Category: Phony soldiers

Editor Note: This post is stuck to the top of the blog, scroll for newer posts.

UPDATE x4: The audio interview with Tim Poe is up, it starts around 110 or so. Also more media coverage about this at Fox.

“I had volunteered for a team to go out and clear buildings and help out with the wounded,” Poe said during a taped interview on the show. “There was a guy who come up with a rocket-propelled grenade. I saw it coming down, and by the time I turned and went to jump on top of my guys, I yelled `grenade’ and the blast had hit me.”

It seems that Yahoo is reporting it as well.

NBC had no comment on the story, but if proven true, these accusations could turn a feel-good story into a serious scandal for the network. At the very least, it sounds as if someone at NBC didn’t do their homework before broadcasting Poe’s story into millions of homes. Poe got three “yes” votes from the judges and will presumably continue on in the competition; we’ll have to see how “Talent” addresses these very serious allegations in the weeks to come.

UPDATE x3: It seems that America Got Talent has finally responded about his military background. Thanks Chris for the link.

Got a second link to the America Got Talent about a ex-wife that talks about his past. Thank you to Parachute Cutie for the link.

UPDATE x2: I just spoke with a Major at the MN National Guard PAO who confirmed this press release. If he did all this heroic type crap, it wasn’t with this unit anyway, and he was assigned to the National Guard during the time he is claiming. So, unless he served in 2 units AT THE SAME TIME, this guy is full of crap. (cue Doggy Dog and his apology to me now.)

UPDATE: Insert Ace of Spades glowing skull here….

From a commenter, I have not verified yet, but this matches the other info leaked to me:

STATEMENT FROM THE MINNESOTA NATIONAL GUARD

~~ Attributable to Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, Spokesman for the Minnesota National Guard ~~

Sgt. Timothy Michael Poe served in the Minnesota Army National Guard from Dec. 3, 2002 until May 26, 2011, and performed as a supply specialist.

His military records indicate that he served with the Minnesota National Guard in Kosovo from Oct. 10, 2007 until July 15, 2008, and was deployed to Afghanistan from July 28, 2009 to Aug. 30, 2009.

Sgt. Poe’s official military records do not indicate that he was injured by a grenade in combat while serving in Afghanistan in 2009, as he reports. The Minnesota National Guard can also confirm that he was not awarded the Purple Heart Medal for wounds sustained in combat.

Have emailed the LTC, will update when confirmed. (The LTC emailed me back and gave me a second confirmation on this press release.)

Original post:

According to this cat, he got hit by an RPG which led to TBI and a stuttering issue….

That same thing happened to me, or just about the same. I got hit with an RPG, but I was quick enough to catch it in my teeth, and though it exploded, all it gave me was an aching priapism. But, I spit out the remains of that RPG thing and yelled at the dude that shot me, “Oh man, you done screwed a Royal goat now!” And I called on teh power of Greyskull and Odin to help me. They were both busy, but Odin sent the Valykries who picked me up, one under wach arm, and a third carrying my prodigous member, and they flew me around the battlefield to smite mine enemies with major smitage. Then I cut off all their earlobes and made a really cool lampshade.

And, according to a host of folks showing up all over the ‘net today, my story is apparently just as factually based as this numbnuts…

Ole Poe here has one defender..

Benjamin A Beers
Really people don’t you think the show would do there research before televising his addition as well as the network. The net work dose full on back grounds on the contestant and there stories before the show even comes out let alone be put on air and I’m sure if your story was true about Tim Poe the US Military would of already came out to say he lying after all these addition were over a month ago. I do respect and support are troops but this just seems like bullying to me.

Um, no. I doubt they do any research at all. How many times has there been a contestant that appeared on some dopey reality TV show and then weeks later they have to boot them for porn or a criminal record? This publicity will only make more people tune in.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and declare this one busted. I have a friend who met this guy and said s/he suspected Poe was full of shite from minute 1. Either that gut instinct was right, or someone went through a lot of effort to invent people in the 114th transportation company and their Facebook pages.

Now, if you don’t mind, I’m heading out with my Valykrie friends for some BBQ and Mead in Valhalla.

UPDATE: ok, so now we have like 15 gazillion people coming from Facebook, so since the vast bulk are new to TAH, better explain some back story….

