Paul H. Dunn’s Blatant Lies

[Physics Guy]

I have to wonder when Dunn told his boot-shot-off story, and to what audience. Unless he was pretty careful, I'd have thought there'd be a significant risk of some veteran hearing it and laughing out loud.

He should have lost all credibility at the very outset by describing an enemy machine gun-ner as a sniper. I don't see how anybody who had ever been shot at by both, or even had to worry seriously about being shot at by both, could ever have treated those as interchangeable threats. It's almost like saying, "This mugger came at me with a scam e-mail."

[I have to put a hyphen into gun-ner or it autocorrects to Gunnar, which I have to say is unfortunate.]

Anyway, though, the sequence of events that follows in Dunn's story is not just unlikely to happen to anyone. It could only happen to Bugs Bunny. Bullets just don't do things like that.

Maybe recent enough veterans might have cut him enough slack to call it a pardonably colourful exaggeration of what could have been a confusing and terrifying real experience. So maybe he was counting on everyone who could have called him out just smiling and nodding him through.

[Gadianton]

Anyway, though, the sequence of events that follows in Dunn's story is not just unlikely to happen to anyone. It could only happen to Bugs Bunny. Bullets just don't do things like that.

that Dunn made things up in regard to facts is true, but he wasn't so inventive in regards to tropes. Faith narratives are Bugs Bunny level stuff, but the best and brightest easily swallow it; it's the stuff faith is made of. Mormons have been primed to believe in bullets doing incredible things, like getting absorbed by a Book of Mormon in pocket or bouncing off garments. The critical thinking happens at the level of the trope -- is this a storyline we're used to hearing? Does the person telling the story have the right to tell it? that's where the credibility is. If there aren't serious breaks with reality, then people lose interest.

[Physics Guy]

The weird thing here is that the impossible details are just chrome. The miraculous break from reality isn't something like, "And the blind beggar saw!" Making it through gunfire unscathed should be the actual good part, but it's merely lucky, not impossible. The crazy parts are the helmet getting split in two, the boot getting knocked off the foot, the belt and all its stuff getting shot away by one burst, and the sleeves somehow getting shot free from the coat. I mean, all of those need miracles in ballistics but that last one also needs a miracle of bad tailoring.

Those weren't miracles that anybody particularly needed. They're just cartoonish slapstick.

[sock puppet]

The weird thing here is that the impossible details are just chrome. The miraculous break from reality isn't something like, "And the blind beggar saw!" Making it through gunfire unscathed should be the actual good part, but it's merely lucky, not impossible. The crazy parts are the helmet getting split in two, the boot getting knocked off the foot, the belt and all its stuff getting shot away by one burst, and the sleeves somehow getting shot free from the coat. I mean, all of those need miracles in ballistics but that last one also needs a miracle of bad tailoring.

Those weren't miracles that anybody particularly needed. They're just cartoonish slapstick.

Magic bullets? Was Oswald the sniper/gunner?

[markc]

Thank you for posting this, Mark.

Thanks for reading it!

Also, your quote about how he claimed he evaded the fire in WWII, I remember I heard that in my mission. I didn't understand it too much as my English wasn't well enough then, but it seemed everyone there was moved. Awkward.

And it's so interesting you mentioned Jaredites in Book of Mormon. I remember the time I found the number of deaths to be nearly unreasonably big. China has a long history of bloody battles, but the most bloody ones probably weren't as many. I kind of started questioning a bit at that time.

[markc]

Another case of: the Church never does the right thing because it's the right thing. Only because they got caught or bad PR mandates it.

EXACTLY. And this is an organized religion that claims to be the only true church on earth.

[markc]

And so many Mormons out there are miffed when we say we are now in the know that the leaders are in the know of the deliberate deception they hoist upon the members. . . and it is the #1 testimony killer, simply because of how they have set it all up to be leader worship instead of actual religion.

"Leader worship instead of actual religion," hmm, good call, I never saw it that way. But what I can tell you is now I recall the Sunday school and priesthood meeting teaching about how great Brigham Young was, it makes me want to puke.

[markc]

Still more believable than the Book of Mormon.

[markc]

I have to wonder when Dunn told his boot-shot-off story, and to what audience. Unless he was pretty careful, I'd have thought there'd be a significant risk of some veteran hearing it and laughing out loud.

He should have lost all credibility at the very outset by describing an enemy machine gun-ner as a sniper. I don't see how anybody who had ever been shot at by both, or even had to worry seriously about being shot at by both, could ever have treated those as interchangeable threats. It's almost like saying, "This mugger came at me with a scam e-mail."

[I have to put a hyphen into gun-ner or it autocorrects to Gunnar, which I have to say is unfortunate.]

Anyway, though, the sequence of events that follows in Dunn's story is not just unlikely to happen to anyone. It could only happen to Bugs Bunny. Bullets just don't do things like that.

Maybe recent enough veterans might have cut him enough slack to call it a pardonably colourful exaggeration of what could have been a confusing and terrifying real experience. So maybe he was counting on everyone who could have called him out just smiling and nodding him through.

Indeed. I'm actually quite surprised about that: why didn't someone step up and call him out?

I think it's because he was a GA and very popular, and also at that time it was way easier to cover things up because information wasn't as easily available like now (internet).

On the other hand, I also believe that even if someone did call him out, there still would be many people believing in him. Look at how many people believe in flat earth right now.

[yellowstone123]

I need to read Packer’s book. The baseball seems fishy but as a reader of military in warfare, I would need to corroborate it. I did listen as a 20 year old after excommunication about Paul Dunn being run over by a tank and he couldn’t move his head. As being under machine gun fire and having your clothes shredded, I’ve read that before from non LDS sources.

I actually met Paul Dunn at Orange County airport. I told My mom about it. I’m sure she him wrote a letter. Within a short time I received a letter which came to my house sayinging it was as good to meet me and he wished me a bright future.

I’m sure my mom explain detail what happened and the like trench fever young 19 year olds were receiving/accounting.