I donate $10,000 a year to UAP and have done so for the past several years. Two years ago, I accepted an invitation to serve as a Member of UAPs Board. As such, I am intimately familiar with the ethical and thoughtful manner in which UAP grants benefits and manages expenses in support of our service member. Defending the Defenders The mission says it all. United American Patriots provides legal services for those service members in trouble while in active combat. I have volunteered at this organization for over four years and have watched it grow each year in terms of revenue and benefits provided to our soldiers. It is very disappointing how one uninformed reviewer can provide a review that is inaccurate and false. Under new management this charity will be relocating to our nation's capital and will continue to be the nation's resource in understanding the rules of war versus the rule of law. Please do you due diligence and see how well organized and managed this business truly is.
I am honored to support an organization dedicated to defending our warriors. Those who selflessly put their lives in harms way to protect the liberties and freedoms of my family and me, even though they don’t know me. My son has known from an early age to respect the great American flag and what it represents and he thanks each service member he encounters.
Last year, I first learned of United American Patriots when I decided to reactivate my Twitter and Instagram accounts to support CPO Gallagher as he faces an unfair Military Justice System. I was amazed to learn that UAP was supporting so many warriors who either had been unfairly tried and convicted or are in the process of being Court Martialed in the Military Justice System. Since I learned about UAP, I have become a supporter of Major Matthew Golsteyn and 1Lt Clint Lorance.
The commitment of Lt Col David (Bull) Gurfein (retired) and the UAP staff to these warriors and their families is inspiring. They are true Patriots and make me want to fight for these warriors every day! I will continue to support Major Golsteyn, Lt Lorance, other warriors, and United American Patriots! Thank you.
I have supported UAP and individual warriors who have been wrongfully incarcerated, for many years. The warriors and families are enthusiastic about UAP. I appreciate how UAP gives us updates on the warriors, as they apply for parole and pardons. They also tell supporters specific ways to help, with letters to our Congressman and The President. God bless UAP, the warriors and their families.
They lie about the war criminals they represent in order to obtain donations that fund the lawyers that are on their board. Less than 20 percent of donated funds go to legal assistance and the assistance they do provide goes to board members. Do not donate, they are lying to you for their own benefit. They are nothing more than a law firm masquerading as a non profit so they can get paid outrageous fees for poor service. What they pay the lawyers on their board is well above the industry standard.. They have recently been outed by one of their clients for trying to exploit them for donations instead actually working their case. They admitted to past failures and now want you to trust them as they hired a CEO with a domestic violence conviction to set them straight.
I clicked on a heading “ No Soldier Left Behind “ and this came up with “ Vanityfair sub Politics “. URL www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/the-unsolved-mistook-of-the-soldier-who-died-in-the-watchtower. This discuses how Army CID screws up, assumptions that are not backed up, false reporting to make things EASY, on and on. It discuses many other ? Cases!
This showed just what you are up against!
This is for United American pat. Or UAP.
I left my friends, my family, and my hometown (where I lived my entire life) to join the UAP team and commit 100% of my skills and effort toward supporting our Nation’s Warriors – And I am glad I did.
In March of 2018, UAP hired me as a Non-Profit office management advisor to assist in improving and enhancing its processes and procedures.
At first, I viewed my employment as simply another job full of the typical administrative and logistical challenges associated with any organization. However, as I learned more about UAP, the Board, and the Clients, I realized UAP stood for so much more. Before long, I enthusiastically desired to continue my career with UAP and focus on the mission with passion.
Everyone involved with UAP is aligned with, and focused on, accomplishing a singular goal – supporting our Nation’s Warriors, especially those who were unjustly accused, or convicted, of “war crimes” after voluntarily placing their lives on the line to keep my fellow countrymen, my family, and me safe.
Our Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines deserve the best qualified representation and we all deserve a military which is held accountable to our Nation and those who serve.
I look forward to growing with UAP and bringing on others who share our passion.
