| Lies by Edward Lee Daily, a Korean War veteran who told Associated Press reporters about witnessing the
so-called Nogun-ri Massacre, have finally caught up with him. On September 13, 2002, he was sentenced in a
federal court to jail time. U.S. Attorney Richard Clippard said that Daily falsely claimed his POW status
and a combat-related injury, and thus he illegally received thousands of dollars in compensation money from
the federal government. Daily was indicted earlier in 2002 for wire fraud, and Sumter Camp was assigned to
be Daily’s public defender during the court proceedings. Prosecutors successfully proved to the court that
Daily had filed a claim with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on shrapnel injuries he said he
received while he was a Korean War veteran. He also claimed POW status. From February 1986 through the end
of 2001, Daily received $324,911 in payments wired to his bank, and $87,928 in medical care for
service-related disabilities. The war veteran’s fraudulent claims were discovered following a Stars and
Stripes investigation of the Associated Press story about Nogun-ri. Investigators with U.S. News also found
discrepancies in the testimonies of witnesses named in the Associated Press story. Declassified Army war
diaries and other declassified documents showed that Edward Lee Daily was not a member of a 7th Cavalry
Regiment line company. Instead, he was a mechanic with the Army’s 27th Ordnance Maintenance Company. Daily’s
claim to be a 1st Lieutenant in the Army was also false, according to his own admission in court.
On September 13, 2002, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger pronounced sentence against Daily. According to
the U.S. Department of Justice, Daily was sentenced in federal court to 21 months in prison, followed by
three years of supervised release. In addition, Daily must repay the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
$412,839—money which he illegally obtained from the government by wire fraud.
[Editor’s Note: Sadly, nothing can undo the horrific damage that Daily did regarding
Nogun-ri. His terrible lies to the Associated Press have severely damaged the good reputations of the
veterans of the 7th Cavalry and that of Korean War veterans in general. Edward Lee Daily is truly a
dishonorable man, and an American disgrace. – Lynnita Brown]
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