Fake three-star Marine general was really PFC

Marine investigators say NC man posed as officer
(AP) – 1 day ago

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A man who pleaded guilty last year to altering an identification card after he was spotted in the uniform of a three-star Marine general is under suspicion of posing at an April ceremony as a highly decorated Marine colonel, authorities say.

Michael Hamilton, 67, of Richlands wore a Marine uniform at Jacksonville's Vietnam Memorial during a military recognition day ceremony last month, Marine investigators said this week. Authorities added Hamilton was photographed wearing several rows of medals including the Navy Cross, the second highest award for valor.

Investigators from Camp Lejeune said they searched Hamilton's house on April 26, two days after his picture was published in the Jacksonville, N.C., Daily News. An evidence report said they recovered a blue dress uniform blouse with seven service ribbons and 18 medals. The report didn't specify the medals recovered.

In a biography distributed at the April ceremony, Hamilton claims he was promoted from private first class to colonel between 1961 and 1969 and was awarded 80 medals, including two Navy Crosses. An affidavit filed by investigators with the search warrant said the highest rank Hamilton attained was private first class.

Hamilton only served nine months and was discharged in February 1962, according to the affidavit. It said his only decoration was a rifle qualification badge.

read more here

Marine investigators say NC man posed as officer

27 months for phony SEAL, phony PTSD

This is what is supposed to happen when a person decides they will take what others have earned. This is what's supposed to happen but because of the rare occasion when someone pulls something like this, the real combat veterans, the real wounded, end up paying the price.

They pay it with delays in having their claims honored when they have done nothing wrong.

When you think of the millions of men and women doing their duty, serving with honor and most of the time true humbleness and humility, having to come home and then face such delays in honoring their wounds, reading something like this hurts them deeply. A fraud can get what they not only paid the price for but they can't manage to get the same when they are telling the truth.

So few so evil to take what is not their's will never, ever justify what we are seeing with real combat veterans carrying real wounds.

27 months for phony SEAL, phony PTSD

By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday May 8, 2010 8:57:21 EDT

A phony SEAL whose bogus post-traumatic stress disorder defrauded the government of more than $280,000 over seven years was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Federal Judge Michael McCuskey spent nearly 45 minutes chastising Robert Warren, saying he would have gladly added more time but was constrained by the law’s limits.

Warren was found guilty of six counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, one count of making false statements and one count of Social Security fraud. He admitted to fraudulently receiving $166,116 in veterans’ benefits and $114,045 in Social Security benefits.

For years, Warren had purported to be a combat-decorated SEAL. Navy records show otherwise. Warren was a sailor from Feb. 21, 1984, to March 23, 1988. He never was a SEAL. He never saw combat.

Warren told VA officials in 2002 he hadn’t worked in four years and couldn’t work around people or in public. He submitted forged statements in support of his claim, court records show. Warren was awarded a 100 percent service-connected disability and granted the same through Social Security two years later. But Warren has owned and operated a local tavern and recorded more than 400 hours as a volunteer firefighter since being awarded the disability rating in 2002.

go here for more

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/05/navy_warren_050810w/

Stolen Valor, Norfolk VA veteran pleds guilty

Va. veteran guilty of false claims
A veterans group alerted authorities to a Norfolk man's false claims about his military honors.
By Mike Gangloff The Roanoke Times

Correction: An earlier version of this article confused which veterans group tipped federal authorities to Barnhart's claims. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Jacobsen credited the Web site www.pownetwork.org with alerting investigators.


Even as he pleaded guilty to inflating his military record, Thomas James Barnhart insisted he'd received a Purple Heart.

"I was given a Purple Heart with no paperwork in Vietnam, so it was as if I had made up the award myself," Barnhart, 58, said Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

Barnhart also improperly sought benefits. In 1991 and 2005, Barnhart told Veterans Affairs interviewers tales of combat missions and a pilot dying in his arms. He said he'd been nominated for the Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor.

But investigation showed only that Barnhart earned a medal for offshore duty during the Vietnam War. There was no record of combat or combat awards.

Barnhart pleaded guilty to violating federal Stolen Valor legislation by falsely claiming to have been awarded medals. He also pleaded guilty to a felony embezzlement charge tied to $13,923 in disability payments for supposed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Doug Sterner, a Vietnam veteran from Colorado who was a leading advocate for the 2005 Stolen Valor legislation, said Barnhart's case shows the need for Congress to push the military to keep better records of medals such as Purple Hearts.

"There are literally tens of thousands of people who were given awards that never made it to paperwork," Sterner said.

read more here

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/232116

This is a very true problem for a lot of veterans. Paperwork errors have caused awards to end up in someone else's file because of a mistake on a social security number. The reason to save paperwork after discharge escaped many veterans and they simply tossed them out so they wouldn't be reminded. When errors were made, the veteran was left to either have to prove what they were saying was true, showing their own copies of documents, or they ended up with a lax case worker ready to believe anything. In our case, we were not so lucky until the error regarding my husband's award reached the ear of a general.

