Category: Phony soldiers

Our partners at Guardians of the Green Beret share their work with us on this fellow, Bradford Hynde, who wanted to be a member of the VFW so badly, he pretended to be a combat veteran special forces soldier. Apparently he submitted two applications with DD214s that were rejected by the veterans service organization. The third one was the charm, but folks at the VFW asked our partners to look into Hynde;

He submitted yet a third set and this time a Combat Infantryman Badge appear on his DD214 and they allowed him to join and also reached out to us.

You see, he also claimed to have been a Special Forces Medic.

We checked with the SF Schoolhouse at Bragg and they confirmed beyond doubt he was a drop from the course.

In the few pictures you see, he has both a Special Forces Long tab, meaning he’s a Green Beret and completed the SFQC (Special Forces Qualification Course), and the Combat Infantry Badge.

Here’s the forged DD214;

He did attend special warfare training, but he didn’t finish it;

No CIB, either, or any awards that would indicate he was deployed to a combat zone or in a position to earn a CIB.

Our partners at Guardians of the Green Beret share their work with us on this fellow Travis Schwarzer who claimed to have been a Special Forces Sergeant Major when he was ordering coffee, for some reason. He claimed that he was still involved working with Ranger School’s Mountain Phase and at Robin Sage;

But when he was busted he admitted his wrongdoing;

It turns out that he was a Marine with about two years on active duty, exiting the USMC as a Lance Corporal (E-3) not a Sergeant Major (E-9);

Claiming:

-Marine Force Recon False

-Pathfinder False

-Airborne False

-Master Sergeant, False

– 3rd Battalion / 75th Ranger Regiment False

– 5th Ranger Training Battalion False

– 7th Special Forces Group False

-10th Special Forces Group False

– Special Forces Qualified False

-18z False

– CIB with 2nd Award False, no CIB

-Every major conflict since 1983 False

COB6 first wrote about Brian Culp back in December 2008 when he was busted for Purple Heart license plates in Texas. He claimed that he had two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star Medal from his service in Somalia. He went to jail for nine months and three years probation in Texas in 2008.

In 2011, he was busted again by his probation officer when he used a forged ID card to get on base at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. His probation was revoked and he went back to prison for a year.

Last year, game wardens busted him for hunting without a valid hunting license when they caught him hunting with a license meant to be issued to disabled veterans. He paid a $6,242.35 fine.

Well, I figured that it was time to get his records, since we’d been depending on news reports. Turns out that Culp had been an infantryman, he’d earned the Combat Infantryman Badge during Desert Storm. He’d even completed the Ranger Indoctrination Program, but no Purple Hearts, no awards for participation in the Somalia Mission. It looks like his highest rank was Sergeant E-5 in eight years and four months of active service and two years of Texas National Guard time. It looks like he reenlisted and left the Infantry to join the Signal Corps after a break in service.

I guess that wasn’t good enough for Brian, he really needed those Purple Heart license plates and the free hunting license. His Facebook page continues to have a lie about him being a staff sergeant (E-6) when according to his records, he was a sergeant (E-5);

We discussed Arnold LePotvin last week when we discovered that, despite his claims, he hadn’t served in Vietnam with 82d Airborne Division, or in Cypress with the United Nations Special Forces. The Observer reports that he handed over his phony finery to veterans in Sarnia;

Sarnia veterans Bill Majovsky and Les Jones said Arnold LePotvin gave them the medals when they visited the man recently asking questions about his claim to have fought in Vietnam in the 1960s after enlisting at age 17 in the U.S. Army.

But, LePotvin said he was “forced” to hand over the medals.

“I didn’t want to but unfortunately I was threatened and I didn’t appreciate it,” he said.

“They were going to do this and do that, and I just said, ‘No, I’ve had it.’”

Jones and Majovksy deny LePotvin was forced to hand over the medals.

“He was never threatened,” Jones said.

“We told him he should give them up, and do the right thing.”

Majovsky added, “We specifically asked him if he was volunteering to hand over his medals so he couldn’t come back on us for any reason.”

Majovsky and Jones are both veterans of the Canadian military, and Jones is a retired Sarnia police officer. They said the medals will be returned to the military.

