Category: Phony soldiers

It has been three nearly four years since we busted William Derek Church for pretending to be a Ranger. We nick-named him “The Round Ranger” because of his shape (he’s in shape and round is a shape). He pretended to be a wounded retired paratrooper staff sergeant with time in combat.

In reality, he had failed out of basic training twice, he had spent a year in the National Guard, but they jettisoned his big ass because he couldn’t get through training – basic training, not even Ranger training or parachutist training;

Well, I only mention him today because, apparently he hasn’t stopped pretending to be a Ranger, looking at recent pictures sent to us by Frankie;

Grow up, Derek. Enter eating contests and make a name for yourself in that endeavor and quit pretending you are something that you failed at accomplishing.

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Jimmy Nixon, an investigator at Attorney Service of Louisiana, who claims that he was wounded five times in Vietnam after he was commissioned to 2d Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He also claimed that he was sent to Vietnam and he was stationed there between 1966-1969.

Well, he was in the Marine Corps. He enlisted in May 1968, he was sent to Vietnam in November 1968 and it looks like he was wounded in December and evacuated to a Naval Hospital in Annapolis, Maryland in January 1969. He awaited orders to be reassigned from January to March and he became a guard at Quantico in April. Then he was discharged in October, 1969 as a Private.

Since he was awarded a single Purple Heart, he should have been awarded a Combat Action Ribbon – he can probably get that added to his records. But he wasn’t a lieutenant, he wasn’t in Vietnam in 1966 & 1967, he doesn’t have five Purple Hearts and I don’t see a reason that he should think that he does, since he was in Vietnam for just an eventful month and a half.

Earlier this year, we talked a bit about Kenneth E. Jozwiak who was sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding the Veterans’ Affairs Department of a few thousand bucks. He claimed to be a Navy SEAL who served in Vietnam and was awarded four Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star.

From the Justice Department;

Kenneth E. Jozwiak, 68, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, previously pleaded guilty to unlawfully exhibiting a military discharge certificate, theft of government money, making false statements to federal agents, and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

“This defendant’s lies about his service are an affront to those who saw combat and those wounded fighting on behalf of our nation,” S[David A. Sierleja, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio] said. “This defendant did neither, and falsely inflated his service record in an effort to get additional benefits.”

“Falsifying service records to defraud taxpayers and plagiarize other veterans valorous service will not be tolerated,” [Gavin McClaren, Resident Agent in Charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General’s Cleveland office] said.

Well, it took a long time but we finally got his records;

He spent 21 months in service and left as a sailor in the Aviation branch of endeavor, an E-1, so he had some problems, but no SEAL, no Vietnam time, no Bronze Star, no Purple Hearts.

The Daily Mail says that he was pretty prolific criminal;

His rap sheet goes back to 1975, and he’s been arrested more then 120 times

Prior arrests and convictions for Jozwiak include check fraud, theft and battery

Well, then, he’s right where he belongs.

Someone sent us their work on this Ralphie Ortiz fellow. Ralphie, of Orlando, Florida, claims on his résumé to be a retired Army sergeant major;

Sometimes, he’s a Navy SEAL;

You can tell he’s authentic because all retired sergeant major SEALs are covered in tattoos and wear camouflage on their off-time;

Surprisingly, neither the Army nor the Navy has heard of him;

KSTP reports that former Lakeland, Minnesota mayor Robert A. Livingston pleaded guilty to receiving veterans benefits from the Veterans’ Affairs Department with a forged DD214 and “numerous false documents”. He ran for office on his nonexistent military record;

The plea agreement said Livingston never served in the military and created “numerous false documents,” including a DD-214, when he applied to the VA for health benefits and compensation.

Livingston obtained $110,566.21 in medical care from the Veterans Health Administration and $27,198.66 in tax-free disability payments to which he was not entitled, according to court records.

Yeah, the article quotes a VFW member complaining about Livingston collecting VA benefits, but there’s a picture of Livingston in a VFW hat. And Congressman Tim Walz who pretends to be an Iraq veteran when he campaigns complained to the VA about Livingston getting vet benefits. Perhaps they should should clean up their own yards.

We wrote about Oathkeeper Christopher Blystone nearly three years ago when he was pretending to be Ranger medic who served in Somalia and participated in Operation Gothic Serpent. Actually, he was a veterinary food inspector stationed in Korea. He’d enlisted two years after Gothic Serpent.

Well, he’s been busy fulfilling his destiny, I guess;

Because when they lie about their military service, that’s just the tip of the criminal iceberg.

Our buddy, Nate Thayer, sends us his work on Imperial Wizard of the now-defunct North Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Steven Howard who claimed to be a former Marine and Iraq veteran for national media seeking to find racist veterans;

“I lost a lot of good friends of mine fighting in Iraq for this country for nothing—for nothing, all because of the U.S. government. I am way mad at the government. I got a lot of hate in me, a lot of hate for nothing. I got a lot built up in me. A lot of hurt,” Howard told ABC News correspondent Cynthia McFadden in an interview aired on ABC Nightline in 2013. “I became a very angry person after I served.”

