Talk:Jorge Otero Barreto

references

This article has some problems with what it uses as references. I've checked some, and it's not unusual for them being incapable of supporting what they are supposed to.

There is also links to fan/enthusiast websites that are not exactly reliable sources.

I believe we can calmly fix this bio. --damiens.rf 17:52, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

• bad ancestry etc refs cleaned up. claim of unreliable/FV for PRDS doesn't check - cites pass WP:V and WP:RS. Mercy11 (talk) 03:55, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

• Do you mean we need to use the "Wayback engine" to get around the problem I noticed? Would you do that, instead of reverting my taggings? Of course you don't have to do this work. I'll read the how-to and do that in a while if you can't take the time. But there isn't a point in just reverting my taggings when you concede there is a problem going on. --damiens.rf 09:59, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

I never said there is a problem, you said that. The issue with ancestry was addressed, there is nothing else pending here. If you fail to verify anything, try use techniques avalable at WP:V. You appear extremely excited over a minor item, am I right? Mercy11 (talk) 17:05, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

OK, so Damiens reverted edits by Mercy11 w/o engaging in an open invitation to discuss his point. Per invitation at HERE, this page is the place to discuss, not edit summaries. The edits and cites in the article have been discussed before by the community and it has found them appropriate. Please check the article's History for details or have an awfully good reason to be flagging them this way. Mercy11 (talk) 01:23, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Description of Military Career

The text currently reads: "After his basic training, he attended the Army's Air Assault School, graduating in 1960. He was the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the U.S. Army Air Assault School." The Air Assault School was first established at Fort Campbell, KY, in 1974, so how is this possible in 1960? The 11th Air Assault Division (Test) wasn't activated until 1963, so the text could not refer to any in-house training conducted by the 11th. It's unlikely that the text's author confused the Air Assault School with the Airborne School because many Puerto Ricans went through the latter before 1960.VilePig (talk)

• Good observation! You made a good point. Tony the Marine (talk) 20:48, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

The text has been changed to read: "He was the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the 101st Airborne Division training." What type of training? Divisions conduct all sorts of training. Could it have been the in-house Airborne course at Fort Campbell that was previously run by the 11th Airborne Division before the 11th was transferred to Germany in the late 1950s, making room for the 101st to be set up on post?VilePig (talk)

The list of badges awarded includes the Air Assault Badge. He retired from the Army in 1970 and the badge was first awarded to graduates of the Air Assault School in 1974, so how is it possible for him to have a badge awarded four years after his retirement?VilePig (talk).

• Before 1974, the badge was known as the Airmobile Badge. This is the same badge which was renamed Air Assault Badge in 1974. Tony the Marine (talk) 22:00, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

• Tony, the badge did not exist prior to 1974. Some history: The 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade was deployed to Vietnam in 1965. In late 1967 the rest of the division was alerted for deployment as well; however, it had been bled so badly to provide personnel for the war effort in Vietnam that it was only a skeleton, and thousands of non-Airborne-qualified personnel from other units in the Third Army area had to be rapidly reassigned to bring it up to an acceptable strength. At that point it effectively ceased being a true Airborne unit. In Vietnam the Army needed a second airmobile division, in addition to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), and in mid-1968 the 101st officially came off jump status and began reorganizing as an airmobile unit. When the division withdrew from Vietnam it was, as one veteran stated, "a headquarters with no hindquarters" and effectively it had to be rebuilt from the ground up as an airmobile division. The 173d Airborne Brigade returned from Vietnam in 1972 and its personnel and equipment were reassigned to become part of the division's 3d Brigade, which was then on jump status. In 1974 the Department of the Army announced that the 3d Brigade's jump status would be terminated, and concurrently the 101st announced the introduction of the Airmobile Badge for graduating from the just-formed Airmobile course. An officer in the division at the time described it as a "gimmick" to replace the jump wings being lost (qualified personnel could still wear them but those soldiers would not be on jump status anymore) and the course largely consisted of what would be unit-level airmobile training tasks. Later that year the Airmobile Badge was renamed the Air Assault Badge. At that point the badge was only authorized for wear within the 101st, as it was a badge only awarded by the 101st (there was quite of bit of that sort of thing all across the Army in the 1970s), but in 1978 the Department of the Army authorized it for wear Army-wide. To sum it up, the badge did not exist prior to 1974, so it is not possible for it to have been known as the Airmobile Badge or anything else prior to that year.VilePig (talk)

The nearest thing to this would have been the unofficial badge the 11th Air Assault Division (Test) awarded prior to being reflagged as the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and alerted for Vietnam service. Since Barreto never seems to have served in the units drawn on to fill the 11th, it's doubtful he would have earned one there. And in any case, this was after 1960. Intothatdarkness 22:01, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

• I've found what seems to be a similar issue with the Superior Unit Award...an award that doesn't seem to have existed prior to 1985. Intothatdarkness 15:59, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Non-RS

This page is poorly referenced with numerous sources of dubious reliability, specifically:

• American Greatness - is this RS? Who publishes it?
• Brave Lords - clearly POV and so not RS
• Remarks of Major General Orlando Llenza - personal opinion of a retired Puerto Rican General, clearly POV and he can't even get the war right, referring to the Korean War and not the Vietnam War
• VVA story refers to him as "the most decorated Puerto Rican veteran" not the most decorated U.S. soldier as claimed on this page
• Affluent Times - is this RS? Who publishes it? I can't even find his entry among pages of advertisements

Affluent Times is published by an outfit called Battery Media Group...it's basically clickbait content structured for specific audiences. Website is https://www.batterymediagroup.com. I don't know that I'd consider it RS, but your mileage may vary. Intothatdarkness 00:00, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

• Silver Wings - what page is it?
• Morning Journal - "Otero-Barreto said he earned five Purple Hearts, five Bronze Stars with valor, three Silver Stars, five Air Medals (each for 25 helicopter missions) and other awards for his service in the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1970." so that's just his own claims and not RS

This paper also lurks behind something of a paywall, making verification difficult. Intothatdarkness 15:41, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

• Latino Alliance Profiles in Courage - lobbying group so not RS

I don't see him mentioned in any national newspapers or peer-reviewed books or journals, just a lot of blogs and fansites that largely seem to have copied WP. This is very strange if he was indeed "one of" or "the most" "decorated soldier of the Vietnam War". Mztourist (talk) 04:32, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

One can only hope that some of those who voted to keep this article will show up to correct its many RS issues. Intothatdarkness 15:12, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

I looked through the "Silver Wings" thing (a base newspaper). Otero is mentioned once on the third page (it's numbered page 3 in the upper right corner), but only in the context of being a multi-tour veteran (and the article makes the erroneous claim that he was part of "a small group of Vietnam veterans that served multiple tours").Intothatdarkness 15:27, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

The closest thing I've seen to a source for the decorations is a very small image on the linked page from the "Brave Lords" movie website. The image doesn't identify the shadow box as being Otero's, although the majority of the decorations listed in the article may be seen (although badly). One note: it does NOT include the airmobile badge. The UT-Austin oral history page repeats the claim he was the first Puerto Rican graduate from a training center that didn't even exist in 1960 (Air Assault Training) and claims he won three silver stars. Unfortunately the audio doesn't seem to be available. Intothatdarkness 20:38, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

Yes its also very strange that there don't seem to be any pictures of him in uniform showing his full medal rack, nor are any of his medal citations available online apart from the Silver Stars. I have to assume that many of the "sources" have actually just copied WP and/or each other. Mztourist (talk) 09:10, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

• OMG, give it a rest already. Tony the Marine (talk) 16:14, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

I would have thought you'd be interested in an accurate article about SFC Otero Barreto. Part of that includes using RS to sort out his service history, since it makes up the majority of the article. Intothatdarkness 16:44, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

So far I have been able to verify both silver stars, one of the bronze stars, and the ARCOM using a site dedicated to the 101st's 2nd Brigade that hosts scanned images of the award citations. Otero earned both SSs with Alpha Company, and the BSV with Echo Company's Recon Platoon. The BSV citation does not mention oak leaf clusters, but that's a common error from this period. I have seen no RS confirming the airmobile badge, and I doubt I will considering it didn't exist until after he left the army. Based on the shadowbox linked by the article's creator (which does not show the badge), I'm considering removing that badge unless RS confirmation is forthcoming. Intothatdarkness 15:16, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

The Air Assault badge has been removed. I'm not crazy about the silver star citations, especially the incomplete one leading off that section. They feel like filler to me. I'm also curious about the air crew badge and the award of air medals. Intothatdarkness 19:50, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

