Louisiana Voice

Butch Browning, back when he was the state fire marshal, got himself in something of a pickle by allowing himself to be photographed in full uniform – complete with a full array of military medals and decorations that he never earned.

Now, it seems, Gov. Jeff Landry may have committed the same faux pas one of his campaign ads during the 2023 election. The ad, shown here, depicts a photo of warrior Landry over which the text says, in part, “…Jeff became a decorated veteran of Desert Storm.”

The only problem with that is that he most probably was never in Iraq, Kuwaiti, or any other Mideast country.

The text of the ad also said, “He also received the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, a National Defense Ribbon and the Louisiana War Cross.”

Well, bully. Those are generally awarded for meritorious service, but what defines “meritorious?” Well, it can be just about anything that’s outstanding in any way.

“I looked at Jeff Landry’s campaign page and one of the pages had his [and] it had a picture of him from the standard basic training photo,” an individual who actually was in Desert Storm from Louisiana. “[H]e had ‘MP’ (military police) stenciled on the front of his helmet. In the bio, it stated he was a ‘decorated veteran of Desert Storm.’

Desert Storm warrior (?) Jeff Landry

He may have been a veteran of the Desert Storm era. That’s far different than being an actual veteran of Desert Storm.

I was a Vietnam-era veteran but I never set foot in the country, so I was not a Vietnam veteran.

“In 1990, there were only two MP units in the entire state of Louisiana. One was the 239^th out of Baton Rouge, near the airport. The other MP unit was the 39^th in Jackson Barracks in New Orleans,” the person said.

“There around 115-120 MPs in the 39^th and they were activated for Desert Storm. Then needed more people so they took volunteers from the 239^th out of Baton Rouge. Sixteen people from the 239^th volunteered to join the 39^th. I was one of them,” she said. “Jeff Landry was not.”

He also was not in the 39^th. “I had a friend who still has our orders to double check and his name was not on our list,” she said. “When I looked at Landry’s listing of his medals, I saw that he received four. Conspicuously absent from his list of medals is the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal and/or the Southwest Asia medal. Those are two that he would definitely have received had he been ‘in country’ for Desert Storm.

“I don’t know what happened between basic training and Desert Storm,” she said. “Why did Landry start out as an MP but wind up elsewhere? He may have washed out of MP school, or changed units to be closer to Lafayette? I don’t know. I am fairly certain that when Desert Storm started, he was in an infantry unit from Lafayette that was activated for Desert Storm but only made it as far as Fort Hood (in Texas).”

“Technically he is a veteran – but it’s highly disingenuous to phrase it as ‘decorated veteran of Desert Storm.’ It implies that he somehow was awarded something for some sort of distinguishing service overseas – and he never left training in Texas. Its deceptive. But it’s par for the course as well,” she said.

Attempts to reach Landry for comment were unsuccessful. We received no answer when we twice called the governor’s office but we did leave a voice message asking for a call-back and we sent the governor an email asking for comment but never heard back.