1) I have a source on this I trust implictely.
2) there are 15 names of folks from his unit that are on the Facebook page. I suppose it is possible they are all plants, but that would be one hell of an effort, since I went to each individual Facebook page, and they were all started WELL before yesterday.
3) I have documentation showing his claims of having a Bronze Star and a purple heart. Other folks are emailing and PMing me that these are not accurate.

Is this guy’s story real? I wasn’t with him, but gun to the head and Occum’s Razor suggest no. In order for his story to be real, there is a serious effort afoot to malign him. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely, no.

This stuff happens to us all the time. See for example Sergeant Major Mailahn who was the “youngest Marine Corps sergeant major in history.” We outted him, he threatened legal action, and months later admitted he was full of crap.

Would I like more info on this guy? Absolutely. For some reason all the principals have gone silent on this. I am told it is because the command of that unit told them to shut up for now as they work on a press release. I’d feel better with that press release, but go to the link I put in above. Come to your own conclusion, I’m just some dopey dude blogging. You have access to the folks saying he was lying, and his video. Assess for yourselves what you think.

POW Network sent us this screen shot of a Facebook page of someone claiming to be “Lt. Taylor Kent – Navy SEAL”. At first Mary thought that it was Ballduster McSoulpatch, but we already confirmed from the Houston Medical Examiner’s office that he had new job pushing up daisies from his remote location in Maleboge (think Dante’s eighth circle of Hell). I couldn’t find the Facebook page, maybe one of you can find it;

A moment’s Google confirmed that they’re not the same guy…just some other gay guy in Houston pretending to be something he’s not with a cute little ball-dusting growth on his chin for the customers;

So I thought I’d put this up for anyone else who thinks he might be McManus and save us both a flurry of emails. But we ought to put this new guy to rest, too.

I guess the world’s youngest Sergeant Major, “Ronad” Mailahn, is ready to concede that maybe not all publicity is good publicity. He just emailed this to POW Network;

I admit I was not in the corps but I did serve in the army I said I was in the corps cause a lot of my friends that was made fun of the army I was wrong in doing so very wrong now that I admited to this please take my name off your web page and could u send this to the hell website and have them remove this off there site as well I just want to live my life this lie has caused me to lose jobs due to the fact it was on the web and I don’t need to lose anymore job opperinitys u have my permission to post this on the site
Ronad Mailahn Jr

See, here’s the thing “Ronad” (so many possibilities there), I could take that post down right now, but the internet always remembers. I’ve had to explain that about a hundred times to people who’ve made the same request. The whole point of this exercise is that there’s a price to pay for stupid shit. If we can’t get the government to arrest you for this malfeasance, then we have the internet – a modern version of the stocks and dunking chairs in the village square.

And, oh, pretending to be a Marine is one thing, but pretending to be a Sergeant Major with a whole bunch of crap that you didn’t earn is quite another. You didn’t think about us, or the Marines who have died in that uniform when you strapped it on, so please don’t ask us to consider your feelings and remove anything that might hurt your widdow feewings. And pay back the money to the girls’ softball team that you looted.

This actually started as a comment on the original thread, but the whiny little turd deserved an entirely new post to complain about. Still waiting on the call from your “lawer”, you illiterate goat roper.

Waltmeister at WalterMitteyhunt.com, the British stolen valor website, send us a link to one of their latest outings, a clearly depraved individual who presents himself as a son of a KIA from the Falklands who goes by the name of Daniel Wolf;

He states clearly as per the photos that he is the son of 2 Para Capt David Woods (RIP) killed in action Falklands 28th May 1982 yet his birthday is 7th May 1986. Wolf has two photos of Capt Woods plus comments on his [Facebook] profile. It is NOT true as far as we can ascertain Capt Woods did not have a son, extreme lengthy and detailed [inquiries] show us that our allegations are true and his claims are lies, very sick lies. Many people have assisted us in establishing this fact and have no reason to distort the truth about this. If any family of Capt Woods reads this then we sincerely [apologize] for any distress caused and only made this exposure public out of respect and to preserve the dignity and memory for Capt Woods.

They write that they’ve found the individual’s real identity and, since he’s in the military, they’ve already informed his command of his antics.

Ken Aden, the Democrat running for Congress who claims to be a “green beret”. Tim was able to finagle a copy of the DD214 from someone somewhere while the campaign was doing it’s best to keep it out of our hands. We discussed Aden and his tomfoolery here and here earlier this month. But here’s his complete DD214 and you’ll see why they only released half of it on that Blue Arkansas blog.

