SCOOP: DoD investigating former officer who used footage of Arlington Cemetery, including Gold Star families burying their dead, in campaign ad. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/05/06/dod-investigating-former-army-officer-who-used-arlington-cemetery-footage-campaign-ad.html

Harold Earls is running in Georgia’s 6th, a district GOP is targeting to flip. He also got in hot water after an Instagram post of him in uniform working at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier, pitching his book.

And his story gets even weirder. When at West Point, he sold shirts to underclassmen to find a trip up Mt. Everest. He lost his goggles on the trek, he borrowed his Sherpa’s who got snow blindness and almost fell down the mountain.

He also wears a Sentinel Badge in campaign material, and other photos, a prestigious honor and one of the Army’s rarest awards. There are no records of him earning it. He took the test and failed early last year.

Typo in above tweet- *fund* a trip to Everest

"looking at his site, can't even really tell he's running for office, or where. It's all about him, not about the place he's running. You can see the ego problems. His whole campaign is about minimal service in Virginia for an election in Georgia." -An NCO who served with Earls

I spoke with 8 NCOs who currently serve in Arlington Cemetery. They paint Earls as an opportunist, who - from day 1, used the position to build a launchpad to politics.

And I also talked to a handful of cadets who went to school with him at West Point, telling stories that paint a similar picture. They say his service was planned, calculated, and built for a campaign ad.

I say "cadets" they're all captains and majors now.