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Editor’s note: A year after this story was published, James Vasquez admitted that he lied about his military record. You can read the update here.
An Army vet from Connecticut who joined up with Ukraine’s military to fight the Russians has shared a now-viral video of himself standing in front of bombed smoking Kremlin tanks.
James Vasquez, 47, publicly declared his plan to leave his family and business in Norwalk on Feb. 24 — the day that Russia invaded its eastern neighbor.
“It’s in his DNA — it’s what he loves to do,” Vasquez’s wife, Tina Vasquez, told The Post on Friday of her hubby’s heroics.
“He did the same thing after 9/11, rushed in to help. That’s just who he is — he’s my hero,” she said.
The former US Army staff sergeant finally made it to Ukraine on March 15 — sharing his experiences through a newly created Twitter account, detailing how he helped “take out” numerous Russian tanks as well as kill and capture Russian troops.
“Welcome to America!” someone shouts in one of his videos — seen more than 2 million times since it was posted Thursday — as Vasquez stands in front of a smoking Russian tank.
This village has been Russian occupied for a month, they terrorized the people and took their food. Today we entered, took out 7 tanks and countless Russians thus liberating these people pic.twitter.com/0Fm3qHdepB
— James Vasquez (@jmvasquez1974) March 24, 2022“I don’t know if you guys know what this was behind me,” Vasquez said as he posed with one of his comrades-in-arms, “but that’s a Russian tank. First tank that was taken out.”
“So far we took out seven Russian tanks after a long firefight and took control of the area,” he said in an update early Friday.
“Right now we’re going to just kind of sweep around and see what we got left. Some stragglers — take them out and call it a day,” said the one-time US Army sergeant who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It’s been a long day, baby.”
Another clip showed him excitedly counting out four blazing armored vehicles while exulting: “Yeah, buddy … I call that a good day!”
It’s not just tanks that have been taken out by Vasquez and his colleagues.
The American bragged in a tweet Tuesday, “Captured 159 Russians today!“
In another post, he wrote, “Russians refuse to take their dead. Their fallen soldiers are left to be eaten by stray dogs,” adding that this was proof the invaders are “pieces of s–t.
“Americans would never leave a man or corpse behind,” he tweeted.
Vasquez has also shown off his weaponry on social media, displaying grenades and a machine gun.
“I had a pretty beat up weapon,” he captioned a picture of an automatic rifle Wednesday, “so I decided to take this bad boy from a Russian.”
Vasquez has also witnessed the losses of war, saying Thursday that one member of his team was killed and two others were injured during “six straight hours of combat.”
While Vasquez does not say where he is in Ukraine, he previously stated that he had been woken by huge explosions in the western city of Lviv.
But rather than feeling fear, Vasquez insisted last week that “I kind of feel like I’m on an awesome very dangerous vacation.”
Vasquez says he has been well-received by Ukrainian soldiers, who “think it’s awesome an American soldier is here to fight alongside them” after initially being “shocked to see an American passport” at checkpoints. He says he has fought alongside British and Canadian citizens but has not come across any other Americans on the frontline.
“I don’t want the Russian propaganda machine saying there is a battalion of Americans,” Vasquez stressed in a tweet from early Friday. “[I’m] Here alone on my own accord in a complete voluntary capacity.”
In one of his most recent posts Friday, Vasquez shared photos of himself and a British soldier training Ukrainian forces on their “down time.
“They are eager and fast learners.,” he said of the Ukrainians. “It’s really an honor to be fighting with these fine men.
“I definitely did the right thing,” he said of his decision to fly to the front lines.
Tina Vasquez, his wife of seven years, told The Post that when her husband first asked if she minded him going, she replied, “Go ahead — just make sure you come home.
“Did I want him to go? No. But I told him, ‘Do what ya gotta do,'” she recalled.
“He wants to be a part of this and he has a lot to offer the Ukraine soldiers,” she said of her husband, who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan after joining the US Army at age 18.
Tina said she has been “overwhelmed” by the support she’s gotten in Norwalk, with many also calling her a hero for allowing the trip, which her husband is prepared to stretch out until at least May, if necessary.
Still, “everyone is concerned,” she said. “It’s been a struggle, worrying all the time. He tries to touch base when he can, but sometimes I won’t hear from him for a couple of days, which obviously raises my concerns.
“But I just have to remind myself that he’s on the front lines and really busy.”
The Vasquezes each have two adult sons from previous relationships — with at least one of the four a little too supportive, Tina said.
“My oldest son is an Army national reservist, so he gets it. He’s probably jealous he can’t be there, but I’m glad he’s not — one from the family is more than enough!” she said.
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