KEATON,
Graham (or Grahame) Frederick.
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KEATON,
Graham (or Grahame) Frederick. ex- 217183.
Born 1948.
This man was photographed at a
dining in night with an Air Force Cadets
unit while wearing the Infantry Combat Badge
and the General Service Medal, he is not
entitled to either.
He says he was an Infantry Sergeant
in Vietnam with the Third Battalion, Royal
Australian Regiment, when in fact he was a Temporary
Corporal storeman
and served his tour in the
relative
safety of his 25 Supply Platoon store at
Vung Tau with the occasional visit to Nui
Dat. January 1968 to
January 1969.
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Graham(e) Frederick Keaton (217183) served in
Vietnam with RAASC (Royal Australian Army
Service Corps) as a Technical Storeman.
We appreciate the way he hitched up the left
sleeve of his Mess Dress jacket to clearly
display his miniature medals and ICB for the
photo but he was not an Infantry Soldier nor is
there even a remote chance that he spent time
serving outside the wire on warlike
operations in an Infantry-like role. Therefore
he is not entitled to wear the coveted Infantry
Combat Badge.
The second medal on his breast, from your left,
is the General Service Medal 1962-66. The
problems being that the entitlement for this
award ceased on 28 May 1964 for Vietnam service
and 11 August 1966 for Borneo and the Malay
Peninsular.
Keaton didn't serve in any of these countries
and also, didn't join the Army until 21
November 1966.
The last three medals are self
purchased trinkets worn for the purpose of
extending the row of a Vietnam Veteran and
impressing the uninitiated. Keaton is a wannabe
who impressed the said uninitiated and got away
with it for a long time.
This website has been closed down
but the information below
was obtained beforehand.
http://www.aafc.adfc.gov.au/221sqn/fsgtkeaton.htm
FLIGHT SERGEANT (AAFC) GRAHAM KEATON
FSGT (AAFC) Keaton joined the Australian Air
Force Cadets as an instructor of cadets in 1992.
Starting his staff position with the rank of
Corporal (AAFC) due to previous service with the
military.
Flight Sergeant (AAFC) Keaton served in the
Royal Australian Army Infantry from 1966 through
to 1972 attaining the rank of Sergeant. In
January 1968, SGT Keaton was posted to Vietnam,
fighting with 3 Battalion Royal Australian
Regiment and survived the tour to return a year
later.
[We understand that the ambiguous
"to return a year later" refers to him returning
to Australia, not Vietnam]
We have copies of Keaton's Army records which
were obtained in June 2004 from National
Archives by an executive member of the RAASC
Association who noted that there were no entries
regarding Keaton's claimed service with 3RAR in
Vietnam or service in Borneo-Malaya.
This search was prompted by a Veteran who was
obviously very interested in Keaton's claims but
he decided to let the matter rest for a while.
The fact remains that Keaton was a Lance
Corporal/Temporary Corporal, Technical Storeman
in Vietnam and served from January 1968 to
January 1969 with 25 Supply Platoon, RAASC.
RAASC was the Royal Australian Army Service Corps,
the storemen, the drivers, the deliverymen. They
were vital logistic support soldiers but not
combatants in the true sense of the word.
Keaton wanted to continue on in the Army with
Service Corps after his posting to Singapore in
November 1970 but this was vetoed in May 1972,
he returned to Australia in August 1972.
His Army service was so inglorious that another
entry was made in his records.
"NOT TO BE RE-ENLISTED -
BY AHQ (Army Headquarters) DIRECTION"
Dated 29 November 1972.
He must have really fouled up during his
Singapore posting, he was virtually booted out
of the Army still a Temporary Corporal.
Keaton was recently promoted to Wing Warrant
Officer.
Here are the details as published by the
AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE CADETS, February 2006.
WOFF(AAFC) G. Keaton
8021558 HQ2WGAAFC is appointed Wing Warrant
Officer
2WGAAFC (WGWOFF 2WGAAFC) WEF 1 Feb 06 until 31
Dec 08 inclusive with an option for a further
two year appointment until 31 Dec 10 exercised
at the discretion of OC2WGAAFC.
AUTH: CDR-AAFC.