I've looked at a number of pages of people who were awarded the silver star, and the majority of them don't have the citations slapped on in the way this page does (some do, but they appear to be in the minority). Personally I think it detracts from the article, but wanted to seek other input before removing them. The first one in particular (which lacks any information) is in my view especially egregious. If we can't show a proper one, why show it at all? Intothatdarkness 15:17, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Agreed. The 2nd citation can be put into a paragraph. Mztourist (talk) 16:07, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

• I believe the citations to be fine as they are. No one as ever complained about them since the article was created therefore they are not disruptive. Instead they are informative. Tony the Marine (talk) 16:19, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

I'm looking at common practice for articles like this, and adding the citations as block doesn't seem to be common practice. Also, frankly, that first citation doesn't even look real. I know that's how it's shown in the cited source, but it's not complete. It doesn't even have a date for the award. Intothatdarkness 17:24, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

I fully understand your reasoning. The citations could be included as a paragraph instead of being in a block/quote. Tony the Marine (talk) 19:47, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm not looking to remove things that can be verified, but bring them more into line with what seems to be standard practice. I've seen some that don't even bother to go into the circumstances of the award when I'm sure the information is out there (and know of at least one case where it is...a project for another day). Intothatdarkness 19:59, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

The first SS citation in the article is simply a general summary used as a placeholder by the Hall of Valor website. It is not the actual citation. This is clarified right on their page by the addition of the phrase "citation needed". Roam41 (talk) 23:14, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

That doesn't make it look any better as the leading citation, does it? And in keeping with a number of other articles like this, it flows better as summaries. Converting it doesn't detract from the article. Intothatdarkness 23:52, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

Wording

I'm trying to find ways to rework the article discussion about Ortero Barreto's status as 'the most decorated veteran.' There's no question he was highly decorated, but in addition to the cited MoH winners I can think of a number of others who had at least as many decorations (and that's not even including pilots from the Vietnam War era). I suspect the claim of his being the most decorated Puerto Rican veteran of the conflict may be supportable through RS (and saying he's the most decorated living Puerto Rican veteran from the Vietnam War even more so), but wider statements are frankly much harder to support. I may tackle this after I rework the SS section. The objective, as always, isn't to diminish but to make the article as accurate as possible. Intothatdarkness 15:04, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

Prior Units

So far I've had no success tracking down any RS information about his time with the 25th ID, 173rd Abn, or the 82nd. This makes things difficult, because his Vietnam campaign stars seem to line up only with his service with the 101st (which I can slightly track using the SS and BSV citations...although I can only confirm 1 BSV that way). Some non-RS claim he has three silver stars, but I've only been able to confirm two. Does anyone have any good RS concerning the early advisory period, especially the helicopter crews detached from the 25th ID? Intothatdarkness 23:16, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

I think I've done about as much as I can with this. The most decorated veteran claim isn't sustainable unless it's qualified with Puerto Rican (David Hackworth, for example, earned 2 DSCs and 7 SSs in Vietnam, and Hugh Mills earned 3 SS and 6 DFCs), but I don't want to tussle too much more with that language. I think what's there is enough to show the nature of the claim. I'm just not finding enough outside of his time with the 101st ABN to really amplify his service history through RS. Intothatdarkness 02:55, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

Most Decorated

There's a problem with this whole gushing over the "most decorated Soldier" jazz. There is no central office in the Pentagon that keeps track of who has more decorations for a particular occasion and it's not like there's a point system where some number of Bronze Stars equals or surpasses a Medal of Honor. Compare the "Puerto Rican Rambo's" fruit salad with the medals awarded Colonel Robert L. Howard for Vietnam: the Medal of Honor, 8 Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and 4 Bronze Stars. How do you say that someone with 2 Silver Stars,5 Bronze Stars, 4 Army Commendation Medals and 5 Purple Hearts is "the most decorated" in a a Universe where COL Howard existed?John Simpson54 (talk) 20:20, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

This has already been dealt with in the article. He's listed as possibly the most decorated living Puerto Rican veteran. And if you look past Howard there's also David Hackworth and a whole slew of aviators (Hugh Mills for one). Intothatdarkness 20:25, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

What hasn't been addressed is when I follow the "reference" to what's currently #6 all I see is a newsletter page stating Otero is the most decorated Puerto Rican soldier without any verification. As I stated, the Department of the Army didn't do a comprehensive statistical breakdown of every Puerto Rican who earned an award for valor in Vietnam. And THAT hasn't been dealt with in the article. I refer to the whole thing as "gushing" because there is no authoritative source backing this claim and saying it's "possible" is a cop out. This whole conceit is based on the assumption that there were no Puerto Rican soldiers that won at least the Distinguished Service Cross. I'll do you one better. It so happens that Wikipedia has a page for Puerto Rican winners of the DSC and Puerto Rican recipients of the Medal of Honor rendering this whole thing moot. Yes, I'm familiar with Robert L. Howard and Hackworth was wrong to self-identify as "America's most decorated living soldier" in interviews and books. I don't agree that it's been "dealt with". I ask again, on what authoritative basis do you say that it's "possible" he's the most decorated so on and so on. It's like Miracle on 34th Street. The prosecution says Kris Kringle isn't the real Santa Claus, the Defense says that he is. You can go back and forth all day with people offering their opinions, but without official, authoritative confirmation it's just useless speculation. Go see how many of those recipients of the MOH and DSC received them posthumously. I think it's in bad taste to perpetuate this made up title as "winner" of a contest that doesn't even exist.John Simpson54 (talk) 04:21, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

John Simpson54, I completely agree with you. Intothat and I have numerous issues with this page, including the low quality sources and the many tenuous claims. I AfDed it: [1], but it was kept despite those concerns. Mztourist (talk) 07:54, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

John Simpson54, you'll notice the phrasing Mztourist and I are using centers on "possibly" and "living". Both Mztourist and I voted to delete the article, and once it was kept I started working on it because no one who voted to keep it seemed even remotely interested in the sourcing problems and verifiability issues. I believe Mztourist worked out the phrasing involving the most decorated stuff and added the section on Howard prior to the AfD. You seem to be a strong Howard supporter, but Hackworth also had a strong showing in Vietnam and there were many others who were also highly decorated (when I was verifying Botero's DSCs I found a number of other people in his brigade alone who had at least two DSCs as well...and the majority were not awarded posthumously and verified by posted copies of the citations). Neither of us created the article...we're just trying to make it as accurate as possible given the poor sources that exist. Intothatdarkness 15:16, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

I'm not a Howard supporter for any made up title of "most decorated" I merely refer to him as a point of comparison. I can't express it any better than saying there isn't any official "most decorated" outside of an occasional press release much less categorizing into different Communities or identities (like Most Decorated Left Handed Asian Soldier of the Grenada Invasion or some such nonsense). As I tried to point out, with the existence of a list of Puerto Rican Soldiers who were awarded the Medal of Honor, no amount of Silver and Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts "surpasses" a MOH, that's why the whole concept is in poor taste. I haven't been making myself clear. I'm not saying that either Hackworth OR Howard were "the most decorated". I'm saying the title doesn't exist. The only way to make a comparison is apples to apples on awards. So for instance, Over a 20-year acreer Hackworth was awarded 8 Purple Hearts. The Department of the Army thinks that he's tied in awards FOR THAT MEDAL with Major General Robert Frederick who earned his all in WW2 with the last couple as a General Officer. Hackworth's first Purple Heart was awarded in the Korean war and his last in Vietnam. Those are comparisons that can be made. John Simpson54 (talk) 18:56, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Recent Edits

@Mercy11 the "most decorated" claim also lacks RS when it comes to this individual. If you'd looked at the talk, you'd have seen this came up some time back and was resolved (not perfectly, but in a way that provided balance to an unsubstantiated and frankly inaccurate claim). If you're going to remove stuff and leave the "most decorated" claim intact, you'd better come up with some actual RS to support it. @Mztourist might have some insight into this as well, as they were the one who hammered out the original language and participated in quite a bit of the work on this article. Intothatdarkness 20:45, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

A couple of things:

(1) We don't build consensus by canvassing other members of your favorite wikibuddies as you did above with Mztourist. That by itself elevates this to the WP:ANI.

(2) We don't validate wrong statements by questioning the validity of other stuff. This is what you are doing with "the "most decorated" claim also lacks RS when it comes to this individual".

