Talk:Alek Skarlatos

Question Suggestion
Is the Umpqua Community College shooting really a necessary section? I think that should go under "Early life" or something. Please reply with your remarks. IntelligenceAgent (talk) 23:43, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * , Seems most relevant to the "Dancing with the Stars" section, he was rehearsing for the show when he found out about it, it was talked about in an episode, and he said somewhere that if he hadn't agreed to do the show he would have been at the college. Rainbow unicorn (talk) 20:29, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150905202352/http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars/cast/alek-skarlatos to http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars/cast/alek-skarlatos

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Removal of Belgium Award
I have removed the following: |- | |Civic Medal for bravery, 1st Class (Belgium)
 * Disqualify Belgium Civic Medal

The source below gives a recent accounting of awards given each participant of the event. Spencer Stone and Anthony Saddler were awarded this medal.

This is the the medal seen in the widely circulated photograph of the three men sitting in a restaurant.
 * Qualify Medal of bravery city of Aaras, France

---> Darryl.P.Pike (talk) 18:54, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

Content for Improvement - French Citizen as of 2019
The following needs added to improve the article. He (and the others) have been awarded French citizenship on January 31, 2019. Several other publications posted articles of the same content more or less, but this was the earliest date of publish, the day it occurred, within a reliable source.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-train-terror-attack-citizenship-20190131-story.html

I thank the future wandering editor for putting time into the above.

---> Darryl.P.Pike (talk) 18:35, 25 April 2019 (UTC)


 * I've reverted edits made to the lede. Spending three days in France doesn't make a person French, any more than spending one hour on the moon made the Apollo astronauts "Moonies." Having your name on a book cover, doesn't make you a writer. Reporter Jeffrey Stern wrote the book and labored to keep it from being too awful, with marginal success. A movie about a friend included me in some shots. As I actually walked into a theater with a friend, intending to see a movie made by another friend. I wasn't aware it was a double feature, and as I walked in a few minutes late, and just as I did so, I was surprised to see myself on the big screen, as it was a double feature. I may have a copy somewhere, but gave copies to two friends who had larger and speaking parts. It didn't make me an "actor." I once accidentally walked on a set where two famous, rather tall actors were being filmed. That didn't make me an actor either, nor did it make me tall. Alas, I was cut from the motion picture as well. The three Americans were cast as themselves and were so awful, the film was universally panned and was a $30 million flop. In an interview with the three, Eastwood said, "...If I could just get them to not think too much..." Well, that didn't work out. Activist (talk) 01:19, 2 September 2019 (UTC)


 * It's not clear that he's retaining his US citizenship. This could be worth confirming here in light of his political campaign.
 * Kortoso (talk) 04:59, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

Tricoloured medal
Greetings,

On the profile picture used at the top of this article, Skarlatos is wearing two medals above his name tag. One is the meritorious unit commendation. The other one is a tricoloured medal which doesn't appear in the section "Awards and decorations".

Does someone know what this award is, and so add it to the above-mentioned section?

Thanks a lot,

--Triskael (talk) 12:03, 24 April 2020 (UTC)


 * As far as the tricolored medal, I don't know what it is, though an earlier editor called it a "Philippine Unit citation" which looks like one except that it would have been extremely dubious that he earned one. I had removed that ptiot identification. See new section below. Activist (talk) 08:13, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

Photograph copyright
I've asked about the copyright on the photo which editor "CookieMonster755" has substantially cropped from a group photo and replaced the existing photo, the cropped version CM entitled "Alek Skarlatos smiling." I read the WP policies on use of photos, and the license to use this, and found confirmation that the photo is in the public domain that is quite clear. The photo was nominated for deletion by another editor on May 15th, but I couldn't figure out why it was so nominated. However in reading the WP protocols, I did find this, just this morning: "Cropping Within reason, crop an image to remove irrelevant areas. But do not 'throw away information'; for example, if a photograph shows George Washington and Abraham Lincoln together at a birthday party, and the article you're working on requires only Lincoln, consider uploading both the original image and the crop of Lincoln. Also, if an image has captions as an inherent part of the artwork (as with book illustrations, early cartoons, many lithographs, etc.), don't crop them, or upload the original uncropped version as well." Well, it would be remarkable of course if Washington and Lincoln were together in the same birthday party, given that photography had not been invented in Washington's time and he died a decade before Lincoln was born, but I presume that the commentary, but not the principle, was in jest. Francoise Holland and U.S. Ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, are in the photo, as well as Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler. I'm reverting the reversion of my replacement of the cropped photo with the original, and hope that this issue can be resolved per WP standards. Surely a properly licensed photo that the Skarlatos campaign would appreciate can be found, though not posted by his campaign or any editor with a COI. Activist (talk) 14:12, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Not sure why you put my names in quotes cheers,  cookie monster  (2020)  755  21:16, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