The workload for a man in this position, Wing
Warrant Officer,
would be quite hefty, the criteria for promotion
to the rank are well documented and we have a
copy of the duty statement.
He's considered
to be unable to work and is in receipt of a DVA
pension due to this, we find it odd that he
couldn't find a civilian job with even less work
pressure...................or did he?
Keaton's posing was brought to the attention of
high ranking Air Force Cadets Officers in 2004
but they did nothing in the hope that the
problem would "simply go away".........It
didn't.
This sort of
behaviour
is inexplicable
and could be viewed by some as aiding
and abetting wannabe behaviour, for a senior
officer to be aware of such a problem and do
nothing borders on disrespect for the veteran
community.
 21
March 2006
We delayed
publishing the following for a few reasons,
one of them being that we were waiting for a
newspaper report on Keaton and his former
boss at 2 Wing AAFC. The article can be
viewed below.
"Wing
Commander" BAIN will appear in his own story
on our Cases page soon.
This is published in the
interests of fair play and allowing all War
Veterans, particularly Vietnam War Veterans,
to accept or reject the apology to the
Veteran Community at large
We received
three apologies [two almost identical] from
Grahame Keaton on Monday 13 March 06, 48
hours after we published information on his
activities.
The first is to the Veteran
Community, the second must be to
Australian Air Force Cadets units and the
third to a RAASC Association of which he is
a member.
A policy
statement from
our INFO page.
What if an impersonator repents?
In the case of civilians who wear
military honours and awards to which they have
no entitlement, they are permanent residents of
the site. In the case of genuine vets who
embellish their service and wear unentitled
honours and awards, their stories are only
removed from the site when three criteria are
met;
-
They
offer a written apology to the veteran
community at large, and
-
They
offer a written apology to their
unit/ship/muster
-
The
offended Veterans accept the apology.
Once those conditions are met, the story
is removed from the site.
Mr. Keaton
has complied with points 1 & 2. Point 3 is
now up to you.
From: Grahame Keaton
Sent: Monday, 13 March 2006 5:08 PM
To: information@anzmi.net
Subject: Grahame Keaton
1 Yes I am guilty of wearing
"tin medals" (miniature) at the
Dining In Night I was lead to
believe that these could be worn
but when I found out at a later
date that they could not be worn
with the awarded ones they were
gotten rid of. I am also guilty of
weraing non awarded medals as If
memory serves me right I was
actually doing an assessment of
Basic stage cadets in Service
Knowledge as I asked them prior to
this night to watch for things that
were wrong with dress etc. In
foresight maybe I should not of
worn the wrong ones and only wore
the real ones on the wrong side, as
I say I plead guilty to this and on
reflection am a fool
2 Yes I am guilty of the
things written in 221 Sqn Web site
as I believed that the cadets were
actually "hamming it up" doing
interviews about everyone as the
cadets were really laying it on
thick about each other and as a
result I joined the fray and hammed
it up as well, unfortunately things
must of gotten out of hand and as I
have never seen the site they must
of written what I had said
3 I appologise to the Veteran
Community for these acts of
stupidity and am now aware of the
rules etc to the wearing of
"purchased medals" after carefully
reading the articles written.
4 I also wish to appologise
to my comerades at 25 Supply 5 Coy
RAASC for these acts of stupidity as
well.
5 As a result of these
actions I have resigned from the
AAFC immediately and appologised to
the OC for my actions
Letter
of Apology to Unit
I
Grahame Keaton ex T/Cpl RAASC wish to
apologise for my inexcusable behaviour by
wearing non issue medals and comments made
by me.
I have
let my family, the Veteran Community my
comrades and my former RAASC units that I
served in and myself down by doing this.
My
stupidity has caused me to resign from the
AAFC and stand down as Wing Woff 2 Wing AAFC.
Once
again I cannot appologise enough for the
embarresment caused by me to all veterans
and my family.
I am now
aware of the rules in wearing foreign, tin
and non awarded medals and apologise once
again.
Thank
you
Grahame
Keaton
Monday 13 March 06
Letter
of Apology
I
Grahame Keaton ex T/Cpl RAASC wish to
apologise for my inexcusable behaviour by
wearing non issue medals and comments made
by me.
