Category: Phony soldiers

(I guess Fox yanked the video – their retraction here)

A few weeks ago, Fox News ran the above story about John Garofalo who crafts glass and metal into beautiful works of art. For some reason, he felt that he needed to add phony claims to his military career – that he was one of the first Navy SEALs, that he was wounded twice in Vietnam and that he’d had to escape from our nation’s enemies twice. We told our Facebook fans about it when Don Shipley told us about Garofalo, but I was waiting for a FOIA to post it on the blog.

Well, Military Times beat us to the punch;

But when Navy Times contacted Garofalo Thursday, Garofalo admitted he had lied and never served in Vietnam, never received a Purple Heart and was never a SEAL.

Garofalo said he had falsely portrayed himself as a Vietnam vet and a SEAL for years.

“It got bigger and bigger,” Garofalo told Navy Times in a telephone interview. “What I did I‘m ashamed of, and I didn’t mean to cause so much disgrace to the SEALs.”

Records show Garofalo did serve in the Navy from Sept. 6, 1963, to Sept. 6, 1967, as an aviation boatswain’s mate – aircraft handling, or ABH, a job that involves overseeing various ground-based functions involving aircraft.

The closest he ever got to Vietnam was a tour in Rota, Spain.

He really didn’t need to make up the claims about combat and about being a SEAL, his works of art speak for themselves.

It probably wouldn’t have been such a big deal at the Military Times, a Gannet publication, except that it involved President Trump and Fox News both.

Last year, we talked a bit about John Hemphill, the man in West Allis, Wisconsin who has been pretending to be a former Marine lieutenant and that he lost his leg rescuing a child in Afghanistan.

It has taken almost a year, but the locals have charged him with violating Wisconsin’s Stolen Valor law, according to Fox6;

He’s accused of receiving military discounts and a life insurance policy from the American Legion while falsely claiming to be a retired veteran. This case all started with a FOX6 investigation.

47-year-old John Hemphill’s wife came to the FOX6 Investigators when she discovered this whole thing was a lie. The West Allis man faces three counts of false statement regarding military service. He’s the second to be charged under Wisconsin’s two-year-old “stolen valor law,” and he could be the first to be convicted.

“People have died for this country, they have served. He hasn’t done anything,” Sheila Hemphill said.

Hemphill’s sister and his mother both ratted him out to the wife who then reported the man to police;

Hemphill’s mother told investigators he never served in the military, and said he lost his leg while working at a restaurant, the complaint says. This, despite the fact that he allegedly told a neighbor “he was a retired Marine, and that he lost his leg trying to save a child from a bomb explosion in Iraq or Afghanistan.” The neighbor reported Hemphill had a military veteran license plate on his vehicle.

His application for membership in the American Legion will also serve as evidence against him when he goes to court later this month.

Someone ran across an article in their copy of Elevate (the article has since been yanked) in which this fellow, Joff Paradise, claimed to have been a special forces officer who lost his leg as a result of combat.

That’s funny because that is not what he told someone in Facebook communications in regards to his loss of his leg;

The Bikers for Christ seem to think that Paradise lost his leg in a motorcycle accident;

Of course, what makes his Vietnam stories harder to believe is the National Personnel Records Center says that there is no record of his service in the NPRC or at the Air Force;

Mr Paradise was born in 1962, so the Vietnam War ended when he was thirteen years old.

The Illawarra Mercury reporter James Robertson picked up on our article about Norbert Basil MacLean III O’Connor-Keough or whatever he’s calling himself these days. Keough, who currently works for Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, thought that he could escape his past by moving to Australia, start wearing awards he didn’t earn (or the Navy wouldn’t let him keep after his court martial) and making up a pile of confusing names.

While Mr Robertson was researching his article, the newspaper started getting legal threats from Mr Keough which made the paper’s lawyers a little reticent about pulling the trigger;

A text message from a mobile number linked to Senator Lambie said: “Let’s see what you and your grubby little paper are made of. I have a bank of lawyers ready to sue Fairfax.”

