For Every REAL Navy Seal, At Least 300 CLAIM To Be One

[matcom]

<snip>

From the minute FBI Special Agent Thomas A. Cottone Jr. saw Walter K. Carlson, he suspected that something wasn't quite right about the decorated war hero. The two men met at a Washington Township, N.J., funeral service for Marine Second Lt. John Thomas Wroblewski, 25 years old, killed in Iraq in last spring.

"Thousands of people were there, but when that captain walked past me wearing the Navy Cross and a chest full of medals and ribbons," Mr. Cottone says, "I whispered to my friend, something is wrong with that guy."

Mr. Cottone, whose duties at the Federal Bureau of Investigation include investigating military imposters, subsequently followed his hunch, determining, he says, that Mr. Carlson, 59 years old and a local bus dispatcher, didn't earn the medals he was wearing; in fact, Mr. Cottone says, Mr. Carlson never even served in the military. Mr. Carlson declined to comment.


It is illegal under federal law to wear an unauthorized military uniform or unearned decorations. Mr. Carlson was arrested, released on $10,000 bond and ordered to surrender all military materials. A trial was averted when he agreed to a pretrial probation program, says Mr. Cottone.

With patriotism at a high plateau of late, the U.S. military currently receives a level of respect not seen since World War II. Unlike the Vietnam War era, today even those who oppose the war in Iraq profess to be staunch supporters of the men and women who serve there. The heightened admiration has given way to a growing number of military impostors, and in turn sparked an impassioned group of crusaders determined to expose the mock heros who festoon themselves with unearned medals.

The FBI's Mr. Cottone estimates that for every actual Navy Seal today, at least 300 people falsely claim to be one. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society in Mount Pleasant, S.C., suspects that the number of people who falsely claim to have received a Medal of Honor is more than double the 124 living recipients.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will prosecute only those military impostors who try to register for veterans' benefits. Law enforcement lacks the resources to investigate all but the most aggravated situations; as a result, the law that led to Mr. Carlson's arrest is rarely enforced. At the same time, military discharge papers and Purple Hearts can be bought on eBay by the dozen.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB111533986173926430-K_XMqM2Fe4Gn2S_wmni1njavo2k_20060505,00.html?mod=blogs

[GOPisEvil]

1. Did I ever tell you about my days with the Delta Force?

[NewJeffCT]

34. Remember that time we were in Somalia together?

That wasn't exactly fun, eh?

[commander bunnypants]

2. and I was an airforce pj

asshole

CB

[DS1]

11. Everyone in the Air Force wore their pajamas

What's so special about you? :P

[commander bunnypants]

14. YO, Jarhead

Any PJ can whip a marine to shreds..

:)


I was actually a corpsman

CB

[DS1]

17. Ahh yes, the mandatory pissing contest

I could find some jarheads that would PJs for breakfast :P

[commander bunnypants]

22. I was in San Diego at Balboa

you?

CB

[DS1]

23. Pendleton for 4 months in tank school

Then K-Bay Hawaii

[commander bunnypants]

25. cool

I loved hanging out in LaJolla.

California girls

CB

[DS1]

26. Oceanside was a complete dump

And I found it really amusing that part of the orientation briefing they gave us upon arrival was where we weren't allowed to go - trying to save us from the naughty people. Of course, that was a handy guide.

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. You know, it really bugs me to read this, being a veteran of the Pacific

Herring Battalion...

[NorthernSpy]

12. Ha! That's not a real SEAL either!

That thing's got ears. No ears on a seal!

Imposter!

[BigMcLargehuge]

13. shit! You're on to me!

here's a more recent pic of me

[NorthernSpy]

16. well, coo-coo-cuh-choo, I guess

But you still have to give back them pretty medals and ribbons and shit.

[MemphisTiger]

4. It's my understanding that unless you see the sailors uniform

you would never know he was a SEAL because they never talk about it. They just say they were/are in the military or Navy.

[Hugin]

7. Some do if you ask them...

But, they're living their lives and most are working on or
doing even more interesting things with their lives. So it's
only one aspect of who they are.

[Coastie for Truth]

21. Had one friend who was a Seal vet

Never talked about what he did - but a walking encyclopedia of Serbo-Croation "trivia" - even down to subtle differences in accents ("from valley to valley") and even more subtle differences in Eastern Orthodox liturgy (also "from valley to valley") and cuisine.

[Hugin]

5. Very interesting...

I've noticed an explosion in the number of the
Marine stickers on vehicles lately too.

