This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Phony soldiers

  • RI legislator disputes USMC records

    We discussed State legislator, Daniel Gordon last month when the Associated Press got hold of his military records after Gordon made claims about his Gulf War service. Olga sends us an update on the story from AP and the Military Times;

    State Rep. Daniel Gordon, R-Portsmouth, told WPRO-AM his records are “confused constantly” with a person of the same name who he says is registered at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

    Gordon has blamed a string of legal troubles on alcohol use to cope with combat stress from the 1991 Gulf War, though military records show no Middle East service.

    Gordon said he’ll have to talk to the Marine Corps to determine whether his files might have been mixed up with those of another.

    Yeah, Jon DeWald tried the same shit with us a few years back claiming to be a different Jon DeWald than the records we had. This Gordon dude already claimed that his records were lost in a fire, but how does he explain the part where he was wounded by shrapnel outside of Baghdad when there were no Marines outside of Baghdad in the first Gulf War.

  • Deadliest Warrior host Robert Daly steals valor

    Our buddy, JD, also known as Team Sergeant at Professional Soldiers. whose stolen valor research focuses on guys claiming to be Special Forces soldiers has busted a host of the Spike TV show “Deadliest Warriors”. now, i’ve never watched the show, so i had to see who we’re talking about, so here’s Robert Daly, the man in question;

    Deadliest Warrior Legends – Part 1: The Legends Return
    Get More: Deadliest Warrior Legends – Part 1: The Legends Return

    Apparently hes been trying to advance the show by claiming that he was Special forces. JD has some links to some of those claims, but here we’re more interested in the records so JD sent us what he got. First his assignments;

    His military and civilian education;

    Yeah, it looks like he had some pretty high-speed assignments, but nothing that can rise to the level of Special Forces…which are the words he used, in case someone wants to get in another pissing contest over context. According to some of you, special services at the gym troops handing out volley balls are considered “Special Operations”.

  • The final nail in the coffin

    We first wrote about Wilburn “Wild Bill” Carr a few weeks ago on a tip from CavRick who sent us this obituary notice about his daring-do in Korea. SUpposedly, his grandson showed up and chastised us severely for being cynical assholes (yes, I am). SOmeone else sent these articles from the same paper which published the obit.

    And now as a final nail in Wilburn Carr’s coffin, the folks at POW NEtwork have come through with a FOIA of WIlburn’s military service;

    No Purple Heart…no decorations at all, no 101st Airborne Division, two years of service that began more than two years after the shooting stopped in Korea. Yeah, I’m a big cynical asshole. I wonder why.

  • This is not the Medal that you want.

    The Purple Heart is one of two medals I hope to never get. It is something that is given in compensation for the sacrifices in a armed conflict. It is something that should not be actively sought. But someone should have told that to David Perelman who shot himself in the foot figuratively and literally.

    A man who served three months in Vietnam as a cargo specialist in 1971 shot himself in the leg 20 years later and claimed it was a shrapnel wound. And as a result, he earned a Purple Heart and $180,000 in disability benefits from the VA in 1994.

    But he shot himself in the foot — figuratively — because he later pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud for stealing the disability benefits and for wearing the medal to a national convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Las Vegas.

    Not surprisingly he tried to say that his actions of were simply freedom of speech. But you know your excuses are bad when even the 9th Court calls you on it.

    But this week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco declared that argument a stretch. The court clarified the distinction for Perelman, saying he was clearly donning his medal with the intent to deceive others.

    Yep so I am sure you will have a fun time trying to explain how that hole in your foot got there to people.

    Update: Here is a link to the 9th Court Ruling thanks to the link posted by 2-17AirCav.

  • Schepansky resigns after being fired

    Yeah, this isn’t written to influence the voting in the thread below, it’s written cuz it just happened yesterday. our buddy Peg McNichol wrote to tell us that Ray Schepansky pleaded guilty to charges that he that took a weapon to school and then offered to resign because of the false military credentials he’d used to get his teaching job. it takes a big man to resign after he’d been fired last week;

    He was fired from his teaching job earlier this month amid allegations that he lied about his military history.

    At Wednesday’s court hearing, he agreed to tender a letter of resignation, meaning he would not fight the district’s decision to fire him.

    There was a Detroit Free Press article which said the judge intended to be lenient on Schepansky because of his previously clean record, but that article has been pulled. I’ve been in contact with the District Attorney’s Office in order to preclude Schepansky from referring to his military daring-do in order to get sympathy from the judge during sentencing, but thankfully, the whole world knows that he was lying about his military career.