When we sent his aid the copies of the award along with some other documents we had, the record was corrected, the Bronze Star Award was finally in his file and he received a new award document to hang on the wall. That document is tucked away in a draw because the one with the wrong social security number on it is the one he was given in Vietnam and it is the one that meant the most to my husband. I often wonder what would have happened if my husband had not saved everything he was given. How could he prove what he was saying was true when the other paperwork must have been in someone else's file? How can any veteran prove anything without their own copies? With all he went through trying to have his claim approved, there are many more trying to do the same thing legitimately but we have to read stories like this about frauds trying to get what they didn't earn at the same time veterans are unable to receive what they already paid for in real life. Just doesn't seem fair at all.

Make sure you keep your records because you never know when they might be the only copies there are of what you need to prove yourself yet again.

Feds charge man for being phony Marine on Veteran’s Day

Feds charge man for being phony Marine on Veteran’s Day
November 12, 1:44 AM
Crime & Media Examiner
Jason Taylor
U.S. Attorneys announced on Veteran’s Day that they are bringing federal charges against a man who authorities say has been posing as a U.S. Marine.

Steve Burton, 39, has been accused of wearing a Marine Corps uniform decorated with some of the nation’s highest awarded medals to his 20th high school reunion.

Federal investigators said Burton has never served in any branch of the military, but has been seen and photographed wearing the uniform and medals on many occasions.

The FBI got wind of Burton’s charade when they received a photo of him in his uniform and medals from someone attending the reunion. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Colleen Solanga said she snapped the picture because she was suspicious of his Navy Cross medal, which is the second highest medal awarded for valor.
read more here
Feds charge man for being phony Marine on Veteran’s Day

Alleged Veteran Impersonator Charged

Alleged Veteran Impersonator Charged With Faking Military Medals
11 News just learned that the man accused of pretending to be a wounded veteran is now facing federal charges.
Posted: 4:10 PM Oct 2, 2009

11 News just learned that the man accused of pretending to be a wounded veteran is now facing federal charges.

Rick Strandlof, who went by the name Rick Duncan, claimed to be a former Marine injured in combat. An arrest warrant has just been issued by the feds for charges of making false claims about receiving military decorations or medals. Strandlof allegedly claimed to have been awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.


An arrest affidavit obtained by 11 News details the exact circumstances of the case against Strandlof. The document says on May 4, 2009, the Denver FBI was notified that a Captain Rick Duncan, born in 1977, was falsely representing himself as a Naval Academy Graduate, wounded Marine veteran and Purple Heart recipient from injuries sustained in the Battle of Fallujah in Iraq.

Individuals reported to the Denver FBI that Duncan started a veteran's organization called Colorado Veteran's Alliance (CVA). However, they reported that the the trade name for CVA was registered under a Rick Strandlof. That's when their suspicions led them to call the Naval Academy, who then confirmed that no one by the name Rick Duncan ever graduated from the academy during the time framed claimed by Strandlof.

Denver FBI agents then confirmed a man under the name Rick Strandlof had been involved in a fraud scheme in Reno, NV and had two outstanding arrest warrant in California and a state-wide warrant out of Colorado Springs for a traffic offense.
read more here
http://www.kktv.com/military/headlines/63325692.html

Australia fake Vietnam "Hero" has no excuse

"I never went to Vietnam and I thought, 'maybe I can say I am a vet because I'm associating with them all the time'. Charles Gibbons said after being caught as a fake Vietnam veteran with medals.

Yes, he really said that. I associate with them all the time too, plus spent the last 25 years married to one of them. I can tell you that just being around them makes people admire them, respect them, value them enough that no one in their right mind would ever consider impersonating one of them. People who do such a despicable act can never come close to understanding them because these men and women, they thought about others when they risked their lives in Vietnam. Didn't matter if they found themselves in Vietnam by will to serve or draft number pulled, they all served side by side and risked their lives for each other.

Thirty years this man pulled off a huge lie, used the Vietnam veterans he "associated with" and managed to look them in the eyes when he was spinning his tall tales of glory and suffering. Now he's sorry? Did he admit it all by himself by a sudden awakening of his conscience? No. He was turned in and then he was sorry. Just like the rest of them they are always sorry when they are caught, offering all kinds of excuses for what they did, trying to be what they will never be and will never understand the kind of person it takes to really be a Vietnam veteran. How about all the veterans this man hurt? How about the real ones trapped because they didn't save their paperwork and frauds like this make is almost impossible to be believed? They just never cared enough about the men and women they pretended to be or they would have never, ever thought about trying to take what they did not earn from them, respect.

Service a lie: Charles Gibbons wore beret and medals he was not entitled to on Anzac Day

Man apologises for posing as war veteran for 30 years

Russell Robinson

August 27, 2009 12:00am


A "WANNABE" war hero apologised to Diggers for fraudulently passing himself off as a Vietnam veteran.

For years council parking inspector Charles Campbell Gibbons, 60, claimed he had completed two tours of duty as a military policeman in South Vietnam.

During that time, he claimed, he'd lost a lung.

He would proudly march on Anzac Day wearing the red beret and badge of the military police.

Pinned to his tunic would be seven medals, signifying Vietnam War service, and 15 years regular army service.

But it was all a lie.

