Words have meaning and the English language is very rich in that regard and I believe that is the issue. For example if one says so and so "claims" something, that connotes a lack of credibility, whereas if one says so and so "said" affords the writer just to "pass the info" vice implying a lack of veracity.....
I don't doubt that everyone who has posted that they knew PCH, actually knew him, but it seems that they knew him at different times and under different circumstances.
I believe that both Hatari and Toltecgriz knew him, but they knew him at different time and under different circumstances. Tink Nathan claimed to have been a close personal friend of PHC and Hatari posted earlier in this thread that he agreed with everything that Nathan wrote, except for the portion dealing with PHC's military service. You posted that finding PHC's military service record shouldn't be too hard for your friend, but nothing has yet to be posted on this site that would confirm that PHC was a U.S. Army Special Forces officer who saw combat in Vietnam. I have never read anything, anywhere, that PHC had served in the U.S. Army except in the obituary written by Tink Nathan. Why would Nathan make that up if the rest of the obituary is as accurate as Hatari has posted? What would Nathan gain by that embellishment?
From my perspective, Toltecgriz seems to be the person posting on this site who was closest to PHC as it pertains to the accuracy of at least some of PHC's published works.
Let me be perfectly clear, I think that PHC wrote entertaining stories about Africa and I probably believed them before I read contrary posts on this site.
As I have read in multiple posts, Toltecgriz has clearly said that he was present when/where several of PHC's stories took place and that there was little in common between what actually happened and how PHC presented it, for example the high centered vehicle that wasn't actually wrecked by an angry elephant. On 03/31/21 Hatari posted the following earlier in this thread; "He (PHC) made no secret that he embellished stories to jazz them up..". When does an embellishment cross the line and become nothing but an outright lie?.
I don't know any of the people who have posted on this tread, but Pugs vouches for you and Hatari, so that's good enough for me.
EDIT; Someone posting under the name Ward Simonton posted on Africahunting.com that PHC was his father. I don't recall the mention of any children in the Tink Nathan obituary.
