WAGNER, JAMES

pownetwork.org:

You have me, James Wagner, on your website listed in your Wannabes & Phonies section along with supposed supporting documentation to your claim. Although your wording is not libel, per se, it definitely leads any Internet reader to believe that I am a liar, or “phony,� as you have so bluntly indicated. Obviously I am requesting that all information about me be removed immediately from your website because the assumptions are false.

For being a self-proclaimed investigative organization I am disappointed, to say the least, that you did not look into whether the allegations were true or false before publishing them. Is that your method of investigation, to throw up a bunch of accusations and see if anyone responds or not? I would think that before you set out to destroy a person’s reputation that you would at least have the ethics to thoroughly investigation a little deeper into the material you post. In my case you could have simply emailed me. You seemed to have found my website address without any difficulty. Instead, I have to hear about these accusations from my associates in the United Kingdom and Canada .

As a rebuttal I will use your own text and go line by line addressing each issue. First I will show your own text as it appears on your website, your accusations, and then I will answer each one of them.

WAGNER, James 05/2008 Huntington Beach/Irvine CA Is shown on the cover of multiple magazines in what appears to be a U.S. Army Uniform including rank.

Yes, I was on the recent cover of both Black Belt magazine ( USA ) and Blitz magazine ( Australia ) wearing my authorized Army Combat Uniform. I am a sergeant SGT/E5 with the California State Military Reserve assigned to the 40^th Infantry Division (Mechanized) Support, Provost Marshal Office; a rank I have held for two years. If you would have read the article in Black Belt magazine you would have seen my unit printed there in black and white. Over 70,000 issues were printed.

Under the California Military Department the California Army National Guard (which can be federalized) and California State Military Reserve (which cannot be federalized) are authorized to wear the Army Combat Uniform (ACU). Permission was grated to me by my chain-of-command in hopes of recruiting more people into both branches of the California Military Department in a time when the United States military, and the State of California, desperately need more soldiers in the War on Terrorism, peace keeping missions, and for State emergencies. The Black Belt magazine cover story did indeed accomplish this goal with a few patriotic individuals enlisting. It also made the public aware of the State Defense Forces throughout the United States , which few people knew about. I have received emails from individuals from several states asking me how they could enlist in the State Defense Force. I responded by recommending that they contact their local recruiter. How many other individuals enlisted in these outside states is unknown, but even if only one person had enlisted I feel that I have done my part in strengthening the United States Armed Forces. For my contribution to recruiting efforts I was awarded the State Recruiting Ribbon which is on record with the California Department of Military.  The story printed in Black Belt magazine and Blitz magazine are directly related to my current assignment as a self-defense instructor. In the Black Belt magazine article I am shown in a photograph taken at the Joint Forces Training Based, California training Army National Guard (ANG) troops in my ACU (our training uniform as well).

If you were to have looked at the photographs in the inside of the magazine you would have seen my unit patch, my rank, and the word CALIFORNIA over the left breast pocket. Had you looked inside the magazine, but missed reading the actual text listing my unit, you would have definitely been able to investigate what unit I belong to, and what unit the other troops belong to, by looking closely at the many color photographs printed inside. I guess the old adage of YOU CAN’T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT’S COVER is no truer than in this case. Upon obtaining this observational information a simple phone call to our military headquarters at the State Capitol of Sacramento would have verified that I am indeed a sworn soldier, and one who has also been on State Active Duty. My assignments and missions include imbedded activity with the Army National Guard.  

2.  Is using the Marine Sniper School at Pendleton as a reference but was never a Marine.

First of all, the above sentence is an incomplete sentence, and the school should be referred to as Scout Sniper School . Had you attended this school you would have known how particular they are about their good name and reputation. Plus, the proper name for the school’s location is MCB Camp Pendleton (MCB standing for Marine Corps Base). As investigators looking into military matters you should be using proper vocabulary.  

Although I have had extensive training by the United States Marine Corps, and I have taught many defensive tactics and tactics courses to various Marine units, I have never claimed to be a United States Marine. I have also trained U.S. Air Force Security Forces units, U.S. Navy Provost Marshal Office units, and U.S. Coast Guard units and have never claimed to be a member of these branches either. Nowhere in any article, any correspondence, or email have I ever stated I was a United States Marine. As a military investigating unit you should know that there is, and was, a certain degree of liaison between our military and the law enforcement community. 

Did you actually read the letter you posted on your website that is suppose to be supporting documentation of my fraud? This letter, from 1^st Lieutenant T.C. West of Scout Sniper School, Division Schools, 1^st Marine Division dated 11 Feb 94, is a LETTER OF APPRECIATION thanking me (Officer Jim Wagner, Costa Mesa Police Department) for my “assistance on numerous occasions to help coordinate, participate in, and evaluate Sniper training scenarios and courses that incorporate realistic applications to both Law Enforcement and Military personnel.� Anyone who reads this, for it is in layman English, will understand the meaning of it. It plainly states that I was at Camp Pendleton “ON NUMEROUS OCCAISIONS� involved with Scout Sniper School in the capacity of a civilian law enforcement advisor. Would a United States commissioned officer sign a document that was untrue? The answer is obviously not. This document is on record with both the United States Marine Corps and the Costa Mesa Police Department. It was the Costa Mesa Police Department, more specifically Lieutenant Ron Smith (the Costa Mesa Police Department SWAT Commander at the time), Captain Brooks , and Chief Dave Snowden, who authorized me to train countless times on city time. How does this document that you placed up on your website indicate that I was passing myself off as a Marine, because that is exactly what you are implying on your website.