"It was done very stupidly. I should never have done it, but I did it and I regret it," he told the Herald Sun.

"I know there are people out there who do this, and I did it.

"I have no excuse for what I did. If I could go back in time there's not a chance I would have done this.

"I am disgusted with myself."

His double life was exposed on the ANZMI military imposters website.
read more here
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25986890-2862,00.html

In Ranks of Heroes, Finding the Fakes

I don't know if these people will ever understand how many other people they are hurting. Worse is that I don't even know if they care at all.

Because of these fakes and frauds, it makes it all the more harder on the real heroes. They not only had to prove themselves in combat, they had to prove themselves with claims to the VA, to veterans organizations and now, they have to prove it all over again. A data base would be very helpful with this however, that is, as long as what it put in is right and all paperwork errors have been found and fixed.

I don't want to bore you with the story of my husband all over again, so the short version is, his award for a Bronze Star had the wrong social security number typed in. This caused a cluster of accusations, his VA claim to be denied and a lot of doubt. We had a newspaper clipping his mother kept from a local paper announcing the award. We had all the paper work with all the official seals and signatures. What we didn't have was the right social security number. That was pretty hard on him to have to prove it all over again, but when I was put in contact with a general's office, all the paperwork supported the truth, it was corrected and his claim was finally approved. How many others did this happen to? How many others didn't keep all their paperwork after Vietnam? What if my husband tossed his paperwork in the trash the way he wanted to over 30 years ago? We'd have no proof of anything even though he was telling the truth. We have the fact his mother raised him to be a pack rat the way she was with saving papers.

Too many others are not so lucky.

The only way a massive data base could ever be a good thing is if they went through everyone's files to make sure all the pieces of paper in the file belonged to them and not someone else. I'm sure somewhere there is a veteran with papers that belong to someone else but because the social security number came up it was attached to someone else's name. Can they do that? Can they go through every piece of paper for every service man or woman before they even attempt to do it? I doubt it. No one has that kind of time.

We can't even trust some of the data bases we use. Most of them have a disclaimer saying their information is not complete. With the Medal of Honor, it is easy to have an accurate data base since so few really received the award. The lower the award, the more recipients of it and it gets harder to find all the information. It would be so much easier on the veterans if they didn't have to go through any of this unless there was a technicality but because of the frauds wanting to use what they did not earn, it makes it all the more difficult for them. It is a betrayal, a theft and should be treated like a crime, which it is but somehow I doubt all the frauds out there have been found. While they wanted publicity for what they stole, they should get publicity for it when they have been found to be lying. For the others with possible mistakes on their records, their claims should be treated as if it is possible and taken seriously. Knowing a fraud that got away with it for a time does not make up for a real veteran suffering for a mistake he did not make. What is justice in this case and how do we arrive at it as soon as possible?

This article points out that the Internet is very helpful in all of this but no site can have every single piece of information no matter how good they are at it. It takes diligence from the rest of us.

If you ever talk to someone claiming to be a veteran with awards, do some checking to see if they are telling the truth. You never know when you can help catch a fraud or help a veteran with no clue errors were made in their case.

In Ranks of Heroes, Finding the Fakes

By IAN URBINA
Published: August 1, 2009

Last August, the Texas Department of Transportation started asking applicants for more documentation after discovering that at least 11 of the 67 Legion of Merit license plates on the roads had been issued to people who never earned the medal.

Last September, the House of Representatives passed a bill naming a post office in Las Vegas after a World War II veteran who, it later turned out, had lied when he claimed he had been awarded a Silver Star. The legislation was rescinded.

In May, one of the most prominent veterans’ advocates in Colorado was detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after it was discovered that his story about heroic service in Iraq and severe injuries from a roadside bomb was an elaborate hoax.

Military imposters are nothing new. But the problem has grown or at least become more obvious as charlatans are easily able to find fake military documents, medals and uniforms on auction Web sites.

Last month, The Marine Corps Times found 40 erroneous profiles in this year’s Marine Corps Association Directory, including false claims of 16 Medals of Honor, 16 Navy Crosses and 8 Silver Stars.

read more here

In Ranks of Heroes, Finding the Fakes

Stolen Valor:Jeffrey Muller couldn't make up his mind what name to use using others

You have to read this whole story! Aside from the great job Howard Frank did writing it, it's one of the best reports I've read over Stolen Valor. Why is it people think they can pass themselves off as, not just veterans, but as heroes? I know so many real ones and they will hardly ever talk about the medals they earned or what they did to earn them. They would rather humbly take care of someone else or tell a joke than to discuss themselves. Then comes along a total fraud, trying to make themselves look braver than they really are. These frauds, while able to lie well, never learned to live well and will never, ever come close to the real heroes in this country.

Vietnam vets accuse Blakeslee man of taking something he doesn't deserve: The tribute paid to warriors
By HOWARD FRANK
Pocono Record Writer
June 21, 2009
Billy Russo was a smart, well-liked boy growing up in Elizabeth, N.J. He went to Jefferson High School, where he studied architectural drawings and art. "He was very good at that," his younger brother, Ray, who's from Blakeslee, remembered.

