Blockbuster Exposé Ramps Up Stolen Valor Accusations Against Congressman: ‘He Didn’t Save My Life…I Don’t Recall Him Being There’

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) has made his military service a core part of his political persona, prominently featuring his combat service with the Army in his campaign ads — including his Bronze Star. But whether he truly earned that combat award has been called into question by multiple on-the-record witnesses who strongly dispute his version of the events.

Mills’s campaign website identifies him as “a father, patriot, combat veteran…a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran, and recipient of the Bronze Star” who served in areas including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo. His social media accounts and campaign videos similarly highlight his status as a combat veteran, like this one with captions labelling him “ARMY 82ND AIRBORNE. JSOC MEMBER. IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN VETERAN.” and “SOLDIER. CONSERVATIVE. OUTSIDER.”

Mills has previously faced stolen valor accusations, the term used for people who make false claims about serving in the military or their service record, including during last year’s election when a Republican primary opponent said he had not earned his Bronze Star.

Last August, Mills provided documents to The Daytona Beach News-Journal to back up his claims about his service and awards. The News-Journal noted that there were some errors on the documents, but did verify his Form DD214, which summarized his service upon his honorable discharge, and Form 638, the form used to recommend Mills for the Bronze Star. Still, questions remained.

Mills’ brigade commander, Army Brig. Cmdr. Arnold N. Gordon-Bray, who has since retired, did confirm that he had signed the Form 638, but was also quoted as saying that the soldiers’ actions that justified such awards were “ordinarily submitted by the observing individuals. To be clear, I am not validating any of the specifics.”

Monday morning, NOTUS reporters Reese Gorman and John T. Seward tracked down soldiers who served with Mills to ask about those “specifics” — and five of them, including four on the record, challenged not just Mills’ version of events, but whether he was even present at some of the incidents cited in his Form 638.

These disputes about Mills’ Bronze Star have been compiled in an official complaint sent to the Office of Congressional Ethics, a source with direct knowledge of the complaint told NOTUS. The reporters were able to review the complaint and confirmed through sources that it had also been submitted to the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Middle District of Florida, with at least the FBI and Army Criminal Investigation Division visiting one of the sources to ask questions about the accusations in the complaint.

Gordon-Bray told NOTUS that he did not serve directly with Mills during his deployments and was involved in signing the Form 638 after the fact as a routine administrative process. There were so many such forms to handle, reported NOTUS, “that awards were submitted and approved in collective batches,” and Gordon-Bray was not involved in assessing the details of the specific “achievements” claimed on the forms.

On Mills’ form 638, it lists two separate incidents in which he is described as saving the lives of his fellow soldiers.

One incident is said to have happened in Iraq in 2003, describing the “exceptional bravery” Mills exhibited as he “while under intense enemy fire, came to the aid of two fallen comrades,” Private First Class Joe Heit and Corporal Alan Babin. “At great risk to his own life,” the Form 638 stated, “he applied emergency life-saving medical care to both soldiers and assisted in their evacuation back to US Forces, saving the lives of both soldiers.”

Heit, who is described as remembering the day in question “vividly,” disputed several key elements from the Form 638. He told NOTUS that while he had been shot, his injuries were not “life-threatening,” it was from friendly fire, not enemy fire, and — most crucially — Mills was not the one who helped him.

“He didn’t save my life,” said Heit. “I don’t recall him being there either.”

Heit’s injuries were previously reported in a 2004 Washington Post article, long before Mills ran for office, which focused on the far more grievous injured suffered by Babin. Regarding Heit, a bullet shattered his glasses and sent glass fragments into his eye, rendering him “dazed and a little bloodied, but otherwise fine.”

The NOTUS article provided additional support for Heit’s version of the events, with even Mills giving the media outlet a statement that it was “true” Heit’s injuries were not life-threatening.

“I can pretty much confirm 100% Cory Mills was not up at the bridges at the location of the everything,” Sergeant First Class Chris Painter, the platoon sergeant, wrote in a text message corroborating Heit’s story. “Now, if he came to the company position to assist in escorting Babin to the BN aid station I don’t know but he wasn’t at the bridge [where] it all happened I do know that.”

Two other soldiers who were on the ground that day, one on the record, also told NOTUS that they did not remember Mills being there and others in the unit had said they didn’t remember him being there either.

In the second incident on Mills’ Form 638, he is credited with rescuing Sergeant First Class Joe Ferrand after he was “grabbed by an enemy insurgent,” with the description saying that Mills’ team came to the aid of Ferrand’s unit that “was pinned down by intense enemy fire,” and Mills himself “jump[ed] into action” and “threw himself at the enemy insurgent and subdued him.”

Ferrand bluntly described these claims from Mills’ Form 638 as a “fabrication,” saying he “was not involved in any claims that Cory Mills makes about me,” Ferrand wrote in the statement. He adds that it is “false…The act never took place.”

Mills disputes the accusations made by his fellow soldiers, attributing the discrepancies to “different recollections during chaotic wartime events” and adding that he was not aware of any investigations into his Bronze Star.

Read the full report at NOTUS.