Service awards
I've removed some awards from this article in the past, because they were misidentified by an editor by sight, like the supposed Philippine Unit citations which appeared in older versions of this article. I've removed some rather trivial awards, unsourced and unimportant. This isn't any place to load up with the "clean fingernails" or "shiny shoes" awards, or that of membership the "clean plate club."I've known flag rank officers who wore very few decorations. I think I've seen photos of Eisenhower wearing just a few. For some perspective, I just looked at the article for []. His listed awards consist of only 9 important decorations, including the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Seal Trident pin, the Navy Parachutist, the Bronze star (which was probably awarded with a V for valor, though it doesn't show there), two Vietnam War unit citations, and the Purple Heart. I left half a dozen of Skarlatos's decorations which should probably go. Activist (talk) 08:50, 20 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I have once again removed the Philippine Unit Citation. It was awarded to his Unit in WWII, 75 years ago. It has zero relevance to the 21st Century or to Skarlatos, personally. It's just puffery. The signature seems equally irrelevant. Activist (talk) 14:18, 15 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I just edited the article on General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., a truly distinguished officer. There are four photos of him in that article and only one, a posed Pentagon photo, shows more than a few decorations. None of those awards are displayed in the Davis article. Skarlatos earned more than one medal for essentially the same service, but many are unimportant puffery, and don't belong here. We don't need to know if he got the "Clean Fingernails" award, or the "tight 'hospital corners' bunk bed citation," thank you. Activist (talk) 15:26, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Removal of coatrack
I've removed some of the material recently added about the 2020 campaign.[] It was written in a conspiratorial tone and most was not about Skarlatos. The part about monthly fund raising is undue per WP:RECENT. While month by month fund raising comparisons might be relevant today, they won't be relevant once the election is over in November. At that point only a total might be due in the article. Springee (talk) 11:41, 20 May 2020 (UTC) , Please justify the material you restored here []. Per policy WP:NOCON, In discussions of proposals to add, modify or remove material in articles, a lack of consensus commonly results in retaining the version of the article as it was prior to the proposal or bold edit. However, for contentious matters related to living people, a lack of consensus often results in the removal of the contentious matter, regardless of whether the proposal was to add, modify or remove it. Springee (talk) 19:00, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

DAGR and backpack
I removed the part that says the film does not mention the loss of the DAGR as it is mentioned twice. The issue may be that people think he meant "a dagger", rather than "the DAGR"? Chaosdruid (talk) 22:03, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Politician?
It's a bit of a stretch to be referring to Skarlatos as a politician when he's never been elected to anything. Running for office and failing does not make him a politician. It's like referring to somebody as a novelist when they've never been published, or as a professional athlete because they tried out for a pro team but never made it. 2.102.236.62 (talk) 04:16, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

Religion
The article INCORRECTLY states "...and identify themselves as Orthodox Christians.[11]".

The source of footnote [11] clarifies that all three are religious and they share a common faith: They are Christians. But nowhere does it say they are Orthodox.

Skarlatos being the son of a Greek immigrant is probably an Orthodox, while Anthony being the son of a Baptist Pastor is certainly Baptist. Not sure about Strone's denomination but he is definitely NOT Orthodox. Perhaps a correction in the main article is necessary to avoid confusion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Xwpis ONOMA (talk • contribs) 06:39, 3 February 2021 (UTC)