Billy joined the Marines in 1966, right after high school. "He was patriotic. He was proud to be a Marine," Ray said.

In 1967, he was sent to Vietnam as a machine gunner.

Billy Russo was killed in action on Memorial Day, May 28, 1968. It happened during heavy fighting up north near the demilitarized zone. Billy had just three weeks left in his tour of duty.

While other kids were going to drive-ins and falling in love for the first time, Billy died serving his country. He was only 19 years old.

For his family, and his younger brother Ray, all Billy left behind were memories of a shortened life, his patriotism and his valor.

Now, Ray says, someone is trying to steal that from Billy. And from the more than 58,000 other Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice.


Friend or foe
Members of a local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter believe a man by the name of Jeffrey Muller — aka Jeffrey Cornplanter, Jeffrey Carhoota, Jeffrey Caringheart and Jeffrey Carhoota Cornplanter — has been falsely passing himself off as a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, currying favor, and cash, from local groups.

They say he's been passing himself off as a Seneca Indian chief and a Special Forces warrant officer who flew helicopters in Vietnam.
go here for more
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090621/NEWS/906210304

Military Deception, Made Easier by a Reluctance to Ask Questions

How does this happen? How does a fake veteran gain so much attention and power but real veterans have a hard time getting any attention at all? Please, don't tell me it's a compelling story they tell, because I've read about more impressive real veterans, wounded in service to this nation and then moving mountains to help other real veterans. So how did he do it? How did he get enough attention to lie in the first place?

A Military Deception, Made Easier by a Reluctance to Ask Questions
New York Times - United States

DENVER — The thick-muscled man with close-cropped hair who called himself Rick Duncan seemed right out of central casting as a prop for a Democratic candidate running against Bush administration policies last fall.

A former Marine Corps captain who suffered brain trauma from a roadside bomb in Iraq and was at the Pentagon during the Sept. 11 attacks. An advocate for veterans rights who opposed the war. An Annapolis graduate who was proudly gay. With his gold-plated credentials, he commanded the respect and attention of not just politicians, but also police chiefs, reporters and veterans advocates for the better part of two years.

Yet, except for his first name, virtually none of his story was true. In reality, he was Richard G. Strandlof, a charismatic drifter with a history of mental illness and petty crimes who had moved from Montana to Nevada to Colorado, assuming different names and identities along the way.
click link for more

Convicted man may go free because of VA Fraud?

David Hinkson may get a new trial because Elven Joe Swisher had been lying about his record in the military along with taking from the real disabled veterans. The man is 71 years old! How long did he get away with being a fake? Did he serve and what did he really do? So many questions this leaves to be answered but above all, I want to know why he did it.

My father was a Korean War vet. It took him years to have his claim approved and finally he received 100% disability. My husband had his claim tied up for 6 years before it was finally approved. My father-in-law, well he's another story. He served in WWII, was wounded, had a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He never filed a claim for anything. When he died, we were on our own to pay for the funeral. His attitude contributed to my husband's reluctance to file a claim for years. Even though he knew Vietnam was eating him up inside, he didn't want to file a claim until experts told him that he needed to be treated by the VA. So many others in this country finally reach out to the VA with legitimate claims, get trapped in an overloaded system, are considered fake until proven truthful, have to read about yet more case of someone that did not earn anything but received everything. None of this makes sense at all.

Idaho man gets prison for stealing vet benefits

Associated Press - January 6, 2009 7:14 PM ET

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The star witness in a botched 2005 Idaho attempted murder prosecution will spend 12 months and one day in federal prison after defrauding the government of nearly $100,000 in veterans benefits.
click above link for more

Vet pleads guilty to falsely claiming medals to collect for PTSD

by
Chaplain Kathie

Why? Why do they do such terrible things? Six years of my husband's life were torture because his claim would not be approved until his Bronze Star Award was corrected with the right social security number on it. Because of people like Steve Bennest, it didn't matter we had all the paperwork to verify it was real and it was on his DD214. It didn't matter because of people trying to take what they did not need or deserve. Six years! Did Bennest ever think of what veterans with PTSD were going thru or their families, when he was trying to take what he thought was his?

We spent six years of battling to have my husband's claim approved, borrowing money, swallowing our pride, trying to save our house with the mortgage company twice with forbearance agreements, trying to hang onto his job that was killing him because we needed money to live at the same time I had to fight my husband to keep trying to prove his claim was real. How many times did he gave up because of the extra stress? How many times did he wanted to die because of lost hope of healing and justice? I lost count. How many times did I think about giving up and getting a divorce because it was all just too damn hard?

When veterans have PTSD, they are the last to admit it and it's extremely hard to get them to go for help, yet this man had no problem at all faking it. Too many have died because they either didn't go for help or couldn't get it when they did.

This comment was on my YouTube page from a veteran with PTSD. He's just one of hundreds I've been contacted by over the years.

We are silent There's a reason we are silent
We don't want people to know we're crazy. It might be a wound but it's a sign of being mentally weak. I deal with what I got handed but I don't want anyone to know who doesn't need to.

