Category: Phony soldiers

The folks at Military Phonies send us their very hard work on Frank Dux, the fellow whose fake biography was the basis for the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie “Bloodsport”. Dux was exposed in the book “Stolen Valor (turn to page 415) but he seems to be making a resurgence in popularity.

Dux has claimed a whole bunch of wild-ass stories about his time in the Marine Corps, including service in Vietnam and Beirut;

He did serve in the Marine Corps Reserves, but he served 130 days on active duty and between the actual dates of Vietnam and Beirut operations;

There’s much, much more at Military Phonies and I don’t want to steal their work, so you should click over and read it there.

Someone sent us their work on this Jeffrey D. Allen fellow who claims on his LinkedIn profile to be a special forces demolitions soldier and a recruiter (for some reason);

He may or may not have been in the 82d Airborne Division. His Facebook contains a picture of him that he claims was taken in 1978, but the rank on the uniform indicates that he was an E-4 Specialist, but he never went beyond E-3 Private First Class in his four years on active duty and seven years in the National Guard. His records aren’t clear on his assignments during his active duty time.

It is clear from his records, however, that he was not special forces-trained, nor was he a school-trained recruiter. His FOIA says that he completed Jump School, but it doesn’t record his jump wings in the awards.

His records also say that he was in Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm, but there are no awards listed for his presence there. The 72nd MP Company of the Nevada National Guard did deploy to Desert Storm and they had responsibility for Enemy Prisoner of War Camps (EPW) 401 and 403, so he could have been there.

Cacti35 sent us this guy, Jack Berryman, who claims to be a former SEAL, that he’s been wounded in combat and that he’s currently a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy.

The Navy says that their relationship with him began in 1977 and ended in 1980, that he was a seaman recruit (an E-1) when he was discharged. I’m quite certain there were no Purple Hearts awarded during that period.

Judging by that picture at the top of the post, he’s been at this for a long time.

Chip sends us a link to the story of David Roberson who told an employer and former Marine, Dustin Batson, that he was a Marine down on his luck. Batson hired him on the spot.

Batson said he terminated Roberson shortly after he got a call from a veterans organization, who had reason to believe Roberson was not a Marine at all.

“We started to look into it and we discovered the years he said he was in the Marine Corps., he was actually in prison for sexual assault and he is a registered sex offender,” said Batson.

At that point, Batson said he formed a group to confront Roberson. It included his friend and fellow veteran, Joseph Rousell.

“Pretty infuriating knowing that other people more deserving of help weren’t getting that help, and he was getting it under false pretense,” Rousell said.

Well, now Roberson is sitting in Brazos County Jail. The article doesn’t say what the charges are, so we’ll just wait patiently.

He was wanted in Brazos County for lying to police, and in Galveston for petty theft and theft of a firearm. He is also registered as a sex offender for attempting to assault a minor.

Around Thompson, North Dakota they have a program where young men who aspire to become Navy SEALs can test their grit.  For some reason Dale Burke took it upon himself to get involved because of his Army Ranger training.  His physical abilities are really remarkable…according to him anyway.

It seems a young man involved in the program got tired of hearing about all of his claims and sounded the bullshit alarm.  This caused Mr. Burke to get his panties all in a bind so he had the principal of the school admonish the young man for speaking up.  He also took it upon himself to call the Parental Unit of the young man threatening her with lawyers and the such.   You can review the rest of the case over at militaryphony.com

There clearly seems to be some issues with the conduct of the young man that raised objections to Mr. Burke.   Under no circumstances should the children or other family members of Mr. Burke be brought into the argument.   It is our understanding that the school had to step in to correct some inappropriate behavior of the young man.   It appears that he might have done the right thing in the wrong manner.  He gets an “A” for effort and an “F” for the manner in which he went about things.

Nobody wants to see the honorable service of a real Army Ranger being besmirched by anyone, so they ordered his military records through a FOIA request.

