Someone sent us their research on this fellow, William Thomas Dishman in Goshen, Indiana, who is fond of telling stories of his derring-do as a US Marine from 1978 – 1990. He claims to anyone who will listen that he was wounded in Grenada and in Panama. Here’s a picture that he claims was snapped in Grenada.
When asked for Dishman’s records, the National Personnel Records Center responded “Who?”
Apparently, his friends and neighbors are tired of hearing his BS stories.
Last year, we talked a bit about Kevin Haggerty, the Pennsylvania State senator who leaned heavily on his service in the Marine Corps during his campaign for office. It turns out that most of Haggerty’s time in the Marine Corps, he spent as a deserter, according to his records;
He was AWOL from May 11th to June 10th 1997 he was dropped from the roles and declared a deserter on June 11th until he was returned to the Marine Corps on July 20th and sent to confinement as a result. In September he was discharged from active duty and a year later discharged from the Reserves. So he was on active duty for nine months and spent more than four of those months as a deserter or a prisoner.
Of course, Haggerty denied that and claimed that he was honorably discharged and the voters believed him and put him in office.
Well, we got a message last night that his wife has applied for an order of protection;
State Rep. Kevin Haggerty’s wife filed for a protection-from-abuse order against him in Lackawanna County Court on Friday.
A court document indicates Jennifer Haggerty filed for the PFA against Haggerty, D-112, Dunmore, and a hearing on the matter is scheduled before Judge Patricia Corbett on May 31 at 9:15 a.m. No further details were listed.
Corbett confirmed the filing involved the state representative when contacted Friday night. County Sheriff Mark McAndrew said deputies served Haggerty with PFA paperwork Friday.
Kevin Haggerty did not return messages seeking comment. Jennifer Haggerty declined to comment when reached Friday night.
This fits with most valor thieves – they are sociopaths who can’t function properly in civilized society.
Our partners at Military Phonies share with us their work on this married couple, Jacob and Deborah Bush, the owners of Argos K9 where they train service dogs “to provide families in need with a K9 who will bestow a greater quality of life” according to their mission statement.
You can see that Jacob claims to have ten years of service as a dog handler in the Marine Corps and they include this picture to reinforce that claim in their video;
The problem with the picture is that it’s not a Marine. The soldier in the picture is wearing the camouflage pattern known as Multicam. A Marine would be wearing Marpat. In fact, the soldier in the picture is SSG John Mariana, a military working dog handler, and his K-9, Bronco assigned to the 148th Military Police Detachment, 759th Military Police Battalion, from Fort Carson, Colorado. The photo was hijacked from DVIDS.
They had to use a stock photo because Jacob was never a Marine, according to the Navy;
Oh, he has records, but not military;
Jacob’s lack of military service doesn’t preclude him from wearing a nice Marine Corps hat to give the impression that he was a Marine;
Deborah Bush was indeed in the Army, so it’s difficult to believe she isn’t complicit in Jacob’s false claims. She has enlisted and officer time and a deployment to Iraq;
As always there’s much more at the Military Phonies link, but I don’t want to hijack their hard work.
Earlier this year we talked about Kenneth E. Jozwiak who 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” in Federal court. The Department of Justice reports that he was sentenced yesterday;
A Wisconsin man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for crimes related to his false claims that he was a Navy SEAL wounded four times in Vietnam, said David A. Sierleja, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Gavin McClaren, Resident Agent in Charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General’s Cleveland office.
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,” Sierleja 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,” McClaren said.
According to the DoJ, Jozwiak used a forged DD214 to scam the VA, then he lied to investigators and finally, engaged in witness-tampering. After all was said and done, he scammed the VA out of $2289. Was it worth it, Ken?
Keynote speaker Stephen Holloway, a 68-year-old Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war who received 57 medals, said the park represents not just the soldiers but, more importantly, their sacrifices and why they made them.
Pretty impressive, huh? 57 medals. But Stephen isn’t done;
After 27 months of combat with the U.S. Army Special Forces 101st Airborne and two years in a prisoner-of-war camp, Holloway is proud to speak about his fellow veterans.
