Disclaimer - To my knowledge, no person mentioned in this article has committed a crime, pleaded guilty to or been convicted of any crime associated with events listed here.

The year 1992 appears to be a turning point for Ted Sampley. In his biographies Sampley says he testified before the Senate Select Committee on MIA-POWs in 1991. Most of the hearings were held in 1992. Senator John McCain and Senator John Kerry were involved in the hearings and both drew the ire of Ted Sampley.

The Senate Select Committee on POW-MIAs covered many issues. One of the topics was fundraising of the POW-MIA organizations. Several were singled out as using unscrupulous tactics and having dishonorable intentions. Sampley's Homecoming II was among those singled out. From the transcript:

In stark contrast to the vast majority of volunteer POW/MIA organizations, stand a few private organizations who solicit money from millions of American households. In response, the American public has contributed tens of millions of dollars to the POW/MIA cause since Operation Homecoming. In many instances, however, well over half of the money raised was spent on fundraising.

:::snip:::

The Committee found that professional fundraisers created solicitation materials designed to maximize the emotional impact of the POW/MIA issue by stating that POWs remain alive in Southeast Asia and by stating that for a few dollars more, a private organization can rescue them. In virtually every case, materials relating to the existence, identity and location of POW/MIAs and attempts to rescue them were held out as factual but were based on circumstantial and hearsay evidence far weaker than claimed.

:::snip:::

The Committee's investigation was hampered by the refusal of the most active fundraising organizations to cooperate, in particular when it tried to verify statements made in the fundraising appeals of Account for POW/MIA, Inc. (Skyhook II), Operation Rescue, Inc., American Defense Institute, Inc., Homecoming II, Inc., and Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc. (Emphasis my own)

Please follow below the fold for more....

After discussing tactics and intentions, they turned to look at amounts raised. This is in the record for Homecoming II:

Homecoming II reported to the IRS that it paid Ted Sampley, its founder and the publisher of U.S. Veteran News and Report, more than $300,000, ostensibly for t-shirts sold at Homecoming II's stand at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Sampley has fought all efforts by the National Park Service to stop merchandising the t-shirts and other merchandising on national park property, and at publication time was involved in a lawsuit over his right to use the picture of the memorial statue without paying the artist. Another lawsuit, against the National League of Families, also is pending. Despite promises of cooperation, Sampley refused to provide financial records to the Committee for his tax-exempt organization.

Some say it was the questioning of his intentions that angered Sampley. The Boston Globe reported on February 29, 1992 that Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) defended Senator McCain on the floor of the Senate after Sampley had accused McCain of working as an agent for either Hanoi or Moscow. The Washington Times reported that Sampley ran a composite picture of Kerry shooting an MIA with a caption claiming it was Kerry eliminating another man from his discrepancy list. On December 3, 1992 Kerry had Sampley removed from the hearings after he disrupted a speech from someone claiming that some POW-MIA groups were taking advantage of donors.

In an extensive article dated March of 1999 the Phoenix New Times delved into the accusations Sampley and others made against John McCain. The conclusion:

Sampley offers no credible proof of these allegations, other than quotes from unnamed former POWs and suggestions that the Vietnamese still have film of McCain's activities in the prison camps.

On December 12 of 1992 Sampley walked the halls of the Senate distributing his U.S. Veteran News and Report with the Manchurian Candidate article he wrote about John McCain. He went to McCain's office to deliver a copy and was confronted by a McCain staffer. Stories differ, but there was a scuffle and Sampley spent two days in jail and 180 days on probation. He was also ordered to stay away from McCain and his staff. The article mentioned above gives Sampley's version of events.

It's interesting to note that Sampley attacks McCain and accuses him of colluding with the enemy while at the same time serving as an apologist for Bobby Garwood, a man actually court-martialed for colluding with the enemy in Vietnam. Sampley refuses to believe reports of McCain's resolve in the face of torture and months of solitary confinement. One last bit from the Phoenix New Time's piece on the behavior of the more radical POW-MIA activists like Sampley:

Stanley Kutler, professor of law at the University of Wisconsin and editor of The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, calls the behavior of these people "Sick. If it weren't so sick, it would be laughable. These are not nice people.

The Last Firebase Veterans Archive Project

Once again, it is easiest to start the story of The Last Firebase Veterans Archive in the words of Ted Sampley.

On December 10, 1992, Judge Charles R. Richey, entered a judgement of $359,442.92 against Homecoming II Project, Red Hawk Inc. and Ted Sampley.

From a separate Sampley piece we find this:

In 1993 Homecoming II changed its name to the Last Firebase Veterans Archives Project.

Those are Sampley's own words on two different sites that he runs. However, he gave an interview for a book written by Susan Katz Keating. According to Ms. Keating, this is the accounting he gave her when she asked Sampley how he had been able to avoid following the court's order:

"I immediately put Red Hawk out of business," he said. "I sold everything they owned, and paid bills. I closed down Homecoming II. I heard that Scruggs was planning to levy the vigil site, so I gave it away. I put everything into another nonprofit group."

This particular version of the story, if true, lays bare another possible problem for Sampley. It is illegal to hide,liquidate, redistribute, assign, etc. assets in order to avoid satisfying a judgment. I have not investigated the laws on the books back in 1992/1993, so can't say with certainty that he was violating any laws at the time. Sampley tells other versions of the events as well. Here is one that is posted in the archives of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch.

With the judgement in hand, Scruggs quickly moved to foreclose on Homecoming II and me, its non-paid chairman. Homecoming II, which could hardly afford attorney fees, was forced to dissolve. Red Hawk also had no money and had to be liquidated. Both organizations were dissolved before Scruggs attorneys could get to them.