I have
let my family, the Veteran Community my
comrades and myself down by doing this.
My
stupidity has caused me to resign from the
AAFC and stand down as Wing Woff 2 Wing AAFC.
Once
again I cannot appologise enough for the
embarresment caused by me to all veterans
and my family.
I am now
aware of the rules in wearing foreign, tin
and non awarded medals and apologise once
again.
Thank
you
Grahame
Keaton
Mr. Keaton has
not been totally honest in these
apologies .
With reference to why he wore
non awarded medals; he makes this appear
to be a one-off event ,
a training exercise, when
in fact he had
been seen to wear the ribbons of the
medals on many occasions while in
service dress. He
makes no definite mention of the
Infantry Combat Badge he wore with the
ribbons while impersonating a qualified
Infantryman,
which he did on
every occasion he wore the ribbon bar
with ICB , not only
that one night.
Keaton's activities were
reported to the 2 Wing OC in 2004 and
while he
ordered the matter to be dropped, we
must imagine that Keaton had to front
the OC and explain himself. We
find it hard to believe that he
has never seen the web site and his
"bio". As
for "hamming it up" with the Cadets
(point 2, 1st apology) we have a report
of Keaton claiming he had " entered
a tunnel
and shot some VC". He stated this at a
completely different time, not at the
supposed "interview" session.
Keaton has actually resigned but
we'll have to wait and see if the illegal
wearing of the General Service Medal 62-66 is swept
under the carpet by the AAFC............ again.
It
appears that Keaton believes his
greatest mistake was wearing what we
refer to as Tin Medals, purchased
trinkets. We did touch on these
briefly in the main story but deemed
them to be so unimportant to the
overall
exposure
that we didn't even bother to name
them.
We must make one thing
abundantly clear, Keaton
does not appear on our web site for
wearing "purchased medals"
The
only hard and fast rule about
wearing "Tin" with awarded
decorations is the rule of common
sense.
Keaton says he is now aware
of the "rules" about
wearing non awarded decorations but
they are actually Federal laws which
could see him charged with the
offence ,
ie wearing the GSM 62-66 while
in the uniform of an Australian
Defence Force sanctioned and
controlled Air Force Cadet unit.
If found guilty he would
face maximum penalties of $3,300 and/or six months
gaol.
One "rule" he
was aware of, and disregarded, was
that while in receipt of a pension
for disability he shouldn't have
been working in a civilian type job
as well. We imagine that the
Department of Veteran's Affairs will
have something to say about this.
It's now up to the Veteran
Community and the War Veterans of
the AAFC units and relevant
associations to accept or reject Mr.
Keaton's apologies.
29 Apr 2006
The
thirty day deadline for
responses to Keaton's apologies
has expired and
we allowed extra time for late
responses.
Of twelve
respondents, 9 have rejected
them outright. [
this number does not include
people attached to ANZMI ]
1 is not
sure .
1 accepts but
doesn't think they're
genuine...??
1 is reluctant to accept.
Accordingly, the Grahame
Keaton story will remain on
our website for the term of
his natural life.
More information on Keaton
and his posing will
undoubtedly be received and
will be published as
updates.
If the new penalties
for wearing unauthorised
service medals are
imposed, he should face
heavy fines and-or
imprisonment.
Should you discover a
flagrant wannabe in your
midst such as KEATON, ask
your State Police to charge
him with the offences
because the Federal Police
will do absolutely
nothing, calling on
them for action is a futile
exercise.
Contact us
for the appropriate Act
under which these people may
be charged.
ANZMI
28
May 2006
In
KEATON'S apologies he
stated that he wore the
General Service Medal
and Infantry Combat
Badge (ICB)
only for the
reason of training
Cadets. We don't know
how many people may have
believed this story but
recently we found
some photographs on the
221 Squadron web site dating
back to 1994 that
completely deny this
absurd claim.
This one
for example which
appears to be the most
recent photo of him in
uniform.
Above right. His
miniature medals
from what appears to
have been an earlier
date.
This is published in the
public interest, particularly that of the Vietnam
Veteran Community. All information presented here is
fact and the truth. Reports from private citizens are
supported by statements of fact and statutory
declarations. |
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