Review from Guidestar
In the past I have been very skeptical regarding charitable contributions to many organizations. If you are like me, I would like to take the opportunity to confirm that United American Patriots (UAP) is the 'real deal'. Five years ago our family found we had been placed in a position of the unknown. One of our very own, a highly decorated, well respected 1LT fighting for our country was convicted of murder for doing his job. He had killed no one, he was fighting in a war zone with the enemy. Murder??? UAP picked up our family and has led us every step of the way in fighting for justice. These board members not only assist financially but they actually care and console the soldier and their family. UAP is not frivolous, they are well managed and maintained. This is a charitable organization that actually uses your donation in the manner it states as its cause... I know this because the Lorance family will forever be grateful for how UAP has been there to assist our soldier, our hero, my nephew 1LT Clint Lorance. We continue to fight for justice today THANKS TO UAP.
Jean Lorance
Clint Lorance's Aunt
Review from Guidestar
Our family was at the point of desperation trying to figure out how we were going to afford the legal fees required to fight for our son, Sgt. Derrick Miller. The UAP was a godsend to us at a time when hope was in short supply. Their steadfast support, not only in the form of financial assistance with legal fees, but with travel funds to visit our son, monthly stipends so that he can call home regularly, and emotional support for all of us when the burden was almost unbearable, is something I can never find adequate words to express our gratitude for. This organization is nothing short of amazing, and is performing a crucial service to families like ours who have nowhere else to turn in our time of need.
Review from Guidestar
I served for nine years in the U.S. Army infantry. While on my last deployment in Afghanistan in 2009-2010, I was accused of a handful of war crimes along with some of my other platoon mates. The United American Patriots helped me to secure legal counsel outside of the military as well as helped my family while I was being held in pretrial confinement on the military base. The United American Patriots are great friends and advocates of the U.S. soldier, they go above and beyond to help in your greatest time of need. I could never thank them enough for the help that they provided for me and my family they are true blue Americans and amazing friends.
Michael Wagnon
Review from Guidestar
United American Patriots is a great organization! They do things for our service members that no one else does. I personally know one Marine and two Army soldiers who have received support from UAP. If it wasn't for UAP, they would all be in prison now. I can't say enough good things about UAP. And they keep supporting those who fight for the rest of us Americans. I know that UAP just had a major change in leadership. I haven't met the new President but from what I have seen, this organization is better than ever! A lot of people and groups say they "support the troops" but UAP really does it by supporting our warriors, who are charged with crimes in combat. I will keep donating as long as our combat troops get falsely accused. Go UAP!!!
Review from Guidestar
United American Patriots serves in one of the most unknown and forgotten areas of our country - UAP takes care of those military members who had the courage to put on the uniform and go into combat to protect our people, only to be court-martialed for violating rules of engagement or being too rough on enemy detainees.
Not too many people realize that since 2001, when we entered our current wars, an increasing number of honorable and well-intentioned fighting personnel have served literally at the tip of the spear of American foreign and national security policy, only to be jammed up and court-martialed as murderers by senior military officers who place their own career trajectory above protecting their warfighters who are Monday Morning Quarterbacked by efforts to placate host-nation leaders, left-leaning media, and politicians who only know warfare as an academic exercise rather than real flesh and blood.
An example, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals found that Clint Lorance changed the rules of engagement on his own to authorize his paratroopers to engage motorcycles on site. The problem: the jury found Clint Lorance not guilty of that offense. Then, senior Army legal officials and the Secretary of the Army's designee approved Clint Lorance's trial as correct in law and fact. This is probably because Brigadier General Joseph Berger, the Chief Judge of the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, stated in public in March 2018 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, that Lorance was a "bad apple," likened Lorance to 1lT Calley of the My Lai massacre, and informed the audience that Lorance changed the rules of engagement when the jury found that he did not.
This is a perfect example of senior military and politically-appointed leaders serving their own career rather than having the moral courage to do the right thing and protect and defend their junior warfighters - to at least ensure they receive a trial of all the facts and an appeal which does not turn an acquittal into a conviction.
Without UAP, none of this would have come to light. And, there is lots more UAP has done not only for Lorance and his family, but also for dozens of others.
