VA Secretary Robert McDonald Caught on Video Making Big False Claim About His Military Service | Video | TheBlaze.com

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald falsely claimed he served in special operations forces during an exchange with a homeless military veteran that was caught on video earlier this year. McDonald’s spent most of his five-year military career with the 82nd Airborne Division, the Huffington Post reported on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald, center, speaks while surrounded by U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, left, R-Fla., Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and Kathleen Fogarty, Director of the James A. Haley Medical Center during a news conference after a visit to the James A. Haley Medical Center, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014, in Tampa, Fla. McDonald also met with veterans while touring the facility. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

In a video package published by CBS News on Jan. 30, a homeless veteran is seen telling McDonald that he served in special forces.

“Special forces? What years? I was in special forces!” McDonald replied.

The VA secretary told the Huffington Post on Monday that he has “no excuse” for claiming he was in special forces.

“I was not in special forces. What I said was wrong,” he added.

“I reacted spontaneously and I reacted wrongly, [with] no intent in any way to describe my record any different than it is.”

The Huffington Post has more on McDonald’s military career and why special forces are so elite:

U.S. special operations forces (SOF) are composed of exhaustively trained and highly capable troops from each military service, including the Green Berets, Army Rangers, Delta Force and Navy SEALs — but not the 82nd Airborne. They are certified to undertake the most dangerous and delicate missions, including, famously, the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011. Special operators are a close-knit community deeply hostile to outsiders who try to claim the coveted mantle of special operations.

[…]

In fact, McDonald never served in special forces. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1975, completed Army Ranger training and took courses in jungle, arctic and desert warfare. He qualified as a senior parachutist and airborne jumpmaster, and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division until he retired from military service in 1980. While he earned a Ranger tab designating him as a graduate of Ranger School, he never served in a Ranger battalion or any other special operations unit.

Retired Army Col. Gary Bloomberg called McDonald’s false claim a “boneheaded statement.”

He also asked, “Is this what we want from our senior government officials?”

Read the full report here.