 

Hmm… Turns out the Army doesn’t seem to know anything about all of his Ranger training.  They seem to think he was a Radio Teletype Operator.   Call me skeptical but I don’t think this guy ever did 203 push ups in two minutes.  He appears to be a little fluffy these days so I doubt he will be demonstrating his skills to anyone soon.

We understand there were issues of inappropriate conduct involved with this.  However, we still need to deal with any confusion that Mr. Burke was ever an Army Ranger.  He was clearly not. It appears to us that none of this would have happened in the first place had Mr. Burke not embellished his military service.   We hope this puts and end to any mystery concerning Dale Burke’s military career and an end to inappropriate conduct by this young man.

You probably remember Shane Ladner, whose lies about a Purple Heart award put him and his wife on a float in Midland, Texas which collided with a train and cost his wife her leg. He was a Holly Springs, Georgia police officer at the time. When his lies were exposed by our friend Randy Travis at Fox 5 Atlanta, the police department fired him. That all happened nearly four years ago.

Ladner tried to sue Fox 5 and Randy last year for libel, and the case was tossed by the judge.

Now Ladner is facing criminal trial. Initially, Ladner claimed that he was awarded the Purple Heart for a wound he received in Panama during Operation Just Cause, but he was in high school during that operation, so he changed his story to drug interdiction operations in Central America, even though no one was awarded a Purple Heart during those missions.

He was in court yesterday, according to WSB-TV 2;

Shane Ladner faces theft by deception, false swearing and false statement charges from receiving free Purple Heart license plates for years.

Tuesday’s hearing was to determine what evidence can be used against him in the trial.

The state wants to include evidence of alleged tall tales that Ladner told to friends and family about being a sniper and army ranger involved in the Black Hawk Down battle in Somalia.

The commander of the drug interdiction operations in Honduras is testifying against Ladner;

Ladner’s attorney says he can prove his client was awarded a Purple Heart, but the general who was over Ladner says that can’t be the case because there was no combat.

“None of my people that were assigned to that base at my time as commander participated in any combat operations. It did not occur,” retired Gen. John Walsh said.

[…]

“Even Delta Force had to check in with me. There was no conceivable way that anybody could have been conducting any operation without my knowledge,” he said.

Here’s the forged DD214 that Ladner has been flashing around;

Compare that to his FOIA results;

I don’t know how his lawyer thinks that he can salvage his client from this morass of lies, but it should be entertaining.

The folks at Military Phonies send us their work on John Naputi, who claims that he’s an 18E special forces operator;

John Naputi from Hondo Texas comes to us claiming that he was a 18E Special Forces Communication Sergeant. As well as a 92R Parachute Rigger and 13F Forward Observer.

He claims that he served in the war against terror and that he earned a Combat Infantryman Badge and a Master Parachutist Badge and that he was wounded in combat;

He was actually a finance clerk and a parachute rigger;

No CIB, no master parachutist wings, no awards for deployments, no wounds.

Our friends at Green Beret Posers Exposed send us their work on this fellow, Alex Vanderheide, an amazing story of deceit and lies. I’ll let them tell it;

We present First Sergeant Arnout Alexander Vanderheide, Retired, who claims to be a Special Forces First Sergeant assigned to USASOC. He has made claims of being assigned to the 1/10 Special Forces Group in Bad Toelz, Germany, 1/7 Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg,NC, 3/7 Special Forces Group in Panama, and insinuated he served in SFOD-D. So we attempted to verify his service with a group of about 4500 Special Forces soldiers and not one had any knowledge of Vanderheide. On his entry on the VetFriends website, Vanderheide claims to have served from 1997-2014, listing his rank as 1SG E-8. He claims USASOC as his unit. Many of the photos in this post, show Vanderheide in military uniform and VFW garb displaying all of his unearned awards, decorations, and badges.

