“It’s not right. I was not in special forces. What I said was wrong,” he told the Huffington Post, which first reported it. “I have great respect for special forces and as I thought about this later I knew this claim was wrong. I have no excuse.”
McDonald made the claim during a conversation with homeless veterans in Los Angeles in January. McDonald was touring a working-class LA neighborhood as part of the VA’s efforts to count the population of homeless veterans. He was accompanied by a CBS camera crew. When one of the veterans told McDonald he had been in the special forces, McDonald replied, “Special forces? What years? I was in special forces!”
Several retired military officers noticed his claim when it aired on CBS News, and they started asking around. McDonald is a 1975 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and spent his years of active duty with the 82nd Airborne Division. He completed Army Ranger training but never served in a Ranger division or any other special operations unit.
Special Operations Forces (SOF) is made up of the most rigorous and highly trained elite units in the armed forces, including the Green Berets and Navy Seals, the group that killed Osama bin Laden.
McDonald said he didn’t mean to deceive anyone and was just trying to connect with the veteran.
“I reacted spontaneously and I reacted wrongly, with no intent in any way to describe my record any different than it is. I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement. I have no excuse.”
The White House says it is satisfied with McDonald’s apology and doesn’t expect the matter to go any further.
“Secretary McDonald has apologized for the misstatement and noted that he never intended to misrepresent his military service," the White House said in a statement. "We take him at his word and expect that this will not impact the important work he’s doing to promote the health and well-being of our nation’s veterans.”
After serving in the U.S. Army, McDonald joined the private sector, rising to become chairman, president and CEO of the consumer giant Procter & Gamble. He has been at the VA since last summer when he replaced retired Army general Erick Shinseki who left after numerous reports of VA mismanagement and backlogs at VA hospitals.
