The records show that he was in the Marines and served from November 1970 to September 1975. He was released from the inactive reserve on September 5th 1977. It appears that he was a Messman until he went AWOL and was declared a deserter. But, after he was apprehended by the FBI and spent some time in the brig, he became an AmTrac Crewman.
He has no listing for sniper school. The awards Perez has listed include National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and Rifle Expert Badge. He is not showing a Combat Action Ribbon among his awards so it is very unlikely that he worked in long range patrols or motored his armored vehicle down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It appears that Johnny Angel Perez has no actual combat experience at all.
It looks as though he was with a Fleet Marine Force AmTrac unit that stayed off-shore in Vietnam in 1972-1973 earning him the Vietnam Service Medal, but there’s no other award that indicates participation n combat. He served when most of his generation wouldn’t, I guess he couldn’t just be proud of that.
The folks at Military Phonies send us their latest work on this fellow, Eric Bunce who tried to join in social media groups claiming to be a Navy SEAL with 22 years of service;
His records come up a bit short on his claims;
A search of Eric’s military service indicates that he served in the Navy from July 2, 1991 until February 20, 1993, that is 599 days or 1 year, 7 months, 18 days. Seems a bit short of 22 years of service. We ordered Eric’s military record through a FOIA request. The interesting part is Eric left with a Discharge as an E-1, in the Navy timeline for promotion is E-1 or E-2 in 9 months and from E-2 to E-3 in 9 months. Eric should have left the Navy as an E-3, but he was discharged as an OSSR, Operations Specialist Seaman Recruit (E-1). His records certainly cast doubt on the likelihood of him having an honorable discharge.
Eric’s history of assignments shows Operations Specialist (OS) “A” school then USS Abraham Lincoln. There is no BUD/S or any SEAL Teams assignments.
The folks at Military Phones discovered that Eric’s special training over the last twenty years took place in the local judicial system, but you’ll need to click over to see that part of his records.
From our friends at Green Beret Poser Patrol and Guardian of Valor comes their work on Edward Hadley, who pretended to be a special forces medic that earned a Bronze Star Medal for Valor in Iraq. He used that persona to sell beard oil, whatever that is;
He promised a portion of his profits to the Green Beret Foundation;
It turns out that “Bud” did go to Iraq with a National Guard unit, he was a leg medic;
About a year ago, controversy started swirling around a veteran who ran a charity called Marines & Mickey, John Shannon Simpson, when another group, the Lance Corporal Skip Wells Foundation, cut ties with Simpson. The story goes that Simpson misrepresented his military service – his website said that he had been in a Marine Recon unit and that he’d been a drill instructor on Parris Island. In this picture, it looks like he’s wearing Airborne wings and a SCUBA Bubble on his polo shirt;
In an interview last year, Simpson repeated claims previously posted on the Marines & Mickey website that he served in a Marines reconnaissance battalion and as a Parris Island drill instructor.
He also claimed to have served four trips to Afghanistan and that he’d retired as a Master Sergeant, according to media reports.
The Marine Corps disagrees with Simpson;
His training did involve special instruction after a special court martial;
According to the Independent Mail last month, the Feds are still investigating Simpson’s dealings within his own organization.
Two federal agencies are still investigating John Simpson, a former Anderson resident who founded a charity called Marines & Mickey.
A joint probe being conducted by the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service “remains open and ongoing,” NCIS spokesman Ed Buice said in an email last week.
Investigators have spent several months looking into complaints about the financial practices of Marines & Mickey, which Simpson formed in 2014, a year after he moved from Anderson to Estero, Florida. The charity was created to send Marines and their families to Disney theme parks and to pay for families of Marines to attend boot camp graduations.
Simpson also has been accused of falsifying the details of his military career.
Efforts to contact Simpson were unsuccessful. The phone number for his Florida business, Semper Fi Secruity [sp] Systems, is no longer in service.
Our brothers north of the border send us their case on Arthur Murray.