Re: There's a reason we are silent Re: There's a reason we are silent
Then why me? I don't mean to whine or get pity. I just want to know what is different about me compared to the other 2/3 of soldiers. And how can you say it's not being crazy? I'm not right anymore and if your heads broke and you act crazy then your crazy. Looks like a duck sounds like a duck it's probably a duck.

Re: Re: There's a reason we are silent Re: Re: There's a reason we are silent
I don't think I deserve help. My faith was never strong. I'm Jewish and I don't even feel right for asking for forgiveness. And until I beat my problem I can't even consider forgiving myself for being this weak.

I'm sorry I'm kinda wasting your time here. I just feel like what I have is a fight and that it's my burden. I shouldn't have bothered you to begin with. Please take care and thank you for trying.

What your doing is tremendous and I can't thank you enough for helping my brothers.

How can that not break your heart? This is what they are like. The real ones anyway. They don't feel as if they deserve to be helped or have someone fighting for them. They suffer because they served and then they wonder what's wrong with them when they should be wondering what's wrong with the rest of us because they are left to fight for themselves. I'm crying now just thinking about him and all the others, just like my husband, suffering instead of healing, fighting to have their claims honored, because of people who thought they could get away with faking it.

I look at my husband now and know that once they hear the VA has accepted responsibility for the wound they carry in their soul, they begin to heal. Just having the words show up on a letter saying their claim is approved goes a long way in easing the burden they carry. Knowing what is wrong with them is because they served their country replaces the stigma with honor.

If you want to have sympathy for this man I suggest you have it for the veterans that had to suffer and still suffer because of people like him. Lord willing he will open his eyes one day and see what damage he's done to so many that did not deserve it. People like him make the service officers look twice when all the paperwork is not right and then the veteran feels as if they have just been sucker punched when they were telling the truth.

Vet pleads guilty to falsely claiming medals

Man sought compensation for stress disorder
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
P-I REPORTER

A Sumner man who falsely claimed to be a Vietnam-era war hero pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to making false claims of military service, awards and decorations.

Steve Bennest, 57, in making an application to the Veterans Affairs' Seattle office in support of a compensation claim for alleged post-traumatic stress disorder, falsely asserted that he had been awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. Bennest served in the Army between 1969 and 1972, but did not earn either of the medals, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Bennest faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

But defendants who reach plea agreements with the government rarely have the maximum sentence imposed upon them. click link for more

When a veteran lies about their record, it hurts others

by
Chaplain Kathie
With so many real wounded veterans not able to get the benefits they need to have their wounds treated and have their lost incomes compensated for, this really goes much deeper than just one more story of a fake hero.

Brian Culp managed to collect a lot for his fake wounds including appointments with a psychologist because he was a good actor. Veterans veterans like my husband see their appointments cut back because there isn't enough hours or providers to take care of the older veterans with the new veterans coming into the system.

My husband never thought he deserved anything from the VA and never called himself a hero, even though he has a Bronze Star for Meritorious Service, he does not put himself into the class of those he thinks of as "real heroes" like some of his friends. He also didn't see the wound of PTSD as a wound equal to a physical one. Most of them are humble and appreciate the care they receive from the VA instead of acting as if they earned it, when clearly they did. It took us six years to clear up a paperwork error to have his claim approved and for others, even longer.


Yet Culp managed to pull it all off with computer skills and good acting. He also managed to validate the perception that there are fake claims flooding into the system. Over and over again, when claims are denied, people tend to regard those claims as fraudulent because they were turned down. After all, the VA has to be right and they would honor the claim if it had been a legitimate one, right? Wrong.

Until a claim is approved, it's non-service connected. This can happen with paperwork errors, lost files, inability to find someone they served with that can back up the claim and offer a letter of support, along with a long list of others problems including the shredding of claims at many VA processing centers. Culp just put the thought of false claims back into the minds of the American people.

While it's great this fraud was found out, there are some willing to look at the good he did while pretending to be a wounded hero. Did he help some? Sure. But the truth is, his actions may have harmed a lot more than he managed to help. What would it have cost him to just help the veterans he pretended to be and not pull off a crime like this? Imagine the good he could have done for others without doing this. With a talent good enough to sell himself as a hero, he could have used it to really help the real ones falling through the cracks instead of himself.

INVALID VALOR - VETERAN LIED ABOUT HIS SERVICE -- 12-15-2008 VA Watchdog
He admitted he had used his computer to create not only a fake ID card, but also an authentic-looking DD-214 larded with fictional honors and service.

By John MacCormack
Express-News



Boasting a military record that included two Purple Hearts, decorations for valor and combat service in Somalia with the Army Rangers, Brian Culp seemed the perfect war hero to be honored last year as grand marshal in LaVernia's patriotic parade.

“He was very deserving because of his military experience, battles and honors. And he had gotten hurt,” said Merrie Monaco, president of the Lions Club that sponsors the Bluebonnet Fest Parade.

“We actually made a quilt with his patches and medals, like a memory quilt, and we gave it to him,” she recalled.

A large and rugged outdoorsman, Culp, 38, also merited special recognition because of his nonprofit organization Veteran Adventures, that takes injured service members on hunting trips around South Texas.

But even as Culp was bathed in adulation as he rolled along Main Street at the head of the LaVernia parade, time was running out.

