Category: Phony soldiers

COB6 wrote about Brian Eugene Culp nine years ago when he was sent to jail in San Antonio, Texas for pretending to be a Mogadishu Ranger with a Bronze Star Medal for Valor and two Purple Heart Medals.

Three years later, he violated probation and went back to jail for another year after serving nine months.

The judge remanded Culp back into custody and forwarded his case for a final revocation hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo — who had given Culp a break in the past before sending him to jail in August 2010 after Culp failed to follow orders of the probation office.

Primomo sentenced Culp in 2009 to three years of probation, but Culp disobeyed his probation officers and was kicked out of a halfway house for insolence, lying, intimidation and other misbehavior. That resulted in Primomo handing him a nine-month jail sentence.

Folks down there tell us that he has continued to fool well-meaning folks, taking in the accolades meant for real veterans. In fact, game wardens recently caught him hunting with a Super Combo hunting license which is available at no cost to disabled veterans in Texas after he poached an eight point, 157-inch, 262 pound (218 dressed) buck.

On May 19, Culp pled no contest in Justice of the Peace Court in Whitesboro to a charge of hunting without a valid license. Civil restitution was estimated at $6,242.35.

That boy ain’t right.

Thanks to OldManchu for the link.

This fellow Clayton Douglas is a Truther who is a huge conspiracy theorist. You can find his podcasts on YouTube if you want.

He describes his time in the military in vague terms. “I enlisted for Vietnam”. “I enlisted for Special Forces training”. You can hear him say it at 3:20 in this video.

By the way, back in the day, you couldn’t enlist for Special Forces. A soldier had to be an E-5 Sergeant and 21-years-old to volunteer for a special forces assignment. There were no privates getting an enlistment contract for special forces in the early 60s.

Actually, he did enlist – a year before we had combat troops in Vietnam, and he was an Initial Entry Drop – he spent three months in the Army and he was on the street a year before Marines landed on the shores of Vietnam – the Vietnam Service Medal only recognizes service in Vietnam after July 3, 1965 and he was back on the Block on June 1, 1964.

He won’t say it, so I will; Clayton Douglas is not a Vietnam Veteran. So after someone knocks that cap off his head, they can clip that cootie-infested pigtail, too.

We first wrote about Lance Whipple two years ago when we caught him pretending to be an Air Force PJ captain. The truth was that he went AWOL after 35 days in Air Force basic training.

His wife sent us his forged DD214s, thinking that would vindicate his claims. She told us that she would come to West Virginia and prove his service, but that never happened.

The document was probably the worst forgery we’d ever seen. He’d left the code indicating that he’d gone AWOL on the document when he’d forged it.

Last year, he was arrested for illegally carrying a concealed firearm. He was sentenced to two days “time served” for the offense, not bothering to enforce existing gun laws.

Today, one of our ninjas tell us he violated his parole in August (substance abuse) and the court put an electronic tether on his ass;

I contacted the prosecutor after his sentence of two days and she told me that she was aware that his claims of his military service were false. Let’s hope that is true and the court decides to enforce existing gun laws for a change. It looks like he’s had quite a few parole violations in the year since his conviction and the slap on his wrist. Maybe the court should punish him for a change.

Someone sends us a link to the story of Tony Flaherty. It seems that Mr Flaherty was in the Australian Army and served in Vietnam as a cook with the 5th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. Now that he’s running for political officer, his biography says that he was a platoon commander. A real platoon commander, Michael von Berg, has called out Flaherty by turning him into our friends at the Australia and New Zealand Military Imposters group, and Flaherty has responded by suing von Berg. From The Australian;

In his candidate profile, Mr ­Flaherty wrote that he had served in a “platoon commander role 8 Platoon, C Company”.

Mr von Berg and other Vietnam veterans say that claim is false — Mr Flaherty was the company’s cook, not a platoon commander. “His claims of being a platoon commander … this really irks me because I know what I and every other platoon commandeer in the RAR had to endure,” Mr von Berg told The Australian.

“For Flaherty to have the temerity to portray himself as an ­acting platoon commander is an insult to me and every other ­platoon commander.”

He wrote a letter of complaint to the RSL SA on behalf of ­aggrieved members of 8RAR in his capacity as president of the SA branch of the RAR Association. The former infantry, SAS and commando officer was motivated to speak out after Mr Flaherty’s side of the story was aired on the ABC’s PM last month.

Vietnam veterans from across Australia have stepped forward to back Mr von Berg’s defence.

At least eight have signed statutory declarations disputing Mr Flaherty’s biography.

His company commander in Vietnam, Major David Rankine MC, wrote that in his time in charge of C Company, “Tony Flaherty never commanded anything other than a stove in the kitchen”.

According to Flaherty, in an interview with ABC, since he can’t identify any of the folks at ANZMI, he’s going to sue his former Army mates for turning him in.

Someone sent us their work on this fellow John Chadwick Jaggars who wants people to believe that he jumps from airplanes while in flight. He claims that he was stationed with the 101st Airborne Division;

Anyone who has spent a day or two in the Army knows that no one in the 101st Airborne Division jumps from airplanes. The division has been that way since the Vietnam War (with the exception of Division Pathfinders who just became legs in the last few years).

The only active duty that Mr Jaggars performed was for training, the rest was in the National Guard;

No Basic Airborne Course, certainly no jumpmaster training, and no assignment to the 101st Airborne Division. Just another nasty leg wannabe.

