TV singers war injury claims untrue,says ex-wife

Americas Got Talent contestant said he blocked blast in 2009 to save his buddies in afghanistan

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Timothy Michael Poe won over the crowd and the judges of NBCs Americas Got Talent even before he began to sing,with his moving story of blocking a grenade blast in 2009 to save his buddies in Afghanistan.

When a judge remarked during the episode broadcast Monday on the disappearance of Poes stutter,he spun another tale: He discovered his talent only after his speech therapist suggested he sing in the shower.

But an ex-wife says Poe was never hurt on the battlefield,had been singing pretty much his whole life and spent four years fronting an alternative rock band. A MySpace page last updated in February 2009 for the band Crawl Space lists Poe as vocalist.

And the Minnesota Army National Guard says its records show Poe never was injured in combat in Afghanistan or Iraq. That has ignited a firestorm online,especially among veterans and on military blogs,over Poe allegedly claiming glory and sympathy to which hes not entitled.

Its embarrassing for me and its embarrassing for his children and its embarrassing for the military, said Shannon Conroy,who was married to Poe from November 2005 until April.

In the Americas Got Talent episode that aired Monday,Poe told the judges that he spent 14 years in the military and was attacked in Afghanistan.

I had volunteered for a team to go out and clear buildings and help out with the wounded, Poe said during a taped interview on the show. There was a guy who comes up with a rocket-propelled grenade. I saw it coming down,and by the time I turned and went to jump on top of my guys,I yelled Grenade and the blast had hit me.

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Poe has declined multiple requests for comment. Military records show he served in Afghanistan for about a month in mid-2009. The sergeant was honourably discharged in 2011 because of a medical disability.

The 35-year-old Texas man claimed when he spoke to WFAA-TV of Dallas last month that he was also wounded in Iraq in 2005,when his truck was hit by a roadside bomb.

In a detailed rebuttal Thursday,Lt. Col Kevin Olson,a spokesman for the Minnesota Army National Guard,wrote that none of the military records that Poes fiancée,Carrie Morris,provided back up his claims that he was ever injured in combat.

In another discrepancy,it was confirmed Thursday that Poe gave Americas Got Talent a photograph of another soldier and passed it off as himself. The caption of the original says it shows one Staff Sgt. Norman Bone.