An The Officer Training School candidate who allegedly lied about receiving a Purple Heart has been expelled.
Former Staff Sgt. Justin Druskis was disenrolled with prejudice for misconduct from OTS at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, effective Oct. 13, said Phil Berube, a spokesman for the 42nd Air Base Wing at Maxwell. Disenrollment with prejudice means Druskis cannot reapply for admission to OTS, Berube said. Druskis is likely to return to civilian life.
Druskis' alleged Purple Heart claims came to the attention of OTS officials after the Stolen Valor Facebook page on Oct. 2 posted a picture of Druskis and images of an apparent Facebook conversation between him and Army National Guardsman and former Marine John Irwin Jr. what is Irwin's link to Stolen Valor? link to post?mh//sl didn't sound like Irwin had any formal link with the Stolen Valor page; he posted the pictures on his own FB page and SV picked it up.
In that conversation, which took place between Sept. 27 and 29, Druskis told Irwin that he was not wearing his Purple Heart ribbon because he wanted to "keep anything with my injuries on the extreme down low bro." Irwin offered to talk to command at Maxwell to get them to allow Druskis to wear his Purple Heart ribbon at OTS graduation, when would he have graduated?mh but Druskis repeatedly pleaded with Irwin not to.
On Sept. 29, Druskis said in a message to Irwin, "I also have some explaining to do and some apologies to make. I have made mistakes in my life."
In response that same day when?mh//sl fixed, Irwin wrote, "I knew you were lying from the get go. I just wanted to see how far you would take it."
Druskis was selected to attend OTS in October 2014, as part of the 14OT03 selection board, and he was an officer trainee at Maxwell, slated to become a combat systems officer. His commissioning date would have been Oct. 2.
Druskis entered military service in August 2006, according to the Air Force Personnel Center.
AFPC told Air Force Times in early October it had no record of Druskis receiving the Purple Heart or any other decorations. But AFPC said it often takes some time for decorations to appear in someone's file there, and cautioned against drawing any conclusions from the lack of decoration records in its files.
Druskis was a prior enlisted member with a break in service and was a civilian applicant to OTS. He's returned to civilian status, Berube said.
Attempts to reach Druskis were unsuccessful.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
