This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Phony soldiers

  • Kelsie Hoover/Cipriani; Transgender Stolen Valor person has been sentenced

    Kelsie Hoover/Cipriani; Transgender Stolen Valor person has been sentenced

    Jonn posted about this Hoover/Cipriani person last year at this link.

     

    Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks has announced that an Ohio woman has been sentenced to close to 20 years in prison for burglary and fraud charges that included submitting false applications for a driver’s license and vehicle registration, as well as falsely claiming decorated military veteran status. The sentence ensures the defendant will serve 728 days in the Washoe County Jail consecutive to a prison term, which has parole eligibility beginning after 7 years has been served.

    The entire Press Release is available HERE

    Hoover was arrested in Oregon last year and extradited to Nevada for trial.   The people over at Guardian of Valor did a lot of the work on the case initially.   Back then, FBI agent Jerry Mullen said that civilians often put on a uniform to get a free drink or to impress others. The FBI takes other cases, like receiving military discounts and defrauding military benefits programs, much more seriously.  “The notion” said Mullen “that this is somehow a victimless crime is absurd.”

    We couldn’t agree more.

     

  • Paul Martens; Fake Navy SEAL

    Paul Martens; Fake Navy SEAL

    Once again the folks over at militaryphony.com have posted another guy who claims to be a Navy SEAL.

    It appears Paul Allen Martins has claimed to be a Navy SEAL a whole bunch of times.

    No need to list them all, I think you get the picture and the rest of them are here.  Some of them you might find a bit disturbing, like this one:

    Making those kind of claims where real Navy SEALS read them will lead to getting a FOIA for records.  Martens is not listed in the UDT/SEAL database as having completed SEAL Training.

     

    Paul Allen Martins was a Disbursing Clerk and an E-4 at discharge.   He should have just been proud of the service that he did have.

     

     

     

     

  • Michael Sleeper; Fake Ranger / Desert Storm veteran. (Updated)

    Michael Sleeper; Fake Ranger / Desert Storm veteran. (Updated)

    Someone sent us Mike Sleeper.  He has a cool man cave in his garage.  Apparently he collects campaign memorabilia…including his own.  We have reports of him claiming to have been deployed to Iraq during Desert Storm.

    Mike also likes to tell people he was a Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment during conversations.   He backs up those kind of claims with pictures on his FB profile.

     

    It sounds like some actual Desert Storm veterans found discrepancies in his stories.

    Evidently,  he is on the School Board in Columbia County, GA and according to his twitter account he also likes to play trivia games.

    We thought a little Trivia of our own would be nice, so we ordered his official records through a FOIA request.

     

    That one page alone tells us all we need to know.  Not a Ranger, No deployment to Desert Storm and he was discharged after a few years as a Private.  He spent his time in Alaska as an 11B Grunt and he was not a Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment.    His only award listed is the Army Service Ribbon.  It appears the Army got tired of dealing with Pvt Sleeper and sent him back home early.

    Private Sleeper should probably come clean with some people who are under a false impression that he is something that he is not.  Particularly the kids in his school district.

    UPDATE

    Mike Sleeper called me.  We had a frank conversation.  He has an opportunity to come forward and set the record straight.  Rarely do we post all the information we have on a case in order to give people an opportunity to man up.   Mike is insistent that he served with the 75th for a period of time.   That very well could be, but its not in his official records we were provided.   What is a fact is Mike was never a Ranger.

    As I stated in the blog, we have reports that he has made claims we know are not true.


     

  • Kyle Barwan/Kyle Reacher nabbed yet again.

    Kyle Barwan/Kyle Reacher nabbed yet again.

    This time authorities mentioned us here at TAH.  The Polk County Sheriff’s Office issued a PRESS RELEASE detailing Kyle Barwin’s recent arrest that includes a link to our blog.  Jonn had posted previously about Kyle Barwin here and here.