Arthur Maclennan MURRAY of Cornwall, Ontario came to the attention of Stolen Valour-Canada (SV-C) when we were asked to comment upon photographic images of him attending Remembrance Day ceremonies in Cornwall, Ontario. According to a SV-C supporter in Cornwall On, Murray claims to have been an airborne artilleryman serving with E Battery (Para) of the 2nd Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (2 RCHA).
LF042015-0102-09Commander Canadian Army, lieutenant-General Marquis Hainse and Army Sergeant Major, Chief Warrant Officer Alain Guimond salute at the Cornwall Cenotaph, during the Remembrance Day Ceremony on 11 november 2015 in Cornwall, Ontario.Photo: Sgt D.G. JanesArmy Public Affairs#StrongProudReady#FortsFiersPrets
SV-C conducted a thorough review of all available records including websites, newspaper articles, photographic images, regimental journals and tour books, searchable data bases of medal recipients and extracts from military documents in Canada in order to determine the legitimacy of his claims.
No record can be found that would confirm his claims although, Murray did have a number of images of 2 RCHA in action on his FB page, and he claimed to be the subject of those pictures…. The images have since been scrubbed from the page however, many of them are still available in the image gallery of the the Royal Canadian Legion Branch (www.cornwall-legion.ca) where he serves as the 1st Vice President/Army Cadet Liaison Officer. Interestingly, Murray holds identical Legion branch appointments to recently exposed and self-admitted poser Curtis “Jack” Roush of Smithville, Ontario. (http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news-story/7018926-smithville-legion-vp-remorseful/)
He attended the Canadian Forces Recruit School at CFB Cornwallis in the Spring of 1982, after enrolling in Ottawa however, he left the Canadian Forces with less than two months of service and did not complete recruit training. His release from the CF, prior to meeting the most basic military qualification, would have precluded any follow-on training, employment or deployment as an Artilleryman, a paratrooper, a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment Battle Group or, United Nations service in Cyprus.
So, unless he has been subjected to a series of administrative errors, and/or perfected time travel, Arthur Murray has absolutely no entitlement to the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal, the United Nations Forces in Cyprus Medal, the Canadian Armed Forces operational parachutist insignia nor the hat badge of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery…
It’s SV-Cs opinion that Murray is likely committing an offence under s419 of the Criminal Code of Canada – “Unlawful use of military uniforms or certificates”. This is an offence that several individuals have been recently tried and convicted in Ontario including Clayton Donoghue, Franck Gervais, Donald Lemmond, Eric Janssens and former LCol Deborah Miller.
Mr Murray was contacted by SV-C in order to discuss the surrender of the medals and insignia that he has no entitlement to… Meaning, SV-C would arrange for a representative of to take the items into his care and custody for their eventual disposal by the authorities. We also insisted that he provide a written apology for his actions, as it’s long past time for him to own up to the steaming pile of shit he left on the parade square!
Arthur Murray’s actions are yet another example of why Stolen Valour claims are so outrageous and injurious to those who actually served. He made a choice to stand in the blood of our wounded and fallen, and for that, there is a price to be paid!
Lest We Forget
UPDATE-APOLOGY
We have been informed by SV-Canada that Murray has surrendered the bogus medals and insignia to a SV-C Rep. He has also given an apology for his actions.
That is at least a start. Maybe we here at TAH should have Award Recovery Representatives and Tattoo Removal Specialists. Volunteers?
CE Hoskins is no stranger to military groups on the interwebnet thingy. The investigators at militaryphony.com received reports that people were beginning to doubt many of the claims he was making. Someone engaged him in a conversation online to find out if there was any truth to all these claims. Here are portions of that conversation.
It seems they also received reports of Hoskins claiming he was an E-7, served in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, saw buddies get shot, and watched people die. In an effort to sort fact from fiction his official records were ordered through a FOIA request.
