Republican candidate's Navy records differ from his claims about discharge: report
Montana Republican Senate candidate and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy's record of military service is once again facing scrutiny.
In the latest iteration, NBC News revealed that while Sheehy claimed he was discharged for medical reasons after injuries while he was on duty, documents show something different.
A heavily redacted document obtained by NBC reveals Sheehy resigned voluntarily. A medical condition that "forced him out of uniform" wasn't listed. The report says that a former U.S. official familiar with the details of Sheehy's "separation" confirmed the information.
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According to his book, Sheehy claimed he was riding in a mini-submarine during a training exercise in Hawaii and got "the bends," a decompression sickness caused when a diver ascends too quickly. Nitrogen can build up bubbles in the blood and tissue. Sheehy's book says the incident left a "tiny hole in my heart.”
“There would be a period of recovery and evaluation, I was told, before I could return to active duty,” he says in the book.
When NBC requested a comment from the campaign, a spokesperson had a different take.
“Tim Sheehy was honorably discharged from the Navy after being declared medically unfit to continue to serve as a Navy SEAL in 2014. After Tim left active duty in 2014, he was then in the Navy Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) until his honorable discharge in 2019.”
The campaign refused to respond to the discrepancy between what Sheehy said publicly and what his documents show.
This isn't the first time Sheehy's service record has faced swirling questions. He also said that he was shot while serving in combat in Afghanistan. A report in April revealed Sheehy told officials that he shot himself in the arm three years later when he accidentally discharged a firearm in Montana's Glacier National Park. He claimed that it was a story he made up, a "lie" to the newspaper, "To protect himself and his former platoonmates from facing a potential military investigation into an old bullet wound."
Official paperwork to a law enforcement officer gives extensive details, seemingly confirming that he accidentally shot himself in 2015 when his Colt .45 revolver fell and discharged in the national park. A park ranger has also come out to fact-check the Republican candidate.
Sheehy faces off against U.S. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT).
Mariel Garza resigned this week as editorials editor of The Los Angeles Times. (Photo via Columbia Journalism Review)