Yeah, LaPotkin isn’t going quietly into that great good night.

Asked about the claims his medals were displayed incorrectly, LePotvin said, “I had my medals mounted by a professional, that’s all I got to say to that.”

To the claims he never served in the U.S. Army, LePotvin said, “Well, that’s wrong.”

He added, “I’ve got a few people in town who are out to get me and, frankly, I’m sick and tired of it.”

Because school janitors have so many enemies.

Someone who knows Arnold really well, disputes his claims, along with the NPRC;

Sarnia’s Ronnie Askin said she is a close relative of LePotvin who was raised, as a sister, with him in the same home in Sarnia.

“I know him very, very well,” she said.

“He’s never, ever been in the service.”

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Frank Fischer in Martinsburg, West Virginia who did an interview with the local Journal-News during which he claims to be an Army Ranger and a sniper and a paratrooper and Air Assault trained;

Fischer’s first deployment as sniper was in Waltersdorf Chaussee, Germany, along the Berlin Wall at the Czechoslovakian border.

“We stood behind the barracks’ 50-caliber machine gun the whole time,” Fischer said. “If anybody was trying to get across, we were to let them get across, and we were to try to prevent other people from shooting at them.”

Nine months later, Fischer was assigned sniper duty at the famous Cold War border stop called “Checkpoint Charlie” roughly 5 years before the historic tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

Fischer was eventually reassigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment in Turkey.

“That’s when I finally saw action,” Fischer said.

Yeah, here’s a picture that he says was taken of him in Turkey;

He struck the exact same pose in Gamboa, Panama;

His claim is still on his Facebook page;

His American Legion cap;

The Army says that he was a 13B cannon cocker in Germany and then in the 101st at Fort Campbell from 1976 – 1981. No Ranger assignments, no Ranger School.

His cap says that he was a staff sergeant (E-6) and the FOIA says that he left the Army as a private. According to his assignments, he never reached an NCO duty position during his four years of service. No Airborne School, no Air Assault training, no sniper school, no combat deployments to Grenada or Just Cause.

Our partners at Military Phonies share their work on this fellow, Scott Taylor Davis who claims to be a Navy SEAL in social media and in his wardrobe.

Actually, he had twenty years of service in the Navy as an AO1 (Aviation Ordnancemen) and he retired as an E-6. He spent five years at sea, including supporting troops in Desert Storm;

Lots of good and honorable service, but no SEAL training.

Our partners at Guardians of the Green Beret share their work on this Cris Hoppes fellow. He claims that he was a special forces soldier, and yes, there’s a tattoo;

GGB helpfully runs down his lies;

E-6 SSG FALSE

CIB (Combat Infantry Badge) FALSE

Special Forces Crest FALSE

EIB Earned

Canadian Jump Wings Earned

Master Parachutist Badge FALSE

Expert Medical Badge Earned

Are the wings and 82nd patch military issue? We don’t believe so.

Jungle expert FALSE

Army Commendation Medal FALSE

Good Conduct w/ Oak Leaf Cluster (We don’t see an Oak Leaf in records)

National Defense Service Medal FALSE

Humanitarian Service Earned

NCO Professional Development Earned

Army Service Ribbon Earned

Overseas Service ribbon FALSE

2 rung bolo badge Earned Pistol and M-16

18th ABN Corps Recondo FALSE

Special Forces Patch FALSE Cris Hoppes, fake Green Beret never spent a single day in an SF unit.

And, the records;

I guess that Cris doesn’t think that there’s enough to be proud of with an assignment to those Devils in Baggy Pants – the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The Expert Infantryman Badge is harder to earn than the CIB. But, I guess that’s not enough for some people.

Our partners at Military Phonies share their work on Emmit Stone Adams, who claims to be a Navy SEAL, wounded in combat four times (four Purple Hearts), claiming at least 2 Combat Action Ribbons, and service in Vietnam, well, judging by this picture and the way he was dressed in church, for some reason;

He did serve in the Navy, but as an electrician’s mate, 1959-1963 – years before the Vietnam War began for most people. It looks like he was busted from E-5 to E-4 before he left active duty for the Reserves;

The FOIA says no awards, unlike his uniform.