Mercy11 (talk) 21:26, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

You're disregarding the discussion above. And threatening people with ANI is a clear violation of AGF. The best solution here would be to remove all claims of "most decorated" status entirely, both for this individual and anyone else. We also don't simply remove sourced content we don't like because it happens to dispute an element of the article. I'm attempting to discuss those changes...you're pontificating and making threats. Intothatdarkness 23:23, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

If you consider ANI a threat, feel free to report me, but perhaps you might want to go there without having canvassed for help as you did above with Mztourist as that would violate AGF and more, right? Your notion that one fictitious wrong justifies your injecting your false claims isn't valid either, is it? You are violating WP:V by insisting on text that doesn't support the words you injected there, like "some", "many", and "various", all comparative WP:OR terms, not found in those sources.

You keep linking "the most decorated soldier of the war" with my edit but my edit says nothing about your "most decorated soldier of the war"; it says, "This article is about Otero Barreto, not about those other soldiers.".

To you and your wikibuddy, do not revert again without following policy and first providing verifiable sources that are first agreed upon here. I will not issue any additional warnings. Mercy11 (talk) 20:25, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

User:Mercy11 this page is on my watchlist given the unverified claims regarding him, so I would have come here no matter what. I have reverted your changes to the last good version, because this issue has been debated already and that good version reflects the consensus. Mztourist (talk) 05:55, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Excuse me, what "unverified claims" would those be when you are the one restoring unverified text here that includes the cites "some, many, and various" that isn't supported by your sources? You are violating WP:V.

The burden "to demonstrate verifiability lies on the editor who restores content", and that would be you, who restored content here with a shallow claim to "the last good version". If it's such a "good version", prove it with sources that say "some", "many", and "various". There's nothing to show "this issue has been debated already". Nothing. Prove it with sources.

To you and your wikibuddy, do not revert again without following policy and first providing verifiable sources that are first agreed upon here. I will not issue any additional warnings. Mercy11 (talk) 20:25, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

I don't see that you're in any position to threaten anyone or demand anything. If you would bother to scroll up on this very talk page you would see this was discussed. If anything, the entire "most decorated" section should be removed entirely, as it can easily be disproved with sources. If you choose to ignore the consensus as demonstrated in the discussions on this very page, you're the one who's violating policy. You don't have any "right of approval" on sources, especially since the information you're so keen to retain (the "most decorated" stuff) is at best questionable and certainly not supported by RS. Intothatdarkness 21:19, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Do not attack me personally and instead concentrate on finding the sources to verify your claims to this Biography of a Living Person. You seem to be hung up on "most decorated" stuff, which no one but you brought up. Finding your sources is how you address your intentions to restoring the material. It's that simple. Mercy11 (talk) 23:01, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

You have been attacking people personally since you starting posting here. You also refuse to address why you feel entitled to ignore an established consensus in an article. That burden lies on you. The sources and content you removed were verified...the things you ignore are not RS-based. As a reminder, we don't build consensus by threatening or bullying behavior. Intothatdarkness 23:21, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Intodarkness, Community Consensus trumps over any local consensus you may have agreed to. The WP Community has established WP:V as a policy, but you are, in effect, saying that WP:V doesn't apply in this case. Here are 3 examples when your reverted edits imply just that, and show a failure to follow the WP:V Community Consensus:

(1) You are using "some" but "some" is not found in your source: Where is the comparative word "some" ever mentioned in your edit which I reverted here to the term "various"?

(2) You are using "many" but "many" is not found in your source: Where is the comparative word "many" ever found in your edit which I eliminated altogether from your text here because it is non-existent in your source?

(3) You are using "various" but "various" is not found in the source: Where is the comparative word "various" found in your edit which I reverted here in favor of the simple work "other" which implies no comparison?

When you make comparisons like those, without sources, you are injecting your own opinion and, thus, engaging in WP:OR. Those relative terms add elements of greatness or inferiority to this WP:BLP when none of the sources compare the two individuals or even contain both names (JOB and RLH). This is the 3rd time I repeat the same 3 entries, but have yet to see your reply. Mercy11 (talk) 03:35, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

User:Mercy11, as you will see under the section Non-RS above, Intothat already showed in February 2021 that the sources of the "most decorated soldier" claim, American Greatness and Brave Lords were not Reliable Sources. You are the one breaching policy by adding back this dubious claim based on non-RS and then edit-warring over it to push your very obvious POV. I have made an edit-warring compliant against you at ANI, here: Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring#User:Mercy11 reported by User:Mztourist. Mztourist (talk) 03:16, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

• @Mztourist, Mercy11, and Intothatdarkness: please stop trading insults and threats with each other and edit warring, and focus on the evidence and merits of the various arguments. I have protected the page for 2 days to enable discussion without further warring. The evidence raised in the 2021 discussion can inform the discussion now, but is not an excuse to simply revert on sight. The merits of the issue should be discussed.  — Amakuru (talk) 15:10, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Amakuru rather than allocating blame equally, please read the Talk Page and you will see that there is only one party making threats and insults, the same party who changed the stable page by adding a non-reliably sourced claim. Mztourist (talk) 03:08, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

• My proposed solution would be to remove all mention of "most decorated soldier" status. It's based on non-RS sources, is easily disproven, and was the root of the original discussion and consensus language as far as I can tell. Take that out, and the article becomes stable. I don't see any merit in retaining claims in an article that are both false and non-RS based. It was removal of RS-based material disputing this claim (which was added following a discussion of source above) that sparked the current dispute in the first place. Intothatdarkness 16:28, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

I completely agree with Intothat. Mztourist (talk) 03:03, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Intodarkness, your proposed solution is unacceptable because it is contrary to these WP policies:

(1) WP:WEIGHT: You want to keep your material which I removed here. It was removed because that material has nothing to do with the subject of this article: Jorge Otero and Robert L. Howard, it appears never met each other or talked about each other. In short, other than to attempt to discredit JOB, the statements there about RLH are totally irrelevant.

(2) WP:MOS: You want to include material about Mr. Robert L. Howard in the body of JOB's article, when you should follow the channel WP has provided for that and use the "See also" section.

(3) WP:NPOV: There are sources showing that both of these soldiers are called "most decorated", yet by making your "However,..." entry only in JOB's article, and not also at RLH's you are showing preferential editorial bias towards one of the two soldiers. To rectify this, equivalent "However,..." entries should either be added to both articles or removed from both articles.

(4) WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS: You are hung up on your claim that the cites calling Mr. JOB are not RS, yet you fail to state what cites you are referring to. Diffs is the preferred way show that.

(5) WP:V: Your "take ["the most decorated"] out and the article becomes stable", is a slap on the face to the WP Community in that you are seeking to sweep under the rug the WP:V pillar with your intended inclusion of the 3 false statements that use the terms "some", "many", and "various", terms not found in your cites and for which you continue to fail to provide valid cites.

I suggest you reconsider and come up with a proposal that is consistent with all policies and includes The Whole Package, not just your preferred "most decorated" section. Mercy11 (talk) 03:35, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Mercy11 you continue to ignore the fact that the sources provided for the "most decorated soldier" claim (Brave Lords and American Greatness) are not WP:RS. Unless you can provide reliable sources then that claim cannot be included. All the information about Howard was included to counter that dubious, non-RS claim. Take out that dubious claim and there's no need for the information about Howard, that's what Intothat is proposing. Mztourist (talk) 08:06, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Exactly this. I would propose removing ALL discussion of decorations (both Howard's AND Barreto's). Given the past problems with this article (including listing awards that didn't exist during the time Barreto served and other claims about training), eliminating that language feels like the best way forward. Intothatdarkness 12:28, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

• Question - @Mztourist, Mercy11, and Intothatdarkness: in the interests of moving this debate forward, is there a consensus in reliable sources as to who the "most decorated" soldier from the Vietnam war was? From a brief look around the web, it seems sources are very split on this, and there are viable claims in sources for Barreto, but also for Joe Hooper (Medal of Honor) and Robert L. Howard. Unless it can be demonstrated that there is a clear RS consensus on this, such that the other claimants are a WP:FRINGE point of view, then giving full weight to any of the individual claims is dubious, and they should all be treated in the same way. Intothat's suggestion of removing all such claims from all three articles is one such solution, and I think maybe Intothat and Mercy11 are agreed on changing all articles to remove such claims as a possible way forward? Alternatively, the wording used in Joe Hooper (Medal of Honor) saying he was "one of the most decorated U.S. soldiers of the war" seems quite noncommittal too and could be used in all three to avoid naming a definitive winner in Wikipedia's voice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amakuru (talk • contribs) 08:50, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

