Category: Phony soldiers

Someone got suspicious of this John Joseph Schoenherr fellow who goes by the name John Ironhorse on Facebook. He claims to be a mighty Ranger warrior, a Sergeant First Class as well as a Pathfinder, and Free fall parachutist;

Well, with all of that experience, you’d expect pictures of his military days, but he only displays one. In that picture he’s wearing the rank of Private First Class (E-3);

Maybe that’s the only picture because that’s the extent of his career;

He had 46 days of service and he was discharged for medical reasons from Fort McClellan, Alabama while he was training to be an MP. The separation code on his discharge is JFT which means that he was unqualified for active duty – nothing to be ashamed of, until he started pinning shit all over his costumes.

Someone saw this article in the Press Telegram about homeless veteran George Winfrey;

Winfrey is a homeless veteran.

According to Winfrey, he spent 13 years in the Marine Corps, embarking on five tours of duty, earning two Purple Hearts and attaining the rank of Gunnery Sergeant.

These days, he sleeps each night outside a doorway in downtown Long Beach.

[…]

“I fought for this country. My fighting days should be over,” Winfrey said. “I should be able to walk in and say, ‘I’m a veteran. I need housing. I need help, can you help me?’”

Winfrey said he doesn’t believe he deserves a handout, but veterans living on the streets strikes him as unjust.

“The two words that should never be in the same sentence, homeless and veteran — should never be in the same sentence,” he said.

[…]

“Marines are about adapt and overcome,” he said. “Whatever you’re doing, you have to decide, is that going to work for your exit plan to get out of the street?”

Yeah, no, he wasn’t in the Marine Corps. For about 75 days, 31 years ago he was in the Army. He was an Entry Level Separation – not really a veteran. I also don’t see any deployments or Purple Hearts and the Army only remembers his rank as private (E-1). It looks like he had physical fitness problems;

His problems go deeper than homelessness. He has an arrest record in Florida that includes grand theft and possession of cocaine;

I admire the fact that he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and that he’s proud of his job, but, kindly leave us out of it. I hope he continues to prosper and improve his life, but lying won’t help much at all.

We’ve talked about Joyelle “JD” Riley in Mansfield, Ohio, before, like last July and December. She told folks that she was a “highly decorated Marine” and she pretended to have the cancer in order to defraud folks. She was sentenced to 3 years probation and restitution to some of her victims.

After that, the prosecutor found some other stuff to hang on her according to WMFD and she was in court to answer for that this week;

Riley was accused of using fake military discharge forms to get credit for convincing people she was a military veteran, which she is not.

Richland County Common Pleas Court Judge Brent Robinson sentenced Riley to three years in prison.

Riley must also pay restitution in the amount of $10,400 to Mansfield resident Barbara Walter.

Some folks in Arizona asked about this David Michael Jolly, who goes by Mike Jolly in the martial arts realm. His organization is the Libre Fighting Systems Chapter Phoenix, AZ.

Added September 2, 2017; Libre Fighting System writes to tell me that Jolly has resigned and no longer works for them.

Jolly tells folks, and his students, that he did four years in the Marine Corps – it’s part of his schtick for teaching martial arts;

The Marine Corps only remembers about six months of that time;

Notice in the military education block, it doesn’t even mention basic training. In the awards block, there’s no National Defense Service Medal.

I suspect that there’s some UA/AWOL time involved.

Not a Marine.

He also walked away from his job in the Air Force after a few months, just a few days after the Twin Towers fell;

We wrote about this fellow Michele (pronounced Michael) Bocci In January and February when Oregon law enforcement were trying to build a case against him for ripping people off. He used a number of aliases, according to KGW. As well as pretending to be a Marine, he also faked a career as a doctor;

In KGW’s January investigation, several people recounted being duped by Bocci. They provided money, food or other types of assistance after hearing his tragic story. Bocci told people he was combat veteran who was left to care for his two young children after his wife died.

Since that initial report, KGW has received complaints from six more people in the past few weeks who say Bocci told them elaborate tales.

Well, now he’s cooling his heels in a jail cell;

Now the 34-year-old faces charges of criminal impersonation and second-degree theft.

The misdemeanor charges stem from an August 2, 2016 incident. Bocci, who claimed to be a decorated U.S. Marine, said his bomb-sniffing dog had been hit and killed by a car. The story was shared by concerned people on social media.

After hearing his heartbreaking story, a local funeral home offered to help. Springer and Sons funeral home in Aloha provided free cremation for the dog, along with a specially designed urn, which included a military emblem and custom engraving. An invoice shows the value as $310.

Yeah, well, he also claimed to be a pediatric plastic surgeon. I’d start checking out how far he carried that personality and see if there are any children who were victims. Stolen Valor is just the tip of the iceberg, Mr Prosecutor.

Thanks to David for the link.

Someone sent us a link to an article in AZ Central written by Joseph Girvan, an Army veteran. In the article he makes the claim several times that he was a Ranger while he was in the Army;

I served in the U.S. Army as a Ranger for 11 years, stationed in Fort Lewis and deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq and South Korea. During that time, I learned a lot about the importance of teamwork and the key principles of leadership, mission and integrity.

Ranger missions vary and may range from capturing enemy combatants or materials to rescuing prisoners of war and civilians. Because Rangers function as their own military entity, being a Ranger means you can be part of many different teams: reactionary force, security force, fire team, community relations and public relations.

Joseph Girvan is an IT project manager for Banner Health with 12 years of experience as an Army Special Forces Ranger team leader.

A bio from another article on the same subject;

Joseph Girvan served in the United States Army from 1998 to 2010, as a member of the US Army Rangers Special Forces, 2nd Battalion out of Fort Lewis, WA. Girvan participated in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes Program during the summer of 2016, and earned a position as IT Project Manager with Banner Health.

Someone who knew him in the Army became suspicious, so we went looking for his records. Yes, he was in the Army, yes, he was an NCO, yes, he deployed from Fort Lewis to Afghanistan, I see service in Korea, but I don’t see a deployment to Iraq. He’s also not a Ranger. He was an administrative clerk;

It looks like he was a good admin clerk. He had a good, important message in the article, but then he let his ego screw it all up by being something that he’s not. We hear that he claims Purple Hearts and multiple deployments, but there’s nothing about any of that in his records.

Get back on message, Joe.