Two false claims in the official biography of Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Lovell III led to the top enlisted leader of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines to be removed from his post as the infantry battalion’s sergeant major. A spokesman for III Marine Expeditionary Force, 1st Lt. Luke Kuper, cites a loss of confidence as the reason Lovell was relieved.
Errors in Lovell’s official biography were brought to the Marine Corps’ attention in a blog post on March 19, 2015,” Kuper said in a statement. “The official biography has been updated to reflect Lovell’s service record. The Marine Corps works to ensure the accuracy of all public information and will correct inaccuracies when present.”
One of the claims that was pointed out by critics in the bio states Lovell was the honor graduate of his scout sniper basic, course 3-98, in 1998. In actuality, the honor graduate was then-Cpl. Aaron Pine, who was honorably discharged from the Marines before passing away in 2005.
The other claim was a third award of the Combat Action Ribbon. Lovell did have combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Marines questioned his claim of seeing more combat during two deployments to the Mediterranean in the late 1990s, according to the Marine Corps Times.
Former Marine infantryman and scout sniper Chris Mark first reported on the allegations against Lovell in the Global Security, Privacy & Risk Management Blog. Mark said within the first 72 hours the blog was posted it received about 100,000 views.
Lovell will be sent back to this parent command at 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune and did not respond to a request for comment from Marine Corps Times.
I suspect it might be time for the SGM to retire! (before he’s asked to leave…if not already)!
wow stolen valor from the upper crust, so were supposed to believe our chain of command? just be proud of what you accomplished like being a sgt major!!!!!!
He forgot one thing that we all live by….”Death Before Dishonor”
This guy is a piece of work. I am glad they fired him, the atmosphere of fear in the command that permiates the USMC needs to go away, generals and SgtMaj alike need to be made examples… This is the same guy that had so many taken to njp. Good riddance… Court martial anyone? Or just applies to juniors????? Justice??? UCMJ doesn’t say if u are this rank… U get this… Enforce it JAG!!!!
What a turd….needs to be sent to NJP and reduced in rank and forced to retire.