Matt Farmer, American Idol's 2013 Timothy Poe – Guardian Of Valor

So Matt Farmer, performed on American Idol on Wednesday January 30th, before he did he told his story. He claimed he was on a mission in Ramadi, Iraq and they came across an IED, and the IED exploded. He says the only thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital after the explosion.

He also claims he was diagnosed with a TBI(Traumatic Brain Injury), and the medication prescribed to him for the TBI was supposed to cause him to be sterile.

Here is his audition with the show:

Matt Farmer – Long Beach Audition – American… by IdolxMuzic

Only one problem Mr. Farmer, all of your brothers are saying it did not happen. In fact the stories they are telling us are in fact totally different from what you have claimed on the show?

We are being told by all of them, that you were never hit by an IED. According to them, you were drinking on top of some non-prescription acne meds and it caused you to have a seizure, hence the reason you were sent out of the AO.

Your roommate while you were deployed sent us the following:

Here is the back ground.  I was the sniper section leader attached to his company and lived in the same room with him until he was medevac’d from Ramadi because he got drunk while he was taking accutane, an acne medication.

He proceeded to rat out everyone he was drinking with and never came back to the company.  He was never involved in one single direct fire engagement, was never wounded, and made up this whole lie to try and make his story sound good to American Idol.

I have a whole list of soldiers who were there and will back this up, he is a fraud and deserves to be called out.  If he is collecting disability from the VA an investigation needs to be arranged as well.  Sincerely,

And here is another statement from a Soldier that served with Matt:

Matt Farmer is a fraud. He is currently auditioning with American idol under false pretenses. I served with this person from Dec 2005 until he prematurely left theatre for using banned substances specifically medication not prescribed and alcohol.

The theatre was Ar Ramadi Iraq 1Bn 26inf blue spaders 1ID attached to 1-77ar 1ID and 2nd marine expeditionary force. His actions endangered the rest of his platoon and company and forced the rest of the company to be searched in what is called a “health and welfare” for illegal substances.

Sgt David Johnson

And the statement’s just keep pouring in:

His story on American idol is all lies. he did deploy with us but never saw combat, never got blown up, never got a TBI and he was kicked out of Iraq because he drank alcohol while he was taking Accutane. I have  pics, soldiers numbers, and his army records and timeline of his age and time in service will tell you it all doesnt line up at all.

So I am not up to speed on what Accutane is, but seems what ever it was it touched off a Health and Welfare inspection. If you do not know what that means, it is when they come and search your tent/belongings for contraband like Alcohol etc.

Here is another statement:

I was stationed with and deployed with Matt Farmer with  B Co 1-26 Infantry. Matt was part of headquarters platoon and I was a part of 3rd PLT. Matt is one of the individuals selected during the long beach auditions. I believe that there are things you need to know!

First Farmer was not sent home from being blown up in an I.E.D explosion. He was sent home because he almost killed himself! He was sent home after they found him in seizures from taking unauthorized acne medication while consuming unauthorized alcohol while in Iraq.

The medication with which he was referring to that “almost made him sterile”  was the acne medication!

I bring this to your attention because as a retired vet, from the same unit as young Matt, I feel that it is incredibly morally unjust to our fallen brothers!

This is a statement we got from someone who also went through basic with Matt:

Too whom it may concern

Hello, my name is John F. McManus and I would like to make a statement about something that has been brought to my attention. However, to begin with I’d like to state who I am and what my record very clearly shows. I was active duty Army Infantry from September 14, 2005 to February 6, 2010. Upon completion of Infantry basic training and AIT at Fort. Benning, Georgia, I was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division in Schweinfurt, Germany and arrived early January 2006.

I deployed to Ramadi, Iraq late due to knee surgery and I was boots on ground on 4 January, 2007, and was a part of the troop surge, unit extensions and Operation Murfeesboro.

That being said, I saw Matt Farmer on American Idol telling stories of being blown up by and IED, getting medevaced out of theater and being discharged due to TBI, or, Traumatic Brain Injury. This is a bold faced lie to put it nicely. Matt Farmer was medevaced from Camp Ramadi, that is true, but the reason he was airlifted out is because of a far different reason. Matt Farmer had an acne problem as young men sometimes do, and his mother was mailing him perscription strength acne medication.

What happened on the night of September 4th, 2007 is the following: Matt Farmer got his hands on some whiskey that another soldier had recieved in the mail.
He proceeded to get drunk throughout the evening and at some point in the night he had a seizure resulting from a reaction between his acne medication and alcohol. He drunkenly gave names of every soldier involved in the incident and even some that weren’t. He was taken from Camp Ramadi that night and wound up back in Germany. He then proceeded to make claims of both PTSD and TBI so that he wouldn’t have to redeploy back to Iraq to face both the concequences of him drinking in theater and also the soldiers that felt betrayed by him.

He spend the remainder of his days in the WTU (Warrior Transition Unit) and was eventually medically discharged for the ailments he claimed, effectively ending his military service somewhere between November ’07 and January ’08. I can not give you a better time frame for his discharge as I was home on 45 day block leave beginning December 7th, 2007.

Matt Farmer is no war hero. Matt Farmer is a pathological liar that has used the blood, sweat and tears of real, hard working, tough, brave and honorable Infantry soldiers to paint himself as somone he most certainly is not. He doesn’t deserve to be placed in the same category as the centuries of American Infantrymen who fought for and in some cases died for this great land. The truth will come out and Matt Farmer will regret the day he lied to America.

John F. McManus

Specialist(Former)

Team Leader United States Army

Infantryman