Someone sent us a tip about this fellow, Douglas B. Tate, who was a high school teacher until he was convicted of sexually abusing a teenage girl, who wasn’t one of his students. The 70-year-old was sentenced to 3 years to life. One of his former students, Richard Lux, wrote a piece in the Salt Lake Tribune which blamed Tate’s service in the Vietnam War for his crime;

If justice were comprehensive the field of view would be wider, matters would be far less simple and blame for wrongs apportioned differently. It might well indeed encompass the architects and vested, corporate interests of the Vietnam war who remained remote and far removed from the lives they damaged or destroyed.

In 1976, fortunately for those who became his students, Doug turned to teaching. Unfortunately, there were no programs to counsel Vietnam veterans about the unspeakable things some had witnessed. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) wasn’t recognized as a mental health condition until 1980, and Congress didn’t prompt the VA to research its prevalence and other postwar psychological problems among vets until 1983.

By then, Doug had dealt with issues alone and found refuge and fulfillment in teaching young people, who responded enthusiastically and affirmed him. Perhaps, it was easier to relate to them rather than peers of his age. He won a much-deserved reputation among school administrators, parents and students alike as an exceptional educator who worked scrupulously and assiduously with encouragement and humor to instill passion for learning and build students’ confidence in their abilities — thereby, preparing them for success in college and beyond.

I won’t forget one particular day when Doug appeared distraught and “not himself.” After class, some of us asked if he was OK. He reluctantly explained that he’d woken up that morning screaming in his closet — 15 years to the day since returning from Vietnam. Thereafter, he occasionally confided experiences from the military hospital in Da Nang where he served — what no civilian could truly comprehend: hiding under a pile of dead bodies when the perimeter was overrun by Vietcong; the death in his arms of a female nurse — her back broken accidentally by another diving for cover during a mortar attack; and, visions unfathomable: body parts of a Vietnamese prostitute strung up around the base with fishing line — murdered and dismembered (publicly) in retaliation for American servicemen killed over failing to pay their “tab.” Doug was a sensitive person. He couldn’t always escape nightmares of horrendous wounds, piles of amputated limbs and spraying anticoagulants onto pools of congealed blood under operating tables.

In those days, he had a painting, done by a friend, depicting a cross section of earth with a man — either sleeping or dead — buried underground in a tomb or vault. Growing out of the body were vines that had managed to sprout on the surface and produce a tree. I thought the picture might be a metaphor for Doug’s own life. If he were — in ways — already “dead and buried” on the inside, he’d also found a way to give back through his unique gifts as a teacher.

The Vietnam war isn’t directly to blame for the deplorable fate of the kind and conscientious person we knew. Doug would probably be first to abjure any claim it was. Yet, “society” ought not so lightly dismiss the life and service — both at home and abroad — of one of its sons. If I’ve betrayed ancient confidences, it is with hope that all concerned may see through the eyes of compassion. I pray those hurt will find healing, including Doug, who I’m sure feels tremendous remorse.

According to the National Personnel Records Center records, Tate’s only time on active duty during the Vietnam War was for training. He never left the Continental United States. He spent 27 years in the military, all of that time in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard, as a physical therapist in Utah.

From Lux;

I’ll choose to remember Doug Tate as one of the most remarkable teachers I ever had and one of Utah’s finest. Without excusing actions, I can attest he was a genuinely good person, who managed to transform his personal torment and PTSD into the worthy education of thousands of Utah students. More than that, he was a true friend. If my words are anathema for any who never knew him, I still say: Thanks, Doug. You deserved better.

Now you can remember Tate as an inveterate liar who got what he deserved. I find it hard to believe that a physical therapist who never left Utah has PTSD from his military experiences. I do find it easy to believe that a fellow who lied about his military career is guilty of something else – they all are if prosecutors look close enough.

The Red Deer Advocate reports that one of our readers, Bob Dale, filed a complaint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police against Peter Toth who we featured earlier this month;

Dale also provided the Advocate with two record searches of the United States Department of Defense manpower data centre looking for the military records the man claimed to have earned.

However, both searches using the name Peter Toth indicated he did not serve.

Dale filed the complaint representing Stolen Valour – Canada, an organization that aims to expose people posing as military personnel and veterans.

Stolen Valour – Canada doesn’t condone any violence taken against someone who wears a military uniform they did not earn.

Dale said part of the reason he did this was for the man’s safety as veterans take offence to people who have not served in the military, but say they have.

The Royal Canadian Legion Red Deer post #35 has also filed a complaint, according to Red Deer News.

Bev Hanes, President at Red Deer Branch #35, says the case has been sent to Ottawa and an update is expected in the coming days.

According to a statement from Red Deer Catholic Schools, they rely on the Legion to provide veterans for such ceremonies.

In the meantime, Hanes says Toth provided papers to the Red Deer branch which seemed legitimate.

“There’s no way for us to check if they’re forged or not,” she says, adding they have no other choice but to give the benefit of the doubt.

Legion member Joe Matallo says that they called him out on his claims over a year ago, but that hasn’t deterred Toth.

Our partners at Military Phonies send us their work on this fellow, Richard Copeland Fisher III who offered his experience as a failed Navy SEAL to a couple of kids to help them prepare to graduate from BUD/S, even though he hadn’t completed the course. He tried to raise money for equipment through GoFundMe and he had a pretty rigorous plan for them;

He says that the pair have jobs, but I don’t know how they could. 5000 push-ups alone would fill up my workday.

Of course, the implication is that Fischer graduated from BUD/S and he’s qualified to train youngsters.

Fisher did attend BUD/S while he was in the Navy. He was in the Navy for about 13 months and it looks like he was in BUD/S from February – July 2000 and then he was out on the street for whatever reason.

But folks, if you want to get training for BUD/S go get some training from someone who completed the training successfully and has trained SEALs in the past – someone like Don Shipley. To do otherwise might cost you more than a few thousand bucks.