Category: Phony soldiers

Frank sends us the latest on Kyle Barwan, the most arrestable valor thief in the history of the free world. He’s a guest of the State of Florida for about a year. Notice the charge of “Misrepresent-Military Member, Veteran”. I suspect that “No Regrets” tattoo is outdated by now.

Just to review, he was arrested last year in Florida for scamming a woman with his phony hero stories. He was sentenced to probation, then he absconded and went to Massachusetts and started his scam all over again. His victim found the blog posts about him and turned him in to local LEOs in Massachusetts who picked him up on the Florida warrant and sent him back there. Now he’s in prison for a year.

He’s also done time in Indiana and Kentucky for his valor thievery. TAH has been on his ass for nearly eight years.

Our partners at Stolen Valour-Canada send us their work on this fellow, Ashley Zedner, who claims that he was wounded in Vietnam while he was assigned to the US 92d Airborne Division as an Army Gunnery Sergeant.

He claimed that he enlisted in the US Army in 1968. Here’s a picture of him in 1968. I guess this is his platoon of paratroopers;

From SV-C;

Stolen-Valour Canada received a number of inquiries based on photos of him wearing Canadian Medals and both Canadian and US parachutist insignia.

Prior to investing any research effort into what often becomes an unfounded wild goose chase, we contacted Mr Zedner, on 2 November 2017, in order to provide him with an opportunity to sort out the reported situation.

Through the use of open source research including websites, newspaper articles, photographic images, searchable data bases of medal recipients and extracts from online military documents in Canada, SV-C has found Zedner has made the following claims.

*Joined the Army in 1968,

*He was as a “Gunnery Sergeant” in the US Army in Vietnam where he was wounded in action,

*Claims to have been an Infantryman with 1st Bn The RCR, his 11 years of service included a tour with the “Peace Corp” in Cyprus,

*Was a fully qualified parachutist and proudly wears Canadian and US jump wings along with military free fall / HALO wings,

*He appears to forgotten his Canadian Peace Keeping Service Medal which would logically accompany the UNFICYP Medal,

*There is no evidence of a Purple Heart Medal despite his public claims, and

*Zedner also wears he the ubiquitous Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal without being on the list of recipients (GG.ca)…

What we do know:

*Zedner was an Infantryman in a Toronto based Reserve Force unit in the 1970s,

*He is NOT a US Army combat wounded veteran,

*He never served in Vietnam,

*He was never trained as a parachutist on either side of the border,

*He has no entitlement to the Eight Pointed Star of The RCR,

*He has no lawful entitlement to the UNFICYP Medal nor the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal.

Through an intermediary, ex Corporal / Mr Ashley William ZEDNER has now surrendered the medals and insignia that he wore without lawful authority (11 Jan 2018). The surrendered items include a maroon beret, RCR hat badge, US and Canadian parachutist wings, Military Free-fall / HALO wings and the UN Forces in Cyprus Medal. He has absolutely no entitlement to the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and he’ll surrender that in the very near future. Arrangements will be made to have the items disposed of in an appropriate manner.

Our partners at Military Phonies share their work with us on this Jonathan Lee Wheeler fellow. He claims that he was an EOD specialist in the Navy;

He uses stock images to reinforce his experience like this one that he claims that he snapped;

I found the exact same image at seaforces.org.

And this one of him receiving “land fire” is from DVIDS;

Yeah, well, here’s a summary of his service from Military Phonies;

Based off of Jonathan Lee Wheeler’s DD-214 it shows he was NOT NAVY EOD. He was a Seaman Recruit and got out as an E-1. Jonathon did NOT earn the EOD Crab, he only served on Active Duty for 5 months and 16 day’s. Jonathan’s history of assignment shows him at MEPS; then NAVCRUITRACOM Great Lakes, not sure what the deal is there but you most likely can figure that out.

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Edward Clayton Reeves who goes by the name Andy Reeves these days. He was in a conversation with a youngster who was headed to boot camp and told him how he had been a Marine and earned a Navy Cross for capturing Manuel Noriega;

The Navy said “Who?” and the Army said, “Oh, that guy”. He spent four months in the Army Air Defense Artillery and got kicked to the curb as a Private nine years before anyone took custody of Manuel Noriega. The Department of Defense says that no Marines were awarded the Navy Cross for Operation Just Cause.

