Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, removed the Combat Infantryman Badge from his lapel Wednesday more than a month after it was revealed the Army revoked the award last year because he was never eligible for it in the first place.
But Nehls would not directly answer when reporters pressed him on whether he would never wear the pin again, instead blasting “vultures” in the media for focusing on the badge.
“Now that I don’t wear that, what are you going to talk to me about?” Nehls said to reporters asking about the missing lapel pin. “You guys are going to be bored out of your mind.”
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Nehls has been under heavy criticism from veterans for weeks after CBS News and Guardian of Valor, a website focused on uncovering stolen valor, first revealed in May that the Army revoked Nehls’ CIB in March 2023 because at the time he was awarded it in 2008, he served as a civil affairs officer, not an infantryman or Special Forces soldier.
In order to be eligible for a CIB, a soldier must be an infantryman or Green Beret, be serving in those roles at the time of the award, and engage an enemy in direct ground combat.
While Nehls first enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard in 1988 as an infantryman, his military occupational speciality in 2008 was civil affairs, making him ineligible for a CIB, according to documents published by…