“When they strung them up on the bridge and shit, his body burning and shit, that’s when I was over there,” Howard told VICE News in reference to Americans who were killed near the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Howard also told VICE News he was a U.S military veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

On March 31, 2004 Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah ambushed American military contractors guarding a convoy carrying kitchen supplies to a U.S. military base. Four Americans were dragged from their cars, beaten, and set on fire, their corpses dragged through the streets before being hung from a bridge over the Euphrates river. In response, US Marines entered the city and intense battles resulted in the deaths of at least 40 US Marines and more than 700 Iraqis.

“God give us men who will not flinch at duty and will not lie! Amen?” Howard exhorted Ku Klux Klansmen dressed in robes in a 2013 VICE News program titled ‘How the KKK preys on American veterans’. “Klansmen! For God! Klansmen! For the United States Marine Corps!,” he preached as followers repeated his words at a Mississippi cross burning.

Pouring through the countless interviews, Nate found one where Howard said he was discharged in 2003 which conflicted with his claims of being in Fallujah for the Marines’ battle there, so Nate got a FOIA on Howard;

Official Marine Corps records from the Department of Defense Manpower Data Center and Howard’s official DD-214 U.S. government military record, show Howard never served in the United States military and was expelled for drug abuse from Marine Corps boot camp within weeks of enlisting in 1998.

“We initiated a search of the files maintained by the Management Records & Performance Branch (MRPB), but they could not identify Mr. Howard as a member or former member of the U.S. Marine Corps or Marine Corps Reserves,” said the Department of the Navy and Headquarters United States Marine Corps on January 27, 2017 in a reply to a request for Howard’s military records.

So, Thayer confronted Howard with the records request response;

After being confronted with these and other U.S. government documents, Howard said “I don’t want everything about my military service record to get out there,” pleading with a reporter that his true military history not be made public and blaming major media television networks for luring him into lying for interviews in exchange for money. “I told all that stuff about being in Iraq because that is what the TV people wanted me to say.”

Howard acknowledged he has lied for years about his military service. “I made a little fib about the military,” he said. “Everybody tells war stories about their service. I told all that stuff about being in Iraq because that is what the TV people wanted me to say. We won’t ever get our story out if we don’t get our names in public.”

“I was kicked out of the Marines because I was on pain pills. You already got my DD-214’s,” he said, referring to his official U.S. government military records. “I enlisted. It was not for long. I did serve my country.”

Yeah, the media can always find a liar who fits their preconceived notions if they look hard enough. Being a veteran wasn’t the only thing Howard pretended for the media. You should read Thayer’s excellent article and read about the media’s collusion with a meth-head to create a meme. A&E actually paid Howard to pretend to be a racist veteran for their reality show that was ultimately cancelled before it premiered.

Nate Thayer is world renown, old school journalist who I’m proud to count among my friends. I’m sure it was by the force of his blemish-free reputation that ended this scourge perpetrated by A&E.

We wrote about Albert Adams more than a year ago when we caught him pretending to be a combat wounded colonel of the Air Force variety. He was being investigated for misuse of funds for his charity “Soaring Paws”, some sort of dog rescue group. Well The Tampa Bay Times reports that he was arrested yesterday;

Adams, 47, turned himself in Thursday at the Hillsborough County Jail to face seven felony charges relating to his operation of Soaring Paws. He was released about 90 minutes later after posting $14,000 bail, according to jail records.

“Soaring Paws Inc., through Albert Adams, has used various means, particularly through social media, to solicit donations while making misrepresentations or misleading statements to the public in order to gain said donations,” wrote state criminal investigator Randall Jones of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The agency launched a criminal investigation in April 2016 after the Tampa Bay Times published a series of articles that raised questions about the way Soaring Paws operated. The arrest affidavit cites many of the topics raised by the Times’ reporting. Jones subpoenaed charity and personal bank records and combed through hundreds of pages of Adams’ financial transactions.

Adams shrugs off the charges and characterizes them as “paperwork problems”, according to The Times.

“It was just a simple clerical error and we will take the steps needed to prove that all we wanted to do and all we ever did was help animals in kill shelters make it to forever homes,” he said.

One count charges Adams with failing to use solicited money for its stated purpose. Another alleges that he obtained contributions by fraud while advertising on social media that Soaring Paws had found an airplane to buy. He told followers he had negotiated a purchase price and showed them a photo of a single-engine Piper with the tail number N322381. The plane’s Connecticut owner told the Times in March 2016 that the plane wasn’t for sale and he had never heard of Adams.

Valor thieves and dogs – the stories all end poorly for the dogs.