The problem with Barreto is that all of those claims are not based on RS as was discussed above. There were at least three people in his own brigade in the 101st Airborne who had three silver stars (Barreto had two), and in terms of total decorations I can think of at least one person (Hugh Mills) who had more Air Medals (66...more than that if you include Air Medals with the V device) than Barreto had total decorations. The claim simply isn't sustainable. As was mentioned previously, it's possible he's the most decorated Puerto Rican veteran still living, but that's it. As for Brave Lords, I can't find any evidence the documentary was ever even released. It certainly isn't for sale anywhere, and the only source about it is the production's website itself. And it's the main source for many of the claims seen in this article. I will note yet again that sourcing was discussed at length on this very page. To be clear, I don't care for "most decorated" claims anywhere, as they are difficult to prove and tend to ignore the many factors that go into awarding decorations. Intothatdarkness 12:22, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

The U.S Defense Department doesn't issue "most decorated" proclamations or awards to soldiers. Any such titles are being arrived at either by a Wikipedian counting stars/medals or by cherry-picking sources. What has been happening is that, at Robert L. Howard as well as at Jorge Otero Barreto, editors are trying to prove that one or the other (or both in their own ways) is the most decorated soldier. But WP:OR is very clear, "Do not combine material from multiple sources to reach or imply a conclusion not explicitly stated by any source" and the inclusion by both, Intodarkness and Mztourist, of the "However,..." clause --which I removed and at the center of this content dispute-- is a textbook example of why the WP:OR policy was written. TBC, no one is saying that RSs aren't important; of course they are! But we must first attack the greater of the evils in the article: the WP:SYNTH violations. That is, before we can review at any alleged RS violations (which may or may not have been done unintentionally), we must first eliminate the WP:OR violation which rarely are done unintentionally. The WP:OR violation in this WP:BLP demeans this Living Soldier at the expense of glamorizing a Dead Soldier, Mr. Robert L. Howard. Intodarkness has taken a fair step forward when he says "I don't care for "most decorated" claims anywhere, as they are difficult to prove". I think we can take an equally valid first step if we remove that comparative "However,..." clause before we start looking at the other invalid RSs. Mercy11 (talk) 23:48, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

The greater evil in this article, as you put it, is the use of poor and improper sourcing to substantiate an invalid claim. Simply removing the entire "most decorated soldier" stuff (to include the comparative sentences after the claim) eliminates both problems (the improperly sourced claim regarding Barreto and the passage about Howard that Mercy11 seems to find so intolerable). And for the record I find the line above regarding demeaning one soldier and glamorizing another quite offensive and recommend it be struck. It implies that is the intent, and is a stunning example of failing to AGF. Intothatdarkness 00:40, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Are you saying every mention of "most decorated soldier" is an invalid claim? Are you saying that even if there was a source stating he is "the most decorated soldier from Vega Baja" that, too, would be an invalid claim?Mercy11 (talk) 01:20, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

If it was an RS, I don't have an issue with that. Please stop being pedantic. The issue with the claim of "most decorated soldier' in this article has been discussed multiple times. Please familiarize yourself with the "Non-RS" discussion above. He was clearly not, and never has been, "the most decorated U.S. soldier of the Vietnam War" as claimed in the article lede. In fact, one of the non-RS items quoted to substantiate that claim mistakenly identifies him as having served in the Korean War. Intothatdarkness 01:37, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

This article falls under WP:BLP, and we don't treat BLP artcile carelessly. If you did, that would put you in violation of the WP:BLP. The burden of proof is on the editor who wants to add information. The entry in question was:

However NBC News said that Robert L. Howard may have been the most highly decorated American soldier of the modern era, while KWTX-TV states that Howard was "said to be the most decorated service member in the history of the United States". John Plaster in his 1998 book SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam states that Howard "remains to this day the most highly decorated American soldier."

References

That entry says nothing about Mr. Otero Barreto and instead talks about Robert L. Howard. I see no other use of those unrelated statements than to diminish the notability of Mr. Jorge Otero Barreto. But if you are willing, as Mztourist states below, to remove that entire "However" entry above in exchange for the removal of all "most decorated-anything" (e.g., soldier of Vietnam, Puerto Rican soldier, soldier of all times, etc, etc.) that cannot be attributed to reliable sources, and the 3 erroneous "some"-"many"-"various" qualifiers addressed earlier, then I think we could make headway. Mercy11 (talk) 23:36, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

User:Mercy11 Intothat and I have made it very clear that all references to Howard can be removed from this page if the non reliably sourced claims that Barreto was the "most decorated soldier" of the Vietnam War are removed. What exactly is your problem with that? You stated yourself that "The U.S Defense Department doesn't issue "most decorated" proclamations or awards to soldiers. Any such titles are being arrived at either by a Wikipedian counting stars/medals or by cherry-picking sources." So why are you still resisting this? Mztourist (talk) 03:03, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Above, there have been objections to 2 sources (Brave Lords and American Greatness), but there have also been statements such as "Take ['the most decorated soldier'] out, and the article becomes stable." So exactly what are both of you (Intodarkness and yourself) objecting to, is it those 2 sources or is it the phrase? is it only the 2 source? or is it only every mention of "the most decorated"? or is it both, the sources and "the most decorated" phrase?, or are both of you saying they (the sources and the phrase) are both one and the same because (I am asking, not stating) those 2 sources are the only sources that call Otero Barreto "the most decorated"? Mercy11 (talk) 23:36, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

I'm at a loss to understand why this seems to be so difficult. Once again, review the discussion above. I'm not convinced you've done so based on your responses here. No RS names Barreto as "the most decorated U.S. soldier of the Vietnam War." That particular phrase is used in the two sources we've objected to, as well as others (most of which are non-RS) that were originally misquoted or misrepresented, rather like the original claims that he received the Air Assault badge (which didn't even exist at the time he was in the Army) or that he was the first Puerto Rican to complete airborne training (which completely ignores World War II and wasn't even mentioned in the source it was attributed to).

If the unsupported claims about Barreto being "the most decorated U.S. soldier of the Vietnam War" are removed, there is NO NEED to mention Howard or anyone else. Simply sticking to RS and listing his decorations (sadly many of them can't be verified, but that's a different discussion) is in my view enough for the article. If you wanted to add to it, some RS discussion about his work with the VA after the war would be a welcome addition and would likely contribute quite a bit to his notability. I did search for some in the immediate aftermath of the article's AfD appearance, but wasn't able to come up with much as I suspect quite a bit of it is offline. Intothatdarkness 01:14, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

At this juncture, this discussion isn't about notability, but about the RS that so much bother you. There was NEVER any need to mention Howard in this article; the article is about JOB not about RLH. If you were looking to balance the views in the article, that's not how we do it a WP.

IAE, even if the American Greatness and Brave Lords cites were removed, there are still remaining other supporting cites there right now for the "most decorated" claims. Like WP:RS says, not every sources for every fact is going to be found in peer-reviewed journals (And yes, as an FYI, I have read the Talk for 2 years ago, but 2021 was 2021; we are now in 2023.) Most importantly, nowhere does this article say that he "is the most decorated soldier", but instead that "he has been called the most decorated soldier". Please become familiar with opinions as a reliable source. This article, for example, doesn't say "[he] was the most highly decorated soldier of the Vietnam [War]", like the claims at Robert L. Howard currently read, which are stating opinions as fact.

Mercy11 (talk) 04:15, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Mercy11 once again, Intothat and I have made it very clear that all references to Howard can be removed from this page if the non reliably sourced claims that Barreto was the "most decorated soldier" of the Vietnam War are removed. As you claim at 23:36 above to not understand our objections, I will spell them out for you. In the lede the words "and has been called the most decorated U.S. soldier of the Vietnam War" must be deleted and in the Vietnam War section the words "and media and other organizations have called him "the most decorated soldier in the Vietnam War." must be deleted,because those claims are not reliably sourced. Mztourist (talk) 03:51, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Perhaps the real problem is its missing one word, "among". "among the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War", no? Mercy11 (talk) 04:15, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

No reliable source supports that claim for Barreto. Mztourist (talk) 05:00, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Or we could simply say "he has been incorrectly called the most decorated solider in the Vietnam War". The passage of two years doesn't change that. All it has done is allowed incorrect information in this article to be propagated further. Intothatdarkness 12:07, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

That isn't supported by sources as far as I can tell. Some sources name Barreto as the most decorated, while others name Joe Hooper and Robert L. Howard. There's no "correct answer" to this question as it seems like it depends on how you define "most decorated". For balance, it seems like your original suggestion of removing all such claims from all three articles, or else qualifying all three as "among the most decorated" looks like a way out of this impasse.  — Amakuru (talk) 12:14, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

@Intothatdarkness:, where is your RS for that statement? If you don't have one, then those would be useless unsupported allegations, wouldn't you agree? Mercy11 (talk) 23:46, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

@Amakuru:, this "most decorated", it seems, are accolades orgs (media & non-media orgs) use to describe soldiers who have received numerous decorations. Thus, (1) There are several "most decorated soldier[s]" of the Vietnam War, (2) Those accolades are statements of opinion, and statements of opinion --like statements of fact-- are both admissible in WP; they just have to have RSs.

