeared.
2nd Amendment Icon
Today in 2013, Grisham is trying to reincarnate himself as a war hero and 2nd Amendment icon. Many true champions and martyrs are arrested and jailed, so the frauds need to follow the same script in this play.
On 16 March, the day after the Examiner article above was published, Grisham grabbed a long gun and a pistol, and corralled his son, who Grisham claims is working on the requisites to be an Eagle Scout, and he set out to attract some publicity.
Lights, Camera, Action
Using his 15-year-old son as a prop, Grisham walked down a four-lane highway with the assault rifle, like he was walking patrol in Baghdad. He crossed another four-lane road and kept going. The rifle was loaded with a magazine and a round in the chamber.
Given the climate in America, is there any wonder that a civilian might call 911 and report a strange man walking along the freeway with an AR-15? Is there any wonder that police responded to the call, sending a squad car to check it out? Grisham knew how to make all the actors assemble and read his script. His son was instructed to videotape the events.
Grisham is quoted in the local paper:
“This past weekend while on a 10-mile hike with my 15-year-old son to complete requirements for his Eagle Scout rank, I was illegally detained, stripped of my weapons, and arrested when I refused to voluntarily surrender them.”
The Eagle Scout twist was a nice touch.
Only a sick man would use his son as a stage-prop and cameraman in an armed confrontation with law enforcement. Grisham has privately shared this video in an effort to gain support, but as happened during the Alabama drama, Grisham is known for creative editing.
It is notable that no major group such as the NRA has lifted a finger in support. If the NRA would get involved, that would be a coup.
Meanwhile, Grisham began another fundraiser for $11,000 on Indiegogo, claiming that his arrest is a 2nd Amendment issue that should concern us all. He claims that a tyrannical government illegally seized his guns, adding that he could lose his Top Secret clearance and pension.
Grisham is the last person that any of us need to defend our 2nd Amendment rights. He is a perfect poster boy for radical opposition and disarming veterans. He publicly complains about hearing voices in his head, and published about curling up in the fetal position on his bed, unable to function. If any Soldier’s right to own privately owned weapons should be reviewed, Grisham is that soldier. We cannot accept this person as a 2nd Amendment advocate.
How does someone who complains that they hear voices, someone who is deceptive by nature, who is beset with anger issues and self-proclaimed money problems, hold a Top Secret clearance? This is a recipe for disaster. Bradley Manning comes to mind.
Manning had sufficient free time while on duty to laboriously gather gigabytes of State Department cables, and to send them to WikiLeaks. To say that Manning represents a failure of supervision is an understatement.
Manning, like Grisham, was in an Intelligence position. Special scrutiny and oversight over such troops should be a given, for obvious reasons.
Grisham published this image of his personally owned weapons. He would not need to solicit for funding if he liquidated this arsenal. Buyers would snap up these weapons at a high price.
Grisham’s current fundraiser is fraudulent. He sells it as a 2nd Amendment issue, when clearly the 2nd Amendment, Eagle Scouts, police, journalists, Mayor Bill Jones, a “war hero” and his son the cameraman, are all stage props to raise money and attention.
I alerted the Army Inspector General and I received a reply, though if experience is any clue, it is doubtful that Grisham’s chain of command will do much. The Army has become undisciplined.
To put this in perspective, during my eight years with combat troops (nearly five years on active duty, and three as a writer), I have said that only two soldiers represented lethal threats.
The first soldier is dead. He shot himself in Afghanistan after an investigation was launched into claims that he sexually harassed another officer. A FOIA request returned the investigation, which I read in amazement. He was sick.
Yet he was a West Point grad (top of his class), a Ranger Regiment veteran of two wars, from a pedigreed family, much decorated and a true war hero. Another “untouchable.”
No civilian could criticize this man and survive with reputation intact. In combat, I saw him in action. He was the real deal, but personally, he was an arrogant, self-centered monster to nearly everyone, including his men.
He confronted me one day in Iraq literally snarling with anger. It was a dog snarl. A corner of his upper lip was twitching wildly like a fishhook was pulling it. I have never seen a person’s lip do that. His adrenaline had dumped. He was screaming. I was mesmerized by his crazy lip. He was a breath away from attacking.
We had just been in a serious firefight. Three men had been hit that morning in two separate events (one enemy, two U.S.), and there had been hand-to-hand combat. One of his men told me later in concern that he nearly had taken the firefight as a chance to shoot me, and in an unguarded moment, actually said so to his men. He could not even control what came out of his mouth. He hated and despised anything that smacked of media.
He did not scream at me at the firefight. It was maybe an hour later, back on base, that his lip was twitching, and he was screaming one foot from my face, I yelled back in his face, “fuck off!”
No Sigmund Freud was needed to see that he was homicidally loony, with boiling anger issues. He was an emotional wreck, but he was an untouchable.
I warned several times that he would kill somebody, or that one of his men might kill him. Though I expected his premature death, his suicide was a surprise.
His crimes were revealed by the investigation. He put a female officer through hell because she refused sex, and despite being so smart, he would email her explicit traffic. He was newly married with a young child. He was physically courageous but a moral coward. He proved both with his rifle.
The second lethal threat I warned about is Christopher Grisham.
I have a few theories about why the Army has not discharged Grisham. 1) His command wants him around because he serves some purpose other than work. 2) He has the goods on some high-ranking people in his chain of command. 3) The Army is simply broken.
If forced to choose one these probabilities, I go with number three.
The Army is broken, and it has failed to properly supervise Grisham, and he repeatedly engages in contentious behavior that frightens and angers civilians, in the most public venues possible.
Weak leadership that allows this to continue brings bad light on the Army, a ton of ill-will, and questions about the Army’s ability to defend the United States.
In closing, Gannett, Army Times, and staff writer Jon R. Andersen should come clean with proof of Grisham’s claims, or apologize for being duped into telling readers that he wiped out a squad of Iraqi soldiers with a pistol and a grenade.
Written proof of Grisham’s alleged heroics can suffice for purposes of due diligence. But it will not address the fact that the Army is well known for Counterfeit Valor.
I invite anyone who can validate Grisham’s version of events to come forward with evidence. Without that narrative, and credible eyewitnesses to back it up, this duck is cooked.
Historical links:
Grisham and instability during his Afghanistan tour.
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