Since my vocation allows me to represent many of America's true heroes. I am starting this thread, to bring to the attention of all who served honorably in our Armed Forces, just what some low-lifes will do to make themselves look good. Then backfires upon them to their dismay, being forever branded a true coward.
I hope those with a desire to keep honor for the true heroes will post factual fraud, not opinion that you may disagree with, the validity of an actual award that was approved by military or naval authority.
Remember there are medals (I only have two) and decorations (I have none).
Leading off the list, showing justice is being served:These are good ones! They got caught. quote:
MILITARY STOLEN VALOR UPDATE 06: A man who lied during a public meeting about being awarded the nation’s highest military honor pleaded guilty 5 APR to violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2005. Xavier Alvarez, 50, of Pomona, said he served as a Marine and won the Medal of Honor when he was introduced as a newly elected member of a Claremont water board in JUL 07. “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 during the meeting, according to a recording of it. His attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Brianna Fuller, argued that his free speech was protected by the First Amendment. Government prosecutors argued that the First Amendment does not protect deliberate falsehoods. His plea with the U.S. Attorney’s Office gives Alvarez the right to appeal the plea based on his right to free speech. Alvarez faces up to one year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine when he is sentenced 21 JUL.
An Oroville CA 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.
A Navy Reserve public affairs officer is facing a general court-martial next week for allegedly forging an award citation and pretending to be a lieutenant when he was one rank lower at the time, the Navy said. Lt. Paul J. Pelletier, 42, is charged with five counts of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including failure to obey an order or regulation, making false official statements and going absent without leave. His court-martial is set to begin 13 MAY. According to the charge sheet, Pelletier put himself in for a Joint Service Achievement Medal at some point between 20 JUN and 20 JUL 06 while serving with Multi-National Force in Baghdad. He served at Camp Victory in Iraq for nine months in 2006. The award justification “outlined achievements he had not accomplished,” the sheet said. Around the same time, he wore the rank of lieutenant when he was actually a lieutenant junior grade, the sheet said. He continued to wear the unauthorized rank, the charge sheet stated, even though he had been ordered by a captain to stop.
[Source: AP articles posted 6 & 9 May 08 ++]
Then it gets better!Fraud update 09
A jury in Virginia found Army veteran Randall Moneymaker "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." Craig Jacobsen, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said Moneymaker used 'different levels of deceit' against not only combat veterans but service members who are wounded in the line of duty. In the six-month period ending 31 MAR, the VA Inspector General's Office investigations resulted in nine indictments against people who tried to scam the system for medical and/or monetary benefits, said James O'Neill, assistant inspector general for investigations. The report at
www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/army_moneymaker_051008w details the case against Moneymaker, who faces up to 35 years in federal prison. [Source: Houston Chronicle AP & Army Times article 6 & 9 May 08 ++]
I will cast no stones!
Dave Barker