That said, I don't see an impasse here at all, but see different sources stating opinions in their own unique way. This happens all the time, especially in politics and religion, but we don't resort to scrapping everything in those cases, no, we simply include everyone's opinions on politics and religion, as long as they have RSs.

Yahoo! News wrote that Jorge Otero is "among the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War". So, Intothatdarkness's claim that "No reliable source supports the claim ["he is among the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War"] for Barreto" is incorrect, am I wrong? Mercy11 (talk) 23:46, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Except that Barreto isn't among the most decorated, no matter how you define it. That isn't some sort of denigration of his service (to forestall such claims), but a simple statement of fact. I would certainly support removing "most decorated" claims from this and other articles, as I've mentioned many times. Intothatdarkness 12:31, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

@Intothatdarkness: Yahoo! News wrote Jorge Otero is "among the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War". Your allegation is invalid, isn't it? Mercy11 (talk) 23:46, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

No...not if they sourced their information from the erroneous information contained in this article. You are wrong to assume every internet mention of something is accurate. That article is drawn mostly from an earlier version of this article as well as the silver star citations hosted on Hall of Valor. Please stay focused. Intothatdarkness 00:24, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

@Intodarkness, Do you have an RS to prove your claim that Yahoo! News took their information from this WP article? That isn't supported by sources as far as I can tell. That would make it a conspiracy theory. Mercy11 (talk) 01:26, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Intothat is right, no RS support that claim for Barreto. I would differ on Howard though as several reliable sources do refer to him as the most decorated soldier, the difference is that each of the parties making that claim/assertion are identified by name, unlike here where the "media and other organizations" is used as cover for non reliable sources. I don't believe that we can agree changes to Robert L. Howard or any other page here as other Users are not properly notified. However that should not stop deletion of the non RS claims on this page now. Mztourist (talk) 16:53, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

@Mztourist:, Agreement has already been reached here regarding removal of the only entry in this article that mentioned Howard. Consequentially, this discussion is no longer about him, but about JOB. This discussion is now about statements that use the phrase "the most decorated [anything]". Please stay focus. Mercy11 (talk) 23:46, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

There's also a fairly detailed discussion about this on Hooper's talk page (even though it's oldish) seeking consensus on the "most decorated" question between Hooper and Howard. Of note, Barreto was mentioned and almost immediately discounted based on issues with sources and simple decoration counts. It's also interesting to note that Mercy11 was involved in a similar pattern of reversions in 2012 regarding the whole "most decorated" thing based on linked diffs on the Hooper talk page. Intothatdarkness 19:06, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

@Intothatdarkness:, At this juncture, this discussion is about the use of the phrase "the most decorated [anything]", such as "[among] the most decorated [soldiers of the Vietnam War]"; nothing else. Am I wrong? Please stay focused. Thank you. Mercy11 (talk) 23:46, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

You do not get to unilaterally define the terms or parameters of this discussion. Consensus in another article that invalidates the claims made in this article are germane, as is conduct in past discussions about this very issue. It might also be noted that the version of this article you were defending in 2012 contained erroneous attributions of at least three awards and decorations (an additional silver star and two items that didn't even exist when Barreto was in the army).

The way forward is to remove all mention of "most decorated," to include the variation "among the most decorated." Both statements are demonstrably false when applied to the entire Vietnam War. Intothatdarkness 00:29, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

I suggest you take a 2nd look at WP:CONLEVEL. It says "Consensus among a limited group of editors, at one place and time, cannot override community consensus on a wider scale." That means that the 3-person so-called consensus of yesteryears where you were a participant does not trump over policies with community-wide consensus like WP:RS. In simpler terms it means that "If an RS, like Yahoo! News, writes XYZ, you cannot claim XYZ it invalid unless you can find another RS that disproves Yahoo! News's XYZ statement, because WP:RS has community-wide consensus but the yesteryear "consensus" you stroke with 2 other editors does not." Mercy11 (talk) 01:26, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Mercy11 I was answering the comments by Amakuru and Intothat regarding amending the Howard article. Why don't you stay focussed - do you agree to delete "and has been called the most decorated U.S. soldier of the Vietnam War" in the lede "and media and other organizations have called him "the most decorated soldier in the Vietnam War." in the Vietnam war section or not? Mztourist (talk) 03:00, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Also Mercy11 stop inserting comments earlier into the chain as it just creates confusion. Mztourist (talk) 03:08, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Why would I, or anyone in the Community, want to remove Verifiable material backed up by Reliable Sources that passes every WP Policy when this is how we write a compendium of knowledge?

The consensus you and Intodarkness had been relentlessly hailing here is invalid according to WP:CONLEVEL because your small group of editors of yesteryears acting in isolation from the rest of the Community and seeking to override (albeit not maliciously) Community-wide consensus on WP:RS is against WP policy. Consequentially, it also becomes meaningless to this discussion.

• Yahoo! News wrote that Jorge Otero is "among the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War". Now the WP:BURDEN is on you to come up with RSs that refute Yahoo! News's statement. Mercy11 (talk) 02:37, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

It was not Yahoo! News that said that...the article originated with Military Times. It also repeats the incorrect claim that Barreto earned three silver stars (which is incorrect information originally contained in this article). He only earned two, as verified through Hall of Honor and the original citations themselves. That alone indicates a failure in fact-checking, and the article also isn't sourced in any way so it's not possible to verify its statements.

And as you've already admitted, Mercy11, they're no official list of "most decorated" soldiers, so any claims along those lines could be classed as POV (no matter who they're applied to). I suggest you also be more transparent about why you're so desperate to retain this unsupported claim for THIS particular article and not others (behavior that seems to go back years...borderline OWN perhaps). Or actually produce some real RS (preferably something scholarly that's been subjected to editorial review) to back up this claim. It's already been demonstrated the claim originated in non-RS materials. Since you were the one removing information to make the article conform to your particular POV, the burden is on you to locate actual RS to support that removal. Until you can do so, I see no point in continuing this discussion. And RS does not mean repeating click-bait claims about his "most decorated" status. Intothatdarkness 14:53, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

Intodarkness, you are a long-time editor at WP, so I would expect you to know that our job is NOT to report according to what's "official" but according to what has been written in RSs. So, please, let's not shift the focus of this discussion from your opening objection way at the beginning that "the 'most decorated' claim also lacks RS when it comes to this individual.". Yahoo! News is a RS so it's reporting here is fair game. If you disagree, please take it here.

Now, there are sources for "among the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War" but as far as I can tell so far there may not be for the higher mark of "the most decorated soldier of the Vietnam War". So, simple again, we simply report he is "among the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War". (One exception appears to be "the most decorated Puerto Rican soldier/veteran of the Vietnam War".)

IAE, here is a 2nd Reliable Source for your review. It's in Spanish and you might want to use something like Google Translate to Verify the cite:

• Noticel calls him "one of the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War.".

Mercy11 (talk) 01:22, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Mercy11 list all the supposedly reliable sources that describe him as "the most decorated" or "one of the most decorated" and we will do a source review. You are apparently determined to keep these claims on the page (just as you were back in 2012 with "your small group of editors of yesteryears acting in isolation from the rest of the Community"), so you need to justify why with reliable sources rather than wikilawyering endlessly. Mztourist (talk) 06:12, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

You already know about the first two; so following those are 3 more:

• Yahoo! News wrote that Jorge Otero is "among the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War".
• Noticel calls him "one of the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War.".
• El Mundo. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1989.05.29. p.4. "Un heroe sin haber querido." Obed Betancourt. ""He is considered the most decorated soldier of the Vietnam War in all of the United States"
• Home News Tribune. Somerville, NJ. 10 Nov 1996. p.2. "Heroes get honors: Perth Amboy pays homage to Puerto Rican veterans." Sean P. Carr. "Jorge Otero Barreto...was awarded an unmatched 38 citations."
• Hartford Courant. Hartford, CT. 28 Mar 1996. p.A16. "Puerto Rican March to Strive for Equality." Mike Swift. "Jorge Otero Barreto...decorated 38 times"
  
  

BTW, the following sources explain the discrepancy that Intodarkness has been talking about all along: the reports that Jorge Otero Barreto received 3 silver stars when his (Intodarkness's) sources showed only 2:

• El Mundo. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1989.05.29. p.4."Un heroe sin haber querido serlo." Obed Betancourt. "He received three silver stars, one of them from the Republic of South Vietnam."
• El Mundo. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1969.05.17. p.23-A. "Heroe de Guerra en Vietnam." Roberto Betancourt. "He received...one silver star from Vietnam, which is the 2nd highest military decoration awarded by the Military of South Vietnam to its soldiers and its allies..."