Smelling something fishy in his improbable war stories and claims to being a brother in arms, members of the small fraternity of Army Rangers already were comparing notes and digging into his military past.

Then on Aug. 23, 2007, Culp overplayed his hand when he tried to enter Lackland AFB using an ID card that identified him as a retired master sergeant.

The gate guard turned Culp away and confiscated the card, which investigators soon determined to be well-done forgery.

When Culp came in for questioning, Air Force detectives Stephen Vaughan and Sean Garrettson at first found denial and defiance. But eventually, they say, he admitted to even more elaborate fictions.

“This guy came in and thinks he's gonna run the interview,” recalled Vaughan, who had just returned from his second tour in Iraq.

“I was personally offended by his behavior. I found it reprehensible,” he said.

Culp first claimed he knew nothing about the fake ID card that bore his name and photo, but when the stakes were raised, he crumbled, Vaughan said.

“I said, ‘So check it out, Culp. What if I run a search warrant on your house right now? Do you want to bet there's something on your home computer to make this ID card?'” he recalled.

He said Culp eventually admitted he had used his computer to create not only the fake ID card, but also an authentic-looking military discharge paper called a DD-214 larded with fictional honors and service.

Culp admitted to using the fake documents to obtain benefits and services from on-base haircuts to Purple Heart license plates to disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Vaughan said.

“He said he lied to the VA counselor about having post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in Bosnia and witnessing mass graves there,” Vaughan said.

And while Culp had served honorably in both wars against Iraq, he never was wounded, never served in Somalia or Bosnia and never had been a Ranger, Vaughan said.

“All of us want to be John Wayne, but most of us outgrow it when we're 12,” he said.

Almost a year later, Culp was charged with four federal offenses related to making false claims to military honors and to using a fake ID card to try to enter Lackland.
click link above for more

Over 100 US veterans, clergymen to police officers to CEOs, are claiming medals of valor they never earned

Who's Who to vet U.S. vets after Tribune report
Coming Sunday: Tribune finds hundreds falsely claim medals of valor
By John Crewdson | Tribune correspondent
October 25, 2008
More than 100 American veterans, from clergymen to police officers to CEOs, are claiming medals of valor they never earned.

An investigation by the Tribune found that military records failed to support fully a third of the 333 Who's Who profiles claiming medals for courage in combat.

Who's Who, the country's biographical reference standard since its founding in Chicago 110 years ago, spends up to $1.5 million a year checking the educational and work histories submitted by those listed in the volume.

But military decorations? "We never thought anybody would be dumb enough" to lie about those, said Who's Who publisher Jim Pfister, so Who's Who never vetted those. Now it will.

Pfister, himself a decorated Vietnam veteran, decided to do so after a Tribune investigation discovered that a third of the medals for valor claimed by hundreds of Who's Who "biographees" are not supported by their military records. "We will change some of our processes in scrutinizing the awards section," he said.
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Man pleads guilty to faking record to get car discount

How is this possible when real war vetearns can't get any help at all? One of the veterans I've been working with can't get any help. The VA keeps turning down his claim. He is a Vietnam vet but no one is helping him at all. Farr managed to pull this off? This is just not right at all.

Man pleads guilty to faking record to get car discount
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Aug 8, 2008 7:32:59 EDT

NORTH EAST, Pa. — A Pennsylvania man has pleaded guilty to faking his military record, and to cashing more than $188,000 in counterfeit checks at a federal credit union.
Dale Farr, 33, will be sentenced Nov. 25 by a federal judge in Erie.
Farr has pleaded guilty to claiming to be an Army captain who was wounded in Afghanistan in 2001. He claimed he was awarded the Purple Heart, Silver Star and two Bronze Stars. Federal prosecutors say Farr was a private discharged for misconduct in 1995.
Farr faked his military record to get a Purple Heart license plate and to qualify for a Veteran’s Day sale discount on a car.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_fakecaptain_080808/

Ex-mayor who lied about Army record to face judge

Ex-mayor who lied about Army record to face judge
By GEOFF MULVIHILL – 1 hour ago

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) — Robert Levy's record in the Vietnam War was impressive: two Army tours and several honors, including a Bronze Star. It just wasn't as impressive as he claimed.

Decades of lies caught up with him when he was mayor of Atlantic City, where four of the last nine mayors have been charged over the years with taking bribes. Levy's crimes, for which he is to be sentenced Friday in a Camden federal courtroom, may have been less damaging to the city, but they felt like a smack to his fellow veterans.

"What we've got is our honor," said Rick Weidman, director of government affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America. "When people don't tell the truth, it tarnishes our honor."

Levy, 61, admitted to a federal judge last year that he embellished his military record to get nearly an additional $25,000 in disability benefits from the government. He likely faces up to six months in prison under a plea deal but is hoping to receive probation.

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Scammer’s lies earned big disability checks

This ought to make you mad considering this stunt comes at a time when real wounded combat veterans can't get appointments at the VA and can't get their claims approved to get the disability compensation and see all they worked for slip away. Think of them and the families they have and know when people like this are able to pull off shams like this, they are not just doing it to the government, they are doing it to real veterans!


