Liars About Military Exploits

Watchdogs labor to expose liars about military exploits

July 25, 2010 Army Capt. Joshua Howard, a physician's assistant at Fort Riley, Kan., ran across the newspaper story online about a Korean War veteran who was to be inducted into the Kansas National Guard Hall of Fame.

In the accompanying photo, the veteran wore a khaki shirt covered with ribbons and medals, black bars and stripes.

The story told how this veteran had received the military's No. 2 and 3 awards for valor _ the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star _ along with two Purple Hearts, one pinned on by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. And how he'd been a prisoner of war in Korea for 5½ months.

But the more Howard read, the more "those medals and his account of it all didn't add up," he said. Continued

And Ladies watch out for "Patriotic Love"

Criminals Use Romance, Patriotism to Steal Money

July 22, 2010 American Forces Press Service: Shelly is a smart, successful business owner, but a brief liaison with a man claiming to be a servicemember nearly cost her everything.

Shelly was thrilled to meet a handsome Marine on a dating website she frequented. Although her contact with the military was limited, she was deeply patriotic and had a great admiration for servicemembers.

After just a few days, the man began professing his love for her via e-mail and instant messaging. He said he was deployed to Iraq, and was looking for love after he had lost his wife in a car crash about two years prior. His 5-year-old boy was staying with his sister while he was deployed, he told her.

Shelly was enthralled but, as a single mom, remained cautious. She began to notice some idiosyncrasies: his birth date on one website didn’t match another and the picture with dark hair and eyes she originally saw didn’t match the blond-haired, blue-eyed man on a different profile.

About three days into their relationship, the man told her his bank account had been hacked into and $37,000 had been taken. He couldn’t check his bank account from Iraq, he claimed, asking her for some money to get by. Suspicious, Shelly asked him for his military address and phone number.

“I’m so disappointed you don’t believe me,” he said, and gave her a number that connected her to a fax machine. Fed up, Shelly called him out. Angry and defensive, he blew up at her and threatened to “get her” and “go public with who you are.”

“What bothers me is he has my information,” said Shelly, Continued

As to both they can be easily debunked with a little research or better yet the help of Veterans with the knowledge and Veteran friends who served the reality. As to you ladies if you have a relative or friend that's a Veteran, suggest though in real life not an online friend only, they can help in bringing in real facts especially if the phony is a "chickenhawk" and never served but gets information from the internet. Veterans have been readily using this technology to blow the fake cover of the phonies online as well as the false information and frankly lies of real vets of earlier times who use the fake info to enhance either their service or justify false story lines, like spitting on us Vietnam vets, and other fairy tales for political purposes or just plain slander!