Samuel Sherwood bills himself as an American patriot with permanent residency status in Israel and a veteran of both the Army and the Navy. Yet records and other sources reveal numerous contradictions in the life of Idaho's most famous militia-man.
Despite flirtations with military service and an apparent fascination with soldiering, the United States Militia Association's director apparently never got beyond training status in the armed forces.In 1971, five months after completing an LDS Church mission, the 21-year-old Sherwood moved to Israel, declared himself Jewish on government forms and told Israeli officials he was considering Israeli citizenship.
He claims to be the namesake of U.S. founding father Samuel Adams, but Sherwood was born Mason Stanley Sherwood and legally changed his name to Michael Stanley Sherwood in 1993, calling his old name "repugnant and repulsive" because of childhood trauma.
Although a survivalist and the author of a book on gun rights, Sherwood admits to not owning a firearm until last year. He finally bought a gun at the prodding of his sons so the family could go deer hunting, he said.
Yet Sherwood said last September that, "Gun ownership is not a freedom or a liberty as much as it is a constitutional responsibility."
Even the true size of the United States Militia Association is unclear. In fact, some of the men Sherwood claimed as state leaders now disavow the organization and its national director.
The Times-News in Twin Falls reported its findings on the Blackfoot man and his organization on Wednesday. Sherwood declined to be interviewed after the newspaper rejected his demand that he choose the reporter.
The native Californian stayed only five weeks in Israel after pledging to stay at least six months and never received the Israeli citizenship or permanent residency status he claimed in a national television interview last week. He decided instead to return to Brigham Young University, where he took undergraduate courses from 1971 until graduating in 1977.
His bachelor's degree complete, Sherwood's returned to Israel, enrolling in an Orthodox Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
But during a meeting just a few weeks ago in Twin Falls, Sherwood declared, "I'm not Jewish, I'm American - Christian American."
The Army and Navy say Sherwood has never seen active duty.
On Idaho Public Television's "Dialogue" program a week ago, Sherwood said he served in "both the Army and the Navy. In the Army I was assigned to air artillery and in the Navy I was SWOF - Surface Warfare Officer."
Navy officials say his only assignment was Officer Candidate School.