Mercy11 (talk) 02:15, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

Even according to our Orders, decorations, and medals of South Vietnam article, there is no such thing as a South Vietnamese silver star. So we have another incorrect award (or misrepresented if we assume they're talking about the Gallantry Cross (South Vietnam), which was given to anyone who served in South Vietnam and isn't tied to any act of valor or bravery). I'm also not seeing any serious RS in there (scholarly works, peer-reviewed articles). Local papers aren't subject to the same level of verification or fact-checking. And the YahooNews story was discussed above. It's recycling a piece that appeared in the Military Times site, and also doesn't appear to have been subjected to much, if any, editorial oversight (the identification of his unit based on a local name for the division used on one of the silver star citations is evidence of this). Intothatdarkness 12:42, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

Sorry but your rebuttal has no merit as you are using a Wikipedia article to prove your claim, but Wikipedia is not a Reliable Source, as stated in this WP policy: "Wikipedia articles in themselves are not reliable sources for any purpose.". Also, please find a WP policy that supports your claim that "local" papers cannot be used as RSs because "local papers aren't subject to the same level of verification or fact-checking." Please make your case HERE.

Mercy11 (talk) 03:53, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

Sorry, but your source claiming he has a South Vietnamese silver star has no merit because no such award existed. Please produce at least one RS aside from El Mundo (scholarly would be preferred) showing such a decoration existed, and that Barreto was awarded one. Since you want to introduce it, the burden to prove it exists and that the award was made lies on you. Intothatdarkness 13:01, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

Source assessment table

Source assessment table: prepared by User:Mztourist
Source	Independent?	Reliable?	Significant coverage?	Count source toward GNG?
www.bravelords.com	Unreleased documentary film by Puerto Rican Marine veteran, given what is written on the website there appears to be strong POV-pushing and bias	? Unknown, film not available. Not produced by a major filmmaker or studio so research and fact-checking presumably questionable	? Unknown, film not available	✘ No
American greatness "Sergeant First Class Jorge Otero Barreto"	? Given the name "American greatness" its unlikely to be independent and unbiased	? Unknown, article not available	? Unknown, article not available	? Unknown
http://www.latinoalliance.net/profiles-in-courage.html	Latino Alliance describes itself as “Promoting & Recognizing Latino Achievement, Leadership, & Success!” so POV.	It is unclear who wrote the paragraph about Barreto, but it is notable that one of the other stories on the page “Two Unsung Latino Heroes of 9/11 (The Kamikaze Mission)” was written by Tony "The Marine" Santiago, the User who created the Barreto WP page	5 sentences that just seem to be a summary of the WP page	✘ No
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2023/03/29/the-puerto-rican-rambo-who-went-on-200-combat-missions-in-vietnam/ copied onto https://news.yahoo.com/puerto-rican-rambo-went-200-204315521.html		contains various mistakes regarding his awards, accordingly it is not reliable		✘ No
https://www.noticel.com/la-calle/top-stories/20230408/conoce-al-rambo-boricua-que-sigue-luchando/	? Noticel is described here on WP as an online newspaper that covers news related to Puerto Rico, is it really independent on this subject?	? minimal detail that just seems to have been copied from WP or the Yahoo News story	The source discusses the subject directly but not in detail	✘ No
El Mundo (Puerto Rico) 1989.05.29. p.4. "Un heroe sin haber querido." Obed Betancourt.	? Puerto Rican newspaper which closed down in 1986, reopened in 1988 and closed down a few years later	not available online, unable to assess, however given the discrepancies in the descriptions of his decorations it cannot be regarded as reliable	? not available online, unable to assess	✘ No
Home News Tribune 10 Nov 1996. p.2.		The quote provided: "Jorge Otero Barreto...was awarded an unmatched 38 citations." Has been shown to be incorrect, other soldiers have received more citations	? not available online, unable to assess	✘ No
Hartford Courant 28 Mar 1996. p.A16		The quote provided: “Jorge Otero Barreto...decorated 38 times" does not support the claim that he was “the most” or “one of the most” decorated	? not available online, unable to assess	✘ No
This table may not be a final or consensus view; it may summarize developing consensus, or reflect assessments of a single editor. Created using {{source assess table}}.

What I find most notable in looking at the sources above is their overall weakness, there are no reference books, major media, government or national organisations. Many of the websites that appear on a search just seem to copy WP or other websites that make the same claims, creating an online echo chamber, they are not reliable, published sources as required by WP:RS. Those comments apply, not just to the claims that Barreto was “the most” or “one of the most” decorated soldier[s] of the Vietnam War, but to the whole page generally. Mztourist (talk) 03:42, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Sources don't need to pass opinionated approval to be reliable; they only need to pass WP:RS, which you resist.

The table you created is WP:OR. You made your own value judgement of what is and isn’t RS/no RS and GNG/no GNG, and then expect the rest of us to accept them your value judgement as fact. It's not, it's your opinion, thus worthless in proving anything. If you want to make it REALLY useful, you need to add a RS to each box there, because well-intended as it was, so far it's just a prime textbook example of WP:OR.

Also, like before, you are cherry-picking, in this case, via your wording, for example, pointing out that El Mundo closed in 1986 but failing to mention it ran for 67 years, far more than the bulk of US newspapers ever lived; please get real. In addition you, too, went to WP to get your information. Again, get real; you need to do your own research. Please make your case HERE.

Mercy11 (talk) 03:53, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

This is really just a rehash of the article's deletion discussion if you ask me. A lot of "because I say so" and no actual RS evidence to back up the claims. Intothatdarkness 13:23, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Your addition above does nothing less than aid my position that Barreto is the most decorated soldier of the Vietnam war; that's why the article was Kept after you, alone, stubbornly fought against all other 7 participants all of whom voted KEEP. A textbook example of WP:SNOWBALL. Mercy11 (talk) 03:53, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

And American Greatness is a conservative advocacy group. At the time the cited article came out it resided on a .org site (at least according to the archived copy), but it seems to have shifted to a .com. The comments on their article (basically a rehash of what this article used to be) are interesting, as they all relate to his time with the 101st Airborne (where his accomplishments can be verified using sources) or his postwar activities (which could use more information...I wasn't able to find much in the aftermath of the 'keep' decision). There's nothing about his prior or any later tours. Obviously since they're comments they aren't RS in any form, but they also didn't contain any clues for further verification resources (prior units and so on). Intothatdarkness 14:50, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

I am not sure who you are writing to, or if you have been seeing ghosts or what because, who in this discussion (and, particularly, this late in this discussion) is saying that American Greatness is an RS?. If no one, why are you making noise about it? Please make your case HERE.

Mercy11 (talk) 03:53, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

Mercy11 you are free to dispute my assessment of each and every source above, however you don't get to just say that they're just my opinion/OR and so are of no value. Brave Lords, American Greatness and Latino Alliance are demonstrably not WP:RS and all claims based solely upon them must be deleted, if you disagree then you need to prove otherwise. The fact that El Mundo closed then reopened for a few years is material, because its previous 67 years history does not carry over to the later version that carried that story, that's a meritless WP:OTHERSTUFF argument. So what are the RS that state that that Barreto was “the most” or “one of the most” decorated soldier[s] of the Vietnam War? You need to back up your argument with RS not endlessly wikilawyering as you're doing here and did back in August/September 2012. Mztourist (talk) 06:40, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

I was responding to Mztourist, because the source table listed American Greatness with a question mark. Frankly, Mercy11, since you can't seem to tell the difference between YahooNews! and Military Times I'm not sure you have a grasp on proper sourcing at all, let alone RS. You do not get to define the terms of the discussion, and the fact that you continue to believe you do shows a serious case of OWN, which has characterized your behavior around this article going back years. Intothatdarkness 12:56, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

I completely agree. Mztourist (talk) 13:58, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

• Mercy11, I just looked back through the page history and note that it was you who originally added the comparison to Howard and Hooper with this edit: [2]. Care to explain? Mztourist (talk) 17:10, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Military Times/Yahoo News

