Trainer for Navy under scrutiny
A security firm run by a man who allegedly lied about his
combat duty trained isle sailors
Pearl Harbor sailors received anti-terrorism firearms
training from a company run by a self-proclaimed hero who
allegedly lied about his combat experience and decorations to
secure more than $66 million in military contracts, according to
a Navy spokesman and a national news report.
Surgical Shooting Inc., formerly of Pomeroy, Wash., provided
about $1 million worth of firearms training to Pearl Harbor
sailors between 2002 and 2003, said Hawaii Navy spokesman Lt.
Cmdr. Jeff Davis.
The Hawaii sailors were among scores of enlisted Navy
personnel nationwide enrolled in the company's anti-terrorism
courses, which were aimed at getting sailors and Marines ready
for terror threats in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
An ABC News investigation aired Wednesday found that the
company's owner, former Marine Sgt. Gary Lakis, had no record of
combat during his 10 years of active and Reserve duty. Lakis
told the government that he had combat experience in Panama and
Somalia which had won him Silver Stars, Purple Hearts, Bronze
Stars and Air Medals.
In all the Navy awarded Lakis several contracts worth more
than $66 million to provide training for sailors and Marines in
Hawaii, San Diego, Seattle and Japan.
Most of the agreements, which were set to run until 2007,
were suspended in 2003 after word of Lakis' fabricated military
record reached federal authorities, local and national military
officials said. The FBI and Defense Department have opened
criminal investigations into Lakis, but he has not been charged,
ABC News said.
Lakis could not be reached by ABC News or for this report.
The telephone number at his former business has been
disconnected, and Hawaii residents who knew or worked with him
say he may have left the country. His forwarding address is in
Australia, ABC News said.
"You would think that the government would be able to do
a background check," said Art Ong, a firearms training
contractor for the Navy who now employs three former Surgical
Shooting instructors.
Ong's company, Hawaii-based Magnum Firearms, was awarded a
four-year, $7.3 million contract in October 2003 to take over
anti-terrorism firearms training at Pearl Harbor.
Davis said that despite Lakis' alleged conduct, the Navy is
confident that Hawaii sailors were afforded adequate training by
Surgical Shooting's Hawaii-based workers.
Lakis did not teach any of the Pearl Harbor courses, Davis
said.
"Training was fine. We never had any problem with the
quality," Davis said. "The problems all appeared to be
management sort of problems."
Al Scott, now with Magnum Firearms, said he knew Lakis well
and never suspected that "this guy was a fake."
Scott was hired by Lakis in April 2002 to assemble a team of
Hawaii instructors who could teach anti-terrorism courses to
Pearl Harbor sailors.
When Scott was in San Diego to get more information on the
contracts and training, he even stayed at Lakis' home. "I
went downstairs in his office and noticed from the floor to the
ceiling, he had all sorts of certificates from being with the
special forces," Scott said. "I didn't think anything
of it. ... I was totally in the dark."
By the time he left Surgical Shooting for an Iraq deployment
with his Reserve unit in October 2002, Scott was already hearing
rumors that Lakis' military record was being questioned. Just
months later, the company went under.
Ewa Beach resident Ryan Legaspi taught with Surgical Shooting
at Pearl Harbor during several months in 2002 before he was also
deployed to Iraq. When Legaspi returned to the islands a year
later, he said he was shocked to hear about his former
employer's downfall.
"He pulled a fast one on a lot of people," Legaspi
said. "I know a lot of people who are pretty angry about
this guy. ... I was saddened for the men who were working under
him, who were legit individuals."
Lakis came to the islands only once while his contracts were
active, Legaspi said.
"He basically spoke to all of us (the staff), as a
group," Legaspi said. "That was it. He never did any
training. He was never an instructor. We had no idea what he was
capable of."
Scott said that several former Surgical Shooting employees
who taught at Pearl Harbor have been interviewed by federal
investigators about their former employer. None could be reached
for comment.
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