Someone sent us their research on this James Parker fellow.He claims that the Navy trained him to be a UDT warrior and in amphibious assault. That he battled our nation’s enemies in South America and awards for “operations in Iran” on his “Martial Arts Academy” website;

I can’t find any reference to his award that he claims that the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame bestowed on him for being a Living Legend, either.

The Navy says that they don’t remember sending him into combat. He spent some time on active duty for training and then off to the Navy Reserves. No record of his National Defense Service Medal or his German Medal of Honor;

Our partners at Military Phonies send us their work on this fellow Melvin Curry Douglas who claims to be 20-year-veteran of the US Marine Corps as well as a combat veteran of Beirut, Grenada, Honduras, Panama, Desert Storm and Kosovo. He also claims to have left the Corps as a Gunnery Sergeant (E-7).

He was a drill instructor, briefly, in 1994;

According to his records, Douglas left the Marine Corps as a Staff Sergeant in 1994, eight before the 20-year mark that he claims. He did serve in the Gulf War and he served aboard the USS Guam in the Adriatic Sea while that ship was supporting Operation Provide Promise in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From Military Phonies, a summary;

What is clear is that his records do not support his claim of being in Grenada or Beirut. He was with BLT 1/6 at the time and they did not participate in either. The 31st MAU was offshore of Beirut briefly and had 3/3 on board, but they left the area when needed elsewhere. Douglas was with 3rd MARDIV (Okinawa) at the time so conceivably could have been a member of BLT 3/3. If he was and the ship was off shore, then he would be a Beirut veteran.

On page 9 of the FOIA results, it shows that Douglas was awarded a Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (SSDR) on 19 Nov 1983. He was with 3rd MARDIV at the time so this award could not be related to BLT 1/8. BLT 1/8 members received a SSDR for ending their mission to Beirut around this same date.

Douglas claims he was with BLT 1/8, but he joined 1/8 much later in June 1984. BLT 1/8 and BLT 3/3 were not part of the Grenada invasion on 25 Oct 1983, so by claiming he was in Grenada it undermines his Beirut claim since his records do not support that.

We suspect that the claim of being in six combat zones were a result of ships that he deployed on perhaps entered the territorial waters of regional skirmishes. Due to the billets that he held at the time (i.e. Marine Detachment on USS Missouri, etc.), Douglas would not be in a position to go ashore and participate in ground operations.

This is parsing words – having “six combat zones under your belt” and being in combat are two different things but it is implied they are one and the same. He did state his claim emphatically when he spoke of “my days as a killer on the battlefields of Panama, Grenada, Honduras, Beirut, Kosovo, and The Gulf War“, so there is little room for doubt about what Douglas was claiming.

To wrap this up – Douglas’ military records do not support a claim of him being in combat in Grenada or Beirut. This casts some doubt that he was a Beirut veteran but the possibility exists that his ship was in territorial waters briefly, which would qualify. The fact remains that he was not a combat veteran of either Beirut or Grenada, according to his records.

The other day, we talked about Travis Luke Dominguez, who, according to CNN threatened to kill President Trump and his Secret Service detail, the police and employees at a local theater and a bank, claiming that he was a Navy SEAL, so capable of carrying out his threats.

“I’m a Navy SEAL,” the indictment quoted Dominguez, 33, as saying. “I woke up and decided going to kill the president Donald Trump today. Please forgive me and then I will die by suicide by cop.”
The indictment went on to quote Dominguez as saying, “I’m going to kill the sexist racist homophobic President Trump today. Nothing you can do to save President Trump nor stop me pigs.”

CNN has no confirmation of Dominguez’s claim that he is a SEAL.

At the time we went to the experts who confirmed he wasn’t a Navy SEAL, but our job isn’t done until we’re through with the paperwork, so;

The Navy never heard of him. Not surprising, but there it is.

Our partners at Military Phonies share their work on this fellow, Michael Stokes, who claims to be a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War and an enlisted Marine who became an officer, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He also claims that he was involved in Operation Frequent Wind to recover the USS Mayaguez as well as the Evacuation of Saigon. I don’t remember any Marines patrolling the East German border, either;

The National Personnel Records Center says that he didn’t enlist until five months after Saigon was evacuated, and about the same amount of time after Frequent Wind. He also left the Reserves, as a lance corporal, a year before he claims that he was working with Mujaheddin in Afghanistan;

His excuse? Well, he intentionally put all of that stuff on Facebook to keep people from “messing” with him;

Always a better choice than just leaving Facebook, I suppose.