I emailed the writer of the Military Times article to ask him about what research he had done for the story. He said he didn't have Barreto's service record. He said that he'd cross-referenced available records and then gave me links to:

• VA Veteran of the Day (which just copies this WP page)
• American Legion story
• Military officers of America (which just copies this WP page)
• University of Texas interview
• LULAC

So basically he looked at this WP page and the refs used on it, saw the same stuff repeated and then cribbed that into the Military Times story. This just shows the danger of inaccurate information being put on WP as it creates an online echo chamber. Mztourist (talk) 03:31, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Very much so. The UT interview (or the promotional blurb, since the actual interview isn't available) also rehashes the inaccurate claim about air assault training (which didn't exist in 1960...in fact the concept didn't really exist at that time and the 101st wasn't involved with the initial testing and trials in any case). It's disappointing, because Barreto appears to have been an accomplished solider with the 101st during what looks to be his 1968-69 tour. And he did some important work with the VVA after the war. Intothatdarkness 21:23, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

The UT interview is available on Youtube if you just search for his name and Voces Oral History Center, its almost 3 hours long and I haven't had time to watch it yet. Obviously anything Barreto says is WP:PRIMARY and can't be relied on without verification. Mztourist (talk) 03:29, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

Exactly. And for content like that I tend to prefer transcriptions done by the interviewing organization. They're at least static and easy for others to review. I know that's not always possible, though. Intothatdarkness 12:13, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

I'm coming to the view that the "Sergeant Rock" and "Puerto Rican Rambo" lines actually just come from interviews with Barreto himself. Mztourist (talk) 08:00, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

There are some related references to the Sgt Rock nickname in some of the comments on the UT oral history site (I believe) that seem to come from other veterans, but only from the 101st. I agree completely about the "Puerto Rican Rambo" purported nickname. But no matter the source, I don't think they should be featured in the lede. They're unverified at best, and certainly don't quality as akas. Intothatdarkness 12:06, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

I agree. Mztourist (talk) 03:03, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

About 35 minutes into the video Barreto starts talking about Rambo and then saying that he is Rambo, so I think that all just comes from him. Mztourist (talk) 08:36, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

I'd tend to agree. In any case, it wouldn't have been a contemporary nickname for obvious reasons. Sgt. Rock at least has the potential to be contemporary, but it would take more than a handful of comments on a random website (it wasn't UT's...I checked) to verify that. Intothatdarkness 12:07, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

Not only that, the MiG-21 didn't enter NVN service until 1966 or so... And while the CIA was attempting to support what they thought were agent operations in North Vietnam during this period (1964-ish), I don't believe they were using Army helicopters at this stage (and actually would have been in the process of handing the program over to the Army in any case). Lots of things wrong here, I'm afraid. Intothatdarkness 16:33, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

I was just about to write the same thing. Barreto talks about standing on helicopter skids, so that can only be the UH-1. The US Army didn't mount helicopter raids into North Vietnam and definitely not near Hanoi. The ARVN 7th Regiment was based near Bien Hoa, hundreds of km from North Vietnam. The first VPAF Migs were MiG-17s which first arrived in North Vietnam on 6 August 1964. He describes being chased by a MiG-21 over the Mekong which doesn't run through North Vietnam and would have been beyond the range of MiGs then. Frankly the whole helicopter chase sounds lifted from Rambo: First Blood Part II. Mztourist (talk) 07:01, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

At 59 minutes he compares himself to Sgt Rock, so it seems that name and Rambo both originate with him. I note that neither nickname appears in the El Mundo interview: [3] which is the only other story that actually discusses his military career in any detail. Mztourist (talk) 08:00, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

The video is tiresome, he's rambling, repetitive and often incoherent and the interviewer does nothing to clarify things in terms of dates, units and locations. Mztourist (talk) 08:24, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

That's one of the challenges with amateur oral history, which is what the UT program feels like in many ways. Intothatdarkness 14:56, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Yes it can't be relied on. At 2:28:00 he switches to Spanish for a couple of minutes and then again from 2:43:35 to the end of the video, there's no translation and my Spanish isn't good enough to understand what he's saying. Mztourist (talk) 07:53, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Content disputes on this article don't belong on the Reliable Sources Noticeboard

The WP:RSN is for posting questions regarding whether particular sources are reliable in context, not for rehashing content dispute. Users should refrain from wasting other user's time by starting frivolous discussion with loaded questions on such forum. If they do, those discussions can be considered illegitimate.

User:Mercy11, I suggest we instead discuss how this article can remain free from demonstrably false statements. Mottezen (talk) 03:25, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

We tried that above, and Mercy11 diverted the discussion to RSN in what feels like forum shopping to increase traction for their views. Given the level of OWN they have consistently displayed about this article for years, it seems unlikely a compromise can be reached. Intothatdarkness 12:32, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

I completely agree. They seem to be hoping to wear everyone else out as seemingly occurred in 2012. Mztourist (talk) 15:17, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

All the editing has also left us with some reference issues. Even though notes 11 and 12 remain in the article, they don't in any way support the remaining lines in the article itself (they're tied to the discussion about Howard and Hooper). Also, since there seems to be concern about OR, should the source based on MG Lienza's remarks (note 3 - only used twice in the article) be retained? He identifies Barreto as the most decorated veteran of the Korean War, which is clearly incorrect. Note this particular source is used in isolation to support Barreto's medal count (and incorrectly lists 3 silver stars), but it could be replaced by another without any difficulty. Its other occurrence is already supported by another source, so it's not really needed there. Intothatdarkness 14:56, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

I agree. As you know the refs on this page are generally weak and frequently copy the same mistakes from each other. Mztourist (talk) 04:34, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

I pulled the two orphaned refs and one of the two tied to Lienza's remarks. I'll have to review and find another source making the claims in the remaining use of Lienza's stuff. Intothatdarkness 13:08, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Service record

I have sent off a Freedom of Information Act request for Barreto's service records. If/when I receive them I will post them on Commons. Mztourist (talk) 03:35, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Did your recent addition regarding his time with the 25th ID come from the actual oral history? If so, you might want to correct the citation. As of now it's still pointing to the UT page, which only has a short written description and doesn't mention Thailand at all. Intothatdarkness 12:13, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

Yes it did, thanks, will fix that. Mztourist (talk) 12:30, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

I always suspected that's where his Air Medals and such came from. The 25th supplied a series of rotating door gunner detachments in the early stages of US involvement. In a somewhat related note, I find it interesting that almost every picture you see of him at award or recognition ceremonies (including the one with the 101st and the Distinguished Member of the 502nd ceremony) show him wearing an 82nd Airborne Division cap. Intothatdarkness 13:29, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

I haven't got far enough into the video to know yet, but presumably Air Medals were only awarded for combat operations? I have no idea what Army helicopter unit he would have been serving in in Thailand in the early 1960s. Mztourist (talk) 05:02, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

The 25th ID provided door gunners for some helicopter units in the early 1960s according to Stanton's Vietnam Order of Battle and some other sources. The Air Medal is one of those funny things with kind of loose award criteria (at least in the Air Force, especially during Vietnam), but he would have had to have been part of an air crew to be awarded one and it's based on hours flown and the mission profile (the number of hours for the award varies based on the mission recorded). Intothatdarkness 14:50, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Intothat I finally received a response to my FOIA request yesterday. They said that "based on the limited information you provided with your request, we have been unable to identify a military service record for this individual. If you are able to provide additional information, including the individual's complete name at time of military service, service number (if applicable), Social Security number, branch of service and approximate date of service, we will perform another search for the individual's military service records." I'm somewhat surprised by the response as I already gave his full name, the US Army and approximate dates of service with my request. I'll send a new request with the revised dates and further details from his oral history interview and see what response that brings. Nothing is ever straightforward with this one. Mztourist (talk) 04:52, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

It's possible his records were destroyed or misfiled as a result of the fire they had at the records center in St. Louis some years back. If I remember correctly that impacted records from the more modern era. I'd have to poke around the determine the time of the fire and the range of records it impacted. Or they might just be having issues. But yeah...nothing's ever straightforward here. At least we do have some independent confirmation of his time with the 101st. Intothatdarkness 13:10, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

The National Personnel Records Center fire apparently destroyed 80% of records of U.S. Army personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960, so probably didn't cover his service. I'll resubmit and see what happens, probably have to wait another 6 months... Mztourist (talk) 03:16, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

Duplicate Source?