Scammer’s lies earned big disability checks

By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday May 10, 2008 7:00:21 EDT

Randall A. Moneymaker looked good on paper. He was a veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama and Grenada. He was an airborne Ranger who had earned two Combat Infantryman Badges, a Combat Action Badge, two Combat Parachutist Badges and a Purple Heart. He was expertly qualified in the M16 rifle, the M60 machine gun, the M203 rocket launcher, the pistol, grenades, bayonets and tank weapons.

The man who parachuted with the Australian, British, Canadian, Dominican, German, Honduran, Italian and Thai militaries also had the Pathfinder and Special Operations Diver badges and suffered physical and mental scars from combat.

However, this impressive list of achievements spanning a 20-plus-year Army career was not worth the paper on which it was printed.

On March 24, a jury in Virginia found Moneymaker, 44, guilty of fabricating his service record and lying about his achievements and combat injuries to scam more than $18,000 in disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He faces up to 35 years in federal prison.

Moneymaker, who is free on bond, is scheduled to be sentenced June 20 in Roanoke, Va.

“I just think that when a country’s at war, it brings out the best in people, but it also brings out the worst in some people,” said Craig “Jake” Jacobsen, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia who prosecuted Moneymaker.

Moneymaker used “different levels of deceit” against not only combat veterans but service members who are wounded in the line of duty, said Jacobsen, who also is a lieutenant colonel assigned to the Army Reserve’s 12th Legal Support Organization.

“This guy just didn’t want to be recognized for war achievements,” he said. “He used it to not only get retirement but also a monthly disability [check].”

Moneymaker and his attorney, Charles Covati, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

It’s fairly common for phony heroes to take their deception beyond falsely claiming acts of combat bravery to committing other crimes, FBI Special Agent Mike Sanborn said.

“Just because they’re wearing fake medals doesn’t mean they’re not doing something else. They’re scamming somebody else. They’re using their fraudulent military service to gain something. Usually, it’s financial,” said Sanborn, whose Washington, D.C., field office handles or is involved in all the agency’s cases relating to the Stolen Valor Act.

What do fake "heroes" hope to gain?

Calif. man admits lying about Vietnam service

The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 9, 2008 7:04:39 EDT

SACRAMENTO — An Oroville man has pleaded guilty to falsely representing himself as a decorated military hero from the Vietnam War.

Michael Allan Fraser, 62, claimed in an interview with the Oroville Mercury-Register last year that he was awarded two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars for combat in Vietnam. He also traveled to Vietnam with war veterans on a mission to “bury the ghosts of the past.”

But a Colorado man who helped write the Stolen Valor Act, which was signed into law by President Bush in 2006, noticed problems with Fraser’s daring tale of valor.

He looked up Fraser’s record and found that he had served in the military as a veterinarian’s assistant in the Philippines.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund F. Brennan sentenced Fraser this week to 100 hours of community service helping veterans and issued a $500 fine.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_califvietnamfaker_050808/

He's not the only one.

SoCal man admits fake Medal of Honor claim


Published: May 6, 2008 at 3:07 PM
LOS ANGELES, May 6 (UPI) -- A member of a Los Angeles-area water board pleaded guilty Monday to charges he lied about winning the Medal of Honor.

Xavier Alvarez, 50, was the first person in the United States to be charged under the Stolen Valor Act, which made it a crime to falsely claim to have been awarded military decorations.

"We have to guard the honor of our nation's military heroes, and this prosecution was a small attempt to do that," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Craig Missakian.

Alvarez, a Pomona resident, had parlayed tales of his supposed heroism as a U.S. Marine when he ran for his seat on the Three Valleys Municipal Water District. The Los Angeles Times said Alvarez once claimed he had dangled by rope from a helicopter to pluck the American flag from the besieged U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Alvarez made his claim about winning the Medal of Honor after he was elected.

Sentencing was scheduled for July 21. The Times said he would likely get probation.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/06/socal_man_admits_fake_medal_of_honor_claim/2261/

More on Alvarez

Fake Medal Of Honor Winner


A member of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District Board of Directors of Pomona, California pleaded guilty Monday to falsely claiming he had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Xavier Alvarez, 50, faces up to one year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine when he is sentenced July 21 by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner.
He admitted violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which makes it a misdemeanor to lie about receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, or any other military medal.

Alvarez had no comment for reporters afterward.

His plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office gives Alvarez the right to appeal the plea based on his First Amendment right to free speech.

According to prosecutors, Alvarez made the false claim at a July 2007 public meeting of the Water District board when he was introduced as a newly elected member of the Claremont-based panel.

When contacted shortly after being charged last September, Alvarez laughed off the charge and accused a political enemy of dragging his name through the mud.

"I don't know what they're talking about," he said. "They're making this up."

But Alvarez's tune changed when tape surfaced of the July 2007 meeting.

"I'm a retired Marine of 25 years. I retired in the year 2001.

Back in 1987, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. I got wounded many times by the same guy. I'm still around," Alvarez said on the tape.

In addition to never having won the Medal of Honor, Alvarez has never served in the U.S. Armed Forces, prosecutors said.

