A Republican candidate running for Senate in Montana has come under fire for lying once again after it was revealed that his discharge paperwork and his stated reasons for being discharged from the military do not match up.
38-year-old Tim Sheehy, a Republican Senate hopeful from Montana, has previously stated that he was discharged from the military due to injuries he sustained while actively on duty. However, discharge paperwork obtained by NBC News contains no mention of any medical ailment the former Navy SEAL was discharged for.
This follows calls from military veterans who banded together on Tuesday, gathering at the Missoula County Courthouse in order to offer denunciations of Sheehy, who they believe is a "serial" liar. The veterans subsequently called for Sheehy to publicize his medical records, according to the Daily Montanan.
"If elected, he will continue to deceive Montanans," said Lara Dorman, a retired Montana Army National Guard captain who served in the Gulf War.
"If Tim Sheehy really wants to tell Montanans the truth, he could come clean and release his medical records from the Kalispell hospital from that day in Glacier," said Rides At The Door, also a Purple Heart recipient.
In his memoir released last year, entitled "Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting," Sheehy states that he developed decompression sickness so severe that it resulted in the formation of a "tiny hole in my heart" when riding a submarine during a training exercise.
Sheehy, who was faced with having to undergo recovery before being allowed to return to duty, ultimately decided not to rejoin the military.
"If I couldn't be out in the field, leading from the front, then it was time to consider doing something else," he wrote. "I had put in my time; I was free to go if that was what I wanted."
"Tim Sheehy was honorably discharged from the Navy after being declared medically unfit to continue to serve as a Navy SEAL in 2014," said a spokesperson for Sheehy's campaign to NBC News. "After Tim left active duty in 2014, he was then in the Navy Individual Ready Reserve (IRR)" — a section of the Navy Reserve — "until his honorable discharge in 2019."
However, neither Sheehy nor his representatives have addressed the discrepancy between his stated reasons for being discharged and his actual discharge paperwork.
Sheehy has been accused of lying in the past as well. Recounting an incident that occurred in Glacier National Park in 2015, Sheehy originally wrote in an account that a firearm accidentally fell out of his vehicle and went off, leaving him with an injury in his right forearm.
"Upon finishing our hike at Logan's Pass while reloading our vehicle, an improperly placed firearm kept in the vehicle for bear protection fell out and discharged into my right forearm," Sheehy wrote.
However, Sheehy later stated that he actually had fallen while at the National Park, and that the impact dislodged an old bullet wound he received from his time in the military, while stationed overseas.
Last week, former Glacier National Park Ranger Kim Peach recounted his version of the incident that resulted in Sheehy sustaining an injury in 2015.
"I am 100 percent sure he shot himself that day," Peach said in an interview with the New York Times.
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