I just updated some of the education information, and I'm starting to think we have duplicate sources here...namely the two pieces by Howard. The American Legion article claiming to be from 2021 (ref 5) actually has an author byline dated 2016. It's possible it's the same thing as ref 22 but translated into English. The author names are the same, and from what I can tell it's covering the same information. Intothatdarkness 14:30, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

Thats probably right, another quality source. Mztourist (talk) 05:03, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

173rd Airborne Brigade

In the Voces interview at 51:50 Barreto claims that he went to South Vietnam with the 4th Brigade (presumably he meant Battalion) 173rd Airborne Brigade. I assume he's referring to the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment which deployed to Vietnam in August 1966, joining the 173rd Airborne. However Barreto says he went to Vietnam in June 1966 (1:57:08). He also says that he did combat operations in Cambodia (53:05). He admits to mutilating dead enemy soldiers (1:04:17) and killing civilians (1:26:00). Mztourist (talk) 07:13, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

I think I'd use "claimed" instead of "admitted," honestly. There are simply too many inconsistencies and errors in most of this. Intothatdarkness 14:53, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

101st Airborne Vietnam

In the Voces interview at 1:52:00 Barreto says that on 27 December 1967 the US embassy was attacked and everyone killed and 80 officers were killed in Saigon. He is clearly confusing this with the Tet offensive attack on US Embassy. Barreto claims that he was part of the unit landed on the Embassy roof. Mztourist (talk) 11:28, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

At 2:10:20 Barreto repeats the same story about assaulting a sergeant and captain at Ft Campbell and then meeting with the 101st commander General Olinto M. Barsanti. According to Barreto, Barsanti told him that he emigrated to the US from Sicily at the age of 14 unable to speak English. Barsanti's bio says that he was born in Nevada to Sicilian immigrant parents. Mztourist (talk) 12:01, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

He would have been on a REALLY tight timeline to get his tours with the 172rd and 101st to line up. A year with the 173rd would have had him leaving SVN in June 1967, and the bulk of the 101st arrived in-country in November-December of that year. I discount the 1st Bde of the 101st because of his silver stars (which are at least verifiable). To me the wild card remains his time with the 82nd. It's the only hat you ever see him wearing in photos taken at ceremonies, which indicates he has a strong attachment to the division. And with the 173rd, I think the Texas Tech Virtual Vietnam Archive has a list of all 173rd members who participated in the drop that was part of Junction City. So that might be verifiable. Intothatdarkness 15:05, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Neither the El Mundo interview nor the Voces interview mentions the 82nd Airborne. Its conceivable that he served in it when he first enlisted or at the end of his service. Mztourist (talk) 08:30, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

I just checked [4]https://vva.vietnam.ttu.edu/images.php?img=/images/1387/1387AAR168081967.pdf, and it looks like only 2/503 was involved in the combat jump in Junction City. Intothatdarkness 17:58, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

I'm rather confused by the 502nd Infantry, they served in South Vietnam in 1965-6, famously in Operation Hawthorne Bill Carpenter called a napalm strike on his own position. Barreto says he joined 502nd Infantry at Ft Campbell and then they deployed by ship from Oakland to South Vietnam, leaving on 15 December and arriving at Vung Tau on 27 December and then being driven by trucks to Cu Chi (2:13:00). The 101st was moved by air to South Vietnam in Operation Eagle Thrust, at the time the largest troop airlift in history. Its possible that the 502nd returned to the US and then redeployed to South Vietnam, I'll have to check Mztourist (talk) 07:22, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

At 2:17:00 he corrects himself saying that in January 1968 the US embassy was attacked. He repeats the claim that his platoon was landed on the embassy roof and that 80 American officers were killed. Mztourist (talk) 07:35, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

At 2:19:00 he says that his unit engaged in urban combat in Hue in February 1968. No Army units were engaged in the fighting in Hue city, it was only the Marines. He also claims that Marine general Robert E. Cushman Jr. was giving him direct orders from his command helicopter. He further claims at 2:24:00 that General Barsanti stole medals that were due to him and his platoon. Mztourist (talk) 07:47, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

At 2:34:26 Barreto claims that he was at Firebase Ripcord when it was attacked by PAVN. The Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord took place from 1-23 July 1970 when the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne was besieged. Barreto says that over 200 Americans were killed at Ripcord when actual losses were 75 killed. Mztourist (talk) 08:04, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

That would be a trick considering 1/502 wasn't at Ripcord. I don't recall him being mentioned in Nolan's book on the battle, either. Intothatdarkness 13:38, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

I served as a recon platoon leader in the 1/502nd, 101st Airborne Div. SFC Otero was my platoon sgt. I am familiar with Nolan's book. Later in my tour I was the platoon leader for Delta company. During the siege of Ripcord we mustered at least two helicopter lifts to reinforce Ripcord. After spending an hour in the air we returned to FB Birmingham. It was learned later that the firebase had been overrun. An OCS classmate, Lt.Terry Palm was KIA that night. Palm is mentioned in Nolan's book.

I cannot confirm that Otero did arrive on Ripcord but I do know that there were multiple efforts to assist.

Richard Nolte 98.30.111.100 (talk) 05:56, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

Richard Nolte 98.30.111.100 between what dates was Otero your platoon sergeant? Are you saying that he was at Ripcord? Ripcord was not overrun, it was evacuated. Mztourist (talk) 06:29, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

I think he's saying that elements of 1/502 were staged to reinforce Ripcord but never actually landed at the FSB. He also says those elements were from D-1/502, but Otero was his platoon sergeant when they were both with Recon Platoon, E-1/502. I didn't take that to mean Otero followed him to Delta Company. Of course I could be wrong. Intothatdarkness 12:11, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Per Stanton's Vietnam OOB (p. 157), 1/502 arrived in Vietnam in Dec 67, while 2/502 arrived in late July 66 (as part of the 101st Abn's First Brigade). Those are both 101st Abn units. There's no indication that any element of the 502nd ever returned to the US and redeployed. I suspect the confusion is due to the two battalions being in different brigades. His Silver Star citations indicate he was in 1/502, so the Dec 67 date appears to be correct. Intothatdarkness 15:18, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Thanks that explains it. Mztourist (talk) 15:25, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

5 combat tours?

We have one RS: [5] which contains one sentence saying that he did 5 combat tours. Neither the El Mundo article nor the Voces interview mentions 5 combat tours. Based on the El Mundo article and Voces interview it seems that he did 3 tours: 1964 when he was a door gunner; June or August 1966 to June 1967 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade; and December 1967 to late 1968 when he was with the 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. Its possible that he extended his tour in 1968, but that isn't recorded in anything I've seen. Mztourist (talk) 08:27, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

I would agree with this assessment. And the 25th ID posting would have been a detachment or temporary duty assignment as opposed to a standard tour in any case. Unless he was somehow attached to an advisory unit, but that can't be confirmed by anything available. Intothatdarkness 15:09, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

Agreed, not sure what unit he was attached to in his first tour. Mztourist (talk) 15:28, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

I'd also have to check, but I don't think the door gunner assignments were considered actual tours. Usually (prior to 1965 anyhow) those individuals were sent TDY for six months or so (they did the same thing with some of the early SF assignments by sending people TDY from the units in Okinawa, which caused problems for those units). As the general in Apocalypse Now observes "Things get...confused out there." Intothatdarkness 13:44, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

• Each star on his Vietnam Service Medal represents an additional tour in Nam. I know because I served in two tours. The doubt that the Veterans Administration is going to lie about this: [[6]] or the Morning Journal News: [[7]] so lets put the issue to rest. Tony the Marine (talk) 18:23, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

  Technically no...the stars refer to being in-country for one or more of the 17 campaigns (the Air Force, of course, had their own list for years) delineated by the Army during Vietnam. Someone who'd done five tours would realistically have more than five stars (see David Hackworth for example). Someone could serve one tour and have multiple stars just based on the dates of that tour. If he was in-country from Dec 1967 until (say) Dec 1968 that would give him five stars (Counteroffensive Phase III, Tet, and Counteroffensive IV, V, and VI). Intothatdarkness 20:02, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

• Intothat is correct and those sources haven't done their research/are wrong. Read Vietnam Service Medal#Vietnam War campaigns. As already noted, Barreto doesn't even claim to have served 5 tours. Mztourist (talk) 03:04, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

  And for those who might not like Wikipedia entries as RS, here's a link to the Army's HRC on the subject of service stars: [8]https://www.hrc.army.mil/content/Bronze%20Service%20Stars%20and%20Campaign%20Stars Intothatdarkness 14:39, 5 June 2023 (UTC)