Alvarez's attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Brianna Fuller, argued that her client's speech, although false, was protected by the First Amendment.

Klausner rejected the argument.

Only about 100 men are alive who have won the Medal of Honor, then-acting U.S. Attorney George Cardona said last year.

http://www.wgem.com/News/index.php?ID=24390

But stunts like this are not new

Medal of Honor is fake, say officials
Man charged after telling groups of valor
By JOHN DIEDRICH
jdiedrich@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 21, 2007
Terry J. Powell has spoken to veterans' groups and public gatherings numerous times while wearing a Medal of Honor that he said he received for heroic actions during the Vietnam War - claims that federal investigators say are bogus, according to court documents made public Tuesday.

Powell, 56, of Milwaukee, has given different stories about how he came to earn the nation's highest award for valor.

He told veterans in May that he received it for combat in Vietnam and gave a similar story to a crowd of more than 200 gathered on Memorial Day at Cory Park in the Village of Dousman, according to a federal search warrant.

In June, he told Waukesha County sheriff's detectives he was a cook on the destroyer USS O'Hara and nursed several sailors sickened by food poisoning back to health, the warrant said. He showed the detectives a Medal of Honor certificate he says he received from former President Nixon on July 15, 1972, and signed by Navy Secretary John Chaffee.

The warrant points out several reasons to doubt Powell's claim: the O'Hara was a transport ship decommissioned in 1961 and scrapped by 1968, years before Powell claimed to have saved the sailors. Chaffee wasn't secretary of the Navy in summer 1972; John Warner was. The certificate, along with others Powell had for other medals, appeared to have been altered. And Powell is not listed as a Medal of Honor recipient on any records.

Powell has been charged with unlawfully wearing the Medal of Honor, according to documents made public Tuesday. If convicted, he faces up to a $100,000 fine and a year in prison.

Powell responded angrily to a reporter's call for comment Tuesday.

"I am a Medal of Honor recipient!" Powell yelled, adding he would submit to a lie detector test.

Powell said he lost the original certificate when his basement flooded and said he now has a "third party certificate," and denied forging it.

He repeatedly used profanity when referring to the FBI, which investigated his case. He said he is displaying his American flag upside down in protest. He called a reporter a profanity and then hung up.

Authorities learned about Powell from veterans. Robert K. Schmitt and Gerry Gramins, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9496 in Menomonee Falls, said Powell wore the Medal of Honor to the post on May 1. Powell spoke at the VFW that day and described how he said he earned the medal during combat in Vietnam.

During the Memorial Day speech in Dousman, which was videotaped, Powell said he served three tours in Vietnam and one in Iraq.

Afterward, a Waukesha detective called Powell and said he wanted to write an article for a police newsletter about him, which was a lie, the warrant said. Powell posed wearing the Medal of Honor for photographs, the warrant said.

On Aug. 7, Powell again wore the Medal of Honor to the VFW post and tried to speak to the group but wasn't allowed, the warrant said.

The issue of illegally wearing medals will be discussed at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's annual convention, set for Green Bay beginning Sept. 3.

Kenneth Stumpf, 63, of Tomah earned the Medal of Honor for rescuing wounded soldiers under intense fire and organizing an assault on machine gun bunkers in April 1967 in Vietnam.

"We're very proud and privileged to wear the Medal of Honor and all that it stands for and for the men who came before us," he said. "To have someone (falsely) say they're a Medal of Honor recipient is just a disgrace."

Meg Jones of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=650451

There are a lot of stories like these. They go back for many years. Why do they do it? What is it they hope to gain? Is it feeding their egos? Do they think they will make money off of it? Get preferential treatment from businesses?

We've heard stories of real decorated heroes suffering, being ignored, being wounded and sent back to combat. We've even heard several stories of decorated veterans ending up among the homeless veterans population. So why would someone lie about heroism?

We have everyday heroes coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

34,000 medals given in first quarter of 2008
Nearly 34,000 combat decorations and badges were awarded during the first three months of 2008, according to the latest medal count for Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is just from the first three months of this year. There were many more. But then again they are still trying to make up for lost years some heroes of the wars of the past deserved.

Veteran gets Silver Star after 38 years
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — A Maine man who earned the Silver Star after he was injured during the Vietnam War 40 years ago finally has his medal.Posted Tuesday May 6, 2008 9:27:34 EDT

I don't know what a just penalty would be for the fakes. The real ones have a hard enough time proving their claims when medals earned are awards delayed. Too often the veterans come back from war and only want to get on with their lives. Most of them want nothing more than to do just that. It's when they are wounded and need to seek help to survive as a disabled veteran they need all the support they can get. Most are too proud to even ask. When they are suffering from the wounds of their minds, they are too ashamed, even today, to ask for help. We read their stories everyday. Frauds make it harder and people get suspicious of anyone claiming to be a hero because of the frauds in the spotlight.

Real heroes are not born on the field of battle. They were born that way. Real frauds were not created after war, they were also born that way. They think the world owes them something for what they do not deserve and the real heroes still feel the need to pay back for what they have been given. Frauds can never understand this. They may gain temporary attention but they have lost their soul.