A command sergeant major at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, has been convicted of wrongfully wearing the Ranger tab and Pathfinder badge.

Command Sgt. Maj. Perry McNeill was found guilty by a military judge of eight specifications of wearing unauthorized insignia, decoration, badge, ribbon, device, or lapel button. The judge also found McNeill guilty of making a false official statement.

McNeill was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery.

He was sentenced to receive a letter of reprimand, reduction in rank to E-7, and forfeitures of $500 a month for 10 months, according to a statement Wednesday from Fort Sill.

McNeill was tried during a special court-martial that convened April 1 at Fort Sill.

McNeill, through his lawyer, declined an interview request from Army Times.

The charges against McNeill spanned March 4, 2011, through Feb. 28, 2014, according to the charge sheet. The senior NCO was stationed at Kadena Air Base, Japan; Gaziantep, Turkey; and Fort Sill during those incidents, according to the charge sheets.

McNeill was convicted of wrongfully wearing the Ranger tab and Pathfinder badge on multiple occasions in all three locations. His conduct "being to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces and of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces," according to the charges against him.

McNeill also was found to have submitted an official record to the Centralized Selection List Board "with intent to deceive," according to the charge sheet.

McNeill submitted his Enlisted Record Brief for consideration during the fiscal 2015 active Army and Army Reserve Active Guard and Reserve brigade and battalion command sergeant major and key billet sergeant major board, according to the charge sheet. McNeill knowingly included in his ERB false information that stated he graduated from Ranger School in 1994, according to the charges.

McNeill is the second high-ranking soldier to be busted in recent months for wearing unearned badges and decorations.

Lt. Col. Gerald Green, the former head of the Army National Guard Warrior Training Center at Fort Benning, Georgia, was relieved of command in October while the Army investigated if he was wearing an unearned Ranger tab.

An investigation later found Green also wore an unearned Sapper tab and air assault wings, and he hadn't earned his Combat Action Badge or Army Commendation Medal with V device. He also wrongfully certified in his personnel record that he had earned the Expert Infantry Badge and a Presidential Unit Citation, the investigation found.

Unlike McNeill, Green's case was handled through non-judicial and administrative action, officials said.

About Michelle Tan

Michelle Tan is the editor of Army Times and Air Force Times. She has covered the military for Military Times since 2005, and has embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Haiti, Gabon and the Horn of Africa.

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