DECEPTION AND CHICANERY, ARMED FORCES STYLE

[spatch]

Did you know that there's quite a large number of people out there who pretend to be veterans who saw overseas combat in order to get sympathy or money or hired or laid or all four?

That they often pose as POWs or Navy SEALs ("oooh!") and tell incredible stories of hardship and death, all completely fictitious, to reporters or classrooms full of wide-eyed students?

That they frequent gun shows and Army/Navy stores to find medals and accoutrements and claim to have received all kinds of nifty medals for merit and valor and whatnot, and even go so far as to apply for and receive Purple Heart license plates, which don't appear to require any kind of background check in some states?

That there are groups of actual veterans devoted to tracking down the impostors and publically shaming them on crazy investigative websites?

Well, there are. And quite a few of 'em, too.

Color me amazed.

Comments

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

well, that was a nice ten minutes of procrastination.

[roody.livejournal.com]

"So, if you have a problem with phony veterans, if no one else can help and if you can find them, maybe you can hire..... THE V-TEAM."

[eustaciavye.livejournal.com]

that's really really really pathetic.

"hrm i haven't gotten laid lately.... I know! I'll tell people I've been shot at!"

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

It's not quite this extreme, but I've noticed that of the four insane & belligerent homeless guys I've witnessed having freakouts in the subway or McDonalds, three claimed to've been Vietnam vets and 'lethal killing machines'. (The fourth one was the head of the FBI).

[cheezdanish.livejournal.com]

I knew about the posers. I didn't know that there were websites devoted to exposing 'em. Heh. Gotta show this one to my dad.

[dcart.livejournal.com]

I knew that there were people who faked being Congressional Medal of Honor winners and that there were groups of vets who tracked them and went after them. I'm not surprised at all that there are guys who do it for lesser medals.

[nathanjw]

I did know, but only because a guy I knew back in Virginia was one of them. He had lots of great war stories to tell about 'Nam. Too bad he was never there - the fact became clear during his divorce.

[mykwud.livejournal.com]

why, i haven't been this incensed since Charlie took my damned legs in 'Nam a good decade or so before I was even born!!!

[isquiesque.livejournal.com]

I just got the morning post, and in it there was an envelope with a Purple Heart stamp on it, and I thought, "Why, I wonder what this poser wants." Funny how quickly I can turn cynical... I am fairly amused that that was my first reaction, when he could have (a) really been wounded or (b) just used the stamp to show support. Then my mind wandered into the realm of What If Purple Hearts Didn't Have To Pay For Their Stamps and the further enticement people would have to lie! Silly.

melq.

[(Anonymous)]

I once saw a guy dressed as a pilot standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier, and I'm pretty sure he never saw anything more dangerous than a dentist's drill.

Keith

[(Anonymous)]

Heck, we had a Governor that did that. Jesse "I was a NAAYYY-VEEEEE SEEEEL" Ventura.

He's never actually released his military records, but the rumors are that he was in charge of handing out towels at the gym in the Phillipines. And while he was a Frogman/UDT, he was never in the Navy Seals. After he left the military, they merged the two groups into the Seals. He seems to think that entitles him to the title Navy Seal.

Get me a fresh towel, Jesse.