Category: Phony soldiers

Last week, we busted Ron Worthey for lying about special forces service in Vietnam, this week he gets the fame and attention that he wanted from his local media at WAOW;

WAOW – Newsline 9, Wausau News, Weather, Sports

The Wausau-based veterans group Souls of Honor is disbanding, following fraud accusations of its former president Ronald Worthey.

According to watchdog group Guardians of the Green Beret, Worthey lied about serving in Vietnam, having a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.

Military records show he served stateside and didn’t receive those awards.

The now standing president of Souls of Honor said he is working on forming a new group with a similar mission. He wants to reassure veterans in the community that although the Souls of Honor won’t exist in the same capacity it once did, the group will still be there to support Wisconsin veterans.

If you hoped that Worthey is different from other phonies;

Worthey could not be reached for comment Monday.

Our partners at Military Phonies sent us their work on this Anthony Gradi fellow who claims to be a Marine;

The Marines responded “Who?”

The National Personnel Records Center, which would hold Gradi’s records based on the time frame he would have served on active duty, could find no records indicating that Gradi served in the Armed Forces. It is possible that he could have served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, but active duty would have shown up if he went to boot camp and certainly any specialized MOS training.

Oddly, the NPRC seemed to point to service in the Merchant Marines, so a request was made to the Department of Homeland Security for Merchant Marine service.

One of our ninjas shared his work on this John Byers fellow who claims to be a Navy SEAL and he claims that he was wounded twice in Desert Storm, according to his forged DD214;

He also awarded himself a Bronze Star Medal.

The National Personnel Records Center doesn’t remember it like that, though. They remember Byer being in the Coast Guard for less than two years;

He has other service that the NPRC can’t see;

He appealed his conviction, but the courts didn’t give him a break. This is from the appeal;

Defendant testified that at the time the search warrant was executed, he was living with his mother and stepfather at their home. His grandmother was also living there at the time. Defendant testified that while looking at legal pornography sites on the internet, pop-up images of child pornography appeared on the screen. On one occasion, he tried to click the “X” in the corner to close the pop-up but accidentally hit the “print” button, which was right next to the “X.” When he realized that he accidentally printed the page, he grabbed it, tore it into pieces, threw it to the side and forgot about it. He never looked at the page and did not know what was on it. He said he did not throw it in the garbage because it was late at night and he was not wearing any pants. He also did not want his mom to find it in the garbage can.

Someone sent us their work on this plus-sized Mark Fisette fellow who claims that he’s a sergeant major, a Grenada veteran, a Just Cause veteran, etc….

Do you need a super-sized model for your next movie?

Well, the truth is that Fisette spent less than four years on active duty – all before the Grenada Operation. He earned a Good Cookie and an Overseas ribbon for when he was stationed in Germany. He left the Army as a Private First Class (E-3).

Apparently he was arrested last week for assaulting an elderly person, so here’s his parting shot;

Someone sent us their work on this Ron Worthey fellow who claims that he was with 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam. He’s the President of Souls of Honor. He claims that he was awarded a Purple Heart and a Silver Star. You can see them pinned to his cap in the picture above.

When asked what his MOS was, he claims that they didn’t have MOS back in those days.

Of course, there’s a vest;

Well the truth is that he spent about 17 months in the US Navy from July, 1965 to December, 1966. He never got anywhere near Vietnam and his only award is the National Defense Service Medal.

According to Tulsa World, Oklahoma Legislator Mike Ritze who represents Broken Arrow has been called out by two of his peers for wearing a Disabled American Veterans cap with a Purple Heart attached on the floor of the chamber;

Two of his House colleagues — Reps. Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, and Josh West, R- Grove — are accusing Ritze of embellishing his military record. They say he has been wearing on the House floor the DAV cover — or hat — with a Purple Heart insignia, implying that he was a member and had been awarded the medal.

He also claimed that DAV had given him a honorary membership in the organization. DAV denies that and they’ve asked him to stop using their name in his campaign material.

Ritze did serve in the Army’s Medical Corps and he was discharged as a Captain after eight years of service, according to his discharge certificate;

McDugle called Ritze’s situation a case of stolen valor — when someone wears something they didn’t earn. McDugle served eight years with the U.S. Marines, serving with an infantry unit, special forces unit and airborne forward observer unit, and was also a drill instructor.

“It is a big deal,” McDugle said. “It is an honor situation. The idea is: Why portray himself as something he is not? It calls into question everything else he does.”

West, who served nine years in the Army, was awarded a Purple Heart from a firefight in Iraq in 2003 where he was shot in both legs and the stomach and sustained a traumatic brain injury.

West said he respects all veterans, regardless of whether or not they served in combat.

“It is very personal when people embellish their service,” West said. “I take issue with it.”

Our partners at Military Phonies share their work on this fellow Angelo Santopolo who claims to be a Navy SEAL, or maybe a Navel SEAL and that he attended a secret BUD/S class;

He actually served on two submarines, USS Raton, a Gato-class attack submarine and USS Ronquil, a Balao-class submarine. He served off the coast of Vietnam with the Raton as an electronics technician in the pay grade E-5, earning a Vietnam Service Medal, but no BUD/s training.

Based on Angelo’s summary Sheet shows that he did 4 years of active duty in the Navy. He was discharged as a ETR2 (SS), E-5 and did earn his Submarine Warfare insignia. There is no record of him attending BUD/S and NO SEAL Command.

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Samuel Oliverio who claimed at a Putnam Valley, New York Town Board Meeting that he served in Vietnam for eight days, so he doesn’t consider himself to be a Vietnam veteran.

“Those who served in peacetime, as I did from 1975 to 1978. I did make the Vietnam classification, but I consider myself a Vietnam era, not a Vietnam veteran, a Vietnam era veteran, because, you know, the little bit of time that I was in country was all of eight days.”

Well, according to his records, in May, 1975, the month after US forces left Vietnam, Sam was on the Delayed Entry Program for the Air Force. He got a hardship discharge from DEP and then enlisted again a year later in the Army. So, if he was in Vietnam for eight days it was on his own dime.

I don’t know what he thinks that lying about eight days in Vietnam will get him, but it was a stupid claim. He spent 25 months in the active duty Army and five months were spent in Korea after a year or so at Hunter Army Airfield as a Military Policeman.