Most recently, one 101st ABN soldier who was convicted of shooting an enemy prisoner in the back, killing him, and served 10 years confinement, received many UAP-funded benefits upon his release. These include new business clothing, a job, significant health care, assistance with rent, securing a place to live, assistance with transportation costs, and round-trip travel and tuition for PTSD and professional emotional and psychological treatments.
I am not aware of any other organization that would provide such critical assistance to those who have served in harm's way.
And, I understand that new executive leadership have a long track record of business successes, not only as a liaison on Capitol Hill for the Marine Corps, a Harvard MBA, business sucesses in private commercial consulting, but also during combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and points across the globe. The new CEO's Operations Manager is a seasoned non-profit professional as well.
Briefly researching the Board of Directors shows that among them, as former active duty military officers, they have served not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also the Pentagon, Iceland, Okinawa, Germany, the Balkans, Kuwait, Panama, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Japan, as well as installations across the United States.
If you think Leavenworth casts a long shadow over how our fighting men and women have to comport themselves, UAP is the organization you might want to consider sponsoring. They have achieved solid results for an underserved but important population, not only in legal victories, but also in putting the pieces back to together after combat, investigation, court-martial, confinement, and return to meaningful and productive places in civilian society.
I am honored and humbled to be a part of UAPs great team and to serve, not only as the newest addition to UAPs Board of Directors but, as UAPs CEO.
As a Business Executive with a Harvard MBA, who has worked for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, I have led and consulted for many highly profitable businesses. However, other than volunteering my time in support of different programs for Special Olympics, Junior Achievement, etc… this is the first time I have been intimately associated with the leadership, operations, and financial management of any Non-Profit organization.
Quite frankly, having heard some rumors from a disgruntled former employee, who spent a very short period of time as a UAP Board Member, I didn’t know what to expect. While that person’s assertions sounded far-fetched, especially for such a successful organization which has been operating effectively, with annual audits, for over 12 years, I proceeded with a critical eye.
After doing my own due diligence, which included a complete review of UAPs policies and procedures as well as another independent audit by a professional CPA firm, I was relieved to find the negative allegations against UAP where based upon either ignorance or malice by the person making the assertions as opposed to any wrong doing by UAPs Board.
I am consistently impressed with the professionalism, motivation, and the amount of time and effort contributed by each Member of UAPs Board and each UAP employee in support of those who went in harm’s way on behalf of our Nation and our Rights and who are now facing politically or ideologically motivated legal challenges.
As a retired LtColonel of United States Marines who enlisted at 17 and served 25 years, with operational deployments to Panama, The First Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq, I am appalled at how some of our Warriors have been second-guessed and unjustly accused of crimes for making the right split-second decisions in combat.
Thank God UAP exists to provide a fighting chance for those wrongfully accused.
I look forward to serving with UAP as we continue to “fight for right” on behalf of our Warriors and explore productive ways to expand the support UAP provides.
Very Respectfully,
David “Bull” Gurfein
LtCol. USMCR(Ret.)
Chief Executive Officer
United American Patriots
Review from Guidestar
United American Patriots is a relatively unknown non-profit because they work for a small and growing group of both active and former military service members. They provide support to individual service members because when they and their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters need UAP’s help it is for the worst reasons. These reasons are because their sons and daughters are in trouble and their families witness the abandonment and isolation of their sons and daughters by our senior military leadership. Consequently, UAP’s Defend the Defender program relies on small donners, the individual citizens scatter across the US who recognize the injustice of war crimes prosecutions as political scapegoating.
UAP helps, aids, and supports our military warriors and their families that have fallen afoul in combat of the politics of bad military strategy. UAP strives to maintain fairness and truth in a system where military leadership does not help.
UAP believes that the “war crime” cases they handle are actually political prosecutions of military service members that have followed their Rules of Engagement and fall under the combatant protections of the Law of War.
The unique issue produced by the Iraq and Afghanistan war is that the US Military has more of these war crime cases than all the other combined wars fought by the United States. This issue is a sharp contrast to our senior military leadership boasts that we have the best trained, the best equipped, and most intelligent armed forces in our history. UAP also believes that our service men and women are the best trained, equipped and intelligent warriors this country has ever produced. UAP is concerned, however, that “the best” qualification does not seem to apply to our general officers and calls out our senior military leadership on these conflicting messages.