Wait, wait, he’s not done;
Holloway — awarded the Bronze Star, two Silver Stars, three Army Commendation medals, air medals, three Presidential Unit Citations and a long list of others — was injured repeatedly during the Tet Offensive, earning four Purple Hearts in two tours in Vietnam. After recovering, he got 20 days leave at home before he was sent back to the 101st Airborne.
Back in Vietnam, Holloway and other soldiers were aboard a helicopter when it was hit, killing the pilot. The helicopter was about 600 feet in the air.
“I tried to land the helicopter but I crashed it,” he said. “But I got it on the ground and didn’t kill anybody.”
Despite artificial parts in his arms and legs, surgically rebuilt hands and a long rehabilitation, Holloway has no regrets.
OK, let’s get the POW claims out of the way first. He’s not listed by the DPAA;
These are the two, they are both for the same January 1967 – January 1971 time period. Both list the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. Both DD214s agree that he was a 76A supply clerk and that he was discharged as an E-1. Both DD214s agree that he was discharged from the 71st Transportation Battalion in Vietnam. So we can reasonably assume that he was indeed a Vietnam veteran. But there are not 57 medals.
In neither discharge does it indicate that he was Airborne or Special Forces qualified. There are no Air Medals or Presidential Unit Citations.
Where the two discharges diverge is in the awards column where one shows that he earned nine Purple Heart Medals, one Bronze Star Medal, one Silver Star Medal and one Army Commendation Medal for valor. The other discharge, for the same period, doesn’t list any of those awards. Both DD214s came from the National Personnel Records Center, but both are vastly different.
So, Stephen here wasn’t a POW, he wasn’t special forces, he doesn’t have 57 medals. He was a supply clerk, so I don’t know how he would have to fly a helicopter 600 feet to the ground. I don’t think he realizes how high 600 feet is.
The other day we talked about Patrick Flores who was hiding in my “friends” list on Facebook. Well, here’s another one that I was warned about by alert friends. He was using the name Kage Gaigan, but his actual name was Mark Menting. The folks at Military Phonies did the research after I confronted him;
After that PM with him, Menting unfriended me and later denied that he did that. You know, brave soul that he is.
Here’s what he claimed;
Menting sent me tips on phonies and busted a few himself;
Well, like all phonies, he was eventually busted and even his confession was bogus;
The Army says that he spent six months in training and the rest of his time was spent in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) 1984 – 1990, discharged as a Private (E-2).
So, how did he fool me? Because we all want to believe these clowns, we don’t want to file for FOIAs on everyone we know. And, honestly, I don’t know many of the hundreds of friends I have on Facebook. Luckily, some of my friends are more vigilant than I am, and they look out for me.
By the way, Menting’s biggest defender during the investigation was John Naputi, another phony.
Our friends at Green Beret Posers Exposed share their work on this Saul Stein fellow that they discovered on the interwebzz. He claims that he is an officer (OCS grad) and that he has four “tours” with 5th Special Forces Group, whatever a “tour” is.
He uses his special forces persona to rattle his tin cup for his GoFundMe begging, you know, because the Veterans’ Affairs Department doesn’t give him free treatment for his cancer fight;
His LinkedIn profile went dark last night;
Yeah, there’s a motorcycle involved;
The Army asks “Who?”
We’re told that with the passing of his arch-enemy WeaponsMan, Kevin O’Brien, fat boy liar John Giduck, the fellow who parlayed less than two months of Army service into a career of special forces advisor to law enforcement, is cranking up his public relations machine in hopes of making more stolen valor dollars.
He’s beginning his campaign at Vance Outdoors of Obetz, Ohio;
From John Giduck, you’ll learn valuable knowledge to help you recognize, avoid or deal with an active shooter or mass hostage situation. These horrific acts may be committed by single or multiple domestic or foreign terrorists. You will learn how optimum skills and methods minimize your own risk as well as the risk to hostages.
John Giduck was in the Army long enough to do some drill and ceremony and pull some fire guard in the barracks and that’s about it. He’ll probably impart some of his Yoda-wisdom on shovel combat, though.
Giduck took a number of people to court in order to continue his playacting and that came to nothing but embarrassment for him and a big win for the stolen valor community. It’s time to crank our own PR machine back to life and spread the word to nip Giduck’s latest attempt at self-aggrandizement in the bud.
Read why some folks believe that Giduck is a known security risk because of his connections to foreign entities.