    In December 2016, PCSO received a tip from someone who read a blog about Barwan impersonating military officers. During the investigation, deputies learned Barwan has previously been arrested and charged federally for impersonating an officer in the military, in two different states (Kentucky and Illinois). Barwan befriended a Polk County woman online, and told her many lies about his military service while also soliciting money from her “to benefit one of his fellow soldiers who was injured in the war.”
    Some people wonder why Jonn does not take down cases after some time has gone by.  This would be the reason why.  Left to their own devices, many will just resurface later doing what they do best with a modified story.  TAH also gets some credit here:
    WTSP News
    Kyle Barwan is seen in U.S. Army uniform he is not authorized to wear in a photo from the stolen valor blog “This Is Hell.” The blog featured several stories of Barwan’s convictions for impersonating an officer.
    The victim, now skeptical of Barwan, found the damning posts on the blog and news stories which confirmed his criminal impersonations. She confronted him but he denied the accusation and told her he was the target of a government conspiracy to smear him.
    Actually, This ain’t hell but I guess it might seem that way to some.  Much respect to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.  And, to the contributors of this blog:  You do make a difference.   A special thanks to Frankee for all his work on this guy.
  • Anthony Provost Navy SEAL Officer

    Anthony Provost Navy SEAL Officer

    The people at militaryphony.com sent us their case on Anthony Provost who leads people to believe he was a Naval Special Warfare Officer and Navy SEAL.

    Ya, well they don’t think that his claims are true.

    The records are pretty straight forward. He did do an enlistment in the United States Navy. The records show he was a Yeoman 3rd Class, or E4. A yeoman is an enlisted person within the United States Navy that performs administrative and clerical work. They deal with protocol, naval instructions, enlisted evaluations, commissioned officer fitness reports, naval messages, visitors, telephone calls and mail. There is no listing of SEAL Training and he is not listed in the UDT/SEAL database.

    It also appears he spent some time in the Navy Reserves.  You can visit their site for all the rest on this guy.

  • James Wellheiser; Canadian phony

    James Wellheiser; Canadian phony

    Our friends in Canada send us their work on this fellow James Wellheiser who claims service in the US Army in Vietnam;

    We got this update from our friends;

    Wellheiser was confronted about his medallic fakery today by a group of legitimate veterans/war fighters. He has since stopped wearing, and surrendered the self awarded US/RVN medals and insignia for disposal by an appropriate authority…

  • Richard Stinson; phony

    Richard Stinson; phony

    Someone sent us the story of Richard Stinson who is from Nevada, but he’s acting up in Iowa;

    During a traffic stop near Ames High School in late November, Richard Stinson, 27, told an officer he had blue lights on his vehicle because he was a firefighter. Two weeks later when Stinson came to the Ames Police Department to talk to officers about the blue lights, he claimed he was a fire chief who owned a private company.

    Three days later, he pulled up to an accident at Duff and Airport Road in Ames and told both drivers he was a firefighter-paramedic. And Ames police did not think that was the end of the story.

    Folks in Ames Iowa have been coming forward an talking about their contacts with Stinson. You know he had to pretend military credentials;

    Employees at the Ames Great Clips on Lincoln Way have also come forward this week, claiming that in November Stinson had walked in carrying two handguns on his waist, explaining he was an Army investigator visiting businesses in the area, investigating people posing as veterans.

    He did have some military service, but “all he could be” burned out pretty fast;

  • Larry Morgan Brown, Fake Navy SEAL, Fake Navy Chief

    Larry Morgan Brown, Fake Navy SEAL, Fake Navy Chief

    The people at militaryphony.com have sent us their case on Larry Brown.  Several of the awards he had on made some people question his military service.

    You can view his official FOIA records over at their site.  It is difficult to know exactly where to begin pointing out all of his embellishments.

     

     

    Larry Brown has perfectly honorable service according to his records.  However, he was never a Navy SEAL and as we all know now, is not a Chief Petty Officer.  There is so much to be said about what is wrong with all of his claims, I will leave it up to the rest of you to hash it out.  Larry should have been proud of his actual service…he had every reason to be.