Politicians speak in equivocations and make decisions and deals to narrow public scrutiny. The job of politicians is to move the public opinion needles between the American values of liberty and equality; between individualism and constitutionalism based on majority rule. General officers forget they are political amateurs in a two party system where the minority opposition party will always fire volleys of criticism at their decisions that test their intellect and their leadership metal. Today’s general officers seem to forget that the loudest item in the room is always the truth and that good decisions will stand up under scrutiny provided leaders have the courage to battle the criticism.
The interesting item here is that when it comes time to scapegoat the US warrior, the generals switch the rules from the battlefield Law of War to the constitutional Rule of Law. They use the Rule of Law to accuse the warrior of murder when the Law of War Rules of Engagement state that our warriors (combatants) have immunity for killing the enemy.
UAP bears witness to the judicial waterboarding of our warriors because our military leadership cannot make the political prosecute of our service member’s work without abusing the military judicial system. Washington DC politics have creeped onto the battlefield facilitated by our senior military leadership at the expense of the warriors, who are eyeball to eyeball with a treacherous enemy that does not take prisoners, tortures, and uses civilians as shields. UAP is the only non-profit dedicated to support and help our warriors who fall victim of this military judicial abuse.
Review from Guidestar
This organization is truly one of a kind in terms of providing resources for military members accused of crime in combat, that is, for doing what we expect of our Nation's Warriors and then being court-martialed for murder.
Over 12 years old now, UAP works with professional fundraising organizations to defend military servicemembers accused of crime in combat, that is, personnel who engaged in combat operations but for some reason, get court-martialed for murder.
Here are some examples of the support UAP provides - support that is not available anywhere else:
* UAP helps fund costs for experienced legal counsel with decades of military justice and civilian practice experience so that servicemembers accused of crime in combat stand a better chance of defending themselves;
* UAP provides stipends to military personnel who are incarcerated in the military prison in Leavenworth, to help with their family needs, books, stamps, magazine subscriptions, and to help pay tuition as VA benefits are often lost because of the murder convictions;
* UAP helps families travel to prison to visit with their incarcerated loved one; and
* Upon release from confinement, UAP helps with PTSD treatements, psychological counseling, job opportunities, health care, travel to in-patient rehabilitation programs, rent, transition assistance, and efforts to update military records.
UAP's current Board of Directors is comprised of:
1) A retired Marine Officer who saw combat action and also has a Harvard Business School MBA;
2) A Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve and former Senior Executive Service (SES) General Counsel for the US Office of Personnel Management who is also a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and has a MBA;
3) A retired Marine Officer who saw action in the Persian Gulf War and is now an IT professional and program manager;
4) A retired Human Resources Executive who had a successful 30-year career placing senior leaders in large companies; and
5) A retired Marine Officer who has litigated hundreds of courts-martial and is on the faculty of the widely respected "Trial Lawyers College" founded by Jerry Spence.
None of these Board members is compensated for their service on the Board of Directors.
The CEO is assisted by an experienced Operations Manager with years of work in the non-for-profit space.
UAP works with an audit firm, a CPA firm, a law firm, a professional fundraiser, a licensing firm, and several financial institutions to ensure legal and regulatory compliance and to be responsible stewards of non-profit dollars donated to defend military personnel accused of crime in combat.
In April 2018, one Board Member resigned only after a few months' service because apparently, she was unable to appreciate her fiduciary duty to the organization, comply with the Bylaws, and to positively address issues or help move the organization forward.
At this point, the organization is poised for growth and to mission expansion with new and experienced executive leadership at the helm.
Review from Guidestar
I am concerned with the ROE for the Military. It seems to me that we send our young troops into combat with a disadvantage. Many of our troops are being held in Ft. Leavenworth, Ks for disobeying the ROE'S. How can you know the enemy when they cover themselves as villagers? And how do we justify releasing Bowe Bergdahl, who would have been tried for desertion and put in. Front of a firing squad not so many years ago. Or Chelsea Manning who is rewarded for his/her actions?
Review from Guidestar