You’ll notice that in blocks #13 and #18 there is no Special Forces tab listed. Also in block #14 there’s no Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) which would be necessary for him to call himself a “Green Beret”. We’ve been in contact with the folks at the Special Warfare Center and they have no record of his attendance at the school.

Aden and his staff could have mitigated this by simply admitting in the beginning that he’s not a “Green Beret”, but they’re absolutely sticking to this obviously fallacious line. This is only going to get worse before it gets better.

Of course, if Aden comes up with some documentation, or he can point me to his class picture, I’ll retract this whole thing, but clinging to an obviously altered DD214 isn’t going to get that done.

Loads of thanks to Tim who been very tenacious and relentless in regards to getting these documents. Oh, yeah, the only thing I did to his DD214 is erase his birth date, because I don’t want him to have his identity stolen or anything.

Tim and I have been trying for days now to get Ken Aden’s DD214 that he supposedly “publicly released” to a select few media outlets. They confused me with Tim and think Tim owns this blog. So much for amateurs investigating anything. But now, this idiot at Blue Arkansas thinks he has a blockbuster defense of Aden and has the temerity to call this a right wing blog. Actually, dimbulb, we’re a military blog and I’m about to show you why we’re a military blog and why you shouldn’t try to do what we do. Here’s what he thinks is proof that Ken Aden didn’t lie when he said he is a Green Beret;

Yup, he can read – it says SF Weapons Sergeant right there in the circle. But look at the last unit in block 8a – 73rd Armor isn’t a special forces unit, last I checked. The date of the DD214 coincides with the date in his FOIA and yet in the Military Education block (suspiciously missing from the DD214) doesn’t mention SFQC. There is no Special Forces tab in the decorations and awards block of the FOIA (another block suspiciously missing from the abbreviated DD214).

Of course, Aden’s defenders take the route of questioning the veracity of the FOIA instead of asking why they only got half of his DD214. Smooth move there, guys. No soup for you.

Eggs sends us a link to the Las Vegas Journal Review which reports that Richard R. Cruze Jr. is not smiling so broadly now.

A Virginia circuit court judge sentenced former Las Vegas resident Richard R. Cruze Jr., who posed as a highly decorated Army colonel, to seven months in prison on two felony fraud charges linked to a forged military document.

Loudoun County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Thomas D. Horne also on Monday fined Cruze and charged him court costs totaling $1,730.

In addition, Horne ordered Cruze to work 100 hours of community service per year during three years of supervised probation and to attend counseling sessions and mental health evaluations.

Cruze pleaded guilty to having forged government documents, a military ID card, and using those documents to get Special Forces license plates in Virginia. You might remember that Cruze outed himself by wading into a convention of Army Rangers in his phony finery and trying to impress them. Of course, it was POW Network who aided in his incarceration;

Cruze posted a résumé with a nursing organization that said he served in Vietnam from June 1969 to September 1970 as a combat medic and had earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Cross of Gallantry, Soldiers Medal and the Army Distinguished Service Medal.

Military records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by a watchdog group, the POW Network, show Cruze never served in combat and received no valor awards or decorations. Instead, he is listed as an Army reservist from July 21, 1988, to Jan. 3, 1994, who served on inactive status for a hospital unit in Phoenix.

The Review-Journal also says that Nevada had an opportunity to arrest him when the local cops caught him driving around that state with Purple Heart license plates, but they decided to not press the issue. I’m glad Virginia takes Stolen Valor more seriously.

CavRick sends us a link from the Jacksonville Daily News warning locals that there is a woman wandering the streets there in uniform soliciting money for what we can assume is a phony charity, too.

A female has been posing as a military member and requesting money for an event aboard Camp Lejeune. She is telling business owners they can receive a pass to get aboard base and shop in the exchange and commissary.

A flier posted around town by this woman is entitled “Soldiers Supporting Soldiers.” The information contained in the poster is fraudulent, according to the Jacksonville – Onslow Chamber of Commerce.

Active duty military members are not allowed to directly solicit for funds or merchandise on behalf of the military, authorities said.

Yeah, so they can get those great deals at the PX which no longer means what it used to mean. But police are looking for her, if you’re in the area and have information, please call the cops on her. Contact information for the police is at the link. The scum bags are everywhere.