Al Hubbard ( VVAW ) Alfred H . Hubbard is a U . S . Air Force veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam wars , anti - war and civil rights activist , former executive secretary of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and poet . He grew up in Brooklyn , New York , and entered the Air Force planning to make it his career . He was forced to take an early retirement in 1966 after suffering an injury during a plane crash . After leaving the service , he enrolled at the University of Washington and earned an undergraduate degree . Military service . Hubbard enlisted in the United States Air Force in October 1952 , reinlisted twice and was honorably discharged after 14 years of service . At the time of his discharge , he was an instructor / flight engineer on C - 124 Globemaster with the 7th Air Transport Squadron , McChord Air Force Base , Tacoma , Washington . Hubbard was awarded a Korean Service Medal , United Nations Medal , National Defense Medal , four Good Conduct Medal s , Air Force Longevity Service Award , Air Force Unit Award and Air Force Expeditionary Medal . He was a flight engineer with the 22nd Troop Carrier Squadron at Tachikawa Air Force Base , Japan . Hubbard was injured in a military plane crash and is registered with the VA with a service - connected disability rating of 60 per cent . Anti - war and civil rights activism . In the fall of 1969 , Hubbard joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War , and became an active organizer for the group . During the publicity generated by the April , 1971 anti - war protest march on Washington DC , Hubbard made claims about his rank during interviews that he later admitted were false . He was introduced on " Meet the Press " as a decorated Air Force captain who had spent two years in Vietnam . After receiving a tip that Hubbard was a sergeant and not a captain , NBC contacted Hubbard about the discrepancy . Hubbard admitted to lying about being an officer , and publicly acknowledged it when he appeared on the " Today Show " the following morning . Frank Jordan , then Washington Bureau Chief of NBC News , recalls Hubbard ' s explanation for why he claimed to be an officer , " He was convinced no one would listen to a black man who was also an enlisted man . " William Overend in the " National Review " reported that a Defense Department news release stated : " Alfred H . Hubbard entered the Air Force in October 1952 , re - enlisted twice and was honorably discharged in October 1966 , when his enlistment expired . At the time of his discharge he was an instructor flight engineer on C - 123 aircraft with the 7th Air Transport Squadron , McCord ( " sic " ) Air Force Base , Tacoma , Washington . There is no record of any service in Vietnam , but since he was an air crew member he could have been in Vietnam for brief periods during cargo loading , unloading operations or for crew rest purposes . His highest grade held was staff sergeant . " Defense Department officials stressed it was still possible Hubbard could have served in Vietnam , flying in and out from Tacoma . Historian and author of " Home to War : A History of the Vietnam Veteran ' s Movement " , Gerald Nicosia commented on the Hubbard military record controversy : " . . . service people doing covert missions , such as rangers going across the border in Laos , into North Vietnam , etc . , never had those actions put into their records . Al Hubbard was on similar covert missions , flying in a supply plane to the French when they were fighting the Viet Minh in the fifties . It doesn ' t surprise me that those flights were not in his record . He did lie about being an officer , when he was a career sergeant , because the press kept paying more attention to his co - leader John Kerry , a decorated officer . Also , Hubbard never claimed to have been wounded in combat ; his back was hurt when his plane crashed on a runway . When I interviewed him in 1992 , he was on medical disability from the Air Force . "