Trainer for Navy
under scrutinyA 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.