From TNR:

I am Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp, a member of Alpha Company, 1/18 Infantry, Second Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division.

Here is his blog.

Bryan at HotAir is all over it, including TNR’s pledge to do it all over for some reason:

Although the article was rigorously edited and fact-checked before it was published, we have decided to go back and, to the extent possible, re-report every detail. This process takes considerable time, as the primary subjects are on another continent, with intermittent access to phones and email. Thus far we’ve found nothing to disprove the facts in the article; we will release the full results of our search when it is completed.

As Bryan observed, it’s not at all complicated. The private reported a mass grave: does it exist, and is it where he said it was? Was his unit there? One of his commanding officers say that it does not exist and the unit was never there.

The kid is a second-rate writer who probably no amount of practice or training could help out of his ditch, but he can put a few words together and his is able to recall and embellish invented war atrocities from the days of yore.

Did something happen? Things happen. Is it what Scott “Thomas” Beauchamp describes? I’m convinced that it is not.