Veteran Service Officer resigns as accounts discredit his military service

The Dubois County Veterans Service Officer, Kenneth Speedy Lefevre, resigned today in light of revelations of his concocted service-related injuries.

Mr. Lefevre quit on the cusp of an executive session planned to discuss a county employee’s performance. Following the resignation, the commissioners cancelled the executive session scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Tuesday.

We wrote about discrepancies in his service account last week. Here is that story.

Much of that story relied on public records, including injury and fatality reports in the operation, as well as his lack of cooperation in providing documented evidence of his service.

However, since publishing this story, eight Marines attached to the First Battalion 12th Marines have contacted the Dubois County Free Press by phone and email to provide information on Mr. Lefevre’s service as well as the unit’s actions during his time there.

Every Marine we’ve spoken to directly, which includes two commissioned officers in Mr. Lefevre’s direct chain of command, his direct supervising noncommissioned officer and a fellow Marine, has stated that his injuries did not stem from an IED explosion in Syria.

In fact, they all stated that the unit was never deployed to Syria at the time Mr. Lefevre was attached to it.

Since writing the story last week and in every conversation had with Mr. Lefevre, he has maintained that he can’t explain the discrepancies in his memory and the facts provided by U.S. Central Command.

The Marines he served with have filled in many of those blanks.

Stolen Valor is despised by those who are serving or have served.

In these discussions, anger toward his story and the discredit to those actually injured in combat were consistent sentiments. One Marine I spoke to told me it was especially hurtful because, “my brother has a traumatic brain injury from an IED; this pisses me off to hear he’s telling this story.”

As his former corporal stated when asked if Mr. Lefevre’s actions were consistent with Stolen Valor, he angrily affirmed, “It’s f***ing Stolen Valor, is what it is.”

As Mr. Lefevre has stepped away from the Veteran Service Office, local veterans have volunteered to cover the office to ensure Veteran Affairs claims continue to be handled locally.

The county is actively seeking a new VSO, and details about the position will be posted on our jobs board soon.