It's gotten so bad I just go... "Oh,
suuuuure." as they go roaring by me at twice
the speed limit on the highway in their ridiculously
huge SUVs festooned with "Support the troops" ribbons
and W04 stickers.

Most are terminally cognitively dissonant feepdies.

What do you expect though... Their leader is a
"Glory Grabber" of the worst sort.

I knew this was going to happen when there was no
active refutation of the stupid Swift Boat crap with
the band-aid purple hearts.

It's disgusting.

[Kingshakabobo]

6. Did I ever tell you about my adventures in darkest Africa?

Bully!

[BOSSHOG]

8. One of the scariest sites you'll ever see is a

person claiming to be a Seal, confronted by a Real Seal. Not a very pretty picture. They wear their warfare device over their left breast like all Sailors and you better by god be a Seal if you are wearing it. And Seals know who is and who isn't. I was in a barracks in San Diego and a real Seal tour the door down of a guy claiming to be a Seal and beat him unconscious. There was a First Class Petty Officer wearing the Seal Warfare Device and a real Seal grabbed it and ripped it off his uniform, tour the shirt up pretty bad. Don't fuck with seals and for God's Sake don't wear their warfare device.

[DS1]

9. These goddamn imposters are really cramping my style!

Time to get the old SOG combat knife out and get me some civilian action

[Jara sang]

10. Damn... I've been telling people that I was awarded the Victoria Cross

for years now. Is it illegal to impersonate somebody form a foreign country's military?:P

[Hugin]

18. Suppose that goes for my Iron Cross as well...

*sigh*

And the Blue Max
And the merit badges
and the good eater award
and the gold homework stars
and the I made my bed ribbon
and the award for having so many awards

What's a tin pot dictator to do?

[Jara sang]

24. Do you have an Iron Cross

with diamonds and swords? Cause that's waht I got.:P

[Hugin]

27. Yeah, I got mine at a flea mar... I mean I was awarded it for valor and...

kiss-up-itude.

(Seriously: I can't find a picture of one like it on the I-net
right now. But, it's a pre-nazi cross. Somehow it ended up in
the family (not by award). We think my grandfather got it from
somewhere. Probably won it at craps.)

[Jara sang]

28. You really have one? i thought you were just BSing

I used to have one that my grandfather took as a souvenir in WWI(I think) It didn't have the ribbon attached to it though.

[Hugin]

29. Didn't you see it on my chest... Right next to the Pack-Rat Merit badge?

Yeah, I've got tons of junk.

:)

[Zuni]

32. ooooh---I have the oak leaf cluster---hahahahaha

Knights Cross of the Iron Cross, beeyatch

[Zuni]

33. oooh---The Blue Max---The Pour le merite

the highest military decoration in Pre-nazi Germany had a French name, because Frederick I spoke french, not deutsch

[CO Liberal]

15. They Can Start By Investigating the Military Imposter In The White House

:-)

[BringEmOn]

38. Yeah....arrest this impostor

[CO Liberal]

39. Charge Him With Unlawful Use of a Codpiece

:-)

[Mutley]

19. I'm a Navy Seal

Okay, no I'm not. My Dad is though. Okay, no he's not. But he was in the Navy. No, really. He retired as a LT.

[DS1]

20. This is like some guys I've seen wearing their "travel ribbons"

As soon as they are far far from base, typically at home, they'll slap on a big old fruit basket of ribbons. You can sometimes tell right off the bat because they'll have a Southeast Asia tour, 3 stars and no overseas deployment or 'firewatch' ribbons.

I used to care about not having many ribbons, then I graduated bootcamp :D

[Dees]

30. And, just how many Huey Door Gunners served in Vietnam

I can't tell you how much of this bullshit I've heard over the years.

Them...What did you do over in Nam?
Me...Rifleman in 1st Infantry Division
Them...I was a door gunner.
Me...Is that right?
Them...Yeah
Me...What aviation company were you with?
Them...Uh quite a few.
Me...Really?
Me...Tell me about the modified "pig"(M60) you were using.
Me...Wait I've got a few more questions for ya

[flamingyouth]

31. There was a guy in Seattle doing this last year

He managed to defraud several women out of a lot of money. I was trying to find the link earlier this week, actually. No reason. ;)

[HEyHEY]

35. Yeah, my CO in the foreign legion warned me about guys like that

[flvegan]

36. Yeah, those other 299 troops really piss me off!

[Zuni]

37. That reminds me of all the fake Grenada veterans

they are just glory hounds...