This post concerns Miguel A "Mike" Valles who is deceased (1949-1995). The information presented here was republished from publicly available open sources including the Social Security Death Index, Veterans Administration BIRLS database, the National Archives and Records Administration (NPRC), and Ancestry.com, and after multiple reviews did not violate Blogger guidelines for Personal and confidential information.
My research of Valles's military service and other history proves that the claims related to author Philip Carlo by the serial killer Richard Ramirez are absolutely false.
"Cousin Miguel or, “Mike” as he was often called, returned from Vietnam a war hero with two tours of duty under his belt and four medals on his thickly muscled chest. His Green Beret platoon of twenty men had been surrounded by the Vietcong at one point, and Mike and another soldier had been the only ones who’d made it out alive... According to Richard, Mike had twenty-nine known kills".
- Philip Carlo
After renewing my subscription to Ancestry.com, I conducted a number of searches which resulted in information from the U.S. Social Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The documentation I present here proves that Miguel Angel Valles served less than two years in the U.S. Army and could not have been a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces "Green Berets" in Vietnam.
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| Miguel A Valles 1970-71 |
(Image source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1272135/miguel-angel-valles https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1272135/miguel_angel-valles/photo
Miguel A. Valles was born in Durango, Mexico on 14 June 1949. At some point as a child, he entered the U.S. At El Paso, Texas and later became a Naturalized U.S. Citizen.
According to the U.S. Social Security Death Index, Valles was issued the Social Security Number: 453-90-2961 at age 17 in 1966.
A search of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS database yielded his dates of enlistment and discharge from the U.S. Army.
"The BIRLS (Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem) Death File is a Veterans Benefits Administration database that lists information for deceased individuals who had received benefits from the Veterans Administration while they were alive." https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2441/
The database lists Valles's dates of service as:
Date of Enlistment: 4 December 1970
Date of Discharge: 2 December 1971
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| Ancestry.com |
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| Ancestry.com |
I expect my November 10, 2022, FOIA request to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to take months to process due to the COVID request backlog. However, I am confident the response will show matching dates of service, as well as unit assignments, any decorations or awards, and the type of discharge.
The U.S Federal Government-provided information I have published here and in the previous post indicates that Valles enlisted (volunteered), was not a draftee, and received an Honorable or Medical Discharge.
Vietnam War in 1971
In January 1971, the US Congress voted to withdraw all U.S. troops from Vietnam by the end of the year.
Many Vietnam veterans who enlisted in 1970 have reported being sent to Vietnam after 6 months of training. Valles likely would have completed training in May 1971, then served 6 months in Vietnam before his discharge in December 1971.
According to the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Valles would have served during "Consolidation Phase 1"
"Consolidation I, 1 July 1971 - 30 November 1971. This period witnessed additional progress in the Vietnamization program which included turning over the ground war to South Vietnam, sustaining the withdrawal of U.S. troops, but also continuing, U.S. air strikes on enemy targets."
"The participation of U.S. forces in ground combat operations had not ceased, however, U.S. maneuver battalions were still conducting missions, and the 101st Airborne Division joined the 1st Army of Vietnam (ARVN) 1st Infantry Division in Operation JEFFERSON GLEN that took place in Thua Thien Province in October.
This was the last major combat operation in Vietnam that involved U.S. ground forces. Following the close of Operation JEFFERSON GLEN on 8 October, the 101st began stand-down procedures and was the last U.S. division to leave Vietnam.
U.S. troop strengths decreased during Consolidation I. American battle deaths for July 1971 were 66, the lowest monthly figure since May 1967. By early November, U.S. troop totals dropped to 191,000, the lowest level since December 1965. In early November, President Nixon announced that American troops had reverted to a defensive role in Vietnam." (6)
Valles was not a "Green Beret"
Valles's dates of service and rank at discharge of PFC (E-3) conflict with the basic requirements of a soldier for admission into the U.S. Army Special Forces.
In addition, a review of the history of the U.S. Army Special Forces in Vietnam 1970-1973, also proves that the claims made about Valles's service by Richard Ramirez and writer Philip Carlo are absolutely false.
Most of the soldiers who served as "Green Berets" in Vietnam served with the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). The 5th SFG had already begun to withdraw its units from Vietnam in April 1970, 8 months before Valles enlisted in December 1970.
The 5th SFG had already returned to Ft. Bragg, NC nine months before Miguel Valles was discharged from the U.S. Army in December 1971.
"In April 1970, 5th SFG began reducing its number of personnel in Vietnam. Later in November and December, further reductions in personnel and extraction of companies ensued, ending in a complete withdrawal of the group. On 5 March 1971, the 5th SFG colors were returned to Fort Bragg"
Conclusion:
Based on the evidence available to me at this time, I believe it is possible that Miguel A. Valles, Sr. served in Vietnam (1971). He did not serve in the U.S. Army Special Forces.
Valles was awarded a disability from the Department of Veterans of Affairs (1972-73.) He applied for and was approved for burial in the VA National Cemetery at Ft. Bliss, TX. His VA-provided grave marker shows he served during the Vietnam War Era, however, this is not considered evidence of service in the Vietnam Area of Operations.
- Vietnam War era: (November 1, 1955, to May 7, 1975), for Veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam during that period.
- August 5, 1964, to May 7, 1975, for Veterans who served outside the Republic of Vietnam.) https://www.va.gov/pension/eligibility/
I await a response from the National Archives and Records Administration (NPRC) for details of his US Army service record.
UPDATE 6-28-23
I have not yet received a response to my November 2022 request from the NPRC regarding the service of Valles. This post was reported to Blogger.com citing a violation of community guidelines.
The purpose and details of the report were not disclosed other than this: "Your content has violated our Personal and confidential information
policy".
Following a review, this post was immediately "reinstated"
"Hello,
We have re-evaluated the post titled "UPDATE: Records show
Miguel "Mike" Valles served one year in the U.S. Army - Not a "Green
Beret"" against Community Guidelines https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy.
This post has been reported and then reinstated dozens of times in the past two days. The post was determined to have not violated the Content Policy regarding Personal and Confidential Information.
"In most cases where this information is broadly available elsewhere on the internet or in public records, like national ID numbers listed on a government website, we generally don’t process enforcement actions."
I will now send my posts regarding Valles to the Guardians of the Green Beret
Update 7-18-2023
I submitted another request for Valles' record to the NPRC on July 12, 2023. This time using the online Vetrecs FOIA request procedure. I received the following response on July 18,2023.
The response confirms the dates of service provided by the VA BIRLS Database and shows an entry date of March 30, 1970, indicating Valles' total time of Active Duty Service to be 1 year and 9 months.
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| NPRC Response July 18, 2023 |
Unfortunately, the NPRC still seems to be having problems as they did not process certain details of my request for his awards and duty assignments. This is despite my clearly stating the veteran (Valles) is deceased and providing his date and place of death.
Contrary to the statement in the letter, releasable information under the FOIA and Privacy Act of 1974 does NOT require the written consent (signature) of the veteran either alive or deceased. I have been making such requests for over 20 years.
The Archives Technician at NPRC simply verified his date of birth and dates of service without actually retrieving the record to copy and or scan his awards and duty assignments pursuant to my electronic request.
I will attempt to contact the NPRC Archives Technician to obtain Valles' Decorations/Awards and Duty Assignments.
Sources:
1. BIRLS DATA: (Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem) U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
2. U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014: Miguel A. Valles
Awesome research!
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