Army: Soldier's story doesn’t add up

Brenden Teetsell was a U.S. Army soldier serving his country when his body was found Feb. 7 on a military base in Germany. He loved the theater. His energy could light up a room.

But the 20-year-old Yuba City man wasn't awarded the Purple Heart his mother thought he'd received, he wasn't injured in Iraq as a friend said Teetsell had claimed, and he wasn't an Army captain as he told members of a Butte County church.

"We have looked at his file and we have nothing that shows him in Iraq or Afghanistan. So he would not have received a Purple Heart," Shari Lawrence, an Army deputy public affairs officer in Washington, D.C., said Friday of Teetsell, who held the rank of specialist. "We have strict guidelines as to what qualifies for a Purple Heart."

Lawrence said she doesn't know if Teetsell or someone else told his family that he'd been awarded the military honor.

"It's hard to watch the family go through it," Lawrence said of their learning the truth. "There's nothing we can do to make it better."

"In this particular case it's doubly sad because of everything su rounding it," she said of his death.

The body of Teetsell, a longtime Yuba City resident who as a youth had appeared in numerous local theater productions, was discovered this month hanging by a bedsheet in a stairwell at the U.S. military base in Mannheim, Germany, an Army spokesman said. The death is under investigation.

In an Appeal-Democrat story published Thursday, Adele Robinson spoke of her son being awarded the Purple Heart and how "he was proudest serving his country."

Family spokesperson Stephanie Ruscigno said Friday night that Robinson is in seclusion, recovering from major surgery and suffering greatly from the loss of her only son.

Ruscigno, commander of the Disabled American Veterans chapter in Yuba-Sutter, helped organize Sunday's Celebration of Life service for Teetsell.

"He chose to serve his country and we're going to honor that," Ruscigno said. "He accepted the torch of freedom willingly and this does need to be honored."

Yuba City resident Eric Bufford, 35, served a decade in the Army and reserves and knew Teetsell from the Yuba City Church of the Nazarene. Bufford said he mourns the loss of his friend — but decided against wearing dress greens to the service Sunday for Teetsell.

Bufford said the Army uniform represents honor and integrity — and that he works with other veterans who were awarded the Purple Heart, a decoration that must be respected. "It's something you don't tread lightly on," Bufford said. "He can't get away with taking credit for something he didn't do."

Army spokeswoman Lawrence said awards such as the Purple Heart are taken very seriously.

"We guard very jealously the awards because they are special," Lawrence said. "You can look at the soldier and look at the awards and pretty well tell his military history."

Dave Montoya, an associate pastor at Paradise Alliance Church, where Teetsell spoke last Sept. 23 — and whose church Web site with its archives of sermons Montoya said the U.S. Army accessed — found the young man something of a puzzle.

"He definitely had many faces," Montoya said.

In Paradise, he was Army Capt. Teetsell, thanking church members who prayed "for me or my troops," noting the cane he used because of an injury and leading the congregation in "something we do in Iraq — we call it the Iraqi prayer circle."

The church's senior pastor, Larry Shelton, in his September sermon, said that a news clip, slogan or video is sometimes how people learn about a soldier's sacrifice. So it was wonderful having Teetsell, as he recuperated from his injuries, "here in our midst to realize it's real," Shelton said.

But "Capt. Teetsell," who talked with church members about having been awarded a couple of Purple Hearts, turned out not to be real, said associate pastor Montoya. The pastor, who comes from a military family, said suspicions had grown in Paradise about Teetsell.

"He portrayed himself as being Mr. Top Secret," Montoya said. The soldier spoke of having numerous security clearances — talk that someone with such authority wouldn't make, Montoya said.

The associate pastor said one of the tragedies of Teetsell's story is that the significance the soldier sought is something everyone wants — but that Teetsell didn't need to overstate his rank to achieve importance.

"We would have honored him in front of our congregation as a specialist," Montoya said. "We were just honored to have one of the troops."

Brownsvillle resident Robert Hechtman, 79, who directed several plays that Teetsell appeared in, is honored to have known the Yuba City man.

"He didn't perform on stage," remembered Hechtman. "He exploded."

"It makes me sick that he's gone," Hechtman said. "I don't care if he was a captain or he wasn't. I don't care if he served in Iraq or not."

"I'm proud that he served his country," he said of Teetsell. "I want to remember him as a kid who wanted to be liked."

A celebration of life will be held Sunday for Yuba City resident Brenden Teetsell. The 2:30 p.m. service will be at the Crossroads Community Church, 445 B St., Yuba City. The hearse carrying Teetsell's casket will travel west on Seventh Street from Lipp and Sullivan mortuary in Marysville, turn right on H Street, left onto Highway 20, over the Tenth Street bridge into Yuba City, left on Shasta Street and across Bridge Street.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.