  • Phony plague

    So you don’t like my phonies, here are some from other folks;

    Our buddy, JD at Professional Soldiers who says he focuses on folks who claim they’re SF, sends us a link to one, Wayne Ticknor, Certified CrossFit Trainer Liar and Fraud.

    JD also sends Armando Cordoba Special Forces POW and his riveting tale of daring-do.

    TMan sends a link to another, Greg Valentini, who can’t seem to get his basic, easily verfied facts rights. He fooled the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal (like that’s hard).

  • Flag Officer Regional – Round One

    NOTE: VOTING CONCLUDED FOR THIS BRACKET. FOR RESULTS AND ROUND ONE OF THE SEEK HELP REGIONAL, JUST CLICK HERE.
    Here we go folks, putting first one above the fold, rest of it beneath. This post will stay up until Tuesday night/Wed morning. Vote early, vote often. Polling stuff is at bottom.

    For more info on any of these folks, go to the nomination thread and click the persons name.

    Game 1: Ballduster McSoulpatch v. Pasty Cokehead

    (1) Ballduster McSoulpatch – Michael Patrick McManus

    Claims:
    Order of the British Empire, SAS, CIB with two stars, Senior Master Jump Wings with a combat star, Distinguished Service Cross, a Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and a Silver Star. A Brigadier General, McManus retired and worked for the CIA. He’s a friend of both Steven Segal and the Dalai Llama. A gay rights activist, “U.S. Army Captain Michael McManus revealed that General Colin Powell knew he was gay while McManus was serving as his personal bodyguard, and that it made no difference to the general.” Frequently dresses on outlandish outfits, or naked on gay sites, and appears in his military outfit at political events.

    Truth:
    Official U.S. military records, which include MCMANUS’ form DD-214, indicate MCMANUS entered on Active Duty with the United States Army on November 11, 1984 and separated on March 31, 1987. During this period, MCMANUS attained the rank of Private First Class and a pay grade of E-1. The form DD-214 further indicates MCMANUS was awarded or authorized to wear only the following awards: an Army Service Ribbon; Overseas Service Ribbon; Expert Marksmanship Badge – Rifle; and Marksman Marksmanship Badge – Pistol. MCMANUS’ type of separation is Defined on the DD-214 as “Discharge” and the character of service is defined as “Under Honorable Conditions”, which is not the same as an “Honorable Discharge”.

    VS

    (8)  Pasty Cokehead – Kyle Barwan

    Claims:
    Claims to be a Ranger, MP, 1st Cavalry, a sniper, a First Lieutenant, and claimed to have served a tour in Iraq. Seen wearing ACUs, a beret (With 1st Lt. insignia), ranger tab, First Cavalry patch, Jump wings, and a combat infantry badge. He also claims to be a SILVER STAR RECIPIENT for “Dragging 8 guys away from an IED attack, and getting shot in the process.” Occasionally claims to be Petreaus’ son.

    Truth:
    He joined the U.S. Army National Guard in 2007 and was dishonorably discharged for impersonating an officer. Police in Knox County Indiana arrested him on charges of possession of cocaine and impersonating a public servant. A man arrested with Barwan was said by police to have believed that Barwan and he were “going around Indianapolis buying crack cocaine from people he thought were part of a secret military organization.”

    (more…)

  • Poseur lawyer; everybody is SF

    Jeff sent us a link to a lawyer’s webpage in which Kelly Gamble (Murphy) makes the claim that she and her husband were assigned to a Special Forces unit;

    I met my husband (also an Army Veteran) while finishing my last overseas tour of duty in 1988 – we were both were [sic] assigned to a Special Operations unit.

    Jeff tells me that he was in the same unit as Kelly, back in the California Reserves in Oakland and he doesn’t remember anyone in his unit being assigned to Special Forces. They were in a civil affairs battalion, which could have had dealings with Special Forces units, but as an assigned member?

    And her records don’t bear that out either;

    Sure all Special Forces A Teams have a veterinary food inspector assigned to them, it’s as important a job as the weapons, demo, commo and medical team members. Who else is going to check the food of the Team’s puppies and kittens?

    Gamble makes the point of telling her prospective clients how she is proud of her 11 years of service and then she pulls the “Special Operations” thing out. Apparently, she wasn’t proud enough to refrain from pulling the Special Operations shit out.

    Jeff says that he warned her to pull that reference off of her website before he wrote to us. I guess she doesn’t know what dicks we are…until now.