Montana Senate candidate says he was ‘medically discharged’ from the Navy. Information say in any other case.

Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL running for the Senate in Montana, has stated he was discharged from the army for medical causes due to accidents he sustained on responsibility, however his discharge paperwork tells a special story.

The closely redacted, two-page doc obtained by NBC Information signifies that Sheehy voluntarily resigned his fee and doesn’t record any medical situation that pressured him out of uniform, in accordance with a assessment of the doc and a present and former U.S. official accustomed to the small print of his separation.

Sheehy stated as a lot in his memoir final 12 months, noting that he did develop a well being situation but it surely was not the explanation he left the Navy.

Within the guide, “Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting,” Sheehy wrote that he suffered a nasty case of decompression illness, generally generally known as the bends, whereas he was using in a mini-submarine throughout a coaching train in Hawaii. It brought about a “tiny gap in my coronary heart.”

“There can be a interval of restoration and analysis, I used to be instructed, earlier than I might return to lively responsibility,” he wrote.

He finally determined to resign as a substitute. “If I couldn’t be out within the discipline, main from the entrance, then it was time to contemplate doing one thing else,” he wrote. “I had put in my time; I used to be free to go if that was what I needed.”

In an announcement to NBC Information, a spokesperson for the Sheehy marketing campaign supplied a extra nuanced clarification.

“Tim Sheehy was honorably discharged from the Navy after being declared medically unfit to proceed to function a Navy SEAL in 2014,” the spokesperson stated. “After Tim left lively responsibility in 2014, he was then within the Navy Particular person Prepared Reserve (IRR)” — a piece of the Navy Reserve — “till his honorable discharge in 2019.”

The spokesperson didn’t straight handle why Sheehy’s discharge paperwork contradicts his claims that he was discharged for medical causes.

A embellished army profession

What’s past dispute is that Sheehy had a embellished army profession. He was awarded a Purple Coronary heart for wounds sustained in battle in probably the most harmful components of Afghanistan, in addition to a Bronze Star for valor.

Sheehy’s apparently false claims of being medically discharged add to the variety of statements he has made about his army document which have been questioned. He was already going through scrutiny for his declare that he was shot in Afghanistan, which has been contradicted by a Nationwide Park Service ranger who has instructed reporters that Sheehy shot himself in an accident at Glacier Nationwide Park in 2015.

Sheehy’s showdown with Democratic incumbent Jon Tester is among the most intently watched Senate races within the nation. Sheehy, a Republican who operates an aerial firefighting firm, is main Tester within the polls. With the Democrats holding a razor-thin majority, the result might decide which get together controls the Senate.

Sheehy has made his army service a core a part of his marketing campaign. In interviews with conservative podcast hosts, he has stated he was pressured out of the army due to harm.

“So lastly, they stated, ‘Hey, you’re on the finish of the highway, , you’ve obtained shrapnel in you, you’ve obtained a bullet in you, you’ve had a head harm, , you’re out of right here,'” Sheehy stated on the “First Class Fatherhood” podcast in November.

In March, he stated on “The Victor Davis Hanson Present” podcast that he served a number of excursions in Iraq and Afghanistan and “obtained wounded and injured a handful of instances.”

“Ultimately, I used to be medically discharged from the army,” he added.

Sheehy additionally submitted a résumé to the Montana Legislature in 2021 that claims he was “medically separated from lively responsibility on account of wounds obtained in Afghanistan.”

He graduated from the Naval Academy in 2008 and left the army six years later after fulfilling his necessary service requirement, information present.

Sheehy earned a Bronze Star for his actions on April 9, 2012, when his patrol got here underneath fireplace within the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan. After a member of his unit was wounded, Sheehy ran 50 meters by means of enemy fireplace and shielded the service member from incoming fireplace, in accordance with the Navy quotation. Because the firefight continued, Sheehy helped arrange a touchdown space for the medevac helicopter and carried the wounded man 200 meters for evacuation.

Sheehy obtained the Purple Coronary heart for an incident on April 25, 2012. The circumstances are unclear. His marketing campaign didn’t launch the quotation, which would supply a story of what occurred, and as a substitute referred NBC Information to an area information article revealed on the day of the 2015 award ceremony. The article in the Independent Record of Helena says he was knocked unconscious by an improvised explosive gadget.

Sheehy has remained forward of Tester within the polls regardless of questions on how and the place he sustained a gunshot wound.

Sheehy has recounted in his guide and stated on the marketing campaign path that he was shot in the proper arm throughout a battle in Afghanistan within the spring of 2012. However The Washington Post and The New York Times have reported that Sheehy instructed a Nationwide Park Service ranger that he sustained a bullet wound to his arm in 2015 when his Colt .45 fell and discharged in a car parking zone at Glacier Nationwide Park in Montana.

Sheehy was cited for the incident by the ranger and fined over $500 for illegally discharging a weapon in a nationwide park. He instructed the Submit that he lied to the ranger to guard himself and his fellow SEALs from a attainable investigation associated to the alleged incident in Afghanistan.

The spokesperson for the Sheehy marketing campaign stated that “the bullet in Tim’s arm was a results of his service in Afghanistan.”

“Tim by no means reported it as a result of he didn’t wish to set off an investigation of his workforce, be pulled from the battlefield, and see a fellow teammate be punished,” the spokesperson stated. “It was all the time about defending a fellow workforce member of his unit he thought might have been accountable on account of pleasant fireplace ricochet within the warmth of an engagement with the enemy.”

This text was initially revealed on NBCNews.com