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On 3 May 2016, the military satire site Duffel Blog published an article reporting that Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter had been stripped of the award for valor after he failed to complete an online training course during active duty: Kyle Carpenter is a real person, but the circumstances described by Duffel Blog are fictional. The former Marine medically retired from the service in July 2013 due to injuries sustained in Afghanistan, and was awarded the Medal of Honor on 19 June 2014. Carpenter was charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run in late 2015 when he struck a pedestrian while making a left turn on a street in Columbia, South Carolina (the victim suffered minor injuries; Carpenter turned himself in). However, his medal was not stripped then, nor was it taken away while he was on active duty. Duffel Blog's About page mirrored the tongue-in-cheek style of its content, hinting its content wasn't meant to be taken seriously. However (unlike most self-labeled satire sites) Duffel Blog aimed to amuse (not confuse) a relatively small audience: military people: Readers familiar with Duffel Blog immediately recognized its satirical intent. However, the brand of humor employed is very specific. Because of this, occasionally Duffel Blog articles can cause confusion on social media. Previous instances in which Duffel Blog material was misidentified as factual include articles reporting that West Point posthumously revoked diplomas of confederate soldiers, the Army adopted a mandatory divorce policy to improve readiness, Ariana Grande joined ISIS, the USS Gabrielle Giffords would be the Navy's first gun-free warship, and that the Pentagon spent massive amounts of money on Powerball tickets to fund the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
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