Valor thieves and Stolen Honor Laws

[MdA]

What if it was an Olympic fencing medal around his neck? Would you feel any different about it?

Do you think the USOC or the IOC would go after him?

You can't even put the Olympic rings on a T-shirt without their authorization.

[Purple Fencer]

What if it was an Olympic fencing medal around his neck? Would you feel any different about it?

Do you think the USOC or the IOC would go after him?

You can't even put the Olympic rings on a T-shirt without their authorization.

As there's no law against it (like there are for military decorations), I'd simply be disappointed in that person....and this is something I have personal experience with.

In 1984 I was a member of the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps. At the time they were a 5 tome world champion. Today they have won the title 13 times since 1976, have won more performance captions (brass, percussion, color guard) than any other corps, have not placed lower than 5th since placing 9th in 1974...they are the absolute peak of the marching arts, and the corps to beat very single year.

We in the corps activity hear frequent stories about people claiming to have marched a corps they clearly did not.

Following the Sr corps preliminaries in 2006, I was talking with a group from another corps and one guy kept claiming he marched 84 Blue Devils, not knowing who I was or my background in the activity...and I knew he'd not EVER been a part of BD...he was not even one of the few people who'd quit or been cut. The only reason I didn't say anything was he was surrounded by his own corpsmates and wasn't saying anything bad about my corps....but if he HAD I would've called him on it right then...especially since there were members of another corps staying in the same hotel who I'd marched with in Devils and who could verify MY cred.

To say I was offended would be putting it mildly....I worked my ass off for 9 straight months on our show, putting in 12 hour+ days on the field during weekend rehearsals....the same time and more every day from when school let out in June to the end of the season in late August. The idea that someone else would try to claim MY experience and lie about it did not go over well, but standing around the hotel laundry trying to dry off while recovering from performing in the remains of Hurricane Eduardo wasn't the time to get into it.

I would apply the same thoughts to someone who claimed to have been a member of the wideband shop of the 485th EIG at Griffiss AFB between late 1985 and approximately September 1989...since I would know that person and NO one forgets me (no matter how hard they try). That was my period of service, and I don't care for someone who lies about serving their country.

I don't lie about my service...I don't claim medals I did not earn, nor do I claim to have served in wartime when I did not (the Navy got almost all the action), and it chaps my hide when someone claims a battlefield decoration when their closest exposure to wartime combat if fighting the lines at Walmart.

[Rockstar44]

Those who have earned these decorations have paid for them in blood, pain, and sacrifice.

There is no creature on this earth who is lower than this man.

There is no beating severe enough for him to atone for this sin.

Even one administered by child molesters.....

[Slim]

Some take this very seriously......

http://veriseal.org/quarterdeck.html

http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies.htm

http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_fake_mil...s_uniforms.htm


And yes, for some medals, it is a crime...as it should be.

[phillipmj]

There is no beating severe enough for him to atone for this sin.

Even one administered by child molesters.....

Umm. . . whaaaat?

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


------
Doug Sterner, an Army veteran whose wife's college policy analysis led to the writing of the Stolen Valor Act, has been tracking fake military claims for years.

He gets hundreds of phony applications each year for the Hall of Valor, an online collection of military citations and awards. Though the Hall of Valor was intended to document the heroic tales of America's service men and women, he now also uses it as a platform to report possible violations of the Stolen Valor Act.

He sees very few cases where such a lie isn't fueled by a desire to take advantage of some benefit to decorated veterans.

"Almost without exception in every sort of stolen valor case I have dealt with, there is some kind of underlying fraud, usually with financial fraud," he said.
--------

The fact that there are phony applications indicates to me that those people are not thinking things through - whatever benefits that they can get by passing off as medaled soldiers will be lost when they get exposed, and such an application will only hasten their busting.

OK, when almost all those cases involve people trying to financially defraud others, why not use ordinary anti-fraud laws?

This "Stolen Valor Act" is to me a mess from beginning to end. Firstly, it is badly named - nothing is stolen in that rightful owners become unable to enjoy what was their exclusively from the beginning. A better name would have been "Military impersonation act". As an aside, an even better name would have been "Act #2006:123456789". (That is how it is done in Sweden - legal acts are named after the year that they are passed and a serial number for that year. No fussing about who gets to be the namesake - no one. No naming any law so that it becomes excessively difficult to abolish it.) Secondly, it does not pass the test: "Is there some big problem solved by this proposed law that can not be solved by using old laws?"

People brag. Fact of life.

Considering that the USA has a lot of incarcerated individuals and a costly prison system, I think that one should think very long and hard whether to add another class of nonviolent crimes that can result in jailtime. I do not think that in this case the problem to society is sufficient to warrant jail time.

I understand perfectly well that actual decorated soldiers fell angry (amply illustrated in this very thread!), but I do not think that the lawmaker should accomodate them.

Over here, I can not imagine any non-soldier awarding any soldier any more respect for the simple fact that the latter has served. Nor can I imagine any non-soldier giving any fake-soldier any specific break or any other plus treatment, if the latter manages to con the former into believing a true soldier status. Two Swedish soldiers were shot and killed in Afganistan just recently, but I can not remember any nonsoldier stating anything admiring/thankful in the media. The army treated them with all honors, but that was that.

Final point: One of Gav´s links was to a case of a 61-yearold man who was busted for wearing World War II-medals, in a 2006 march. Anyone who gets taken in by that should be laughed at.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Gav]

Final point: One of Gav´s links was to a case of a 61-yearold man who was busted for wearing World War II-medals, in a 2006 march. Anyone who gets taken in by that should be laughed at.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

They weren't.
That's the whole point of the article.

You too.

Ps. you conflate tricking someone for gain with a need to be included within the veteran community for whatever cachet that person feels they will gain.