Yeah, I’ve been getting those kinds of threats, too. Keough has sent me cease and desist letters, he convinced Yahoo that the pictures I used were copyrighted somehow and he has threatened to sue me in Tasmanian courts. I told him that we could avoid all of this drama if only he’d send me proof that I’m wrong, and that it would only be a subject of the discovery process anyway. He hasn’t, however, provided any proof, only threats.

I don’t see me showing up in Tasmania for a court appearance, either, since there are jurisdictional issues.

Jonn Lilyea, a veteran and former editor at the US National Archives, runs a blog devoted to exposing “military imposters” and alleges Mr Keough has recently worn medals he did not earn at RSL commemorations.

“He is wearing the Kuwait Liberation Medal-Saudi Arabia, which he didn’t earn [and] the Kuwait Liberation Medal – Kuwait, which he didn’t earn,” Mr Lilyea told Fairfax Media.

A copy of Mr Keough’s service record, which Mr Lilyea says was released to him under freedom-of-information laws, lists medals for marksmanship and others but none for service in the Gulf.

Mr Keough denied the record’s accuracy, but did not respond when asked if he served in the war (1990-1991), leaving the claims in doubt.

This isn’t Mr Keough’s first rodeo in the impersonation game either. Apparently he pretended to be a UN ambassador, “His Excellency Norbert B. Maclean III, United States Representative to the United Nations Association”. According to The Mercury, the United Nations Association bestowed the title of an honorary ambassador on anyone who donated $1000, but Keough didn’t bother to donate to them, says the association.

I’m sure the United Nations Association will now be sued for admitting that to the Record.

Keough is big crybaby who hides behind legal threats to be things that he’s not.

“I dispute these assertions as defamation and if falsehoods are reported I will take all necessary action to redress any reports that defame me,” Mr Keough said in an email.

Yeah, you’d better talk to your lawyers about it before you start making threats, Norbert.

The folks at Military Phonies share their work with us on this William Earl Satterfield fellow who claims that he is a Sergeant First Class and a veteran of the Somalia operation and that he was wounded there in an article at My Eastern Shore Maryland;

“We will clothe and feed 36 homeless in Chestertown, half of them are veterans,” said Purple Heart recipient SFC Bill Satterfield, who served with the U.S. Army in Somalia. Now Satterfield serves veterans on the Mid-Shore, as part of the non-profit organization Mid-Shore Recovering Veterans Group.

“When you come back, life is upside down … backwards. I relate to these guys. And not all of the homeless vets are guys,” said Satterfield, who has aided a homeless female veteran in Chestertown.

“Talk about vets giving back, Bill’s a vet serving veterans in Queen Anne’s County and now Kent County,” said Royce Ball, co-founder (along with Marion Gannon) of Mid-Shore Recovering Veterans Group. “He understands what vets go through today.”

Yeah, no, not according to the National Personnel Records Center;

Sattersfield was in the Maryland National Guard for 2 years with four months active duty for training and no deployments, certainly not to Somalia. His service ended two years before the Somalia deployment even began. He was discharged as a Private (E-2).

He does have records that aren’t at NPRC, though;

Our partners at Military Phonies share their work with us on this fellow, Gene Raymond Silverstrand who claims that he served in the Marine Corps and the Army “in combat arms and special operations units”;

That same claim was in the local newspaper;

Yeah, no, according to his Marine Corps records, he was a reservist and a Hygiene Equipment Repairman. The Army says that he was in the National Guard and worked various jobs ranging from Supply Specialist to Cook.

There were no special operations units, although he did function at headquarters units in National Guard Infantry units. He did spend a brief time as an infantryman, but it doesn’t seem to have been working for him, because he went back to the messhall.

Someone sent us their work on this Mike Faram fellow who calls himself “Gunney”, not knowing how to the spell the shortened form of the Marine Corps rank (Gunny) Gunnery Sergeant.

On his Twitter profile, Faram claims to be a Marine Corps sniper;

Yeah, no, he spent 16 months in the Marine Corps and he was discharged, not as a gunnery sergeant (E-7), but as a private first class (E-2);

There’s no sniper training in his records.

Folks tell us that he tells them that he added the extra “E” to the rank title so people wouldn’t confuse him with R Lee Ermey. Like that would happen.

Faram goes secret squirrel;

Reminder; there are no classified DD214s.