Not to be deterred by such trivialities as bankrupt organizations, the spiteful Scruggs hired lawyers in my hometown, Kinston, North Carolina. They placed judgements on my personal property and the Sheriff set a date to auction off anything that I owned.

On the day set for the auction, a group of my veteran friends showed up on the court house steps to protest the foreclosure.

Scruggs backed down when the press started calling the Memorial Fund asking for an explanation as to why a veterans organization was foreclosing on a decorated Vietnam veteran and his wife, whose father, SFC Robert D. Owen, is still missing in action and listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

Regardless of the version of the story you choose to believe, The Last Firebase Veterans Archive was formed and still exists as a 501c3 charitable organization. According to the date/time stamps on the copies scanned for public view, Sampley has consistently been late filing the required 990 tax forms. In 2006 Sampley filed the 990s for 2003. These papers show an income in public money(contributions) of over $60,000.

Once a charitable organization receives $25,000 in public contributions it is required to become licensed to accept contributions in the state of North Carolina. To date, Sampley has not registered The Last Firebase Veteran's Archive in the state of North Carolina to my knowledge. A search of state records has come up empty. It is impossible to know if subsequent years will yield the same results since Sampley has either failed to file the 990s for 2004 and 2005, or the IRS has failed to make them available for the public.

After searching as many variations of the name as I could think to search, I've not been able to find any record of The Last Firebase Veteran's Archives in the listings of incorporated businesses in the state of North Carolina. A review of the Lenoir County Register of Deeds online records also does not show a listing indicating that Sampley has filed to use it as an assumed name. To my knowledge, the state of North Carolina requires that a business either be incorporated in the state or the assumed business name be registered with the county in which the business is located. If online records are current, it appears that The Last Firebase Veteran's Archive may not be properly registered to do business in the state.

U.S. Veteran Dispatch

I'm not sure of the exact date that Sampley quit printing the paper version of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch, but the publication is now found online. It continues to have very political content and is directly linked to the 501c3, The Last Firebase Veteran's Archive via the web site. This is possibly a violation of the political activity ban placed on 501c3 organizations.

Sampley Enterprises, Inc. (3/10/94 - 5/5/05)

A few months before the formal dissolution of Red Hawk Corporation by the state of North Carolina, Ted Sampley started Sampley Enterprises, Inc. It's incorporation date was 3/10/94 and the address was given as 413 Queen Street in Kinston. I have few details about Sampley Enterprises, but during this time Sampley was receiving rental income from properties and the U.S. Veteran Dispatch was being printed at the same address and may have started it's online presense.

Sampley filed the annual fee and required forms with the state from 1994 through 2000. There were no other annual filings after 2000 according to online information obtained at the NC Secretary of State's web site. The date of administrative dissolution was May 5, 2005.

It is believed that Sampley Enterprises replaced Red Hawk as Sampley's for-profit company so that the printing of the shirts could continue and he could continue earning income by serving as the middleman for his own charitable organization. In one of his biographies Sampley claims that Sampley Enterprises then owned U.S. Veteran Dispatch.

Neuse River Antiques

While Ted Sampley was busy writing articles attacking John McCain and trying to keep his U.S. Veteran Dispatch in the public eye through efforts at the vigl site, he was also working to open a new business in Kinston. There is no denying that Sampley had plenty of practice opening businesses.

Neuse River Antiques opened sometime around 1996. Sampley was in partnership with Jan Barwick, a woman who ultimately operated several businesses with Sampley. The shop was located on Herritage St. It closed Christmas Day 2003 when the city of Kinston foreclosed on Sampley's Herritage Street property after he failed to pay overdue property taxes. Sampley had several properties that were threatened with foreclosure, but it appears that this Herritage St. property was the only one lost to tax collection.

A check of public records finds no record of Neuse River Antiques having been incorporated in the state of North Carolina, nor was it a registered assumed name with Lenoir County.

In 1997 it looked like the National Parks Service would win out and Sampley would no longer be able to sell his tee shirts at The Last Firebase Vigil stand. This prompted a letter from Sampley to then President Clinton. In the letter Sampley not only uses his veteran status, but the MIA status of his 5-yr-old son's grandfather.

I am a decorated Vietnam veteran whose five year old son's grandfather, Robert D. Owen, is still missing in Laos and listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I am Chairman of the nonprofit Last Firebase Veterans Archives Project, a twenty-four hour POW/MIA vigil that has been located adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial since 1986.

In Sampley's version of the lawsuit against Hart and the subsequent judgment, he had also used his veteran status as a badge or shield to imply he should have special treatment. Recall this passage posted above:

Scruggs backed down when the press started calling the Memorial Fund asking for an explanation as to why a veterans organization was foreclosing on a decorated Vietnam veteran and his wife, whose father, SFC Robert D. Owen, is still missing in action and listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

How many times has Ted Sampley used his veteran status or his father-in-law's MIA status to gain favorable treatment or public sympathy? Does Ted Sampley think he is above the law because he is a veteran? At what point do we stop making excuses for a person's mistakes, indiscretions and illegal activities just because he or she is a veteran?

With Sampley's notoriety waning and his lucrative novelty shirt business being threatened by the National Parks Service Sampley must have been on the lookout for something new to catapult him into the public eye. McCain's reference to Sampley as having a nose for publicity was no accident. The presidential election of 2000 and 2004 would bring renewed and increasingly vicious attacks on John McCain and John Kerry.

Tomorrow: Fresh attacks on McCain and Kerry and Sampley's ship comes in.

Gregflynn helped tremendously on the research for this piece and has provided invaluable technical guidance.