Category: Phony soldiers

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Benjamin Earl Franklin III who claims to be a former Navy SEAL and he pretends that as a Brigadier General in the North Carolina State Guard, he’s been called to active duty for deployments to the War Against Terror. That’s his Trident on the blurry screen shot above.

As a clarification, the North Carolina State Guard is not the National Guard – it is a volunteer organization and members pin on whatever rank they think they deserve. They don’t get called to active duty, mostly because they don’t really train for combat. They help during natural disasters and fill in for National Guard troops when the National Guard deploys. The North Carolina State Guard was suspended due to a Workman Compensation issue in 1996, and the suspension is still in effect, so Ol’ Ben here is a uniform without an Army.

Anyway, he wasn’t a Navy SEAL. He was a ETN3 (Electronics Technician E-4) on the USS Stormes for less than four months while it was engaged in operations off the coast of Vietnam in 1966. That was the extent of his participation in the Vietnam War. The Stormes spent 1967 and 1968 cruising the Mediterranean and training off the coast of South America with Ben aboard.

He was busted years ago, but when the old POW Network went out of business, I guess he thought it was safe to be a pretender again. Nope.

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Max William “Chip” Bayles. He’s been busy making a reputation for himself for being an expert in the area of personal security and contract paramilitary issues. He hasn’t been very successful in that regard. A number of complaints have been issued in RipOff Report;

His latest endeavor is the International Harbor Foundation which Bayless founded using his military background as a selling point;

According to folks, he’s claimed service as a special forces soldier who transitioned to Delta and ultimately the CIA. All of those organizations and agencies have denied knowing him, including the National Personnel Center which responded “Who?” to a FOIA request;

Our partners at Military Phonies share their work on James Hines who claims that he trained in UDT and served in combat in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Military Phonies summarizes his actual career;

Active duty from OCT 23, 1968 – NOV 10, 1972 = 4 years and 18 days

Reserve duty from NOV 11, 1972 – SEP 27, 1974 = 1 year, 10 months and 16 days

Active duty from SEP 28, 1974 – OCT 20, 1976 = 2 years and 22 days

Reserve duty from OCT 21, 1976 – JAN 22, 1983 = 6 years, 3 month and 1 day

This is a grand total of 14 years, 2 months and 30 days of combined service in the US Navy.

James was discharged as an E-5, HT2 (Hull Technician). His service record shows No BUD/S, no SEAL Team. He did earn the designation of Second Class Diver. No Vietnam, No Iraq and No Afghanistan. No records were located of him serving in the US Army.

He claims that he went to Iraq and Afghanistan because the Army didn’t have enough crotchety 60-years-olds to slow down the younger warfighting experts. That shit only happens in Hollywood.

His only award is a single National Defense Service Medal, despite what he wears on his bogus Army uniform.

The New York Post writes about phony Green Beret Papotia Reginald Wright in this morning’s edition. We wrote about him late last month.

The Post interviewed some of the people in Wright’s “unit”, the 8th Special Forces Regiment New York Honor Guard and they really should have known he was fake, reading some of their stories;

[Jeff] Johnson said Wright told wild stories about his Army days, once recalling how someone ran up behind him, cut him open and removed his kidney.

“He said he was living off half a kidney,” the aspiring actor said. “He’s an amazing storyteller because he will get into details.”

Wright, who ran the vets organization with his wife, gave Johnson a Special Forces patch to put on his uniform, claiming he’d filled out all of the appropriate “paperwork” so it was above board.

“I did feel odd wearing it,” he said. “There’s a sacred aura to it.”

Wright would also refer to Johnson as a “colonel” when they were in public, which made him feel awkward since he was a major.

During his stint with the organization, he attended a Johnson & Johnson gala with Wright in New Jersey, and another gala for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which was attended by Meghan McCain and retired General David Petraeus.

“When I look back on it I realize why he needed me there — to make it look legit,” Johnson said.

It figures that IAVA would like him since Paul Rieckhoff, their executive director, is a valor thief.

Yeah, when people hand you patches and rank insignia you didn’t earn, well, that’s the time to start questioning what you’re involved in. Don’t wait for us to come along and bust you.

Our partners at Guardians of the Green Beret share their work on this Sam Roland fellow. I guess someone caught him running his suck in social media;

So they got a FOIA on him;

They compared his picture to his records;

CMB w/ Star = False

Master Blaster Wings = False. He did earn basic Airborne

Silver Star = False

Bronze Star (out of order) = False

Legion of Merit w/ V device = False. V device on LOM is only awarded by Navy/USMC

Soldiers Medal w/ Oak Leaf = False

Purple Heart =False. Is that an Oak Leaf on there?

Air Medal = False

Joint Service Commendation Medal w/ V = False

Army Commendation Medal = False

Army Achievement Medal = Earned

Good Conduct Medal = False

National Defense Service Medal = Earned

Southwest Asia Service = False

Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal w/ arrowhead device = False

Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal = False

Army Service Ribbon = Earned

Kuwait Liberation Medal =False

Kuwaiti Liberation Medal in distress (Upside down) = False

Foreign Jump Wings We can’t Identify = False

German Armed Forces Badge for Weapons Proficiency Silver (German: Schützenschnur) = False (This award comes in Bronze, Silver and Gold. He wears silver. If you’re going to lie, why not wear the gold and not the Silver? Go all out)

Ranger Tab = False

Special Forces Tab = False

3 rung ladder on his Marksmanship Badge? No SF guy would wear that.

Is that MP Brass on his collar? It’s not crossed arrows.

He did earn:

Expert Badge M-16

Expert Field medical Badge

Aircraft Crewman Badge

He legitimately earned an EFMB and parachutist wings but he still felt the need to make shit up.

Our friends at Stolen Valour-Canada get another notch in their pistol grip by busting Michel-Éric Castonguay who, with absolutely no military service, paraded about pretending to be a major of paratroopers. He was featured in the French-language La Presse.

Photos of Mr. Castonguay in uniform, wearing a rank of major and many insignia and medals, were released on December 9 on the Facebook page “Stolen Valor Canada”, an organization that has given itself the duty to unmask the people posing as soldiers, which earned him a shower of insults on the site in question …

According to Stolen Valor Canada, Castonguay admitted to being an absolute impostor, while claiming to have handed his fake medals and phony insignia to a military commander in the Quebec City area in the summer of 2014.

A version that seems credible this time since his employer at the time, the Liberal MP Montmorency, Raymond Bernier had received a letter from the Canadian Armed Forces informing him of the imposture of his political attaché in August 2014 .

In an official letter to the MP, a military official warned that if Mr. Castonguay made yet another public appearance in uniform, he would face legal action.

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Scott Wellen, who also goes by the name Scott Henderson. He pretends to be a Navy SEAL who is currently engaged in secret squirrel operations, because it attracts the ladies. He watched this “documentary” Dirty Wars once, so he tells the ladies that this says more about him than he could say about himself. He’s an expert at being being an expert.

Here’s conversation he had with a target;

She started questioning his stories, and told him that he didn’t show up in the SEAL database, so he started threatening her with arrest under the Patriot Act;

Yeah, well, he’s not in the SEAL database, because he’s never served in any uniform;

He’s just another scumbag liar who uses his phony military service to rip off the ladies.