According to his official records, Private Hoskins is not exactly what he claims to be. Little Christopher was never a Ranger but spent some time as an Army Equipment Records and Parts Specialist. It seems that his military career spanned a whopping 14 months before Chrisy was sent home. The investigators at militaryphony.com also uncovered a rather extensive criminal history. You can see all that and the rest of their investigation HERE.
From what I read of their case it appears that CE Hoskins likes to play Keyboard Commando with anyone that questions his claims. He should probably divert some of that attention to the Army because they are at the top of the list when it comes to saying his claims are not true. I am probably a close second. I figure there are a few around here than might try to take that position away from me.
Someone sent us a case on “Von Cruz” as he likes to be called. He was making claims that he was a Sergeant in the Army.
The poor fella claimed he was suffering from “scrapes and bruises” he sustained from being “deployed out”. Those “scrapes and bruises” were now causing him such horrible physical problems that he was in desperate need of money.
We were getting reports about many other claims that didn’t seem to make much sense as well. We asked for his official records through a FOIA request just to confirm the poor mans stories.
Otsuka/Cruz or whatever, was discharged as a Private and was a Water Treatment Specialist. The saddest part of this is he was busted before. Back in 2015 he was exposed and offered the following apology:
“I read the Bio and why im on here. Om completely sorry about the misunderstanding. I had an agent write the bio for me for my go fund me because i didnt kniw how to set one up. We talked about my military background among several other things. I just seen it says i was deployed out during the early 90’s. I seen it on this website. So i checked
On it. I am completely embarassed and sorry for that. It was NOT supposed to say that. It was supposed to say “I graduated and joined the army in the early 90’s where I suffered a few scrapes and bruises”. Im truly sorry for the misunderstanding. The Sergeant on my facebook was completely my fault, but unintentional. But like I said before, i never claimed to be a hero, or tried to take anything away from those who are, but i am enrolled in the VA due to injuries sustain while on active duty.”
After that apology was posted a few people who claim to know him offered their opinion:
“To whom this may concern, I am a family member of Leevon. All I have to say is, he’s a chronic liar. He’ll do and say anything to get a free handout and it doesn’t matter if it’s a stranger, friend or a family member. He knew what was on the biography he wrote. Not some made up agent. If he has taken any of you for money, do something or he’ll keep leeching.”
and
“I agree with the family member that posted prior to me. (which I think I know who it is) I know the “history” behind Leevon for more years than you can count on your fingers and toes, combined. I agree, he is a Chronic Liar. I have heard many variations of the same “Lie” throughout the years. If you are “supporting” him, you need to stop, (ref: prior post) He just jumped over the 40 year mark in his life, with 3 kids, and as far as I know really never had a REAL JOB. (just leeching off of anybody he can) My biggest concern is for the KIDS. They are the innocent ones and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are taken away from him. If you are supporting him, you need stop and let him figure it out on his own.”
Now we are getting reports that he has produced a DD214 that “proves” he was in Iraq. We would love to see a copy of that because the Army does not seem to know anything about it. Maybe someone here can explain exactly what “deployed out” means. Or, why he has no awards for being in Iraq. We have done several FOIA’s on him just to make sure our information is accurate. It looks like he has had some issues doing the right thing in the past.
He left the following posted on one site:
It seems odd that a big time Chef with that kind of experience and an awesome flair, would have such a hard time feeding himself. We kinda figure he inadvertently claimed to be trained by Gordon and Emeril as well. Considering the stellar comments about his character by his own family, we have no reason to doubt the reports we are getting that he is still out there inadvertently making people believe all kinds of things.
Private Otsuka needs to get job, a real job that comes with an actual pay check that he earned.
So, the retired 1SG got a hold of Jerry Lee’s last DD214 for a deployment to Bosnia with 3/160th Infantry of the California National Guard as a cook. He has almost 22 years of inactive service and less than 5 years on active duty including time in the Air Force.
His records don’t support the fact that he’s wearing a Soldier’s Medal and a Air Medal, among a pile of other stuff, not to mention the cowboy hat and the oak leaf on the Good Conduct Medal. And what’s with the baggie?