The second document you have from the United States Marine Corps is a certificate given to me by Scout Sniper School on January 5, 1993 for an “advance sniper course prescribed by the Scout Sniper School .� Whether this is an “official government document� or not, I do not know, I was never a Marine. I am not familiar with all of their forms. However, that is the very document they handed to me upon graduation of the course (along with fellow Costa Mesa Police officers Sergeant Darell Freeman, Senior Officer Mike Cohen, Senior Officer Paul Ellis, Senior Officer Dan Erber and approximately 20 other law enforcement officers from multiple Southern California law enforcement agencies both local, State, and federal) in an official United States Marine Corps display folder. Fortunately, I have the class photo which was taken in front of the Scout Sniper School building and sign, along with all of the United States Marine Corps instructors in it who taught the course. Apparently I must post this photo on my website, and the other photographs taken at this event, to dispel the damage you have done. When I place that training certificate on my website a few years ago I had no idea that it would be questioned. And why should I have? I’ve never had any of my documentation questioned before, and I have only put up a small fraction of my qualifications. So, whether this is strictly a Division Schools in house certificate or not, you would have to take the matter up with them. This certificate is also in my official personnel file with the Costa Mesa Police Department, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the United States Federal Air Marshal Service and the California State Military Reserve. Of course, the certificate itself is just a piece of paper, but what it represents to me, and the men who participated at this event, was three days of intensive scout sniper training taught by Marines of the Scout Sniper School; knowledge that I learned and have passed on to many others over the years to help save lives.

4.  Constantly refers to himself as Sergeant in reference to his military background while in a military uniform when he has produced no DD214 to verify rank or service.

Had your investigative report continued to go in chronological order this sentence should have been numbered as number 2 in order to keep a consistent theme thread with the opening sentence, which should have been numbered as number 1. As a law enforcement officer who has investigated thousands of crimes, I am pointing this out to you so that in the future when you list accusations about individuals your work will look profession, thus giving credibility to your website.

In my first military service, with the United States Army (Regular), in 1981 I attained the rank of Private E2 before being awarded an Honorable Discharge. I served my country at this time for 8 months and 12 days. On my website I write about this period in my life. To make a long story short on your behalf, I was recruited for the WOFT (Warrant Officer Flight Program) at 18 years of age. I qualified for the program and my paperwork was submitted through the proper Army channels. According to Standard Operating Procedures my recruiter, Staff Sergeant Smeltzer ( Costa Mesa , California Recruiting Office) was to wait for my class date. I was told that my WOFT class date could be approximately six months away. My recruiter had a not so brilliant idea and said that I could get boot camp “out of the way,� and probably AIT (Advance Individual Training) as well in order to get a secondary MOS while waiting for my WOFT class date. Apparently SSG Smeltzer did not know that this would cause a foul up in the system. When the WOFT program personnel at Fort Rucker , Alabama found out that I had enlisted as a Radio Operator they assumed I no longer wanted to attend the WOFT program and I lost my slot. After months of trying to sort out the mess the Army admitted their mistake, thanks to my congressman, the honorable, Robert E. Badham. Through my Battalion commander I was given a choice of reapplying for the WOFT program, with no guarantees of entering within three years, or the second choice receiving an Honorable Discharge. I took the second option. Thus, my first service to my country should in no way be linked to my rank as a Reserve sergeant with the Orange County Sheriffs Department or the rank of sergeant E5 in the California State Military Reserve today.

Since 1999 I have been one of the most read martial arts instructors in the world writing for Black Belt magazine ( North America ), Budo magazine ( Europe ), other martial arts publication with five books now on the market. In 2000 when I became a sergeant (Reserve) with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Black Belt magazine and Budo magazine like the idea of using my rank in front of my name to give people an idea of my credentials, and it has stuck ever since.

As stated previously I am a sergeant E5 with the California State Military Reserve. If I “constantlyâ€� refer to myself as “Sergeantâ€� that is because I am. You know very well that any State Defense Force is an official military organization under the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice). To connect my previous military service to today’s military service in connection to my rank is your mistake, not mine. Had you just ordered a copy of Black Belt magazine or Blitz magazine (for it was Black Belt magazine who sent Blitz magazine the photo you had posted) you would have solved your investigation in mere minutes.  

Concerning my DD214 to “verify rank or service,� who in the world would put up their DD214 on a self-defense website, or any other website for that matter? What is next, my DOJ fingerprints, my birth certificate, my driver’s license, my passport? However, one day if it becomes the norm for all martial artist instructors with a military background to post their DD214 then I will post my DD214. Of course, I know that you worded the sentence on your website in such a way as to make it look like I was never a sergeant in order to discredit me.

It is obvious to me that one of my self-defense competitors gave you your “lead.â€� The fact that I am “being investigatedâ€� by your organization has conveniently recently appeared on a few of my competitor’s websites, and since such accusations are rarely verified by many readers, it has had the temporary impact they were hoping for. It appears you have been used to accomplish their smear tactic. It does not take a professional investigator to figure out the motivation behind the accusations. Thus, I’m assuming at this point that you just threw up whatever someone fed you and did not properly investigate the matter. I can’t imagine that this would come from your organization directly. If that were the case then that would just show complete incompetence on your part, especially from an organization soliciting donations. As such, I request that all the information about me on your website be immediately taken off of your website and a retraction be put in its place. I see that you expect apologies from people you have caught lying, I would expect the same from you when it is the other way. Failure to do so will result in me listing your website on my website as an unreliable source of information. Contrary to what you may believe, base on the information you have posted about me, there are literally thousands from the military, law enforcement, corrections, and martial arts communities all around the world who support me and the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection system.

Sincerely,