Mark Garber, a candidate for Lafayette Parish Sheriff who was awarded the Bronze Star for his work as a civilian interrogator with the Air Force in Iraq, has angered a couple of local military veterans who say he is pretending to be one of them.

The Southwest Louisiana Veterans Coalition board wants an apology, while one Lafayette veteran said Garber should withdraw from the Sheriff’s race.

Garber is pictured in campaign material dressed in military gear with a gun; his Bronze Star medal also is shown. To make it worse, local veterans said, Garber stood up at a banquet recently when military veterans were recognized.

“He slapped the face of every veteran in Lafayette by portraying himself as a veteran,” said Daniel J. Bentley, commander of American Legion Post 69 of Lafayette. “He is not a veteran.”

Garber told The Daily Advertiser , “I have never, ever claimed to be a military veteran.”

But the website for his private legal practice with attorney C. Ray Murry recently stated: “Mr. Garber and Mr. Murry are military veterans.”

The statement was changed Thursday after The Daily Advertiser brought it to Garber’s attention. He said the statement was written long ago and was worded improperly because his law partner is a veteran of the military.

While in Iraq, Garber wore a uniform and carried weapons like military personnel, and was deployed on missions with soldiers. He considers himself a veteran of Iraq, but not a military veteran, he said.

According to the citation that accompanied Garber’s Bronze Star medal, from March 24, 2006, until July 26, 2006, Garber “distinguished himself by meritorious achievement as an interrogator, Special Operations Task Force, while engaged in ground operations against the enemy at Joint Special Operations Command, Iraq.”

Garber was a senior interrogator for Northern Iraq Operations, went on more than 70 missions “at the point of capture,” and twice was targeted by roadside bombs, one of which disabled the military vehicle he was riding in, the citation states.

“I took an oath to defend the Constitution. I was subject to orders and deployed on orders to Iraq,” Garber said. “It was a very compressed, highly, highly intense deployment.”

Garber’s work in Iraq was commendable, and the Bronze Star medal is legitimate, Bentley said. But he believes the images used by Garber’s campaign are deceptive because they imply Garber was a combat veteran.

“He said he was in Iraq with the Air Force,” said Deron Santiny of Lafayette, a member of the Wounded Warrior Project, past commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart chapter in Lafayette and a Southwest Louisiana Veterans Coalition board member. “He’s not saying he was a civilian contractor or whatever his capacity was.

“He’s claiming to be with the Air Force in Iraq and anyone who doesn’t know any better is automatically going to assume he’s a veteran,” Santiny said.

Bentley said Garber is walking a very fine line.

“He was over there. He took the same oath, but he didn’t sign the same paper.” He did not serve in a branch of the military and does not have a DD-214, a form every veteran receives upon discharge, he said.

Santiny, who was injured in Iraq in 2005 when his Humvee was hit by an improvised explosive device, said he served alongside Navy Seals and Special Forces military personnel, but that didn’t make him one of them.

He witnessed Garber stand up with military veterans to be recognized at a Friends of the National Rifle Association banquet a few weeks ago.

“It was totally disrespectful,” Santiny said.

Garber said the NRA representative asked for those who served to stand up.

“I served. I came forward. I didn’t understand it was official military veterans,” Garber said.

Santiny said an apology would not be enough.

“He needs to withdraw from the race because he’s already done the damage that can’t be undone,” Santiny said. “He needs to do the graceful thing, quit being a politician and bow out of the race.”