In an article published in the Wilkes County, NC newspaper, The Record, titled Veteran suicide awareness promoted, dated December 16, 2015, Vanderheide’s service is discussed as well as his being the state designated recruiter for VFW Post 1142. In the article, Vanderheide discusses the brotherhood. Vanderheide is quoted “Eventually it will catch up with you. It always does. You’ve probably heard that from others. And you never know when it’s gonna hit you.” The article then lists Vanderheide’s service in Afghanistan, Iraq, Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Somalia, Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Panama.

Like so many Posers, Vanderheide was able to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars, serving in Post 1142. I spoke to the commander of VFW Post 1142 located in North Wilkesboro, NC. He stated that Vanderheide was no longer a member of that post. I also spoke with the Commander of NC VFW District 15 and he told me Vanderheide had been accepted into VFW Post 7034 in Sparta, NC. I have been unable to ascertain how Vanderheide was verified for membership in the VFW. The District 15 commander also verified that Vanderheide is on the NC VFW color guard and serves as a state recruiter for the VFW. Pretty good for someone who never served in the military.

In his role as a member of the NC VFW Color Guard, he actually has a photo of him kneeling and presenting a folded flag to a real veteran’s next of kin. As a member of the color guard and bugler, Vanderheide most certainly represented the VFW at many funerals of true veterans. It is hard to believe anyone could present themselves as a highly decorated veteran in the time of grief for so many families.

As you look at the pictures and documents that are a part of this thread, you see his need to feel self important as he takes photos with politicians and celebrities as part of his duty as a member of the NC VFW Color Guard.

The photo of Vanderheide in his Class A dress greens makes it hard to view all of the badges, decorations, and awards but one can make out the ribbons for the Distinqished Service Medal, the Silver Star Medal, the Purple Heart Medal, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Master Parachtist Badge, Master Military Freefall Badge, Combat Divers Badge, Special Forces Tab, and Ranger Tab.

Our next step was to request Vanderheide’s military records under the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act from the National Personnel Records Center. We soon had our answer and there is no record of Vanderheide ever having served in the military.

On February 28, 2017, I spoke with Vanderheide. I identified myself as a retired Special Forces Officer and I wanted to discuss his service. I asked him about the information in his Vet Friends account which stated he had served from 1997-2014 and listed his rank as 1SG e-8 assigned to USASOC. As is often the case, he denied that was him. So I told him I had requested his military records under the Freedom of Information Act from the National Personnel Records Center and had the response in my hand. I then told him his DOB and last four of his Social Security Number and asked if that was his correct information. He verified it was correct. I told him there was no record of his ever serving in the military and also that I had a photo of him in the Army Dress Green uniform wearing as a minimum the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Master Parachutist Badge, Master Military Freefall Parachutist Badge, Combat Divers Badge, Special Forces Tab, Ranger Tab, USASOC unit patch. I asked him again and he admitted to the lie saying he made a big mistake. I also brought up the Stolen Valor Act of 2013 and his receiving a $50,000 scholarship from the University of Phoenix and Country Music Television.
In 2007, apparently Vanderheide and his wife submitted Vanderheide as an entrant for the University of Phoenix/Country Music Television contest to be named their volunteer of the year. Vanderheide won and the award came with a $50,000 scholarship. This was in the local newspaper.

In our conversation on March 1, 2017, Vanderheide stated that although he won the scholarship, he never accepted it.. So I contacted the University of Phoenix on March 1, 2017 about the scholarship and they statedI needed a signed and dated release from Vanderheide to obtain the information. I called Vanderheide and he agreed to sign a release, so I typed it up and mailed it to him. During this conversation, Vanderheide admitted he started taking course from the University of Phoenix using the scholarship. So now we wait for him to sign, date, and return the document to me. I will then fax it to the University and they will provide the documentation.

So he never served, let alone earned anything he displays on his uniform.

Some of his claims;

Here’s his FOIA;

Here’s the recording of his admissions;

Note: Update on the story. The Commander of NC VFW Post 7034 contacted us after the story was posted. While Vanderheide sought to transfer from NC VFW Post 1142 to NC VFW Post 7934, the transfer was not approved due to the fact that Vanderheide could not produce a valid DD 214 discharge document.