The resignation occurred after the Globe raised questions about the prestigious decorations, which were mentioned in Facebook endorsements this year for her campaign for state committee, and about accounts of her overseas service that she gave to the news media during the last several years.

Mary Gallagher, a former Air Force reservist from Norwood who sits on the Republican State Committee, submitted her resignation Monday, according to state officials.

An employment coordinator for the state Department of Veterans’ Services who served in Afghanistan and Iraq has resigned following questions about whether she received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

The Air Force Reserve has no record that Gallagher received the Purple Heart, which is awarded to service members who are killed or wounded, or the Bronze Star, which is granted for heroism or meritorious conduct in combat.


Gallagher did not respond to requests for comment.

Gallagher had been an employment specialist with the veterans department since April, according to state officials. Previously, she worked since November under state contract as coordinator for the women veterans network.

Gallagher is an enthusiastic advocate for service members. She was named Veteran of the Day on Sept. 9, 2015, by the US Department of Veterans Affairs and often spoke on veterans issues during her campaign.

Lizzy Guyton, communications director for Governor Charlie Baker, offered praise for Gallagher.

“Mary is a kind person who has graciously served our country, and we wish her the best of luck,” she said.

The Globe’s questions extended to a video about Gallagher that was posted May 18 on a state government website. In the video, which has since been altered, Gallagher said she saw an Army Ranger killed beside her in Afghanistan shortly after her deployment there in 2001.

“An RPG hit us, and the building totally collapsed. And I stood up, and I was shot,” Gallagher says in the video.


“I saw somebody, and then all of a sudden I felt something go through my shoulder,” Gallagher continues. “But when I turned, Sergeant Martinez was dead. This man who had taken care of me, you know, helped me so much. He had a wife and children, but he took care of us.”

The Army has no record that any soldier named Martinez was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2001 or 2002, according to Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Johnson, an Army spokeswoman.

The video was altered sometime after May 18 to remove all references to Martinez, according to comparisons with an archived written transcript of the original version. State officials said Tuesday that the video had been edited for cautionary reasons after questions were raised about its content.

“People will use the word ‘hero’ to me,” Gallagher says in the updated video. “I’m no hero, you know. I came home. I’m one of the lucky ones.”

In addition to her deployment to Afghanistan, Gallagher served two tours in Iraq, in 2005 and 2009, and was featured in a 2011 Globe story describing how she was sexually assaulted by a fellow airman at Sather Air Base in Baghdad during her last deployment.

Following her return to the United States, Gallagher joined a federal class-action suit that accused former defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates of failing to provide service members with adequate protection from sexual assault.

A judge dismissed that suit, choosing not to intervene in a case involving military discipline. Since the assault, Gallagher has said in published reports that she suffered from post-traumatic stress.


A screenshot from a video that was posted on a state government website last month. Mary Gallagher claimed that she was next to an Army Ranger in Afghanistan when he was killed.

“After the attack, I was devastated,” Gallagher wrote in the Huffington Post in 2011. “I felt alone and scared for my safety. At one point, I considered killing myself. After a few days, I called my supervisor back in the US, and they immediately requested that I be sent back home, which I was.”

Gallagher’s case also was cited in an American Legion report in 2013 on traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress.

However, a published 2014 interview with Gallagher, who was trained in information technology, appears to offer a starkly different reason for her departure from Iraq. In a news report on the Canton Patch website, Gallagher said she was wounded by a massive explosion at a military hospital in Baghdad in 2009 and that she returned to the United States shortly afterward.

“Gallagher recalls a badly injured little girl she was helping . . . amidst a fierce exchange of gunfire,” the Patch reported. “Gallagher was lifted right off her feet by the powerful blast, and the next thing she was aware of was waking up in a hospital in Germany, where she was treated for her injuries. Gallagher returned to the United States at Christmas 2009.”

Another version of the attack was reported in October 2011 by the Boston Business Journal.

The Journal reported that Gallagher “was escorting contractors working on infrastructure at an airfield in Baghdad, when insurgents breached the concrete barriers and shot her in the shoulder. She was treated quickly at a combat hospital and sent home soon after.”


Gallagher served with the 439th Airlift Wing at Westover Air Reserve Base, based in Chicopee, until March 2007, according to Lieutenant Colonel James Bishop. the wing’s director of public affairs.

In 2008, she joined the 102d Warfare Information Squadron of the Rhode Island Air National Guard and was deployed to Iraq in 2009 with a different unit, according to Lieutenant Colonel Peter Parente of the Rhode Island National Guard.

Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at brian.macquarrie@ globe.com.

This story has been updated.